Art Institute of Chicago

The Ecstasy of Saint Francis

Giovanni Baglione (Italian, 1566–1643)

Date

1601

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

Italy

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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, in an infamous trial, he accused Caravaggio of slander for having distributed a series of malicious poems about him.

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