# St Francis in Ecstasy [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [BELLINI, Giovanni]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Oil on panel, 120 x 137 cm ## Commentary Giovanni Bellini responded positively to Flemish realism and the new luminous capacities of the oil medium. In this panel St Francis stands in the midst of a landscape which is replete with the complex symbolic allusions of Flemish art - plants, animals, and household objects alluding to Franciscan ideals of poverty and humility. Resembling a stigmatisation, this scene may be, rather, a meditation on Francis identification with creation. It is dawn, the rocks a cool grey-green, except where the first rays of the sun begin to warmth the earth. Francis stretches out his arms and looks skyward, where, in traditional Franciscan stigmatisations, one would expect to find a seraph. Natural beauty and light are sufficient to describe the divine. <P> <TABLE ALIGN=LEFT CELLPADDING=5 BORDER=1 WIDTH=320 BGCOLOR="\#99CCCC"> <TR VALIGN=MIDDLE><TD><IMG SRC="/support/gif/listen.gif" BORDER=0 VALIGN=MIDDLE> Suggested listening \(streaming mp3, 33 minutes\):<BR><A HREF="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/music1/18\_cent/haydn\_m\_mass.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return true"><B>Michael Haydn: St Francis Mass</B></A> </TD></TR></TABLE> ## Related artworks - [Agony in the Garden \(detail\)]() - [Agony in the Garden]() - [Angel Announcing \(detail\)]() - [Angel of the Annunciation and Virgin Annunciate]() - [Angel of the Annunciation and Virgin Annunciate]() - [Baptism of Christ]() - [Barbarigo Altarpiece \(detail\)]() - [Barbarigo Altarpiece \(detail\)]() - [Barbarigo Altarpiece \(detail\)]() - [Barbarigo Altarpiece]() - [Blessing Christ]() - [Bust of a Man]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()