Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

This painting was made for display in the nave of a parish church in Cologne, Germany. It is part of a cycle depicting the life of Saint Lawrence (d. 258 CE), who served as an archdeacon of Rome at a time when Christianity was not yet legal in the Roman Empire. This panel, the penultimate one in the series, depicts Lawrence's martyrdom. In the foreground, Emperor Decius has condemned the saint to die by roasting on a gridiron. Then, in the painting's right margin, his body is wrapped in a burial shroud and set upon a sarcophagus. At the top, two angels lift his soul—rendered as an infant to suggest his state of innocence—to Heaven.

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