Saint Lawrence

Girolamo da Santacroce painted this depiction around 1525, contributing to the devotional art of the High Renaissance period. Saints' images served as intercessors and models of virtue for the faithful. The painting is in the Courtauld Gallery. The 1520s were a decade of transition, marked by the deaths of Raphael and Leonardo, the shock of the Reformation, and the beginnings of Mannerist experimentation.

The devotional composition is rendered with attention to the expressive and contemplative qualities that served the painting's function as an aid to prayer and meditation.