In the paintings of St. Sebastian with St. Irene, there is an implied erotic content. In many of the representations of St. Sebastian with St. Irene another form of eroticism is implied if not evident--i.e., the appearance of the semi-nude male with the clothed female. From the Renaissance onward, there are a plethora of paintings with the subject being a nude female and a clothed male--e.g., Giorgione da Castelfranco's Pastoral Symphony and Manet’s Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe. The opposite is rare. One or two paintings from the XVI^th Century deal with Hercules and the elaborately clothed Omphale, a subject where the masculine Hercules is shown either semi-nude or in drag with Queen Omphale of Lydia. But, Hercules in drag never caught on, even in the XX^th Century!

Even though the Renaissance had broken the chains enslaving the nude male or female figure in religious or classical context, the depiction of a semi-nude male with a clothed female was restricted exclusively to St. Irene tending St. Sebastian. Accepted social/cultural protocol allowed a woman to appear nude before her husband. The patristic doctrine revolved around the active male and the passive female. Sexually, the male was the aggressor and the female was the receptor. The idea that a woman may have sexual desires, may be the instigator was beyond their ken, beyond the pall of acknowledged acceptability, unnatural and scandalously sinful. Giorgione's Pastoral Symphony was shocking at the time--nude women in the company of clothed, and apparently disinterested men. However, if the roles had been reversed--i.e., nude men in the company of clothed women--a scandal of monumental proportions would have ensued. Therefore, St. Irene tending St. Sebastian was a mine field of potentially monumental proportions! The depiction was justified ONLY through its pseudo-religious implications. Artists trod along this knife-edge of acceptability. Only a very few artists employed a nude St. Sebastian without the benefit of a wispy piece of material, and then in such a manner that the offending physical parts were coyly hidden from the view of the person(s) observing the painting, but apparently not from St. Irene and her companion. The painting of Bartolomeo Schedoni (c. 1615) (See: Figure 100), shows the martyr-saint in a foetal position, his genitals hidden from our view by his drawn-up legs. But apparently, they would have been clearly displayed to St. Irene and her two curious companions. Giulio Cesare Procaccini in a painting of (c. 1610) (See: Figure 111), shows an angel supporting the nude wounded, saint. The angel is clearly of the female variety and it is difficult to ascertain precisely where her gaze is riveted! But, then it is generally accepted that an angel is asexual--that satisfies all doubters. The work of Domenico Cresti (Il Passignano) (b. 1638) (See: Figure 77) is interesting as the nude saint is being lowered onto a couch by an old man and a younger man. The focus of St. Irene’s gaze is not altogether clear, nor is that of her curious attendant. Matthias Stomer’s painting (a. 1640) (See: Figure 95) is disquieting as we are presented with what appears to be a sleeping youth (St. Sebastian with a single arrow in his abdomen) seated, knees drawn up and spread somewhat with St. Irene gazing intently into his face, hands drawn up as if in shock or wonder and her companion gazing over her shoulder. All this is in a format in which we, the viewers are thrust into the near foreground. All are compositions which hold various amounts of erotic content.

In the Renaissance, and until the XIX^th Century, the role of women was tenuous, at best. She was property. A woman belonged to her father until she married when she became the property of her husband. Should she not obtain a socially suitable and economically acceptable spouse she was espoused to the Church and became the "Bride of Christ." The Church not only became her guardian and protector, but it assumed her inheritance as well. Adultery by a woman, daughter or wife, was severely and summarily punished and in some instances death was not unheard of. For a woman, except a mother or wife, to be in the company of an adult male that was scantily clothed was totally unacceptable and highly suspect. This attitude presented a similar dilemma in the presentation of the Virgin Mary and her espoused, St. Joseph. If the Christ was incarnate of a virgin, then how could Mary be in the company of her espoused Joseph without compromising herself? An answer that most of the artists of the period adopted was to depict St. Joseph as an elderly man--i.e., a man whose carnal desires had long atrophied.

The issue of St. Irene administering to the wounded St. Sebastian held not only moral and religious implications, it was, more importantly economic as a matter of property--i.e., a woman was the property of her father or husband. A few artists skirted this explosive issue in that period--i.e., a semi-nude male in the company of a clothed female--by depicting the sainted-martyr-widow as being more mature, matronly, certainly older than the Apollo-like, semi-nude martyr-saint. The implication is that a mature woman, and certainly a widow is safe in the presence of a nude or semi-nude young man especially if both are saints-to-be an the male is in deplorable physical condition. Safe, because she would have been considered past that period in he life where carnal pleasures were important, and safe because her age would have placed her beyond being an object of lust by the young and wounded male martyr-saint. In any case, St. Irene's attention would be drawn to the problem at hand--i.e., the wounds of the partially draped young man--and not to more carnal interests. These clever artists include: Bartolomeo Schedoni (a. 1610) (See: Figure 100), Jasper van Baburen Dirck (1615) (See: Figure 229), Marcantonio Bassetti (c. 1620) (See: Figure 158), Hendrich Terbrugghen (1625) (See: Figure 74), Giulio Cassarino (a. 1600) (See: Figure 230), Antonio de Bellis (c. 1640-45) (See: Figure 207), Giovanni Ghidoni (b. 1650) (See: Figure 231), Nicolas Regnier (c. 1624) (See: Figure 99), Francesco Cairo (b. 1665) (See: Figure 232), and Luca Giordano (1653) (See: Figure 233), among others. In these ten examples, St. Irene is portrayed as either a mature woman and somewhat older than the wounded martyr-saint, or middle aged. The hand maid in the Jasper van Baburen Dirck (1615) composition as well as Hendrich Terbrugghen’s (1625) and Luca Giordano’s (1665) paintings, is bordering on aged.