Saint Francis of Assisi, ca. 1600 - 1604 - ARTWORK DETAILS
Federico Barocci (Italian, ca. 1535–1612)
Oil on Canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
THE MASTERPIECE
In this deeply contemplative portrayal of Saint Francis of Assisi, Federico Barocci presents one of Christianity's most beloved saints not amid the activity of his earthly ministry, but in a moment of profound encounter with God.
Saint Francis is shown within the rocky solitude of Mount La Verna, the sacred place where, in 1224, he received the stigmata — the wounds of Christ's Crucifixion upon his own body.
Barocci does not treat the event as spectacle. Instead, the painting draws us into Francis's interior world: a place of prayer, humility, surrender, suffering and extraordinary closeness to Christ.
His face is lifted toward the Crucifix with an expression that seems to contain several emotions at once — awe, tenderness, wonder, suffering and profound devotion. His hands bear the marks of the stigmata, represented by Barocci according to descriptions found in early Franciscan sources.
The surrounding grotto heightens the sense that we are witnessing something intensely private: a soul removed from the distractions of the world and completely absorbed in the mystery of Christ.
THE STIGMATA OF SAINT FRANCIS
The event represented in this masterpiece is among the most extraordinary episodes in the life of Saint Francis.
In September 1224, approximately two years before his death, Francis withdrew to Mount La Verna in Tuscany for an extended period of fasting and prayer.
According to Franciscan tradition, while praying he experienced a mystical vision associated with the Crucified Christ. Following this encounter, Francis bore wounds corresponding to those suffered by Christ during the Crucifixion — in his hands, feet and side.
These wounds became known as the stigmata.
For Francis, they were not merely signs of suffering. They represented the extraordinary culmination of a life spent attempting to conform himself completely to Christ — in poverty, humility, charity, obedience and love.
The mystery of the stigmata therefore contains a remarkable paradox: suffering joined with joy; pain joined with divine love; humility joined with an almost unimaginable spiritual privilege.
It is precisely this mingling of emotions that gives Barocci's painting such spiritual power.
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Saint Francis of Assisi (1181/82–1226) was born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone in Assisi, Italy.
The son of a prosperous merchant, the young Francis initially enjoyed the comforts and ambitions available to a wealthy medieval family. After experiences of war, imprisonment, illness and spiritual conversion, however, his life changed dramatically.
Francis gradually abandoned material privilege and embraced a life of radical simplicity, prayer and service to God.
His desire was beautifully simple, yet extraordinarily demanding:
to follow Christ as completely as possible.
From this calling grew the Franciscan movement. Francis and those who joined him preached repentance, cared for the poor and sick, lived simply, and sought to recognize God's presence throughout creation.
His profound humility, love of the poor, reverence for creation and intense devotion to the humanity and suffering of Christ have made him one of the most beloved saints in Christian history.
Saint Francis died in 1226 and was canonized by Pope Gregory IX in 1228.
His feast day is celebrated on October 4.
THE ARTIST — FEDERICO BAROCCI
Federico Barocci, born in Urbino around 1535, was one of the most important Italian painters of the generation between the High Renaissance and the emergence of the Baroque.
His paintings are distinguished by their graceful compositions, luminous color, softness of form and, particularly, their remarkable emotional sensitivity.
Barocci's combination of naturalism, heightened emotion and brilliant color helped anticipate important characteristics of Baroque painting. His delicate treatment of surfaces was influenced in part by the Renaissance master Correggio.
In Saint Francis, Barocci's artistic gifts are placed entirely at the service of the spiritual subject. Rather than simply showing us what Saint Francis looked like, he attempts to communicate something far more difficult:
what Francis may have felt.
The result is both portrait and meditation.
MASTERPIECE DETAILS
Title: Saint Francis
Artist: Federico Barocci
Artist's Life: Urbino, ca. 1535–1612
Date: ca. 1600–1604
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 35 3/8 × 30 7/8 in. (89.9 × 78.4 cm)
Museum: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Department: European Paintings
Object Number: 2003.281
Credit: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift and 2002 Benefit Fund, 2003
Image Status: Public Domain
WHY I CHOSE THIS MASTERPIECE
There is something about this portrayal of Saint Francis that moved me deeply.
Perhaps it is the expression on his face as he looks toward Christ — the extraordinary mixture of awe, joy, wonderment, humility and suffering captured in that single moment.
The significance of Saint Francis receiving the stigmata is almost difficult to comprehend. Here was a man who had spent his life longing to imitate Christ so completely that, near the end of his earthly life, he was permitted to bear upon his own body the wounds of the One he loved.
There is sorrow in that mystery, certainly — but there is also extraordinary joy.
That combination is what I find so beautiful in this masterpiece.
Barocci allows us to encounter Saint Francis not simply as a distant historical figure or even as one of the great saints of the Church, but as a human soul completely overwhelmed by his encounter with the divine.
I chose this work for MasterpieceLiving.Shop because I believe sacred masterpieces such as this deserve to be seen, remembered and lived with. Works of such beauty and spiritual depth should not remain quietly hidden in museum archives or confined to the pages of art-history books.
Through the designs I create from these masterpieces, I hope to bring some of their beauty — and the faith, history and meaning contained within them — back into our everyday lives.
Barbara Ann
Owner & Designer
MasterpieceLiving.Shop
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VIEW THE ORIGINAL MASTERPIECE
Saint Francis, Federico Barocci, ca. 1600–1604
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438688?utm