The Ecstasy of Saint Francis
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
155.3 × 116.8 cm (61 1/8 × 46 in.); Framed: 188.6 × 151.1 × 7.6 cm (74 1/4 × 59 1/2 × 3 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
160030
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Generally considered Giovanni Baglione’s most accomplished painting, this work is his first known “Caravaggesque” picture—that is, one that incorporates the innovative use of realistic figure types and dramatic lighting favored by the painter Caravaggio beginning in the late 1590s. Saint Francis swoons in ecstasy into the arms of an angel after meditating on the instruments used to torture Jesus, presented by another angel on the left. Baglione’s brief Caravaggesque phase ended after 1603, when,...