UNKNOWN MASTER, Flemish
(active c. 1525 in Mechelen)

St Sebastian

c. 1525
Walnut with polychrome decoration, height 121 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Mechelen was one of the first northern centres of art to absorb the Italian Renaissance. It was due to the fact that it had been the capital of the Netherlands since 1507, the year in which Margaret of Austria, regent of the Netherlands, set up her court in Mechelen. The statue of St Sebastian by an anonymous master working in Mechelen shows Italian influences.