P
PublicArkScroll History, Not Hype
Back to Archive
The Ecstasy of Saint Francis
Interactive Gigazoom • Scroll or Double-Click
100%
The Art Institute of Chicago

The Ecstasy of Saint Francis

Oil on canvasGiovanni Baglione (Italian, 1566–1643)/1601

Description

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.

Provenance

Possibly Cardinal Bernardino Spada, Rome, to 1636 [see February 1636 inventory cited by Aurigemma, 1994]. Borghese Collection, Rome by 1650, probably until 1804 [Benedetti 1949, p. 4]. Cardinal Joseph Fesch, Rome [Benedetti, 1949, p. 4]; donated by him to the city of Lyon, France for a charity auction in 1836 [Benedetti 1949, p. 4]. M. Breval of Fontaine St. Martin, near Lyon [note in 1909 Louvre photo archive]. Henry Charles Ponsonby Moore, 10th Earl of Drogheda, London and Dublin, to 1947 [purchase document from Agnew, March 1959]; sold by Earl of Drogheda through Agnew’s, London, to Michele de Benedetti, Rome, in June 1947; consigned by Benedetti to Agnew’s, 1959 [purchase document from Agnew, March 1959]; sold by Agnew’s to Mrs. Suzette Morton Zurcher (died 1996) (later Davidson), Santa Barbara and Chicago, March 1959; bequeathed to the Art Institute with her husband Eugene Davidson (died 2002) having life interest, 2002.

Dimensions

155.3 × 116.8 cm (61 1/8 × 46 in.)

Movement / Period

17th Century

Accession No

160030

Official Citations

[The Art Institute of Chicago Official Record][Full Resolution Image]
Curatorial Affinity Stream

Continuing the Universe of Giovanni Baglione (Italian, 1566–1643)

17th Century • Italy • Harmonious Works & Contemporaries

The Ecstasy of Saint Francis by Giovanni Baglione (Italian, 1566–1643) (1601) | PublicArk | PublicArk