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Follow Francis’s outstretched arms up to the circle of light around Christ, then look down at the altar, candle and curtains of the chapel.
Barocci etched this print in 1581 after his own altarpiece, completed five years earlier for San Francesco in Urbino, where the painting still hangs. Saint Francis kneels in a trance with open hands, while Christ appears in a blaze of light between the Virgin and an aged saint. The print even shows the chapel around the altar, and the Art Institute notes that its energetic etched line makes it far more than a copy.
Etching and engraving on ivory laid paper · 53.8 × 32.4 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · High Renaissance and Mannerism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The Vision of Saint Francis
- Artist
- Federico Barocci Italian, c. 1535-1612
- Date
- 1581
- Medium
- Etching and engraving on ivory laid paper
- Dimensions
- 53.8 × 32.4 cm (21 3/16 × 12 13/16 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.