Saint Sebastian: The Image of a Saint (Cagliari, 16-17 Oct 26)

Saint Sebastian: the Image of a Saint between Art, Literature, and Visual Culture.
International Conference.

Deadline: Mar 31, 2026

In 1976 the British filmmaker Derek Jarman chose the bay of Cala Domestica in Sardinia as the setting for his film Sebastiane, a work that decisively shaped the contemporary reinterpretation of Saint Sebastian, projecting him into an aesthetic, political, and queer dimension. Fifty years after that experience, scholars are invited to the University of Cagliari to reflect on the iconography of the Saint and the imagery it has generated, from its medieval origins to the present day, from a global and interdisciplinary perspective. The aim is to outline an updated and plural map of the iconography and reception of Saint Sebastian, capable of intertwining art-historical, literary, cultural, and theoretical approaches.

The conference intends to gather contributions addressing, for example:
– medieval and modern literary sources related to the legend of the Saint, and their reworkings in poetry, narrative, and theatre;
– the iconographic evolution of Saint Sebastian in the visual arts, from medieval and Renaissance Western art to the global Baroque, including extra-European artistic productions;
– the modern and contemporary reception of the image of Saint Sebastian as an icon of aesthetic sensibility and the LGBTQ+ imaginary, from D’Annunzio’s rewriting of the legend of Saint Sebastian in Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien (1910–1911) to cinema, photography, and performance art;
– the relationship between Saint Sebastian and epidemics, from the medieval plague to HIV;
– the intercultural and transnational resonances of the cult and representation of Saint Sebastian, with particular attention to the migration of forms and meanings in the global world and on the web.

Organizers: Mauro Salis, Rita Pamela Ladogana (University of Cagliari), Giuseppe Capriotti (University of Macerata)

Paper proposals (including a title, an abstract of no more than 300 words, and a short bio of no more than 300 words, to be combined in a single word or PDF file) should be submitted by March 31, 2026 to the organizers:
saintsebastianconference@gmail.com