Reliquary bust of St. Lawrence; Spanish School; c. 1600.

Reliquary bust of St. Lawrence; Spanish School; c. 1600.
Carved and polychrome wood.
Presents faults and restorations.
Measurements: 65 x 48 x 26 cm.
Bust made of carved and polychrome wood supported on a rectangular base. On this foot there is a carved sculpture representing a young saint. The protagonist acquires a hieratic gesture, but at the same time delicate and subtle, which is defined by the detail of the sculptural treatment of the face, marked by symmetry and delicate features of small dimensions. This same skill can also be seen in the draping of the fabric covering the neck and in the treatment of the curls of the hair. A deacon born in Aragon, near Huesca, and martyred in Rome in 258, his "Legendary Acts" narrate that St. Lawrence, out of humility, washed the feet of Christians, cured a widow of a headache and gave sight to a blind man through baptism. Three days after the martyrdom of Pope Sixtus II, who had ordained him deacon and entrusted him with the treasure of the Church, he was arrested and ordered to hand over these riches. But there was nothing left of them, since Lorenzo had distributed them among the poor. Furious at seeing his greed frustrated, the emperor Decius ordered him to be flogged with rods, his ribs burned with a red-hot iron and, finally, to be spread naked on a gridiron placed on a mantle of coals.
This type of reliquaries were somewhat common since the Gothic period, usually mentioned as "testas" in the documentation contemporary to their realization and used to contain relics of the head, since carvings of arms, etc. were used for relics of another part of the body of the saint. It should be remembered, however, that at that time practically any element that had been in contact with the saint or his mortal remains (cloths, burial soil, etc.) was considered a sacred relic. The best examples were made of precious metals, but specimens such as the present one were also highly valued, both for the container and, above all, for the content. The evolution of the centuries can be seen in the details of the carvings.