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1 of 253523 objects
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-64)
St Francis in prayer c. 1655
Dark brown, red-brown and white oil paint on paper | 35.2 x 23.7 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 904007
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A drawing of St Francis kneeling to the left on a tussock of grass, with a skull on the ground before him. He looks heavenward with both hands outstretched at his sides. 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.
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
Dark brown, red-brown and white oil paint on paper
Measurements
35.2 x 23.7 cm (sheet of paper)
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
RL 4007Alternative title(s)
St Francis in Prayer
