The vision of Saint Lawrence

The vision of Saint Laurentius - an image of a Spanish painter of Greek origin, Dominikos Theotokopulos, known as El Greco. The image is not signed. The image of Lawrence is a link between three earlier paintings signed by CHÈIR DOMENIKOU (Repentant Mary Magdalene, Saint Veronica Holder, Portrait of St. Anthony of Padua), and works done at the church of Santo Domingo el Antigua in Toledo. His first owner was Rodrigo de Castro, the Inquisitor of the Supreme Court of Toledo in 1559, the later Archbishop of Seville. In 1600, after his death, the painting went to the Galician monastery together with the canvas of St. Francis and his brother Leon. Picture description

The picture shows Saint. Lawrence at the moment when he sees the vision of the Mother of God with the Child. The extended form of Wawrzyniec, inscribed in the triangle, evokes Italian Renaissance painting, especially Michelangelo. On top of it is a chasuble embroidered in yellow gold and scarlet. El Greco in the same garment of St. Stephen in the later painting of the Count of Orgaz. The arrangement of the hands and head and the intensity of the gaze are reminiscent of the portraits of Giovanni Battista Porta or Repentant Mary Magdalene, albeit technically closer to the Portrait of St. Anthony of Padua. In Lawrence's right hand holds his attribute, the grate, the symbol of his martyrdom. His attention is focused on the cloud in the upper right corner, where Maria and Child are located. It is surrounded by a bright halo resembling a halo. Again, El Greco used the motif of his earlier image. This time, the figure of Mary and Jesus resembles that of a small picture made in Venice in 1570, Escape to Egypt. Bibliography

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