SERPOTTA, Giacomo
(b. 1652, Palermo, d. 1732, Palermo)

Interior view

1687-96
Photo
Oratorio di San Lorenzo, Palermo

The Oratory was built around 1570 by the Compagnia di San Francesco on the remains of an ancient church dedicated to San Lorenzo. It was soon entrusted to the friars of the nearby convent of San Francesco who had the task of burying the poor in the Kalsa district. Only later it was embellished by the stuccoes of Giacomo Serpotta. On the altar was preserved the masterpiece of Caravaggio, the Nativity, work of 1609, which was stolen in 1969 and never found again.