St. Francis in Ecstasy (Bellini)

The painting portrays the Italian 12th-century saint Francis of Assisi 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 of 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.[2]

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 laid on stony, dangerous, dark and mossy cave with a shady entrance covered by twisted grapevines. Inside the cave, several possessions of the saint are represented such as Holy Book, desk, hermit’s skull, a thorny crown and a crucifix made of stems. Although the scene is rocky, it does not look like infertile.[3] In the center and the background of this painting, there 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.[3]

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 feel like light has been stuck and the world itself is being illuminated through the holiness of St. Francis. The painting depicts St. Francis having came out of his cave fully covered 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 stream, impaling 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. [3]

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.[8]

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.[9] 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.[10]

Whatever the specific moment portrayed may be, the representation is a fresh one and does not follow any of the established iconographic motifs.[11]

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.[12]

On the green banks, there are a few bindweeds that opens at the dawn of light and fades 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 lays on the right hand side of Saint Francis as leaves began to sprout from the remaining branch of the tree. The second fig tree lays on the cliff which surrounds itself with fruit. Each tiny flowers represents St. Francis as he embraced poverty, prayer and humility. The painting not only represent the “stigmatization”, but also the song that Canticle of the Sun composed by Saint Francis of Assissi. Canticle of the Sun is a religious song that appreciates god's creation of nature.[13] The overall message displayed shows Bellini's praises towards the kingdom of God's creation.[14]

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

Zuan Michiel commissioned Bellini to create St. Francis in the 1480s. Taddeo Contarini acquired Bellini's St Francis painting after Zuan Michiel's death.[17] In 1660, St Francis by Bellini appeared in Marco Boschini’s dialect poem, when Boschini saw St Francis inside Giulio Guistiniani’s palace.[17] At the end of the eighteenth century, the picture still remained in the Cormaro Palace, according to Abbate Lanzi. The Frick St Francis might have left Venice for the first time at some point between 1796 and 1852.[17] This painting was offered for sale at Christie’s on 19th Jun 1852 and claimed to originally made for “a convent in the Milanese."[17]

In 1915, The painting published in the Frick Collection in New York City,[18] displayed prominently in what was the living room of Henry Clay Frick, an American industrialist, financier, and art patron.[19] In 1915, Henry acquired the painting even though he had little interest in religious paintings. Frick valued this painting due to its includes of an extensive landscape. The painting is now in the Frick Collection and it is considered to be one of its finest assets.[19] The painting is in excellent condition.[19] The painting was included in the 1857 Manchester Art Treasures exhibition.[20]

• Essay on St Francis in the Desert by Giovanni Bellini - 1480, at Great Works of Western Art

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