Carlo Crivelli's Crowning of the Virgin

              
Crivelli, The Crowning of the Virgin (1493) Brera, Milan                                             Detail of St. Sebastian

Carlo Crivelli’s Crowning of the Virgin includes several saints with Saint George, an important saint for art, among them. Of interest here, though, is the partial figure of Saint Sebastian at far right. Normally Saint Sebastian is pierced by arrows but here he holds one as his own identifying attribute. He is an alter ego of the artist at the edge of the canvas, seemingly separate from the rest of the scene. He holds the arrow, though, not as an archer would but as a painter might hold his brush. And in holding the arrow (or "brush") that pierced his own body, he is the most appropriate embodiment of the idea that ‘every painter paints himself.’