Stigmatta clasp

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Worn as a clasp to close a priestly garment, this morse was created within a Franciscan Order convent. Despite their vows of poverty, Franciscans could possess lavish liturgical vestments. On this enameled morse, Saint Francis is shown receiving the stigmata (wounds) of Jesus Christ on his hands, feet, and side. Dressed in the brown robe with knotted cord that distinguishes his order, Francis crouches, with his weight on one knee, in a rocky landscape, across the footbridge from a small chapel.

To convey the intensity of this spiritual branding, the goldsmith depicted the gilded rays that descend from the limbs of the figure searing the flesh of Saint Francis, whose body, like that of the heavenly apparition, is surrounded by an aureole of light. The goldsmith also created a nocturnal landscape with a deep blue sky, pierced by stars and a crescent moon, which sets off the gold-and-crimson glow of the saint's mountain retreat. Made in Tuscany, Italy. 1300-1350.