Saint Sebastian Tended by Angels

For much of the 20th century this canvas was dismissed. The van Dyck scholar Gustav Glück judged it by its apparently poor condition and thought little of it. A restoration in 1977 changed that, and uncovered a change of mind under the surface. Van Dyck had first given the saint's head a different tilt. Legend says Sebastian, a Roman officer shot with arrows for his faith, survived the archers and was later beaten to death. Most painters show a Christian widow, Irene, nursing him. Here angels do it, a version Flemish painters were fond of, and one of them is drawing an arrow out of his side. Van Dyck painted it in Antwerp around 1630 to 1632, and copies survive in several European collections. In 1695 it hung at Versailles, in the antechamber of the queen's apartment.