Franz von Assisi

Franz von Assisi — Saint Francis of Assisi — depicted by Bartolomeo Vivarini and now in the Brooklyn Museum, represents one of the most frequently painted saints in fifteenth-century Italian art, his prominence reflecting both Franciscan patronage networks and the widespread popular veneration of his figure as the ideal of humble Christian poverty. The Vivarini workshop served numerous Franciscan institutions in Venice and the Veneto, and Saint Francis panels were among the most commercially productive of their altarpiece and devotional image production. This example shows Bartolomeo's characteristic handling of the saint's habit and the stigmata wounds on his hands and feet.

The handling of Saint Francis's brown Franciscan habit — a technically unremarkable colour that resists the decorative potential of more vibrant liturgical vestments — is managed through careful attention to the fall of light on coarse fabric. The stigmata wounds are indicated with controlled precision as devotional focal points within the otherwise plain robe.