Fra Bartolommeo, the disciple of Savonarola, painted a Sebastian in the cloister of S.Marco, where it remained until the Dominican confessors became aware, through the avowals of female penitents, that this picture was a stumbling-block and snare to souls.

It was then removed, and what became of it we do not know for certain.

Fra Bartolommeo undoubtedly intended this ideal portrait of the martyr to be edifying.

S.Sebastian was to stand before the world as the young man, strong and beautiful, who endured to the end and won the crown of martyrdom.

No other ideas but those of heroism, constancy, or faith were meant to be expressed; but the painter's art demanded that their expression should be eminently beautiful, and the beautiful body of the young man distracted attention from his spiritual virtues to his physical perfections.