Quelques figures du martyrologe mirbelien

Mirbeau’s pseudo-autobiographical trilogy marks a fundamental step in the evolution of the representation of the artist in the 19th century, as the author portrays the artist as a martyr, i.e. a privileged witness of the cruelties of bourgeois society. In Sébastien Roch, in particular, the catholic symbolism connected to the themes of Passion and martyrdom plays a prominent role. Indeed, in keeping with decadent imagery, Mirbeau turns the two saints cited in title of the novel - Saint Sebastian and Saint Roch - into the unforgettable emblems of slaughtered genius and murderous power. Moreover, the peculiar treatment reserved to the first of the two martyr saints, Sebastian (who, stemming from the paleochristian humus, lives through the whole history of the ecclesiastical institution and of European art to finally represent, nowadays, an ambivalent image if not a gay icon), probably betrays Mirbeau’s ambiguous approach to violence and to masculine desire.