Another early representation is in a mosaic in the Church of San
Pietro in Vincoli (Rome, Italy), probably made in the year 682.
It shows a grown, bearded man in court dress but contains no
trace of an arrow. The archers and arrows begin to appear by
1000, and ever since have been far more commonly shown than the
actual moment of his death by clubbing, so that there is a
popular misperception that this is how he died. A mainly 17th-
century subject, though found in predella scenes as early as the
15th century, was St Sebastian tended by St Irene, painted by
Georges de La Tour, Trophime Bigot (four times), Jusepe de
Ribera, Hendrick ter Brugghen and others. This may have been a
deliberate attempt by the Church to get away from the single
nude subject, which is already recorded in Vasari as sometimes
arousing inappropriate thoughts among female churchgoers. The
Baroque artists usually treated it as a nocturnal chiaroscuro
scene, illuminated by a single candle, torch or lantern, in the
style fashionable in the fi