Saint Francis of Assisi

Antoniazzo Romano painted this Saint Francis of Assisi around 1480 for a Roman church. As Rome's leading painter during the pontificates of Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII, Antoniazzo served Franciscan, Dominican, and other religious orders with devotional images. His gentle, somewhat conservative style preserved earlier traditions while absorbing limited Renaissance innovations. This work belongs to the Early Renaissance, the transformative period in European art when painters first applied mathematical perspective, naturalistic figure modeling, and archaeological interest in antiquity to the inherited traditions of medieval devotional painting.

Tempera on panel with Antoniazzo's characteristic gentle modeling and warm devotional tone. The saint in his Franciscan habit is rendered with the simplicity and directness appropriate to Franciscan spiritual ideals.