But with «St. Sebastian,» a blank - slate
approach was unexpectedly easy, primarily because, for all the image's familiarity, I realized how different the painting looked, or
rather felt, in the flesh... It's the painting's endearingly strange comedy — especially the bottom half of the body, which seems to flap away (and bring to mind the flagellation of St. Bartholomew)-- that rescues it from post-adolescent self - pity and actually, in an
odd way, ennobles it, as if invested with an amused stoicism.»