(Viterbo 1587–1625 Rome)
Saint Lawrence
oil on canvas, 96.5 x 71 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Germany

We are grateful to Gianni Papi for suggesting the attribution for the present painting on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph and for his help in cataloguing this lot.

Papi has suggested that this painting depicting Saint Lawrence, dressed in a dalmatic vestment and holding a gridiron, is a significant work by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi, datable to a decisive moment in the painter’s career: his shift from the Roncalli phase to Caravaggesque naturalism. This stylistic shift in the painter´s work is exemplified by the altarpiece of Saint Ursula and her companions altarpiece (today in the sacristy of the church of San Marco in Rome, dated 1608) and this period is datable to the years between 1610 and 1615 and, more precisely, with every probability to 1612-1613.

Other works belonging to Cavarozzi´s transitional phase include the altarpiece of the Martyrdom of Saint Stephen (Duomo of Monterotondo), the Discourse of Saint Stephen painted for the Mattei (private collection). The Dinner at Emmaus (Getty Museum, Los Angeles) and, even more, the versions of Aminta’s Lament already reveal a closer engagement with Caravaggesque naturalism and the attainment of a new period in the Cavarozzi´s oeuvre.

According to Papi, three of the above-mentioned works display significant similarities with the present composition. For example the painterly handling of the collar emerging from Saint Stephen’s dalmatic in the Discourse of Saint Stephen can be compared with the present composition, with folds that are still slightly angular with dazzling white fabric. Similar elements can also be found in the Martyrdom of Monterotondo, in the Saint’s sleeves and in the drapery of the figure in the left foreground.

There are some affinities also in the David, between the depiction of the biblical hero’s hand resting on the sword hilt and the pose of Saint Lawrence’s hand on the gridiron in the present compostion: this is typical of Cavarozzi´s hand, with a very pale and compact skin, pink nails barely sketched out, in a manner recurring in the Discourse, with which an even more convincing comparison may be made. It is important to note a further element that appears in the present painting and in the latter: the separation between the index and middle finger, a feature that recurs in the fingers of the hands belonging to the doctor at the far right in the Discourse.

Even the dalmatic is similar to that of Saint Stephen, appearing to be made of the same stiff cloth forming broad, deep folds; further evidence comes from the comparison which may be made between the faces of Saint Lawrence, Saint Stephen and David, which all present such a range of common features as to suggest that a single human model provided the inspiration for them: highly arched eyebrows, large eyes, a broad face and a small mouth with fleshy lips.

The present painting will be included in Gianni Papi´s forthcoming monograph on Bartolomeo Cavarozzi.