Gregorio Lazzarini
St. Paul Taken to Heaven
1722-23
Church of San Stae, Venice
In II Corinthians Paul writes of having been "caught up to the third heaven."1 This is most likely the subject of Lazzarini's canvas. If the subject were the martyrdom at the end of Paul's life, we would expect the traditional iconography of that subject: an executioner with a sword, an angel arriving with a victor's garland, etc.
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Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.