St Sebastian Titian, 1488/90-1576 Oil on canvas; 210 x 115.5 cm The hero of the painting St Sebastian is a martyr, depicted as utterly alone in a sinister and hostile environment and yet with his spirit unbroken. The colouring, based on the contrast of dark and purple-yellow tones, supports the tragic atmosphere of the scene. The artist's manner of applying thick strokes of paint to the canvas not only using the brush but also with his fingers or a palette-knife intensifies the expressiveness of this scene of martyrdom, a subject which was increasingly attractive to the artist during his last years.