Artworks
In this dignified scene, St Lawrence is dispensing alms to two paupers. The soft-modelled faces of the figures and the muted palette, contrast enticingly with the highly saturated colours of the sharp acanthus leaves surrounding the initial. The events are contained inside an initial L, which introduces the chant for the feast of Saint Lawrence (10th of August). Saint Lawrence is the patron Saint of professions working with open fires, such as bakers and cooks but also of those for which fire can have devastating effects, such as librarians and archivists.
Our initial comes from a luxurious Antiphonary, made for the Sienese monastery of Sant’Agostino. This miniature is the work of Andrea di Bartolo, the leading illuminator and panel painter in Siena at the very end of the 14th century. This initial was created during the first decade of the 15th century, when the painter was at the peak of his career, even illuminating manuscripts for English royalty. Andrea di Bartolo is documented as a versatile artist, who was not only painting panels, frescoes and books but was also responsible for the polychrome painting of sculptures, and he produced designs for stained glass windows.
Behind the barred window of his prison, Saint Lawrence is depicted tonsured and dressed as a deacon in white and gold. He is extending his hand to give alms to two paupers, a young man standing next to an older, bearded man depicted with closed eyes, which probably identifies him as blind. The halo of Saint Lawrence illuminates the darkness within his cell lending the depiction additional depth while the golden background surrounding his prison highlights the bedraggled attire of the two poor.
Besides being a touching depiction of charity, the miniature portrays Saint Lawrence’s defiance in the face of adversity. Saint Lawrence was a deacon in Rome under Pope Sixtus II. After the Roman Emperor had the pope beheaded, Saint Lawrence was ordered to hand over the church treasury. Before he himself was killed, Lawrence decided to disobey and distributed the church’s treasure to the poor and sick. His finale gesture of righteous defiance is captured in this beautiful scene.
