Saint Francis of Paula

Piazzetta's Saint Francis of Paula depicts the fifteenth-century Calabrian hermit who founded the Minims, an order of even stricter poverty than the Franciscans, and who performed numerous miracles including crossing the Strait of Messina on his cloak. Francis of Paula was particularly venerated in Naples and Spain, and devotional images of him were in demand throughout Catholic Europe. Piazzetta's treatment emphasises the saint's ecstatic spiritual intensity.

The saint is shown in devotional half-length, his upturned face expressing the ecstatic quality characteristic of Piazzetta's religious figures. His dramatic chiaroscuro gives the rough-textured habit and the saint's weathered face strong material presence. The upward gaze and clasped hands create the compact devotional focus that made Piazzetta's single-figure religious works so effective.