Saint Sébastien soigné par les saintes femmes

Saint Sebastien soigne par les saintes femmes (Saint Sebastian tended by the Holy Women) at the Clemens Sels Museum Neuss is Moreau's treatment of the aftermath of Sebastian's martyrdom — the holy women who nursed his wounds after the initial arrow-martyrdom, allowing him to survive to preach again before his second and final martyrdom. This continuation of the Sebastian story was treated less frequently than the initial binding and arrow-scene, and Moreau's choice of it reflects his interest in the aftermath of violence — the tender human response to suffering — as much as in the drama of martyrdom itself. The presence of multiple female figures attending to the wounded man creates a compositional of care and tenderness that contrasts with the violence implied by the arrows still present in the figure.

The group composition — multiple women around a central wounded male figure — requires careful spatial arrangement and emotional differentiation between the attendant figures. Moreau renders the contrast between Sebastian's arrow-pierced body and the gentle ministrations of the women through careful tonal and gestural contrast.