Description
Spanish or Italian school; 17th century. ‘Saint Francis comforted by angels’. Oil on slate. It has restorations. It has a frame of the XVIIIth century. Measurements: 24 x 30 cm; 34 x 40 cm (frame). The present work depicts a scene following the miraculous episode in the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, which occurred in 1224 during the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. At that time, the Saint, during a moment in which he retired to pray, received from a seraphim the stigmata, the same wounds suffered by Christ on the Cross. For this reason, the present work shows the saint being held by two angels to prevent his ecstatic body from collapsing. It is interesting to mention again the support for this work, as from the 16th century the use of stone as a base for painting began to become popular, an example of which was the exhibition held at the Museo del Prado in 2018, ‘In lapide depictum’, which brought together a group of nine works on monochrome stone, slate and marble by artists such as Piombo, Titian, Daniele da Volterra and Leandro Bassano.
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