St Francis receiving the stigmata

Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata by Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, at the York Art Gallery, depicts the miraculous moment when Francis received the wounds of Christ on Mount La Verna. Cima's treatment brings the luminous landscape tradition of the Veneto to this pivotal Franciscan subject. Cima da Conegliano, active in Venice and his native Conegliano from the 1480s until around 1517, was the most accomplished Venetian follower of Giovanni Bellini in the generation before Giorgione and Titian transformed the tradition. His cool precise light, his characteristic Veneto landscape backgrounds, and his composed figure types gave his altarpieces and devotional panels a quality of contemplative clarity that served the devotional needs of the churches and private patrons throughout northeastern Italy who commissioned him. This work demonstrates the consistent quality that made him one of the most trusted religious painters in the Venetian world.

The mountainous landscape dominates the composition, with La Verna's rocky peak providing a dramatic natural setting for the miraculous event. Cima's clear, crystalline light bathes both landscape and figure with the luminous precision characteristic of the Venetian terraferma school.