largely agreed on the technical excellence of the sculpture. Rudolf Wittkower speaks of the “high degree of technical perfection [and] the anatomical precision and an infallible sense for the organic coherence and structure of the human body.” Irving Lavin sees, in the flesh-like quality achieved with the marble, a criticism of Michelangelo, who mastered design and anatomy but not the appearance of flesh. The flames also receive attention. During the baroque period, the ability to represent to recreate nature, as in flames, water, flesh, in illusionistic marble would be a frequent challenge. Bernini's "attempt to represent leaping flames in sculpture is a tour de force" "depicting convincingly something as evanescent as flames, or as dependent on colour as glowing coals." Daniele Pinton talks of the "skilful rendition of the flames under the gridiron, where the portrayal of an immaterial element such as fire is magnificently rendered in stone." Charles Avery goes as far to see the technical innovation of the work as its raison-d’être. He cites the piece’s naturalism, its emotional intensity, his use of subject never previously depicted as a full three-dimensional sculpture and concludes that “the work is a manifesto of his ability on the threshold of his adult career, much like the ‘master piece’ with which a craftsman matriculates into his guild.” Recent history At the start of the 1800s, the sculpture was moved to another Strozzi-owned palace in Rome, and then around 1830 it was moved to the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. In 1935, it then became part of the Contini-Bonacossi collection, before being acquired by the Italian state in 1969. Photos while in the Contini Bonacossi Collection show the sculpture on a pedestal shaped like a tree. St. Lawrence was shown in the Palazzo Pitti from 1974, and then in the Uffizi from December 1998. See also List of works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini References Notes Bibliography External links Web Gallery of Art 1617 works 1610s sculptures Monuments and memorials in Italy Sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini Christian art about death Sculptures of the Uffizi