Italian School; 17th century.
"The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence".
Oil on copper.
It has faults and losses.
It has a 19th century frame.
Measurements: 34,5 x 45 cm; 40,5 x 51,5 cm (frame).
Devotional drawing in which the martyrdom of San Lorenzo is represented. The work shows the protagonist on the grill at the moment when the martyrdom begins, a characteristic feature of the Baroque style which seeks to enhance the drama of the scenes. The way in which the grill has been depicted indicates the quality of the author, as it initiates a marked diagonal that helps to configure the space of a scene completely filled with characters. A deacon born in Aragon, near Huesca, and martyred in Rome in 258, his "Legendary Acts" narrate that Saint Lawrence, out of humility, washed the feet of Christians, cured a widow of a headache and gave sight to a blind man through baptism. Three days after the martyrdom of Pope Sixtus II, who had ordained him deacon and entrusted him with the treasure of the Church, he was arrested and ordered to hand over these riches. But there was nothing left of it, as Lorenzo had distributed it to the poor. Furious at seeing his greed frustrated, the emperor Decius ordered him to be flogged with rods, his ribs burned with a red-hot iron and, finally, to be stretched out naked on a gridiron over a mantle of coals. Saint Lawrence is the patron saint of the poor, among whom he distributed the treasures of the Church. He was also adopted as patron saint of numerous guilds and trades.