Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (fragment)  1614

The Prado’s [i]Saint Sebastian[/i] is an excellent example of El Greco’s understanding of the nude. Rather than imitating nature, he reworks it to produce an intellectual, self-consciously artificial version of it; his purpose is to create a scene that belongs in the world of the artist’s imagination and he is not primarily concerned with replicating viewers’ everyday expe...