PROVENANCE: Julius Weitzner, London, 1963; BJU, 1963.

Lawrence, an archdeacon to Pope Sixtus II in the third century, refused to revert to pagan worship and was put to death on a gridiron. In the painting, a priest holds up a golden statue of Jupiter in a final effort to persuade Lawrence to recant. Lawrence keeps his gaze fixed on his heavenly goal while a Neapolitan urchin steals the saint’s discarded vestments. The soldier on the right grimaces as the iron’s heat burns his skin instead of Lawrence’s.

Pacecco learned his craft from the leading naturalistic painters in Naples, Filippo Vitale and Massimo Stanzione. He fused the styles of Caravaggio, Ribera, and Domenichino in his works. In this painting, the compressed horizontal arrangement and the diffused background figures suggest the influence of Mattia Preti.