# St. Francis Beneath a Tree Praying

- By: Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669)
- Date: 1657
- Medium: Etching and drypoint on ivory laid paper
- Classification: Print
- Dimensions: Image/plate: 18.2 × 24.2 cm (7 3/16 × 9 9/16 in.); Sheet: 18.3 × 24.4 cm (7 1/4 × 9 5/8 in.)
- Culture: Holland
- Credit line: Clarence Buckingham Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/82281)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/3c78f707-3524-1ec6-39ec-213f2cf0189d/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Rembrandt saturated the dark, inky forest of his Saint Francis beneath a Tree Praying with velvety burr along drypoint lines and deep tone wiped selectively throughout the plate. Instead of the Dutch Reformed Church, this image reflects the vision of the Roman Catholic Church in its emphasis on the lives of the saints and therefore may have been a private commission. The unusually elderly Saint Francis gazes toward a large crucifix, which might be real or imagined, within the forest glade and speaks directly to it. With his head angled and mouth open, Francis is hardly passive in prayer but rather an active advocate of Christianity.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0