Saint Lawrence, oil on canvas, 40 x 28.5 cm, framed

We are grateful to Professor Donatella Biagi Maino for confirming the attribution of the present painting following inspection of the original.

Biagi Maino suggests comparing the present painting with Gaetano Gandolfi’s Saint Lawrence and Young Woman Depicted as Flora (present whereabouts unknown; see D. Biagi Maino, Gaetano Gandolfi, Turin 1995, no. 15, fig. 16). The facial type of the saint in the present painting is remarkably close to that of the young woman, and the modelling of the face, rendered with an elegant chiaroscuro pattern, is also comparable.

The smooth rendering of the facial features, the light touches of “biacca”, which illuminate the point of the nose and the areas under the eyes, together with the intense expression of the saint looking towards the viewer with half-closed lips, can also be noted in the Young Woman as Flora.

Biagi Maino has observed that the confident handling of the paint and the fluid brushstrokes are consistent with Gaetano’s artistic production between 1764 and 1765. In the same period, he executed the first “heads”, in which he experimented with stronh colours, soft and indistinct contours, and a bold handling of painting characterized by luminous brushstrokes.

Gaetano Gandolfi was enrolled at the Accademia Clementina in Bologna at the age of seventeen and studied under Felice Torelli and Ercole Lelli. His earliest paintings are close in style to the early work of his brother Ubaldo. His visit to Venice in 1760 signaled a turning point in Gaetano’s career, when he absorbed the influence of Venetian painting, especially of the work of Piazzetta, which is evident in the present work.

Saint Lawrence was a deacon of the Roman Church who was martyred in the third Century A.D. and is depicted here with the martyr’s palm and the instrument of his martyrdom, the gridiron, on which he was put to death.