St Francis in prayer
One of the finest works by Juan Antonio de Frías Escalante (1633-1669), a painter of the high decorative Baroque in Madrid and a disciple of Francisco Rizzi. It is signed and dated 1664. It was undoubtedly a painting for Capuchin friars, as Saint Francis wears the habit of that Franciscan order. From a half-length perspective, with his hands crossed on his chest, the saint directs his ecstatic gaze toward the image of Christ Crucified, which rests on the stone that serves as his table in a shelter on Mount Alverno, where he retreated to pray and where he received the stigmata of Christ Crucified.
The book with the quill or pen refers to the rule of the Franciscan order, which he created, and the skull to the penance and asceticism practiced by the saint of Assisi. A work of great plastic quality, with impasto and rich nuances in the recreation of the patches of the habit, Escalante was inspired for the figure of the saint by Saint Francis at the foot of the Cross in the large altarpiece painted by van Dyck for the Capuchin church in Dendermonde (Belgium) around 1629-1630, and which Escalante copied from the engraving made by Pieter de Bailliu in 1643.
This image is a public domain image, which means either that copyright has expired in the image or the copyright holder has waived their copyright. Franciscan Gallery charges for the access to high resolution copy of the image. Manually restoration was necessary in order to improve quality, without covering the original image.
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