Stigmata of St Francis

Bartolomeo della Gatta's Stigmata of St Francis, painted in 1487 and now in the Pinacoteca Comunale of Castiglion Fiorentino, depicts the miraculous moment in 1224 on Monte La Verna when Francis of Assisi received the stigmata — the wounds of Christ's Passion — imprinted on his hands, feet, and side in a vision of the seraph-like crucified Christ. This subject was of central importance in Franciscan devotional culture and was among the most frequently depicted scenes in Italian altarpiece painting commissioned by or for Franciscan communities. Della Gatta, a Camaldolese monk and accomplished painter who worked across Tuscany and Umbria, treats this Franciscan subject with the Umbrian lyrical piety that characterized his best devotional work. The Castiglion Fiorentino panel is among the most significant works from the altarpiece he produced for local ecclesiastical patrons in the small Tuscan town.

Della Gatta organizes the scene with Francis kneeling in prayer on the rocky mountain landscape, his hands raised to receive the wounds as the seraphic figure of the crucified Christ appears above him in a mandorla of light. The delicate landscape and the warm Umbrian palette create the atmosphere of rapt mystical vision appropriate to the subject.