Saint Francis
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)
c. 1615
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Classification
- Painting
- 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.)
- Culture
- Flanders
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- George F. Harding Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The Franciscans were among the reformed religious orders whose preaching and teaching activities helped revive the Roman Catholic Church in the Southern Netherlands following years of religious and political turmoil in the 1500s. Peter Paul Rubens here depicted the order’s founder, Saint Francis of Assisi, recognizable by the wound that imitates the pierced hands of the crucified Jesus. In this portrait-like image, which was likely made on commission, Rubens conveyed the saint’s spirituality through his meditative gaze and posture.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
