It is a preparatory drawing for the painting corresponding to the Series of the Monastery of El Escorial, painted in 1589. However, in reality, both drawing and painting only coincide in the general configuration of the composition. It is undoubtedly an early version, later discarded. In the scene, Saint Lawrence, dressed in a deacon’s dalmatic, baptises a Roman soldier kneeling in the centre of the composition. Several elderly men surround him. In the background, on either side, bound prisoners

A few workmen with tools clear a tomb in the presence of a bishop and a king. In the foreground, a kneeling deacon is depicted, while in the background a funeral procession appears. The technique and models are very reminiscent of the drawings belonging to the series of Saint Lawrence that is also in the Prado’s collection. The subject depicted could be the opening of the tomb of Saint Leocadia with Saint Ildephonsus and Recceswinth.

The Florentine Bartolomé Carducho was one of the founders of the Madrid school of painting. His work deploys a masterly use of drawing, an ordered sense of composition and a warm palette toned by a carefully controlled light. Rather than the more traditional image of the consecration of the Eucharist, in this Last Supper Carducho focuses on the Apostles’ varied reactions to Christ’s announcement that one will betray him.

The Florentine Bartolomé Carducho arrived at the royal monastery of El Escorial in 1585, two years after El Greco had completed The Martyrdom of Saint Maurice for that building. Philip II was unhappy with the latter work and El Greco thus failed to establish connections with the Spanish court, in contrast to Carducho whose appointment to the key position of Painter to the King allowed him to become one of the most influential artists of his generation. With its solemn, monumental figures,