St. Francis in Ecstasy

Saint Francis experiences divine ecstasy in this painting from around 1644 at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Francis"s mystical visions—including the stigmata and encounters with the divine—made him a perennial subject for Baroque painters. Rosa"s treatment emphasizes the saint"s isolation in nature, placing the ecstatic experience in a wild landscape rather than a garden or church setting. The Phillips Collection, America"s first museum of modern art, also holds important old master works.

The saint"s ecstatic pose—body thrown back, eyes raised heavenward—creates a dynamic diagonal within the landscape composition. Rosa renders the Franciscan habit in dark brown tones that merge with the surrounding wilderness, while the saint"s upturned face catches divine light. The palette contrasts the earthly darkness of the lower portion with the lighter, warmer tones of the sky from which grace descends. The brushwork is characteristically bold in the landscape and more refined in the figure.