In artistic depictions of Saint Sebastian, the Catholic martyr is always shown as youthful, mostly nude, and either euphoric or disinterested in the fact he has been shot full of arrows. He was used as an excuse for artists (and lecherous Catholic patrons) to titillate.
St. Sebastian was some of the first kinky bondage art I saw as a kid. It was in a big book of Renaissance art of my dad’s. That image was by Guido Reni.
I’d never considered doing my own version of this until last week. I included the traditional iconography with the possible addition of Sebastian having a truly “transcendent” experience.
I colored up a statue version too because why not.