São Francisco recebe os Estigmas

Frei Carlos's Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata depicts the pivotal moment in the Franciscan founder's life when, in a vision on Mount La Verna in 1224, he received the wounds of Christ's Passion on his own body. The stigmatization was among the most frequently depicted scenes in all of Christian art, particularly in regions with strong Franciscan presence. Frei Carlos's monastery of Nossa Senhora de Espinheiro was under Hieronymite rule, but connections with Franciscan spirituality were strong in Portugal. His treatment combines the traditional seraphic vision with a landscape setting that conveys the solitary wilderness of La Verna.

The painting demonstrates the technical conventions and artistic vocabulary of the period, with attention to composition, color, and the rendering of form appropriate to the subject.