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Cigoli, Lodovico
The Vision of St. Francis La vision de saint François
around 1599 v.1599

Kneeling before a rock bearing a skull and a devotional volume, St. Francis clasps his hands and looks up in wonder at an apparition of Christ on the Cross. This painting depicts a lesser-known episode late in the life of the saint. The 14th-century text known as the Fioretti di San Francesco (Little Flowers of St. Francis) tells how St. Francis had withdrawn to a hut on Mount Verna in August 1224, leaving the friars of the order at the hermitage and oratory Count Orlando of Chiusi had built for them nearby. One evening in September, Brother Leo, who attended to him, found him in the moonlit woods praying to a ball of fire that had tumbled down from the sky. It was an apparition of the Lord. Here, the apparition is more explicitly defined as Christ on the Cross, cast in silhouette by the surrounding glow. Francis, in his long rough-woven robe, looks up in great earnestness, his face gaunt, his eyes wide and his lips parted to speak. Trees rise behind him, and a vista to the right opens up to distant mountains and the monastery buildings. Francis’s hand clearly shows the stigmata he received just after the apparition.

Cigoli, Lodovico
Castelvecchio di Cigoli a San Miniato, Italy 1559-Rome, Italy 1613 Castelvecchio di Cigoli a San Miniato, Italy 1559-Rome, Italy 1613
The Vision of St. Francis La vision de saint François
around 1599 v.1599
Oil on canvas Huile sur toile
height / width: 154.90 x 119.40 cm; 60.98 x 47.01 in.
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Alfred Bader, 1976 Don de Dr et Mme Alfred Bader, 1976
19-078

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