St Sebastian Tended by the Holy Women, c.1590-1650 (oil on canvas)

Attributed to Italian School Previously attributed to Spanish School Saint Sebastian is being nursed by St Irene, with an old woman in the right background and a young boy, holding a small bowl (possibly to collect the Saint's blood, considered as a relic and as a powerful remedy, or holding ointment) in the left foreground. The composition, with the figures arranged on a diagonal line in order to emphasise the perspective, as well as the strong use of chiaroscuro, suggest a Neapolitan artist of the first half of the 17th century, such as Mattia Preti or Antonio De Bellis, working under the influence of Caravaggio, or possibly a Spanish artist. The painting is more likely to be by an Italian artist since most Spanish pictures did not arrive in England till later in the 19th century and Temple Newsam painting is recorded in England by 1824 . It has been variously attributed to Murillo, Caracciolo and Ribera. This episode of Saint Sebastian's life, which chronologically follows his martyrodom by the arrows, is not as widely represented and could be related to the diffusion of the plague in Southern Italy during the 17th century (particularly in 1630 and 1656). The saint was considered, together with Saint Roch, the patron to invoke against the plague.