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Look at the arms crossed over his chest, with the wound showing on the back of one hand, and at the small crucifix resting against his shoulder.
The Franciscans, the order Saint Francis founded, were among the reformed orders whose preaching and teaching helped rebuild the Catholic Church in the Southern Netherlands after the religious and political upheavals of the 1500s. Rubens painted the saint almost like a portrait, probably on commission, and let the lowered eyes and still pose express his devotion. The wound on his hand echoes the wounds of the crucified Christ.
Oil on panel · 99 × 78.8 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Baroque
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Saint Francis
- Artist
- Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)
- Date
- c. 1615
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 99 × 78.8 cm (43 1/4 × 31 in.); Framed: 148 × 118.8 × 7.6 cm (58 1/4 × 46 3/4 × 3 in.)
- Credit line
- George F. Harding Collection
- 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.