Giuseppe Cesari

Saint Lawrence Among the Poor and Sick

Rome, about 1588

Oil on canvas

61.5 x 73.5 cm

Saint Lawrence (225-258 AD) was the archdeacon of Rome and was martyred for his Christian faith by Emperor Valerian (199-260 AD). He is positioned on the left, inviting the viewer to look carefully at the people surrounding him. Lawrence describes this crowd as ‘the church’s treasure’. This is in defiance of the Roman church’s love of material treasures over their compassion for the needy. Lawrence appears several times in the painting, sharing his radical love with the poor and sick.

This is the modello (preparatory sketch) for a large fresco in a church dedicated to Saint Lawrence in Rome. The fresco has since been destroyed.

Cesari was famed for his maniera approach: a style that focussed on elegance, artificiality, and erotic interpretations. Maniera was unpopular by the end of the sixteenth century. The Catholic Church was ‘Counter-Reforming’ against the Protestant Reformers who had accused them of idol worship. The Catholic Church therefore encouraged more naturalism in the paintings they commissioned, so they could be used as teaching devices and not excite anyone towards lust.

Cesari’s modello shows the group in the left foreground as naked. Contemporary sources, however, described the group in the San Lorenzo fresco as clothed. Cesari and his patrons must have made the decision that nudity was too scandalous for the church audience, especially given the religious climate. The most famous example of the Counter-Reformation’s impact on sacred images is Michelangelo’s Last Judgement. Originally painted with almost all the figures naked, it was amended two decades later when clothes and draperies were added.

Purchased 1988 (No. 88.1)

Further reading:

Bellori, Giovanni Pietro, The Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors and Architects, ed. and trans. Hellmut Wohl, Cambridge, 2005, p. 449.

Hall, Marcia B., ‘Introduction’, in The Sensuous in the Counter-Reformation Church, ed. Marcia B. Hall and Tracy Cooper, Cambridge, 2013, pp. 1-19.

Miedema, Hessel, ‘On Mannerism and Maniera’, Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, 10/1, 1978, pp. 19-45.

Röttgen, Herwarth, ‘Giuseppe Cesari: Saint Lawrence Among the Poor and Infirm’, in The Age of Caravaggio, ed. Luigi Salerno, New York, 1985, pp. 129-131.