Saint Sebastian and the erotics of the suffering body

Abstract

Abstract: This article explores the tension between the erotics of the wounded body of Saint Sebastian and its function as a devotional image. Focusing on representations of the saint within the Counter-Reformation context, particularly in the works of Guido Reni, the analysis examines the rhetoric of the image associated with the figure of the saint in the early modern period. As a brief counterpoint, two contemporary reinterpretations of his image—those by Yukio Mishima and Miles Greenberg— aim to highlight a continuous movement from the erotics of the suffering body to the erotics of the sacred.