Spanish school; 17th century.

Spanish school; XVII century.
"San Francisco de Paula".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It has a frame of the nineteenth century.
Measurements: 107 x 73 cm; 149 x 114 cm (frame).
It is a work of marked devotional character that represents Saint Francis of Paula (Calabria, Italy, 1416 - Tours, France, 1507), one of the most venerated figures of the late-medieval and modern spirituality. A hermit and founder of the Order of Minims, St. Francis embodied an ideal of life based on extreme poverty, penance and humility, values that connected deeply with the religious sensibility of the Baroque.
During the Baroque, St. Francis of Paola became a popular saint precisely because of the exemplary force of his life and the clarity of his message. In an era marked by crises, insecurity and a renewed religious fervor driven by the Counter-Reformation, his figure offered an accessible and approachable model of holiness, based not on power or heroic martyrdom, but on voluntary poverty and faith lived in everyday life. According to hagiographic tradition, the saint suffered a serious eye disease during his childhood, which is why his parents entrusted themselves to St. Francis of Assisi. After the miraculous healing, and as a gesture of gratitude, the young Francis undertook a pilgrimage to Assisi at the age of fourteen, an experience that would decisively mark his spiritual vocation. From then on he adopted an eremitical life, retiring for five years to the mountains, where he lived in conditions of absolute austerity: he fed only on water and wild herbs, slept on the bare ground and used a stone as a pillow. This model of radical renunciation of the world became the core of his spiritual message.