Title

Saint Lawrence

Maestro del Altar del Sagrario [attributed to]

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

According to Francisco Corti (1994) this carving was made by a Palencia workshop related to the Maestro del Altar del Sagrario due to the similarities with the San Antolin of the chapel. If we follow this hypothesis, the piece was probably made in the second quarter of the 16th century. In this sculpture the saint holds a book with his left hand, while holding a grill with his right. We do not know by whom the carving was purchased, but it is possible that a private individual acquired it to donate it to the Dominican nuns of the convent of Santa María de las Dueñas in Salamanca (Spain). The convent had been founded by Juana Rodríguez Maldonado at the beginning of the 15th century (Martínez Frías, 2001) and in the first third of the 16th century both the temple and the cloister were built. Perhaps the piece became part of the convent at this time through an external donation.

The sculpture remained in the Salamanca convent until 1947, when Héctor Schenone, an Argentine historian, bought it. He had received a grant from the Department of Cultural Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Madrid to study the Iberian antecedents of American colonial art. He took advantage of his trip to nourish his private collection with numerous pieces of Castilian, Flemish and Italian provenance, among others (Siracusano and Tudisco, 2009). According to Siracusano and Tudisco (2009), Schenone acquired it directly from the monastery. The piece later traveled with him back to Buenos Aires, where it became part of his private collection. Schenone was appointed director of the Isaac Fernández Blanco Municipal Museum, where Schenone's collection is currently kept and where the sculpture of San Lorenzo is located.

Description

Although there have been doubts about whether the carving represented Saint Vincent of Saragossa or Saint Lawrence, Corti (1994) and Siracusano and Tudisco (2009) agree that it is the latter. The saint bows his head slightly while reading the book he holds in his left hand. His vestments are richly polychromed thanks to the stewing technique.

Locations

• Second quarter of the XVI^th c. - ca. 1947

  convent

  Convento de Santa María de las Dueñas, Salamanca, Salamanca (Spain)

• ca. 1947 - ca. 2014

  private collection

  Héctor Schenone, Buenos Aires (Argentina) *

• ca. 2014 - present

  museum

  Museo de Arte Hispanoamericano Isaac Fernández Blanco, Buenos Aires (Argentina)