The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, after Baccio Bandinelli

Bandinelli received even more significant commissions following the election of Giulio de’ Medici to the papacy as Clement VII. Among these were frescoes for the choir of San Lorenzo, the family’s church in Florence, including one depicting the martyrdom of the eponymous saint. Giorgio Vasari, artist and biographer, relates, “the Pope was so delighted that he commissioned Marcantonio to engrave it, and he created Baccio a knight of St. Peter for his genius.”