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#013: By Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Transcript

Saint Francis of Assisi was one of the most influential Christian figures of the thirteenth century and the founder of a religious order still in existence today. In the year 1224, after withdrawing to La Verna, a hermitage in the Apennine mountains in central Italy, it is alleged that Francis received the stigmata—the wounds inflicted on Christ at the time of the Crucifixion. A great many Italian works from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance depict Francis, a beloved saint and the patron saint of Italy.

Giovanni Bellini signed this large panel on a small paper cartouche in the bottom left corner. The date, patron, and original location of this painting, however, remain unknown. The most persuasive hypothesis is that this work was painted in the late 1470s for the Venetian patrician Zuan Michiel, who may have intended it for the remote church of San Francesco del Deserto, on an island in the Venetian lagoon. By 1525, however, the painting was already hanging in the palace of Taddeo Contarini in Venice.

Francis is shown accepting Christ’s wounds, which are faintly visible on the outstretched palms of his hands. The divine presence is manifest through nature in this painting, and the stigmata are received by Francis through the mystical light descending from the top left corner of the composition.

Bellini depicts a valley in the Venetian countryside, with a small hilltop town in the background and Francis standing by his rustic dwelling. The composition is populated by animals of all types: a heron, a donkey, a rabbit, and a kingfisher. Together with a shepherd and his flock, they appear oblivious to Francis’s spiritual vision. Francis famously lived in communion with the natural world, which he celebrated in his poems and prayers, most famously in his Canticle of Creatures, which includes a compelling commentary on this painting: “Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and you give light through him / Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind, and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather through which You give sustenance to Your creatures.”

St. Francis in the Desert

 (Italian, ca. 1424/35–1516)
Dateca. 1475–80
MediumOil on panel
DimensionsPanel: 49 1/16 x 55 7/8 in. (124.6 x 142 cm) Image: 48 7/8 × 55 5/16 in. (124.1 × 140.5 cm)
Credit LineHenry Clay Frick Bequest
Accession number1915.1.03
Commentary
The painting was commissioned by the Venetian nobleman Giovanni Michiel, probably as а devotional piece for his collection. Bу 1525, it had entered the collection of the prominent aristocrat Taddeo Contarini. The panel most likely depicts one of the key scenes from the iconography of St. Francis of Assisi (ca. 1181–1226), the moment when he received the wounds of the Crucifixion (stigmata) inflicted оn Christ during the Passion. This is said to have occurred in the summer of 1224, while the saint was at La Verna, а site in the Apennine Mountains of Italy. Bellini shows St. Francis in contemplation, standing in а large and beautiful landscape. The palms of his hands display the wounds, while the landscape and animals around him highlight his close relationship with the natural world.
Collection History

Painted on the commission of Giovanni Michiel, Venice. Taddeo Contarini, Venice (1525). Palazzo Corner, Venice (?). Purchased in Italy about 1845 by W. Buchanan. Sir John Murray and others sale, June 19, 1852, Christie’s, Lot 48, sold for £735 to J. Dingwall, Tittenhurst, Sunninghill, Berkshire. Thomas Holloway, apparently acquired with the estate of Tittenhurst. Bequeathed by him to his sister-in-law, Miss Mary Ann Driver (Lady Martin-Holloway). Bought in 1912 from the trustees of Miss Driver by Colnaghi and Obach. Knoedler. Frick, 1915.

Source: Paintings in The Frick Collection: French, Italian and Spanish. Volume II. New York: The Frick Collection, 1968.

Not On View
Exhibitions
oil painting of Doge Giovanni Mocenigo wearing a gold ducal hat and an ermine cape
Gentile Bellini
1478−85
Black and white etching of Saint Francis as a bearded old man, praying on his knees in a densel…
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
1657
Tempera painting of an Augustinian friar against a gold background
Piero della Francesca
1454−69
Tempera painting of St. John the Evangelist wearing a crimson mantle and blue-green robe
Piero della Francesca
1454−69
Tempera painting of nun in a black habit holding a scroll
Piero della Francesca
1454–69
Pastel drawing of boy wearing blue coat
Francis Cotes
1757
Half-length portrait of a young woman in a pink dress embroidered with golden floral patterns. …
Giovanni Battista Moroni
ca. 1575
oil painting of a man wearing a black doublet and cloak standing in front of a green curtain
Agnolo Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo)
ca. 1550–55
Oil painting of boats on river
Aelbert Cuyp
17th century
Oil painting of landscape with house and trees
Meindert Hobbema
1665
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