Saint Sebastian

About Cavaliere Ascanio is written: “He was a fine young man, beautiful as a Saint Sebastian [...]”[1]

Saint Sebastian (ca. AD 256 - 288) is a Christian saint and martyr, typically commemorated on 20. January.

He was born in Narbonne and was a part of the emperor's guard. However, as a Christian, he also encouraged others to hold fast to their beliefs and practices and so fell into disfavor. He became wanted man and was sentenced to death. He was mortally wounded by arrows but they could not kill him. Saint Sebastian was nursed back to health by Saint Irene after the soldiers of Roman emperor Diocletian perforated him with arrows. Upon this, the enraged emperor had him bludgeoned to death and thrown in the city's cesspit to avoid the possibility of him being given a proper burial or Christians trying to venerate him as a saint. A Christian woman named Lucia, however, had a vision in a dream and retrieved his body and had him buried in the catacombs of Via Appia where Peter and Paul had been revered previously.[2]

Most famously Saint Sebastian was eternalized by Hendrick ter Brugghen in his Caravaggio-inspired painting "Saint Sebastian Tended by Saint Irene" ca. 1625.

In likening Ascanio to Sebastian, Wharton alters to reader to his stunning physical beauty but also to his tragic impending fate. Whether or not there will be an Irene or Lucia to save him is highly unlikely and so he shall remain 'in the cesspit' for his sin of loving a woman and deceiving her husband.

[1] Wharton 1901, p. 8

[2] see Meier 2010, p. 151 and following; p. 259 and following