_L'Ortolano_ (Ferrarese: died about 1525).
Giambattista Benvenuti, called L'Ortolano (the gardener) from
his father's occupation, is still a problem in art history,
details of his life being so uncertain that even the existence
of him is disputed by some critics. There is, however,
documentary evidence which proves his existence. This noble
picture was, until 1844, the altar-piece of the parochial
church of Bondeno, near Ferrara, where it was generally
considered the painter's masterpiece. His life and works are
generally confounded with those of Garofalo, to which painter
Morelli ascribes the present work. "Garofalo's characteristics
are apparent in the form of hand, the brown flesh-tints, the
drapery, the landscape, and the small stones in the foreground"
(_Italian Painters_: The Borghese and Doria-Pamfili Galleries
in Rome, p. 208). On the other hand, Venturi has drawn up
a list of works, showing common characteristics and common
differences from Garofalo, which he therefore attributes to
Ortolano. To this list should be added Lord Wimborne's "St.
Joseph presenting the Infant Christ." Among the characteristics
noticeable in our picture are houses planted on posts; long,
straight streaks in the background turning to white; trees with
large, sparse, yellowing leaves. "Garofalo never achieved the
rapt expression of St. Demetrius" (see the argument of Venturi
quoted in Burlington Fine Arts Club's Catalogue, 1894).
In the centre is St. Sebastian, tied to a tree, and pierced with
arrows; whilst in the foreground is a cross-bow, lying uselessly. For
the story is that Sebastian was a noble youth who was promoted to the
command of a company in the Prætorian Guards by the Emperor Diocletian:
"At this time he was secretly a Christian, but his faith only
rendered him more loyal to his masters; more faithful in all
his engagements; more mild, more charitable; while his favour
with his prince, and his popularity with the troops, enabled
him to protect those who were persecuted for Christ's sake,
and to convert many to the truth. Among his friends were two
young men of noble family, soldiers like himself; their names
were Marcus and Marcellinus." And when they were tortured for
being Christians, Sebastian, "neglecting his own safety, rushed
forward, and, by his exhortations, encouraged them rather to
die than to renounce their Redeemer. Then Diocletian ordered
that Sebastian also should be bound to a stake and shot to
death with arrows. The archers left him for dead; but in the
middle of the night, Irene, the widow of one of his martyred
friends, came with her attendants to take his body away, that
she might bury it honourably; and it was found that none of
the arrows had pierced him in a vital part, and that he yet
breathed. So they carried him to her house, and his wounds were
dressed; and the pious widow tended him night and day, until
he had wholly recovered" (Mrs. Jameson: _Sacred and Legendary
Art_, 1850, pp. 343, 344).
This legend was one of the special favourites with the mediæval
painters: "the display of beautiful form, permitted and even
consecrated by devotion, is so rare in Christian representations, that
we cannot wonder at the avidity with which this subject was seized"
(_ibid._ p. 346). It is instructive to compare the noble use of the
subject made in this picture, in which the great technical skill
of the painter is subordinate to the beautiful display of a sacred
legend, with the "St. Sebastian" of Pollajuolo (292), in which, as we
have seen, the subject is used solely--and painfully--for the display
of such skill. With St. Sebastian is here represented, on his left,
his contemporary, St. Demetrius. He is clad in armour, for he also
served under Diocletian, being Proconsul of Greece, and like St.
Sebastian used his high office to preach Christ. On the other side is
St. Roch (for whose legend see 735). He is a much later saint (about
A.D. 1300), and is associated with St. Sebastian as another patron of
the plague-stricken. Arrows have been from all antiquity the emblem
of pestilence; and from the association of arrows with his legend,
St. Sebastian succeeded in Christian times to the honours enjoyed by
Apollo, in Greek mythology, as the protector against pestilence.