# St Francis in Meditation [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [CARAVAGGIO]() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 130 x 90 cm ## Commentary St Francis in Meditation c. 1606 Oil on canvas, 130 x 90 cm Museo Civico "Ala Ponzone", Cremona This seems to be an unconventional composition, and depicts the saint front-on, near a tree trunk, bending over a book. Even so, the artist decides not to depict the joyous devotion to nature expressed in St Francis's hymn to the sun. Once again, the artist has reduced the founder of the Franciscan Order to a simple, ritual model, latterly in the tradition of St Jerome. The sole surviving example of the painting is in bad condition, but it is probably an authentic work by Caravaggio. <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 - [Adoration of the Shepherds]() - [Amor Victorious \(detail\)]() - [Amor Victorious]() - [Bacchus \(detail\)]() - [Bacchus \(detail\)]() - [Bacchus]() - [Basket of Fruit]() - [Beheading of Saint John the Baptist \(detail\)]() - [Beheading of Saint John the Baptist \(detail\)]() - [Beheading of Saint John the Baptist \(detail\)]() - [Beheading of Saint John the Baptist]() - [Boy Bitten by a Lizard \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()