Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/822

* SEBASTIAIT. 744 SEBASTOPOL. to this narrative, was l)oni at Narbonne, in Gaul, and educated at Milan. Although a Christian, he entered the lOiuan Army, without revealing hi» religion, and with the view of assisting and proteetiny llic Christians in perseeution. He rose to liigh favor under Diocletian, and became commander of the first cohort at Jlilan. When his religion was discovered he was condennied to death in Konie by a troop of Mauritaiiian archers, who transfixed him with niiiiibork'ss arrows, and left him as dead. But a Christian lady, Irene, finding that life was not extinct, had the body removed to her house, where life was restored": and although the Christian com- munity desired to conceal his recovery, Sebas- tian again appeared in public before the Em- peror, to profess his faith in Christianity. Dio- cletian condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs in the amphitheatre; and his body ■was flung into one of the sewers of the city, in which it was discovered, according to the Acta, by means of an apparition, and carried by a Christian lady, Lucina, to the catacomb which is still called bj' his name. The date of his mar- tyrdom was January 20, 288, and this is his feast day with the Latins. By the Greeks the feast is held on the 18th of December. The festi- val was celebrated with great solenmit}' in Milan as earl}' as tlie time of Saint Ambrose, and it was observed in the African Church in the fourth century. Sebastian is patron saint against the plague. It is related that in 680 a great pestilence in Rome ceased when an altar was dedicated to him in the Church of Saint Eudocia. The martyrdom of Saint Sebastian is one of the most familiar subjects of Christian art. He is usually represented as .young and beautiful, bound to a tree, and pierced by many arrows. There is another saint of the same name who is said to have suffered martyrdom in Armenia. SEBASTIANI, sa'btis-tf-ii'np, Fr. c;ois HoRACK i)E La Porta (1772-1851). A marshal of France. He was born November 10, 1772, near Bastia, in Corsica. He entered the army as a sub-lieutenant of infantry in 1792, and Avas one of Napoleon's most devoted partisans. He fought at Marengo (1800). and became brigadier-general in 1803 and was wounded at Austerlitz (1805). In May, 1806, he was sent as diplomatic repre- sentative to Turkey, where he succeeded in alien- ating the Porte from Russia and England. He fought in Spain in 1807 and distinguished him- self in the Russian campaign of 1812, and at Leipzig in 1813. and fought with extreme bravery in the campaign of 1814. On the exile of Na- poleon to Elba he gave his adherence to the Bourbon Government, but joined his old master on his return. He was Minister of Marine for a short time in 1830 and Jlinister of Foreign Af- fairs, with a slight interruption, from 1830 to 1834. He then went as Ambassador to Naples. and, 1835-40, to London. He was made a mar- shal of France in 1840. SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO, sfi Ms t.4-;t'n6 dSl pe-6m'b6 (e.1485-1547). An Italian painter of the High Renaissance. His surname was Luciani, and he derived his name from his office of the Papal seal (piovibo). He was born in Venice, was a pupil of Bellini and of Giorgione, and Morelli sees in his earliest works the influ- ence of Cima da Conegliano. To his Venetian period belong a "Pieta," in possession of Lady Layard (Venice), and the altar-piece of San Giovanni Crisostomo at Venice, in the numner of Giorgione. In 1509 he was invited to Rome by Agostino Cliigi, for whom he painted in the Villa Farnesina eight lunettes in the garden lodge, and in the grand hall a "Polyphenuis," as pendant to Raphael's "Galatea." Having gained but little success in this rivalry, he formed in 1512 his association with Michelangelo, endeavor- ing to unite 'enctian coloring with the hitter's drawing, and thus to surpass Raphael, ilichel- angelo himself designed the "Pieta" in the Hermi- tage (Saint Petersburg), and another in San Francesco at Viterbo, and parts of the "Resurrec- tion of Lazarus" (1519, National Gallery. Lon- don), which is Sebastiano's principal historical production. Other works showing his inlluenee are the "Martyrdom of Saint Agatha" (1520, Pitti Palace); "Visitation" (1521, Louvre); a "Transfiguration" in fresco, and a "Flagellation" in oil, in San Pietro in Montorio (Rome). Under Michelangelo's influence Sebastiano lost the Venetian breadth of handling; his paintings bt'cair.e smooth in character and heavy in chia- roscuro. He devoted much time to adapting oil painting to fresco, and endeavored in vain to in- duce ilichelangelo to adopt his experiments in the Sistine Chapel. His paintings on slate, like the "Holy Family" at Naples, and on stone, like the two "Ecce Homo" at Madritl and Saint Petersburg, are very interesting. In 1531 he was appointed keeper of the Papal seals, and from this time he practically ceased painting, residing at Rome until his death there, on .June 21, 1547. In portraiture Sebastiano's art was more inde- pendent, and he achieved the highest results, both as to characterization and perfection of technique. In his portraits the influence of Raphael is apparent, so much so that some of the most lieautiful portraits formerly attributed to the latter are now recognized as Sebastiano's — as. for example, the matchless "Fornarina" (1512), in the Ufllzi, long supposed to be the mistress of Raphael, and the portrait of an mi- known young man in the gallery of Budapest. Morelli also ascrilies to his early jieriod the beau- tiful "Violin Player," in the Sciarra Palace, Rome. He painted the portraits of a series of popes, the best known of which is that of Clement VII., in the Naples Museum. Other celebrated examples are tho.se of Andrea Doria. in the Doria Palace, Rome, and of Cardinal Pole in the Hermitage (Saint Petersburg). Consult: Vasari, Vite (Florence, 1878) ; Riehter, in Dohme. Kunst und Kihistler' Italiens (Leipzig. 1878); Mila- nesi, Les cori-espondants de Michel Anffe. vol. i. (Paris, 1890) : and the dissertation bv Propping (Leipzig, 1892). SEBAS'TOPOL, or SEVASTOPOL, Riis. pron. sye-vas-t.i'p61-y'. A sea|i(irt of Russia, in the Government of Taurida. on the southern shore of a deep inlet' of the Black Sea. in the south- western part of the Crimea, about 48 miles south- west of Simferopol (Map: Russia. D 6). The inlet is about 4 miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide, and is one of the best road- steads of Russia. The main inlet forms four bays, between two of which the city proper stands on elevated ground. The entrance to the road- stead is strongly fortified, and there is a chain of forts south and north of the city. There are