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1 of 253523 objects
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-64)
St Francis in prayer c. 1655
Red-brown and blue-grey oil paint on paper | 34.5 x 21.2 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 903980
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A drawing of St Francis kneeling to the right, looking heavenward with both hands raised; with an indication of a mountainous landscape in the distance The Franciscan Order was one of the most prominent monastic orders in seventeenth-century Italy (Castiglione’s brother Paolo was a friar in the Order), and depictions of St Francis receiving the stigmata and other Franciscan saints in their devotions were common throughout the Catholic world. Castiglione’s series of studies of Franciscan saints (RCIN 903961, 903978, 903980, 904006, 904007) approach the status of a painting more closely than any other of his works on paper. RCIN 904005 is a copy after this drawing.
Provenance
Probably Carlo II and Fernandino-Carlo Gonzaga, 9th and 10th Dukes of Mantua; Zaccaria Sagredo; from whose heirs purchased by Joseph Smith, British Consul in Venice, 1752; from whom purchased by George III, 1762
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Medium and techniques
Red-brown and blue-grey oil paint on paper
Measurements
34.5 x 21.2 cm (sheet of paper)
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
RL 3980Alternative title(s)
St Francis in Prayer
