Collection: St. Francis of Assisi

ARTIST: Museum Religious Art Classics

ARTWORK NARRATIVE:

Artist: Federico Barocci – c. 1600 – 1604

This artwork was conceived as a meditation on Saint Francis of Assisi (1181/82–1226), who is shown in a grotto on Mount La Verna, where he received the stigmata (depicted as protruding nails, in conformity with early Franciscan sources). A key figure in the history of Italian painting, Barocci was close to the Capuchin order, and this deeply felt work must have been intended for a friar or a supporter of the Franciscan order. Barocci was a slow, meticulous painter. His work, with its compositional refinement, its warm humanity and deep expressivity, laid the groundwork for Baroque art.

His feast day is October 4.