Rubens painted the original around 1614; it hangs today in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, and the work inspired various formats throughout the 17th century for private devotion. This is one of those works, and a good one — executed in oil on a copper panel, the support of choice for cabinet pictures of this scale, prized because its non-absorbent surface holds a jewel-like enamel finish that panel and canvas cannot match. The panel has since been laid onto a parqueted wooden panel: a lattice of interlocking battens, visible on the reverse, added later to keep the sheet flat and stable.
Lawrence lies stretched across the iron gridiron, naked but for a white loincloth bound with a chain, his body a single pale diagonal against the dark. He twists his head upward toward the descending putto bringing the martyr's palm and laurel. Executioners hold him down; one wields a flaming torch, another works the fire with tongs, while at lower right a crouching nude feeds brushwood into the flames.
Upper left, the marble Jupiter reclines with his eagle — the god Lawrence refused.
