Description
The Oratory of San Lorenzo, in the Kalsa next to the Basilica of San Francesco, is a small hall that looks like a jewel box: its walls are covered with stuccoes by Giacomo Serpotta, perhaps the high point of his art. It was the seat of a lay confraternity.
The heart of the visit is the eight stucco theaters: small stages in relief that tell the stories of Saint Lawrence and Saint Francis. On one side is the life of the saint of Assisi, from his meeting with the Sultan at Damietta to the stigmata.
On the other side runs the story of Lawrence, the deacon and martyr: he gives the Church's goods to the poor, speaks with Pope Sixtus II, faces his torment. On the back wall, in high relief, he suffers martyrdom on the gridiron.
Between one little theater and the next stand the large statues of the Virtues, from Hospitality and Penitence to Charity, Mercy and Truth, surrounded by a crowd of putti. The stuccoes date from around 1700 and show all of Serpotta's inventiveness.
Above the altar was Caravaggio's Nativity, an altarpiece with Saints Francis and Lawrence almost three meters tall. It was stolen on the night between October 17 and 18 and has never been recovered.
The scene is a simple nativity, in a stable of beams, with an angel descending from above. The critic Roberto Longhi had called it the best preserved of the works Caravaggio painted in Sicily. In 2024 it was the second most wanted painting on the FBI's list. In its place, since 2015, there is a copy made with scientific analyses and advanced technology.
The Company of San Francesco, which met here, had a precise task: to give a decent burial to the poor of the Kalsa. The company was founded in 1564, while the church was built in the second half of the 1500s.
During the bombings of 1943 the entrance wall, with its decorations, was badly damaged. In 1945 Filippo Mignosi rebuilt it.
The heart of the visit is the eight stucco theaters: small stages in relief that tell the stories of Saint Lawrence and Saint Francis. On one side is the life of the saint of Assisi, from his meeting with the Sultan at Damietta to the stigmata.
On the other side runs the story of Lawrence, the deacon and martyr: he gives the Church's goods to the poor, speaks with Pope Sixtus II, faces his torment. On the back wall, in high relief, he suffers martyrdom on the gridiron.
Between one little theater and the next stand the large statues of the Virtues, from Hospitality and Penitence to Charity, Mercy and Truth, surrounded by a crowd of putti. The stuccoes date from around 1700 and show all of Serpotta's inventiveness.
Above the altar was Caravaggio's Nativity, an altarpiece with Saints Francis and Lawrence almost three meters tall. It was stolen on the night between October 17 and 18 and has never been recovered.
The scene is a simple nativity, in a stable of beams, with an angel descending from above. The critic Roberto Longhi had called it the best preserved of the works Caravaggio painted in Sicily. In 2024 it was the second most wanted painting on the FBI's list. In its place, since 2015, there is a copy made with scientific analyses and advanced technology.
The Company of San Francesco, which met here, had a precise task: to give a decent burial to the poor of the Kalsa. The company was founded in 1564, while the church was built in the second half of the 1500s.
During the bombings of 1943 the entrance wall, with its decorations, was badly damaged. In 1945 Filippo Mignosi rebuilt it.