Art Institute of Chicago
Saint Francis Kneeling in Meditation
El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos; Greek, active in Spain, 1541–1614)
- Date
- c. 1595–c. 1600
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Culture
- Greece
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
Saint Francis appears here surrounded by symbols associated with his sainthood. The book, for example, speaks to his devotional studies, and the skull is a reminder of the inevitability of death. The painting prompts the viewer to meditate upon the saint in the same way that he prays before the sculpture of Christ. At least a dozen other versions of this composition by El Greco exist, evidence of Francis’s tremendous popularity in Toledo, Spain, where he made his career.
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