St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis of Assisi, dated c.1650 and in the Museo Nacional de San Carlos in Mexico City, is another example of Baroque Italian painting reaching the Americas through colonial-era collecting and later museum acquisition. Francis — founder of the Franciscan order and the first recorded recipient of the stigmata — was among the most frequently depicted saints in Counter-Reformation painting, his combination of mystical experience and humble piety making him an ideal figure for devotional imagery. Strozzi, who had been a Capuchin (a reformed Franciscan branch) friar before leaving the order, had a personal connection to Francis's spirituality. His treatments of the saint tend toward the mystical and ecstatic rather than the narrative — Francis in prayer or rapture rather than preaching or performing miracles.

Canvas with warm Baroque chiaroscuro — the saint's face and hands lit against a dark background in a manner that emphasises spiritual intensity. The stigmata wounds, if visible on hands and feet, are painted with devotional rather than clinical attention. Strozzi's characteristic warm browns and ochres dominate the palette.