Portrait of Sebastian

I wanted to do a portrait of my fourteen-year-old son before he took that final step into manhood. The overall conception of this piece is very seventeenth century. He sits surrounded by things that reflect his interests - books, chess, and fencing. But the painting also comments on the Renaissance idea that mankind was perfectible. They felt that living the heroic life was the responsibility of every individual to the extent that their abilities allowed. The foundation for this philosophy of purposeful activity was the disciplined training of body and mind. Thus, aristocrats were often portrayed with attributes of “via activa” (armour, horses, weapons) and “via contemplativa” (books, manuscripts, musical instruments). Embedded in all this Baroque pictorial rhetoric sits Sebastian, a real boy who lives in Downingtown , Pennsylvania , goes to school, loves computer games and enjoys watching Sci Fi TV with his parents. At my request he designed his own coat of arms (another popular seventeenth century device) and it was so attractive that the whole family decided to adopt it as their official Martinez crest. However, we still need an appropriate Latin motto.