Frontal view ; Legend has it that St. Sebastian was a captain of the praetorian guard at the imperial court of Diocletian. He ignored an existing ban and adopted the Christian faith, converting many to Christianity. The Roman emperor had him tied to a tree and executed by Numidian archers. In this sculpture, Adrian de Vries does not show the dramatic climax of the events, but the moment before the saint is martyred. His helplessness is indicated by his bonds and his unprotected nakedness, which again presents an opportunity to show viewers an ideal body. He is seen standing on the ground from which a tree grows. The figure does not derive its tension solely from its emphatic contrapposto, a pose in which one part of a figure twists or turns away from another, but also from the fact that the central part of the body leans forward. One hand is bound above the figure's head, the other behind its back, which lends an S-shaped curve to the whole figure. The three-dimensional modeling of the muscles has been described as a "nervously vibrating surface". (http://www.liechtensteinmuseum.at)