CASTELLO, VALERIO

SAINT LAURENCE

In this picture Saint Lawrence is depicted as a young man in a deacon's dalmatic and complete with his traditional attribute – a gridiron. The composition stands out on account of its considerable artistic merits and there is no doubt that it was painted in the very last years of the Genoese master's short life. His late works are distinguished by the glow of muted shades of red and the emotional atmosphere is always of a dramatic nature. The figure of the saint with a small head and subtly elegant gestures is reminiscent of the female models used in the pictures of Valerio Castello.

Provenance: in the collection of M.F.Khodasevich in Moscow, then the State Museums Foundation; in the Pushkin Museum since 1925.