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Grisaille is an enameling technique that
uses only black and white. Two or more layers of black form
the ground and anywhere from 4 to 34 layers of white are used
to build up the highlights. Some of the best examples of this
technique come from the 15th century - you can see an example here.
Mine is considerably simpler - having
only 5-6 layers of white over 3 layers of black, and being embellished with a slight
tinting and metallic gold.
St Sebastian is
an image that has always intrigued me.
The Acts of St Sebastian, probably written at the beginning of the fifth century and formerly ascribed erroneously to Ambrose, relate that he was an officer in the imperial bodyguard and had secretly done many acts of love and charity for his brethren in the Faith. When he was finally discovered to be a Christian, in 286, he was handed over to the Mauretanian archers, who were ordered to pierce him with arrows 'like a hedgehog'; he was miraculously not killed - and was tended back to health by
St. Irene.
He then openly denounced the
emperor Diocletian who had him beaten to death and thrown in the refuse of an outhouse. However he appeared to a
Christian widow in a dream, telling her where to find his undefiled body. He was then given a
Christian burial.
These stories have no historical basis. In fact the earliest mosaic picture of St. Sebastian, which probably belongs to the year 682, shows a grown, bearded man in court dress but contains no trace of an arrow. It was the art of the Renaissance that first portrayed him as a youth pierced by arrows.
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