The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence (Bernini)

The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence is an early sculpture by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It shows the saint at the moment of his martyrdom, being burnt alive on a gridiron. According to Bernini's biographer, Filippo Baldinucci, the sculpture was completed when Bernini was 15 years old, implying that it was finished in the year 1614. Other historians have dated the sculpture between 1615 and 1618. A date of 1617 seems most likely. It is less than life-size in dimensions, measuring 108 by 66 cm.

The sculpture is now held in the Uffizi in Florence as part of the Contini Bonacossi Collection.

Creation The sculpture was created from a single block of Carrara marble. Restoration in 1997 revealed that Bernini used different tools to create different surface textures on various parts of the sculpture. The reverse side of the gridiron has not been polished and finished in the same way as the front, implying that the artwork was clearly meant to be seen from the front only. A highly sculpted pedestal, made of wood and gilded with golden paint, was designed as a platform for the sculpture. There is a possibility this was also executed by Bernini, although its design suggests that while it was a Strozzi family commission, it was done at a later date.

Subject The subject of the artwork is Lawrence of Rome, who was condemned to death by the Roman Emperor Valerian in the year 258 C.E. for defending the Christian faith. According to tradition, Lawrence was burnt to death by being placed on a gridiron.

In its naturalistic representation of the saint as tortured and yet undergoing some kind of spiritual epiphany, the sculpture offers a taste of many of the themes which Bernini would adopt throughout his oeuvre, and which would come to represent many of the most pertinent features of the artistic traditions in Italian Baroque art, namely solitary figures undergoing intense emotional states, whilst being portrayed with illusionistic verisimilitude. Unlike in earlier depictions of Saint Lawrence, there are no other figures-no sign of his judge, torturers or spectators witnessing in depth. Rather, the focus is solely on the martyr and his emotional state.