Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy by Caravaggio was created in 1595. The painting is in Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. The size of the work is 94 x 129,5 cm and is made as an oil on canvas.
Caravaggio revolutionized the painting of his era through a theatrical use of light, dramatic narrative, and the naturalistic depiction of everyday people and objects. These hallmarks can already be seen here, in his first known religious composition. Saint Francis is just emerging from an ecstatic state cradled by an angel, while shepherds sit in the shadowy background bathed in a mystical light. Identifying himself with Christ’s suffering, Saint Francis has just received the stigmata the actual wounds of the Crucifixion visible only on his side in Caravaggio’s interpretation.
About the Artist: Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was born in Milan. During the final four years of his life he moved between Naples, Malta, and Sicily until his death. His paintings have been characterized by art critics as combining a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, which had a formative influence on Baroque painting. Caravaggio employed close physical observation with a dramatic use of chiaroscuro that came to be known as tenebrism… Read more
