The whole sentence is:

"Трудно сказать, что именно подвело Ивана Николаевича – изобразительная ли сила его таланта или полное незнакомство с вопросом, по которому он собирался писать, – но Иисус в его изображении получился ну совершенно как живой, хотя и не привлекающий к себе персонаж. "

Bulgakov again...

So does it sort of mean "..., even though he was a 'not-attracting-attention-to-himself' kind of person."?
But with the word attention (внимание) missed out because it's part of a stock phrase, already known to the intended reader?

The translation I have from another source (I can't find the link now...) is:-

"It is hard to say what precisely had let Ivan Nikolaevich down - the descriptive powers of his talent or a total unfamiliarity with the question he was writing about - but his Jesus came out, well, completely alive, the once-existing Jesus, though, true, a Jesus furnished with all negative features.

The last bit seems a bit of a 'loose' translation to me.