Provenance:
European private collection.

This painting, with its striking chiaroscuro and naturalistic rendering of the figures, shows clear Caravaggesque features, and has been identified by Professor Riccardo Lattuada as an early work by Andrea Vaccaro, one of Naples' most successful painters of his era. His early paintings were clearly influenced by the works of Caravaggio (1571–1610) until circa 1630, when he turned to more classical tendencies, such as those seen in works by Guido Reni (1575–1642) and Pietro Novelli (1603–1647). In the process, he chose a softer and lighter palette.

Vaccaro worked for local commissioners in Naples, which was under Spanish rule at that time, as well as for commissioners in Spain. The present work with the representation of the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence from Aragón is also to be understood within this context. According to legend, Lawrence was ordained a deacon at the time of the persecution of Christians and received the church treasures from Pope Sixtus II, before his own execution, in order to distribute them to the poor. Emperor Valerian demanded the surrender of these treasures and had Lawrence burned on a gridiron. In the 16th century, Lawrence was declared the patron saint of his homeland by Philip II.

Comparable works by the Neapolitan artist are held in the Collection of Anderson Cooper and Benjamin Maisani, New York (“Saint Stephen taken to his Martyrdom” and “Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew", see Riccardo Lattuada: Andrea Vaccaro’s “David” and an Outline of Vaccaro's Early Career, in: Annual of the Museum of Art and Archeology, vol. 51, Missouri 2017, pp. 52 and 53, ill. 12 and 13).

We are grateful to Professor Riccardo Lattuada for his help in cataloguing the present work.