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Compare the heavy dark lines of Francis’s habit with the faint lines of the tree, the second friar and the church behind him.
Barocci tried out new methods as an etcher. For this print of about 1581 he covered parts of the copper plate with a wax resist in stages while it sat in acid, so the lines left longest in the acid came out darkest and thickest. The saint stands out strongly while the trees, the second friar and the distant church fade into pale light, as if dissolving at his moment of revelation.
Etching on cream laid paper · Plate: 23 × 14.7 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · High Renaissance and Mannerism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata
- Artist
- Federico Barocci Italian, 1526/28-1612
- Date
- c. 1581
- Medium
- Etching on cream laid paper
- Dimensions
- Plate: 23 × 14.7 cm (9 1/16 × 5 13/16 in.); Sheet: 23.3 × 15 cm (9 3/16 × 5 15/16 in.)
- Credit line
- Joseph Brooks Fair Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.