(Florence 1577–1621)
Portrait of a man in the guise of Saint Lawrence,
oil on canvas, 140 x 96.5 cm, framed

We are grateful to Sandro Bellesi for suggesting the attribution of the present painting to Cristofano Allori and for his help in cataloguing this lot. He dates this work to 1615–20.

Set within an undefined neutral space the present composition represents a young man with a slender gold halo, wearing the dalmatica or deacon’s robe, in one hand holding a leather-bound book with elegant silver clasps and in the other a palm frond. The presence of the halo and palm are evident hagiographic emblems identifying this figure as a martyr-saint, who was, evidenced by his attire, a deacon – a minister of the Catholic Church who accompanied the priest during the celebration of Mass and the sacred rites. The red embroidered flame motif on the robe, serves as a further iconographic indication, allowing us to identify the subject as Saint Lawrence, one of the most venerate personalities of popular cult from the earliest origins of Christianity. A native of Spain, the saint arrived at an early age in Rome where he joined the first Christian communities, in time becoming deacon to Pope Sixtus II. Following the pope’s death, he was charged with distributing the greater part of the goods of the Church to the poor and sick of Rome. He was captured by the imperial guard, and owing to his Christian faith, he was condemned to death by fire on the grid. The saint was martyred, according to the sources, in 258, in Rome.

Analysis of the character, style and pictorial definition of the figure allow us to assign this work to Christofano Allori, one of the most original artists active in Tuscany during the final years of the sixteenth and the first of the seventeenth centuries.

Born in Florence in 1577, Cristofano was the son of Alessandro Allori and was trained in his studio. During the first decade of the seventeenth century, he gradually began to distance himself from his father, opening his own independent studio. He gained numerous public and private commissions, resulting from his knowledge of the latest practices of the Florentine school, coupled with the originality of his compositions which derived from the innovations of the Roman school and northern artists such as of Rubens.

The great care with which the artist describes the features and the lively expression of the sitter, suggest that the young man represented in the present composition was a real individual. The figure’s depiction as Saint Lawrence would suggest that he shared the same name as the martyr saint. The painting in all likelihood represents a member of the Florentine aristocracy, who owing to the lack of a comparable identified portrait, remains anonymous.

The attribution of this work to Cristofano Allori is based on its stylistic proximity to other works by the artist. Close similarities with known works by Allori can be found in the detailed definition of the subject’s features and in the rose colouring of the flesh tones which are also reminiscent of the artist’s father, Alessandro Allori. Moreover, close ties with the Florentine artistic ambit of the early seventeenth century are evident, as well as in the rendering of the features, in the detailed description of precious materials – on the basis of such considerations it appears appropriate to date this work between the end of the first, and the beginning of the second decade of the Seicento.