Apparition of Saint Francis in Arles

Fra Angelico's Apparition of Saint Francis in Arles at the Gemaldegalerie Berlin, painted around 1429, depicts the miraculous appearance of Francis at a Franciscan chapter meeting in Arles during his lifetime. The miracle demonstrated the saint's gift of bilocation, appearing simultaneously in two different locations. Fra Angelico — born Guido di Pietro, known in religion as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole — was a Dominican friar whose painting practice was inseparable from his spiritual vocation. Working primarily for his own order and for Florentine civic and private patrons, he created some of the most luminous and spiritually powerful images in the history of European art.

The chapter house setting is rendered in careful perspective with the assembled friars reacting to the apparition, painted in Fra Angelico's characteristic luminous colors with precise architectural framing.