St. Francis in Ecstasy (Bellini)

The painting portrays Francis of Assisi, the Italian saint of the early 13th century, in an Italian landscape, stepping out in the sun from his cave, his figure anchoring the creamy celadon and golden-green landscape. The oil painting by Bellini has a length of approximately four feet with a width of around four and a half feet, depicting a natural, but dramatic scene. This painting includes one of the largest and most extensive Renaissance landscapes.[3]

The painting contains a strong effect of mystical light through the use of golden rays coming from the uppermost left corner of the painting, showering over Saint Francis. The tones of brown and gold are used to illustrate the body, and a rocky niche is depicted in the shady portion. His brighter body contrasts with the darker environment of the painting. In the foreground, the focus is on a stony, dangerous, dark, and mossy cave with a shady entrance covered by twisted grapevines. Inside the cave, several possessions of the saint are represented, including a Holy Book, desk, hermit's skull, a thorny crown, and a crucifix made of stems. Although the scene is rocky, it does not look infertile.[4] In the center and the background of this painting is a walled hill with growing fields, a bridge over a running waterway, a coastal bird similar to a gray heron, a donkey, as well as a shepherd looking at his flock grazing. The landscape depicts a transformation into spring through the inclusion of growing grass.[4]

In the painting, the sky is dynamic, sparkling, and bright blue. From the uppermost left edge, the light is falling, making its way inside the scenery. There is an illuminated feel arising from the whole painting, and a sense of rays originating from stones and green fields, making it seem as if, through the holiness of St. Francis, the world is being illuminated. The painting depicts St. Francis having come out of his cave in a brown traditional robe, standing barefooted, looking upwards at paradise with widely opened arms and heaving chest. The rocks around him in the painting are converting into a stream, implying that his life has just transformed. In the painting, a mystical light is showered over St. Francis; he seems to be absorbing this light and spreading it throughout the entire painting.[4]

Bellini became sophisticated in his painting skill in the fifteenth century, the culmination of which is the Saint Francis In Ecstasy. The moment being depicted in the painting is Saint Francis's stigmatization on the mountain of La Verna. Bellini envisioned the stigmatization as a moment of human transformation into the divine.[7] The sun's rays shine on St. Francis, symbolizing him as a Seraph-Crucifix in front of the sun, which indicates the suffering image of the Seraphim.[3]

Francis lived under poor conditions during his later life and ministry and participated in isolated spiritual retreats at monasteries, as the painting shows; however, this painting is likely a symbolic representation of the saint. The animals in the picture may represent the saint's love for nature and animals.[8] The Ecstasy of St. Francis is depicting Francis in a religious ecstasy, perhaps receiving the stigmata, as Millard Meiss suggested though, when Francis is receiving the stigmata, usually an angel, a seraph or a crucifix emitting rays is depicted as well. Alternatively, he may be praying or perhaps singing his Canticle of the Sun, as Richard Turner has argued.[9]

Whatever the specific moment portrayed may be, the representation is a fresh one and does not follow any of the established iconographic motifs.[8]

Detail-Skull-Saint Francis in Ecstasy-Bellini

In the left middle-ground is a donkey which can be interpreted as a symbol of humility and patience. In the lower right corner on a rustic reading table is a skull, representing mortality, welcomed in the last stanza of the saint's Canticle. The cave may relate Francis to Saint Jerome, who also lived in a cave or cell. The stream in the left middle-ground symbolizes Moses and the great spring, while the barren tree in the center of the painting represents the Burning Bush. The saint has left his wooden pattens behind and stands barefoot like Moses.[10]

On the green banks are a few bindweeds that open at the dawn and fade away at day's end. The small garden contains various types of medicinal plants, such as orris and mullein or Jacob's staff, and juniper. One of two fig trees is on the right-hand side of Saint Francis as leaves begin to sprout from a branch of the tree. The second fig tree is on the cliff surrounded by fruit. Each tiny flower represents St. Francis as he embraced poverty, prayer and humility. The painting represents not only the "stigmatization", but also the song, Canticle of the Sun, that St. Francis composed. Canticle of the Sun is a religious song that appreciates God's creation of nature.[9] The overall message displayed conveys Bellini's praises of the kingdom of God's creation.[5]

• Details
• 
  Head of St Francis
• 
  Donkey
• 
  Stigmata, Right Hand
• 
  Hare

Zuan Michiel commissioned Bellini to create St. Francis in the 1480s. Taddeo Contarini acquired the painting after Zuan Michiel's death.[11] In 1660, Bellini's St. Francis was mentioned in Marco Boschini’s dialect poem, after Boschini saw the painting in Giulio Guistiniani’s palace.[11] At the end of the eighteenth century, the picture still remained in the Cormaro Palace, according to Abbate Lanzi. The painting might have left Venice for the first time at some point between 1796 and 1852.[11] It was offered for sale at Christie’s on 19 June 1852 and claimed to have originally been made for "a convent in the Milanese."[11]

In 1915, the painting entered the Frick Collection in New York City,[12] displayed prominently in what was the living room of Henry Clay Frick, an American industrialist, financier, and art patron.[6] Frick had acquired the painting even though he had little interest in religious paintings, but he valued this painting for its extensive landscape. The painting remains in the Frick Collection and is considered one of its finest assets.[6] The painting is in excellent condition.[6] The painting was included in the 1857 Manchester Art Treasures exhibition.[13]

• Rutherglen, Susannah and Hale, Charlotte, et al. In a New Light: Giovanni Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert. The Frick Collection, New York, 2015

• De Vecchi, Pierluigi; Elda Cerchiari (1999). I tempi dell'arte. Vol. 2. Milan: Bompiani. ISBN 88-451-7212-0.