Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence

The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence by Peter Paul Rubens is a dynamic preparatory drawing dating from the height of the Flemish Baroque period (1610-1641). This detailed study provides insight into Rubens’s process for developing large-scale commissions focused on religious drama. The artist employed a complex array of media, including black chalk, pen and brown ink, and brush and brown wash, which he then heightened with white to create dramatic light and shadow. The visible contours, carefully traced with a stylus, suggest that Rubens intended this vigorous drawing to be transferred to a larger surface, likely a panel painting or a design for an engraving.

The powerful composition captures the intense suffering of Saint Lawrence, the third-century deacon who was sentenced to death by being roasted on a gridiron. Rubens emphasizes the musculature and physical strain of the various men executing the sentence, transforming the scene of martyrdom into a spectacle of bodily exertion typical of the Baroque style. Through this work, Rubens successfully translates the violent subject matter into a heroic, if agonizing, spiritual climax.

This drawing exemplifies the mastery Rubens achieved in rendering figures in complex motion. While this unique drawing resides in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, many related oil paintings and prints documenting the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence theme entered circulation throughout the seventeenth century. Today, many of these enduring Baroque masterworks are widely available as public domain resources, ensuring continued access to the profound religious iconography developed by Rubens.