The Stigmatisation of Saint Francis

Sassetta's Stigmatisation of Saint Francis, painted around 1440 for the National Gallery, depicts the saint receiving the wounds of Christ on Mount La Verna, the supreme miracle of the Franciscan tradition. This culminating moment of Francis's spiritual life was the most important subject in Franciscan iconography. Sassetta — Stefano di Giovanni — was the dominant painter in Siena during the first half of the fifteenth century, maintaining the city's Gothic tradition of refined spirituality and jewel-like color even as Florentine artists were developing the naturalistic revolution of the Early Renaissance.

The dramatic scene of the seraphic vision is set against a rocky mountain landscape, with the supernatural radiance of the cruciform seraph rendered in gold against the deep blue sky in a composition of austere spiritual power.