The Charity of St. Lorenzo Giustiniani

1691
Basilica of San Pietro, Venice

In the vita he wrote not long after Lorenzo Giustiniani's death his nephew Bernardo Giustiniani devoted a chapter to his charity and love of the poor (Acta Sanctorum, January vol. 1, 554-555). Accordingly, in this large canvas in the chancel the saint hands out alms to the needy. He wears his characteristic close-fitting cap and holds the patriarchal cross that is his attribute.

The composition makes the saint the midpoint of a diagonal that identifies human charity with the divine. At one end of the diagonal the woman at the bottom of the stairs points to Lorenzo while one of her babies reaches for her breast. At the other end, another baby is actually sucking at the breast of the allegorical figure of Charity, who is being carried aloft by angels. Bright illumination emphasizes the line of the diagonal, from the woman's arm to the saint in white and then to the right arm and wing of the angel in front.

Giustiniani was the first Patriarch of Venice, but the artist could not resist surrounding him with mostly un-Venetian classical architecture. The one exception is the tower of the church of Madonna dell'Orto in the background on the right. At the time of the painting that church was served by the saint's religious order, the Canons Regular of San Giorgio in Alga.

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Photographed at the basilica by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.