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Adam Elsheimer, The Stoning of Saint Stephen, c. 1603–04
A shaft of light falls from the upper left on to the kneeling deacon, and angels come down in it with palm and crown. Close beside him a half-naked man lifts a heavy stone above his head with both arms.
Elsheimer came from Frankfurt and worked in Rome from 1600 until his early death in 1610. He painted in small formats on copper; this plate is hardly larger than a sheet of writing paper and holds dozens of figures. Rubens, who knew him in Rome, mourned him in a letter.
Angels tumble down the beam of light, one of them with the martyr's palm.
Stephen wears the dalmatic of a deacon, embroidered in red and gold, and looks up into the light.
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