A painting very much in attunement with the works of Caravaggio, this St Sebastian by Louis Finson can be chronologically placed during his first sojourn in Naples, between 1605 and 1612. Sources attest that Louis was friendly with Merisi, who resided in Naples between 1606 and 1607 and from 1609 to 1610. The saint’s iconographical characteristics are canonical: standing tied to a tree, he is pierced by numerous arrows, with a white loincloth around his hips. Finson demonstrates his knowledge of the main stylistic features of Caravaggio’s art, not only with regard to his handling of colors and light, but also the capacity for dramatic interpretation. In fact, we can note that the painter chose to paint a certain device that we might call theatrical: the arrow on the left is not piercing the ribcage, but rather, on closer inspection, is about to strike the body, from which blood is already gushing. A dramatic effect; a trick to render the moment of martyrdom an event happening before the viewer’s very eyes; a clever means of bringing the composition alive. Thus we can understand how much attention Finson must have dedicated to observing Caravaggio’s paintings (one of which, the Madonna of the Rosary now in the Kunsthorisches Museum in Vienna, he personally carried with him in his northern European peregrinations): from the semi-darkness, a flash of light strikes St Sebastian, his head slightly bent, nearly moribund, and his body still tensed from the pain of the arrows piercing it. His right hand seems to be trying to free itself, reacting to the tightness of the rope that highlights the folds on his belly. Textural and pulsating, the paint follows the movement of the saint’s skin, wrinkling and darkening into deep black dabs, as ruby-red drops seem to ooze from his skin and veins, and the light flares in the purer white of the loincloth. A follower of the Caravaggio revolution, Finson can be defined as one of the master’s true acolytes and apostles: this canvas can be compared with one from the Whitfield collection in terms of the rendering of the skin and the dense paste of the paint, but not in terms of interpretation of the subject (the Whitfield St Sebastian is lying on the ground). The pronounced naturalism is highlighted, for example, by the clear light, the description of the folds of skin, and the realism of the ropes. A detail that further aids in the attribution to Finson are the long, slender fingers with drawn nails and the typical touch of light at the ends. Scholars have noted the work’s possible provenance from the Filomarino collection in Naples, as its 1634 Inventory recorded a ‘San Sebastiano’ by Finson.