{"id":140,"date":"2020-12-27T23:11:23","date_gmt":"2020-12-28T04:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/art574-yixu\/?p=140"},"modified":"2021-01-07T14:36:44","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T19:36:44","slug":"object-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/art574-yixu\/2020\/12\/27\/object-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Object #5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hosoe Eikoh \u7d30\u6c5f\u82f1\u516c (b. 1933)<\/span><\/p>\n

#29<\/em>, Barakei<\/em> \u8594\u8587\u5211, 1961<\/span><\/p>\n

Gelatin silver print<\/span><\/p>\n

image: 54.5 x 38.4 cm. (21 7\/16 x 15 1\/8 in.)<\/span><\/p>\n

sheet: 60.2 x 50.3 cm. (23 11\/16 x 19 13\/16 in.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of Susan and Eugene Spiritus<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Eikoh Hosoe<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This photograph features a superimposition of a Renaissance painting of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian in the background and an image of Mishima in the lower half of the photograph. The background painting that spans the entire photograph is based on a fifteen-century painting by Antonello da Messina (Fig. 5-1). This painting follows a commonly seen composition of the subject matter but shows an unusual choice of depicting the martyr alone without his oppressors and in a suburban Venetian villa with a walled garden rather than the more public space of a town. This anachronistic choice may be interpreted as a form of \u201chortus conclusus,\u201d which is often associated with the depiction of the Virgin and is probably appropriated here to underline the virginity of Saint Sebastian portrayed as a young boy. In light of Mishima\u2019s writing about the homosexual connotation of the iconography of Saint Sebastian and Hosoe\u2019s appropriation of it in other photographs in the Barakei<\/em> series, the adoption of this particular painting must be intentional.<\/span><\/p>\n