• Skip to main content

  • Visit
    • Library
    • Programs
    • Accessibility
    • Museum Map
    • Mobile Guide
  • Art
    • Collections
    • On View
    • Browse All
    • Artists
    • My Collections
    • Sign Up
    • Log In
  • Exhibitions
    • Current
    • Upcoming
    • Past
    • Virtual Exhibitions
  • Library
    • Archives
    • Photoarchive
    • Digital Initiatives
    • Digital Art History
      • Lectures
      • Projects
      • Symposia
      • Workshops
  • Support
    • Membership
      • Join or Renew
      • Levels and Benefits
      • Fellows
      • Young Fellows
      • Director's Circle
      • Matching Gifts
      • Magazine
      • FAQ
    • Donate
    • Annual Fund
    • Acquisitions Fund
    • Planned Giving
    • Program Support
    • Corporate Support
    • Benefit Events
      • Young Fellows Ball
      • Spring Garden Party for Fellows
      • Autumn Dinner
    • Corporate and Private Entertaining
    • Annual Reports
  • About
    • Buildings
      • Building Project News
      • The Museum
      • The Library
    • History
      • Henry Clay Frick
      • Helen Clay Frick
      • The House
      • The Collection
    • Conservation
    • Staff
    • Board of Trustees
    • Careers
    • Contact
  • Tickets
  • Shop
  • Donate
  • Join

EXPLORE

  • Videos
  • Blogs
  • Virtual Tours
  • Connect
  • Mobile Guide
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • L
  • ?

Room 13

Saint Francis of Assisi was one of the most influential Christian figures of the thirteenth century and the founder of a religious order still in existence today. In the year 1224, after withdrawing to La Verna, a hermitage in the Apennine mountains in central Italy, it is alleged that Francis received the stigmata—the wounds inflicted on Christ at the time of the Crucifixion. A great many Italian works from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance depict Francis, a beloved saint and the patron saint of Italy.

Giovanni Bellini signed this large panel on a small paper cartouche in the bottom left corner. The date, patron, and original location of this painting, however, remain unknown. The most persuasive hypothesis is that this work was painted in the late 1470s for the Venetian patrician Zuan Michiel, who may have intended it for the remote church of San Francesco del Deserto, on an island in the Venetian lagoon. By 1525, however, the painting was already hanging in the palace of Taddeo Contarini in Venice.

Francis is shown accepting Christ’s wounds, which are faintly visible on the outstretched palms of his hands. The divine presence is manifest through nature in this painting, and the stigmata are received by Francis through the mystical light descending from the top left corner of the composition.

Bellini depicts a valley in the Venetian countryside, with a small hilltop town in the background and Francis standing by his rustic dwelling. The composition is populated by animals of all types: a heron, a donkey, a rabbit, and a kingfisher. Together with a shepherd and his flock, they appear oblivious to Francis’s spiritual vision. Francis famously lived in communion with the natural world, which he celebrated in his poems and prayers, most famously in his Canticle of Creatures, which includes a compelling commentary on this painting: “Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and you give light through him / Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind, and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather through which You give sustenance to Your creatures.”
 

L 75TH STREET MADISON AVENUE Entrance Ticketing Membership Shop Elevators Stairs Stairs Exit Coat Check

2 75TH STREET MADISON AVENUE 1 Barbet Angel 2 Holbein and Early Netherlandish 3 Dutch 4 Rembrandt 5 Van Dyck 6 Vermeer Elevators Stairs Restroom Restroom

3 75TH STREET MADISON AVENUE 7 Italian Sculpture 8 Early Italian 9 Indian Carpets 10 Porcelain 11 Italian 12 Venetian 13 Bellini 14 Bronzes 15 Spanish 16 Enamels and Clocks Elevators Stairs

4 75TH STREET MADISON AVENUE 17 French Sculpture 18 French 18th-Century 19 French Decorative Arts 20 British Landscape 21 British Portraiture 22 Whistler 23 French 19th-Century 24 Fragonard 25 Fragonard 26 Impressionism Elevators Stairs Reading Room By Appointment Only


LG 75TH STREET MADISON AVENUE Café Restroom Restroom Elevators Stairs Stairs

Reserve Your Ticket

Frick Madison is open to the public.
Advance tickets are strongly recommended.
Reservations are encouraged for members.

Members General Admission

Support The Frick Collection

Your generosity sustains our world-class public programs, research, and conservation efforts.

DONATE

The Frick at Your Fingertips

Museum and library news straight to your inbox.
Sign up today!

 
Frick Madison
Visit our temporary home
FRICK MADISON
945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street
New York, NY 10021

Closed for renovation
THE FRICK COLLECTION
1 East 70th Street
New York, NY 10021
  • VISIT
  • TICKETS
  • CALENDAR
  • EXPLORE
  • BLOGS
  • EXHIBITIONS
  • RESEARCH
  • ABOUT
  • PRESS
  • DONATE
  • CAREERS
  • DEAI
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • TERMS OF USE
  • IMAGE PERMISSIONS
  • SITE MAP
  • FEEDBACK

Contact us
212-288-0700
info@frick.org

Follow us
Instagramgo to our Instagram FacebookFacebook TwitterTwitter YoutubeYoutube Google Art ProjectGoogle Art Project

The Frick Collection
Copyright © 1998-2023 The Frick Collection. All Rights Reserved.
Facebook Youtube Instagram Twitter Google Arts and Culture menu search2 x