Adam Elsheimer 1578–1610
NG 1014 
Saint Lawrence prepared for Martyrdom

Susan Foister, 2024

Extracted from:
Susan Foister; with Rachel Billinge, Marika Spring and Lea Viehweger; and contributions by Lorne Campbell and Allison Goudie, The German Paintings before 1800 (London: National Gallery Global and Yale University Press, 2024).

Oil on copper, 26.8 × 20.9 cm

Inscription

Inscribed on base of statue: FA/O[E?]/H[E?]/[?]

Provenance

It is usually assumed that the undated etching by Pieter Soutman (1580–1657) (fig. 1; see Prints (2), below) is likely to have been made after the original in Antwerp in the period 1625–50.¹

According to Sandrart, Count Johann von Nassau‐Saarbrücken‐Idstein (1603–1677) owned an ‘original’ painting by Elsheimer of this subject in his Kunstkammer at Idstein Castle: ‘No less artistic is his painting / how St Lawrence is being undressed in front of the judge / on their order to be roasted on the gridiron / near the represented idol / but he turns devoutly to the sky / with indescribable effects the original of this is now in the highborn Reichs‐Grafen and Lord Herrn Johann von Nassau / zu Saarbrucken in his residence to be seen among many other curiosities.’² This seems to be the painting by Elsheimer referred to by Matthäus Merian the Younger (1621–1687) in a letter to Count Johann in 1661.³ When Count Johann died in 1677, his last will decreeing that his collection be kept intact seems to have been largely observed by his son Georg August (1665–1721).⁴ An inventory of the collection from 1678 is the last reference to the Elsheimer in Idstein: ‘A small piece by Elshammer the history of Laurenzio’.⁵ With the death of Georg August in 1721 his estate was divided and the collection was finally dispersed on the death of his heirs in 1723 and 1728.⁶ If the painting remained in the collection after Count Johann’s death in 1677 it cannot be identified with the painting of Saint Lawrence by Elsheimer recorded in Antwerp in 1682 in the collection of Diego Duarte (before 1616–1690).⁷

A painting which may be Elsheimer’s original was recorded in the sale of the poet, painter and collector Sybrand Feitama II (1694–1758) at Amsterdam, 16 October 1758, lot 64.⁸ A painting by Elsheimer of the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence was in the Herman Cornelius Johan van Eversdijk (1727–1765) sale at The Hague, 28 May 1766, lot 2; in the Goodall sale 1772 in London, lot 37; in the Richard Morrison sale in London, 1788; in the Meyer Solomon sale in London, 30 November 1802 and in another London sale in 1818, but in view of the number of copies recorded (see below), as well as the existence of other images of Saint Lawrence by or associated with Elsheimer, it is impossible to be certain which if any of these sale references record the history of NG 1014, and precisely when it came to England.⁹ NG 1014 formed part of the bequest of paintings, mostly Dutch, made to the National Gallery by the silk merchant and Liberal MP Wynn Ellis (1790–1875) in 1876.¹⁰

Copies and Versions

• (1) Copy by Frans Francken the Younger in the Bavarian State Collections.¹¹

• (2) Version acquired by the artist August Gottfried Schwalb (1741–1777) at Hamburg on 15 April 1776 and sold by him in 1779: the catalogue records a picture by Elsheimer, 12 × 9 inches, ‘representing the undressing of St Laurentius, in the foreground a statue of Herakles, in the background the grate.’¹²

• (3) Version of the subject belonging to the comte de Provence, 1781.¹³

• (4) A version was sold in Paris in 1785 from the collection of M. Nourri.¹⁴

• (5) Version belonging to Martin Tupper (1810–1889).¹⁵

• (6) Version belonging to the Sir Henry Bruce collection, Downhill, Londonderry, 1821.¹⁶

• (7) Version in Ghent, 1829, sold by J.B. Vervier.¹⁷

• (8) Copy at Vienna.¹⁸

• (9) Copy at Innsbruck.¹⁹

• (10) Derivative at Speyer.²⁰

• (11) Version at Munich, Alte Pinakothek, inv. 193.²¹

• (12) A close copy signed A or L Schomaker (possibly Andries Schomaker, 1660–1735) in the Historiehuis, Roermond.²²

• (13) Copy omitting the emperor and attendant at left in a sale, London, 10 October 1958, lot 112.

• (14) Copy on canvas in Galleria Pitti, Florence (on loan to Bibbiena town hall, Arezzo).²³

• (15) Copy in an anonymous sale, London, 28 November 1951, lot 63.

• (16) Copy in an anonymous sale, London, 16 October 1958, lot 112.

• (17) Copy, Christie’s, London, 19 February 2008, lot 438.

Drawings

• (1) A pen drawing at Budapest (Szépművészeti Museum), 33.9 × 20 cm, shows a man in a turban in the same pose as the figure in NG 1014, along with a man in a plumed hat; it may have been made after NG 1014, or after one of the copies.²⁴

• (2) A pen drawing by an unknown artist at Dresden, 26 × 20.9 cm, may have been made after NG 1014.²⁵

Prints

• (1) An engraving possibly by Elsheimer himself with etching and inscribed ‘A. Aelsheimer inv. Et fec.’, 29 × 20.2 cm, was on sale in Cologne in 1982.²⁶

• (2) An etching by Pieter Soutman (fig. 1).²⁷

• (3) An etching by B.H. Lengin (born about 1650) after the Soutman engraving.²⁸

• (4) An oval etching 15.1 × 10.2 cm is in the Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam, inv. RP‐P‐2004‐756; the composition adapts Elsheimer’s in that the statue of Hercules is moved to the centre.²⁹

Exhibitions

Coventry, Derby, Doncaster and Bath 1982; Frankfurt, Edinburgh and London 2006 (18).

Technical Notes

The paint is in good condition with some small flake losses, of which the most significant are in the shoulder of the man with a turban and the skirt of the soldier on the left. There may be some fading of red lake pigments (fig. 4). The painting was cleaned and restored in 1967.

The support is a copper panel less than 1 mm in thickness, slightly buckled, especially at the bottom, which has been stuck to a piece of fibreboard for support. The front surface of the copper has been abraded to improve adhesion of the paint. It is prepared with a thin mid‐grey priming containing lead white, splinter‐like particles of charcoal black and some yellow earth.

An alteration to the position of the angel’s right hand is clearly visible to the naked eye; the hand was initially tilted slightly more and the index finger was longer (fig. 2). Infrared reflectography revealed no underdrawing but did show some other alterations (fig. 5): the angel’s right arm was initially in a lower position (also just about visible to the eye through the paint of the man now depicted in this area, fig. 3). There are minor alterations to the size and position of the wings. The emperor has been moved down slightly and the canopy is a relatively late addition, replacing a continuous landscape. A [page 337] [page 338] number of alterations were made to the figure in a turban. The red cloak appears to have been added at a late stage, as it is painted over the gridiron (fig. 9). The robe was originally knee‐length and man’s left leg was initially extended further back. It was moved to a more vertical position, with the foot seen side on and facing to the left, before being adjusted yet again to the pose as finally painted. The feather in the turban was originally larger.

The sample taken from the sky showed that it is painted with a single layer of ultramarine and white. Examination of [page 339] the surface with a microscope indicates that the blue pigment azurite seems to have been used, mixed with yellow, to make greens, for example in the vegetation and the wreath around the head of the statue. A green pigment appears to have been used as a glaze in some parts of the painting. Red pigments include red lake, vermilion and red lead. The red cloak of the man in the turban is painted using red lake for the shadows; white is then mixed in to make mid‐tones and highlighted accents are added last, with vermilion. Both vermilion and red lead have been used for the bright oranges and reds of the fire and the sparks (fig. 10).

The medium of a sample of white paint from the drape at the left edge was identified by GC–MS analysis as heat‐bodied linseed oil.³⁰

Subject

Saint Lawrence, the Christian martyred by the Romans in 258 ad, stands on the left in a white robe, his arms outspread, unresisting as he is disrobed prior to his martyrdom. In the account of the Golden Legend, Saint Lawrence’s refusal to reveal the whereabouts of the treasures of the church hidden by the son of the Christian emperor Philip led to his arrest and torture.³¹ The treasure had been distributed to the poor by Saint Lawrence as previously agreed, so that when he was called on by the pagan Roman emperor Decius to produce it, he assembled a group of poor Christians and said that they were the eternal treasure of the church. After a series of torments, Decius gave Saint Lawrence an ultimatum, that he should sacrifice to the gods, or be tortured all night. The saint replied that for him the night had no darkness: ‘Everything is ablaze with light’. He was then roasted on the gridiron.³²

Elsheimer’s composition dramatises the moment of Saint Lawrence’s decision to choose death, emphasising the alternatives of pagan sacrifice or Christian martyrdom.³³ The statue of the pagan god to which the saint refused to sacrifice occupies nearly the whole length of the right‐hand side of the composition. It represents a bearded man wearing a wreath around his head, holding a club which rests by his right foot; a lion skin covers his right thigh, its paw clearly visible. The gridiron on which the saint is now to be martyred is being prepared in the lower right background by two young men, one carrying a heavy basket which he rests on his knee, presumably bringing more coals to the fire, the other poking the red‐hot coals to increase the flames (fig. 8). Immediately above Saint Lawrence hovers an angel (fig. 6) carrying the palm of martyrdom, pointing upwards to the place in heaven that awaits him (figs 2, 6). The angel appears to have been inspired by Marcantonio’s engraving of The Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia after the Vatican fresco by Raphael’s workshop (fig. 11).³⁴ The scene is set at night or at dusk, allowing a contrast between the relatively subdued red glow of the fire for the gridiron and the brilliance of the figures of the angel and the saint, both dressed in white.

The saint is held by a figure in a red square‐necked tunic and hat, presumably a soldier, whose dress recalls that of German soldiers of the early sixteenth century; another example of such a figure is the Landsknecht in Elsheimer’s Burning of Troy at Munich. His belt is being unfastened by [page 340] a brown‐skinned youth in a short‐sleeved jerkin and rolled up sleeves. In the lower left‐hand corner is the crumpled cream damask of the saint’s discarded outer robe (fig. 7), the dalmatic of an archdeacon of the church. On the right is the prominent figure of a man in a turban and a richly patterned gold damask robe with a pink cloak, the nearest figure to the centre of the composition and to the spectator’s eye; he appears to be supervising the disrobing. He has been identified by some scholars as the emperor Decius, who is more likely shown on the dais. His figure is inspired by that of Pilate in Dürer’s woodcut Flagellation from the Large Passion series, who is also shown in profile and wearing a turban and elaborately patterned robe (fig. 12).³⁵ The pattern of the robe somewhat resembles that of the angel in Elsheimer’s Holy Family at Berlin.³⁶ Immediately behind him, next to the saint, stands an elderly man in white beard and hooded robe, perhaps a priest of the pagan rites; he is evidently trying to engage the saint’s attention, pointing with the index fingers of both hands to the marble statue on the far right, deference to which would allow the saint to escape death.

In the background on the left, shown in shadow, are two seated figures on a dais, watching the scene. The textile hanging behind them shows two rather crudely painted [page 341] figures who may be intended as Roman soldiers. The plump man on the left wearing a wreath looks on at the disrobing with down‐turned mouth; he is presumably the persecuting Roman emperor Decius (ruled 249–251), the enemy of Saint Lawrence and author of his torments. The man on the right is in a more upright pose, staring straight ahead at the saint and the angel, his arm resting on the folds of his toga in a pose typical of Roman statuary. He is presumably the Roman prefect Valerian, who, according to the Golden Legend, accompanied Decius at the saint’s torture and martyrdom.³⁷ The position of the two figures echo, probably deliberately, those often seen in the background of representations of the Ecce Homo, just as Saint Lawrence’s disrobing mirrors representations of Christ before the Crucifixion, and his pose with arms outstretched might even evoke the crucifixion. The story of the saint’s martyrdom in the Golden Legend has many such echoes of the Passion of Christ. As previously mentioned, Elsheimer has clearly drawn some compositional inspiration from Dürer’s woodcut of the Flagellation of Christ from his Large Passion series: in addition to the resemblance to the figure of Pilate there are two watching figures similarly placed in the background on the left.³⁸

Andrews suggested that it was unusual for Elsheimer not to show the scene of the saint’s martyrdom, represented for example in the early sixteenth‐century German cycle from the Workshop of the Master of the Saint Ursula Legend to which NG 3665 belongs (see p. 746), as well as in Titian’s Saint Lawrence Altarpiece in the Church of the Gesuiti, Venice, which Andrews thought Elsheimer’s inclusion of the pagan idol might evoke.³⁹ However, the choice of the penultimate moment in the martyrdom, which is in fact the most dramatic in the story narrated in the Golden Legend, allowed Elsheimer to paint a richly evocative night scene by presenting a visual realisation of Saint Lawrence’s contrasting assertion that ‘Everything is ablaze with light’. Rather than convey the sufferings of the figure on the gridiron, Elsheimer instead creates dramatic tension by choosing the moment just before the saint’s violent end: the elderly figure points out for the last time the choice he could instead have made (and perhaps could still make) in order to live, that of sacrificing to the pagan gods, while, as though in a medieval morality play, the swooping angel points to the rewards of eternal life. As well as drawing on Elsheimer’s skills as a painter of exotic figures and details of Roman antiquity and colourful textiles illuminated by both firelight and supernatural light, the choice of this scene serves to highlight Elsheimer’s ability to depict narrative drama with a vividly evocative and almost poetic concentration.

Roman References

The pagan statue’s lion skin and club indicate that he might be intended to represent the figure of Hercules (fig. 15). The most famous examples known to Elsheimer would have been the marble Farnese Hercules and the bronze Hercules in the Palazzo dei Conservatori (fig. 14).⁴⁰ Andrews rightly dismissed the suggestion that the bearded Farnese Hercules is the model here, despite the fact that Elsheimer’s figure is clearly intended to be marble. It resembles rather the Hercules [page 342] in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, although the left hand of the bronze statue is cupped and does not rest on its hip; nor does the head have a wreath. Andrews suggested that Elsheimer’s figure might be modelled on a young Bacchus or Satyr, which would account for the wreath, but if Elsheimer’s figure was based on a drawing after the bronze Hercules, the curly hair might well have been misinterpreted in this way. Andrews also noted that the Satyr of Praxiteles was copied as a Mercury and that a Mercury very similar to Elsheimer’s Hercules is shown in the background of Raphael’s Sacrifice at Lystra, part of the Vatican tapestry series which Elsheimer may have known through engravings or other copies.⁴¹ Bachner, noting Hercules’ unmuscular appearance, more akin to that of an Apollo, suggested Elsheimer deliberately presented him as a personification of heroic virtue, paralleling Saint Lawrence in [page 343] his suffering on a pyre, his wreath a reference to the eternal life which both the saint and Hercules attained.⁴²

The marble Farnese Hercules has a Greek inscription which the partial inscription on the base of Elsheimer’s statue does not copy but may conceivably imitate.⁴³ The inscription, which is cut off by the edge of the picture, reads ‘FA/O[E?]/H[E?]/[?]’; grasses and other plants partially obscure the lower line (fig. 16). Andrews and others have pointed out that the lettering is Roman rather than Greek (as Levey assumed). Andrews suggested that the letters evoke lines on Hercules from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, IX, 255–7, with parts of words in these lines selected to create the inscription.⁴⁴ The inscription is perhaps rather intended as a simple approximation for the first two letters of each of the three Greek words inscribed on the Farnese Hercules: ‘Γ Λ [FA] Α Θ [OE] Ε Π [HE]’. The lettering is unlikely to have been intended to indicate a decipherable meaning, any more than the figure was intended to evoke a precise model: their function is probably to indicate the necessary element of Roman paganism which Elsheimer had placed in opposition to Saint Lawrence’s devotion to Christianity.

In the right background behind the statue are further references to Roman antiquity. In the middle distance between the turbaned figure and the statue and behind the gridiron is a group of people. A man on horseback dressed in a Roman‐style helmet and armour sits on a white horse and carries a banner with the letters SPQ, for the Roman SPQR (Senatus populusque romanus). Behind him is another horse ridden by a bearded man and there are four other figures, two of them turbaned. Behind them are two classical‐style buildings: in the distance an edifice with a pediment and Corinthian columns and directly behind the statue a building with a deeply cracked pediment, overgrown with foliage, with a frieze showing processing figures, one in the centre on horseback (figs 17, 18). Weiszäcker noted the resemblance of the latter to the temple of Vespasian in the Forum at Rome, though Andrews pointed out that the frieze in the picture differs from that on the real building.⁴⁵ Andrews also suggested that the more distant building recalls tombs along the via Appia or via Latina. His conclusion that Elsheimer’s intention was to evoke Rome rather than to record specific buildings is surely correct.⁴⁶

Attribution and Date

The painting has been accepted as the work of Elsheimer by most authorities with the exception of Bode and Longhi, who queried it in 1943.⁴⁷ It has been universally accepted as his work since then.⁴⁸

The painting has been generally regarded as an early work, and the Roman references have suggested that it was one of the first works Elsheimer produced after he had settled in Rome in 1600. Seifert has drawn attention to a painting by Elsheimer of Saint Lawrence on the gridiron, closely following Titian’s Venetian altarpiece of the same subject, which he dates to about 1599, suggesting it was painted in Venice, but that NG 1014, moving away from the influence of Titian, was painted after his arrival in Rome.⁴⁹ It seems possible that Elsheimer might also have taken some inspiration for NG 1014 from Veronese’s altarpiece of the Martyrdom of Saint George at San Giorgio in Braida, Verona (fig. 19).⁵⁰ Andrews dated NG 1014 to about 1600, Drost suggested about 1602–3, while Weiszäcker argued for the period in Venice before Elsheimer arrived in Rome; Levey doubted that it could date before 1600 and suggested a date around that period. Klessmann regarded the painting as a slightly more mature work, close to the Stoning of Saint Stephen (Edinburgh), which he dates to 1603–4.⁵¹ The extent of the revisions (see Technical Notes) and a slight sense of disjunction between the different compositional elements support a dating to relatively early in Elsheimer’s residence at Rome, probably about 1601–2. Andrews pointed out that the oriental figure with a turban in the background also appears in the Baptism of Christ (NG 3904), which appears to have been produced in Venice and is likely to pre‐date the Saint Lawrence, that the equestrian soldier in armour appears again in the Stoning of Saint Stephen (Edinburgh) and the youths stoking the fire appear again with alterations in Apollo and Coronis (Liverpool) and The Flight into Egypt (Munich).

Select Bibliography

Bode 1883, p. 277; Drost 1933, pp. 57–8; Weizsäcker 1936, vol. 1, pp. 70–3, pl. 28, 1952, vol. 2, pp. 31–2, no. 37; Levey 1959, pp. 38–40; Andrews 1977, pp. 142–3, no. 8; Klessmann 2006, pp. 94–7, no. 18.

Notes