Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata
The original, as its museum records it
Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.
The file this print is made from
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About this painting
Nobody in the frame understands what is happening. Francis does not look at the seraph; his face turns out of the picture in pain and confusion. Brother Leo is dazzled, a witness who only half understood.
The seraph is the crucified Christ with six wings. Bonaventure wrote that Francis could not fathom the vision, and understood it only afterwards, when the Lord revealed it. The skull and prayer book explain the life he had chosen, not the wound.
The altarpiece stood at a side altar of the Ghent Recollects. Their convent went in 1797; a courthouse holds the ground.
Sources: Seraph bearing image of crucified Christ, meaning of stigmata as gift via seraphic love · The British Museum, P,1891-0414-789, after Rubens (MSK Gent S-9). · Francis's face, full of pain and confusion; skull and book as symbols of contemplative ascetic life · Bonaventure, 'Legenda Maior' (The Major Legend of Saint Francis), XIII.3. · Inventaris Onroerend Erfgoed, thema 2955, 'Recollettenlei', Ghent.
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 7,028 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.