Saint Francis in Ecstasy

Saint Francis in Ecstasy, circa 1650, in the Metropolitan Museum, depicts the defining mystical experience of St. Francis of Assisi — the moment of divine rapture in which the saint received the stigmata on Monte La Verna in 1224. Castiglione's treatment shows the Franciscan saint swooning backward in the arms of a supporting angel, his face turned upward in an expression of transported joy. The subject had been given canonical form by Caravaggio's early version and by Giovanni Bellini's earlier meditation, but Castiglione brings to it his characteristic warm Baroque light and loose, atmospheric brushwork. The work dates from his Mantuan period and reflects the continued importance of Counter-Reformation devotional imagery in Italian painting.

The composition relies on a strong diagonal formed by Francis's prone body, countered by the angel's upright form. Warm amber light bathes the saint's face and hands from an unseen divine source. The stigmata wounds on hands and feet are indicated by small spots of red that draw the devout viewer's eye.