Saint Francis in ecstasy Caravaggio 1595

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Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, c. 1595
Oil on canvas. Wadsworth Atheneum, Connecticut, USA.

This painting is one of the earliest religious works by the Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It was likely completed around 1595, shortly after the artist entered the household of Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, who commissioned the piece to mark his elevation within the Church.

The scene represents the moment Saint Francis receives the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, traditionally believed to have occurred in 1224 while Francis was praying in the wilderness with Brother Leo. A six-winged seraph, answering the saint’s plea to share in Christ’s suffering and love, imprinted the marks of the Crucifixion upon him.

Caravaggio chooses an intimate and deeply human interpretation of this mystical event. The saint appears faint and overwhelmed, his body supported tenderly by an angel. The dark, undefined background and Caravaggio’s use of tenebrism (dramatic contrast of light and shadow) focus all attention on the emotional intensity of the moment. Francis’s expression is peaceful, almost serene, suggesting not pain, but a profound union with the divine.

(Oil on canvas, 1595)