Saint Francis
Ca. 1495. Oil on poplar panel.Room 056B
Francesco Francia undertook the pictorial interpretation of Saint Francis of Assisi on numerous occasions, both in complex compositions in which the saint was one of the figures depicted and in others in which he was the sole protagonist. An example of the first case is the panel with The Virgin, St Francis and St Anthony in the Gallerie Fiorentine, from the Franciscan oratory ‘della Stretta’ in Bologna (c. 1500, oil on panel, 135 x 140 cm, inv. 8398). The saint appears with an anatomical definition of the head and a folding of the habit very similar to this example.
As an example of the second case, reference should be made to the Saint Francis in the same Gallerie Fiorentine (c. 1490, oil on panel, 66 x 45 cm, Contini-Bonacossi Donation, inv. 30) as part of a series of solo interpretations of the figure of the saint. This was an artistic-devotional proposal that his sons, artists of lesser stature, would also continue to offer. However, the one in the Galleria Borghese (c. 1500, oil on canvas transferred from panel, 55 x 45 cm, inv. 57) is much closer to the one here in analysing the composition, appearance of the saint and details of the landscape. This leads to confirmation without any doubt of the attribution proposed here.
The work is executed on three vertically assembled poplar boards which have been reinforced horizontally by three strips of the same material on the back. As a whole, they are cut both at the top and bottom, with a considerable loss of about 6 cm on the latter, which on the obverse would have entailed the removal of part of the book and the left hand of the saint depicted. 13 and 17 mm have been added, respectively, to the left and right sides, having been painted on the obverse with a sense of continuity of space in a later period and of much lower quality.
García Cueto, David, 'Francesco Francia. San Francisco'. en: Memoria de actividades 2021 Museo Nacional del Prado, Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte, 2022, p.41-42
