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Saint Francis in the Desert
Giovanni Bellini · Renaissance & Mannerism
- Artist
- Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430–1516)
- Date
- c. 1475–1480
- Dimensions
- 124.4 x 141.9 cm
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Location
- The Frick Collection, New York, United States
Saint Francis in the Desert shows the saint of Assisi stepping out of his rock-cut hermitage, arms spread and face lifted towards a radiant light in the upper left, in a moment of spiritual ecstasy.
A closer look
Francis stands barefoot on a rocky ledge, his sandals left behind, as if on holy ground. The light that floods the scene may represent the moment he received the stigmata, Christ's wounds, though no wounds are clearly shown. Around him, Bellini painted a marvellously detailed world: a donkey and a heron, a rabbit peeping from the rocks, a grapevine, a skull on his desk, and in the distance a walled town, shepherds and blue hills under a luminous sky. The harmony between the saint and nature reflects Francis's love of all creation.
History of the painting
In 1525 Marcantonio Michiel recorded the painting in the Venetian house of Taddeo Contarini, noting that Bellini had made it for Zuan Michiel. After centuries in Italian and then English collections, it was bought in 1915 by the industrialist Henry Clay Frick for his New York mansion, which opened to the public as the Frick Collection in 1935.
