Page:Cyclopedia of painters and paintings (IA cyclopediaofpain03cham).pdf/60

 Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, Titian, S. M. Assunta dei Gesuiti.

By Titian, S. M. Assunta dei Gesuiti, Venice; canvas, arched, H. 17 ft. 8 in. × 9 ft., figures larger than life; signed. Night scene; St. Lawrence stretched on an iron framework, under which is a fire fed by attendants; executioner and soldiers hold the Saint, whose legs are toward the spectator; the flames and a torch light the group, and a gleam from heaven illumines the sufferer and shows the steps of a temple, on which figures are seen. Painted about 1558. Dark with age and much repainted. Engraved by Oortman. Carried to Paris in 1799; returned in 1815.—C. & C., Titian, ii. 259; Vasari, ed. Mil., vii. 453; Filhol, x. 691; Landon, Musée, iv. Pl. 65.

LAWRENCE, Sir THOMAS, born at Bristol, May 4, 1769, died in London, January 7, 1830. Portrait painter, son of a Bristol innkeeper who had known better days. At the age of ten he took crayon portraits at Oxford and copied historical pictures, and before he was twelve he had drawn Mrs. Siddons in crayons and made his studio at Bath a fashionable resort. He began to paint in oils in his seventeenth year, and succeeded so well, in his own opinion, that he declared himself ready to stake his reputation against that of any painter in England. When, however, he first exhibited in London (1787), his vanity received a salutary check, and feeling the necessity of study he entered the Royal Academy. The very next year he achieved a success with his portrait of Miss Farren, the actress, afterwards Countess of Derby, and followed it up with portraits of the Queen and the Princess Amelia. In 1791, through the influence of George III., with whom he was a great favourite, Lawrence was admitted to the Royal Academy as supplementary A.R.A., although under the required age, and the next year he became painter in ordinary to his majesty. In 1794 he was elected R.A. To these years belong his portraits of J. J. Angerstein and Benjamin West, the full length of Mrs. Siddons,