The Death of St Francis (The Ecstasy of St Francis)

The Death of Saint Francis (The Ecstasy of Saint Francis, c. 1598-1600), in the Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust collection, depicts either the death or an ecstatic vision of the Franciscan founder — two subjects that were sometimes conflated in Counter-Reformation art. Annibale presents the saint in a state of spiritual transport, his body collapsed in an attitude of surrender to divine experience. The painting demonstrates the Carracci reform's approach to mystical subjects: grounding supernatural experience in observed physical and emotional reality. Sheffield's collection includes Italian paintings acquired through nineteenth-century private collecting that enriched British provincial museums with works from across the European tradition.

The saint's recumbent figure is lit by a warm, golden light that could be either natural sunset or supernatural radiance. The brothers attending him are rendered in the subdued brown tones of their habits, forming a somber frame around the illuminated central figure.