Italian school; late seventeenth century. "The Martyrdom of San Lorenzo".

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Jul 14, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-07-14 06:30:00 2021-07-14 06:30:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : OLD MASTERS https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/setdart-auction-house/old-masters-7202
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• Lot Description
  Italian school; late seventeenth century. "The Martyrdom of San Lorenzo". Size: 97,5 x 77,5 cm. This work follows the models established by Pellegrino Tibaldi, based in turn on Titian's painting "The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence", located in the church of the Jesuits in Venice, whose copy, also made by Titian, can be visited in the Escorial monastery, and that both, in turn, were based on an engraving by Cornelis Cort, made in 1571. A deacon born in Aragon, near Huesca, and martyred in Rome in 258, his "Legendary Acts" narrate that St. 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 them, since Lorenzo had distributed them among the poor. Furious at seeing his greed frustrated, the emperor Decius ordered him to be scourged with rods, his ribs burned with a red-hot iron and, finally, to be spread naked on a gridiron placed on 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 by numerous corporations and trades. His functions as a deacon also earned him the homage of librarians, bibliophiles and booksellers, since the deacons were in charge of keeping the sacred books. But it was above all his torture on the grill that ensured him greater popularity: he was invoked against fire, and was considered the protector of all trades exposed to burns, such as firemen, charcoal burners, bakers, glaziers and ironers, among others. Regarding his iconography, St. Lawrence is represented as a young man with his head uncovered, dressed with the deacon's dalmatic on which, sometimes, there are embroidered flames. He usually carries the book of the Gospels and a processional cross, because carrying the cross and keeping the Gospels was the responsibility of the deacons. A bag or a chalice full of gold coins allude to the treasures of the Church that the pope entrusted to him, but his most characteristic attribute is the grill, the instrument of his martyrdom.
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