Saint Lawrence

Fine, early impressions of this subject are extremely rare, let alone the condition of the few surviving examples is frequently compromised. Of the two examples in the British Museum, one has the figure of the saint silhouetted (inv. no. 1845,0809.270) and the other one (inv. no. E,1.79) is trimmed into the blank subject at left, similarly to the present impression. According to Stogdon (1996), there are only two good impressions (Basel and Vienna). This engraving can be included in a group with five others, definable as suffrage Saints, including: Christopher (L. 56), John the Baptist (L. 59), Martin (L. 62), Sebastian (L. 65) and Stephen (L. 66). The latter and Saint Lawrence, resembling in the figure and facial features, share a similar bare set-up: the saints are dressed in their canonical gown, holding the instruments of their martyrdom. In recent sales, Christie's has sold other subjects from the same group of prints: Saint Martin, partially silhouetted (London, 10 December 2019, lot 173, £ 12,500), Saint John the Baptist (New York, 29 January 2019, lot 8, $ 43,750) and Saint Michael (New York, 25 January 2017, lot 7, $ 211,500).