The image of Aaint Sebastian after the iconographic tradition

This study while focuses on Saint Sebastian's represantations after the iconographic tradition, in order to comprehend the visual codes of the images that produced during this era, the iconographic portrayals of Saint Sebastian are also studied. In the first chapter, which deals with the sources of the legend of the Saint in the Christian literature, the emergence of the mission of protection from plague is examined together with the early iconographical examples. The Renaissance era portrayals of Saint Sebastian that were spread from the 14th century onwards due to the spread of plague epidemics are discussed through the ancient Greek sources and the theories that were cultivated by new thought currents like Neo Platonism. The similarities between the scenes of the execution of the Saint by arrows and some versions of the portrayal of Christ's Passion are examined with referance to the differences of understanding sacrifice in paganism and Christianity. In the second chapter the literary roots and the mode of represantation of the homoerotic meanings attributed to Saint Sebastian's images until today are investigated and the impact of characteristics like the idealisation of the body and the stressing the phallus in turning the Saint into a visual code of male homosexuality are examined through examples of paintings and photography. In order to explain the spread of the demonstration pattern of the Saint, referances to the crucial moments of the gay community's history are made in connection to the theme of sacrifice. The fact that protectiveness which can be described as the archetypical feature of Saint Sebastian gained a political meaning through a transformation process during the AIDS/HIV epidemic is discussed via an analysis of pictures and performances. Lastly, in the third chapter, the identification of the victims of systemic and institutional violence with Saint Sebastian from the period of World War I and afterwards is examined. Keywords: Saint Sebastian, Iconography, Homoeroticism, War