St. Francis

Lorenzo di Niccolò's Saint Francis (c. 1393) in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin is a late Trecento Florentine panel depicting the founder of the Franciscan order. Lorenzo di Niccolò was a conservative Florentine painter active in the final decades of the fourteenth century, maintaining the Giottesque tradition even as the International Gothic style gained ground. His depictions of Franciscan saints served the numerous mendicant churches and convents that dotted the Tuscan landscape.

Tempera and gold on panel. The saint is rendered with clear, firm outlines and solid volumetric modeling characteristic of the late Giottesque manner, set against a burnished gold ground with carefully tooled halo decoration.