l martirio di San Lorenzo - Lorenzo di Niccolò
Brooklyn Museum, New York
'Lacrime di Stelle'
Lacrime di Stelle or Tears from the Stars, is a program inspired by the figure of Saint Lawrence from Huesca.
Falling stars have captivated mankind since the dawn of time and in medieval Italy many myths and stories arose to explain the phenomenon. Dante in his Divine Comedy ascribed them to the movement of the souls in purgatory but the most famous belief was they were the tears of the martyred Saint Lawrence burning on the grate.
The programme, Lacrime di Stelle, follows the life of the saint drawing on the few facts we know about his life and his death and uses it as a spring board to explore and understand medieval believes in a wider context.
The feast of St Lawrence is still celebrated every year on the 10th of August and this programme was originally created for the inauguration of the re-opening of an Italian church dedicated to Saint Lawrence.