Spanish school; 16th Century.

Spanish school; 16th century.
"The Stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi".
Oil on panel with gilt details.
It presents faults and repainting on the pictorial surface.
It has a frame following ancient models.
Size: 44 x 30 cm; 37 x 53,5 cm (frame).
In this very intimate, sober and devotional scene, the artist portrays Saint Francis in prayer, in a totally austere setting where only a few elements stand out, which allow us to recognise the iconography of the Saint. Saint Francis is depicted half-length, slightly tilted, with his hands open in an attitude of appealing for clemency and showing the stigmata on his hands. His gaze is raised towards the sky, delimited by a beam of light, which surrounds the body of the Crucified Christ. The thick brushstroke defines a rounded figure of profound humanity, with great economy of colour, limited to the range of browns, which only serves to emphasise the message of humility and mystical simplicity that the saint advocated throughout his life.
Saint Francis (Assisi, Italy, 1182 - 1226) was the son of a wealthy Italian merchant. Baptised John, he soon became known as "Francesco" (the little Frenchman), because his mother came from that country. His youth was joyful and carefree until the age of twenty-five, when he changed completely and began to dedicate himself to the service of God, practising the Gospel ideal: purity, detachment and joy in peace. Francesco renounced the great inheritance he had received from his parents and decided to live poorly, giving the example of an authentic Christian. He soon had several young disciples, called by the saint "order of the Friars Minor". In 1210, Pope Innocent III granted them the foundation of the new order and encouraged them in their evangelical work. During a retreat on the mountain, Christ appeared to him, and legend has it that rays came out of his wounds, causing Francis various stigmata. He was a legendary figure during his lifetime, considered a living relic. Likewise, his exquisite poetry and his familiarity with nature add the most human accent known in a saint, as can be seen in his "Canticle to the Sun". His iconography is abundant, second only to that of Saint Anthony of Padua. He always wears the Franciscan sackcloth, with a three-knotted cord tied around his waist. The three knots represent the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. He also usually shows the stigmata on his hands and feet, and sometimes these are highlighted by rays of light coming out of the wounds, although this is not the case here. At first the saint was depicted in art with a beard, until the painter Giotto, who devoted much of his work to the saint, painted him without it. In the Counter-Reformation period he was again depicted with a beard, less smiling and more mournful.