St Lawrence the Martyr

St Lawrence the Martyr, around 1450, at Santo Stefano Venice, depicts the Roman deacon martyred by roasting on a gridiron — his cheerful endurance of this death making him one of the most beloved martyr saints of the medieval church. Lawrence's role as patron of the poor and of librarians (he was responsible for the Church's treasure in Rome) gave him wide institutional patronage, and his image appeared across Venetian church furnishing programs where the Vivarini workshop was a principal supplier. The gridiron, his distinctive attribute, appears prominently as the instrument of his death transformed into an emblem of steadfast faith.

The gridiron is rendered with precise linear description as both narrative attribute and compositional element, providing a geometric accent within the otherwise rounded forms of the figure. Vivarini handles the deacon's dalmatic vestment with flat areas of patterned textile description in the manner of mid-century Venetian workshop convention.