The martyrdom of Saint Lawrence and the Reformation. A paradigmatic case of Christianisation of a pagan territory and a defense against the accusations of idolatry
Keywords:
Paganism, Titian, Prudentius, Martyrdom, Saint Lawrence, Renaissance
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
In his Liber Peristephanon, Prudentius promotes the Christianisation of space through the worship of saints and the veneration of relics. In this manner, the poet and Father of the Church joins the effort of the Christians of the fourth century to take ownership of the imperial territory through the development of a network of holy places. A detailed reading of this text allows us to deduce that it was the martyr’s passive resistance –especially that of Saint Lawrence– that ended the realm of pagan gods in Rome and in the Empire. The influence of Prudentius’ text led Titian –and, later, other artists– to introduce in his representations of the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence a message that highlights the opposition between paganism and the new Christian world. Our goal is to analyse the procedures and strategies used by painters to manifest this break.
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References
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