The Virgin and Child Appearing to Saint Francis of Assisi (1680s): Art, History and Details

The Virgin and Child Appearing to Saint Francis of Assisi (1680s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Luca Giordano (Italian, 1634–1705).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This work represents the High Baroque tradition of illustrating the visions and ecstasies of holy figures. St. Francis stands to the right of the apparition of the Virgin and Child, while motioning to a mother with three young infants, a symbolic representation of Charity. A popular Italian saint, St. Francis of Assisi (1181?- 1226) was famed for his many holy visions and was reported to have received the stigmata, bodily punctures that echoed the crucifixion wounds of Christ. Close observation of the painting reveals that Giordano originally painted St. Francis motioning his hands towards the Virgin and Child, perhaps reaching for the Infant Christ. In the final version, however, St. Francis gestures to the figure of Charity, as a witness to the saint's spiritual vision. The saint thus serves as the intermediary for humankind, appealing to the Virgin and Child for the sake of Charity. St. Francis, the founder of the Franciscan order of monastics, dedicated his life to assisting the poor and remains one of the most popular Catholic saints.

Object facts

• Title: The Virgin and Child Appearing to Saint Francis of Assisi
• Date: 1680s
• Creator attribution: Luca Giordano (Italian, 1634–1705)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 273 x 229 x 10 cm (107 1/2 x 90 3/16 x 3 15/16 in.); Unframed: 239.4 x 195.7 cm (94 1/4 x 77 1/16 in.)
• Collection: P - Italian 16th & 17th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1966.125

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• Ferrari, Oreste, and Giuseppe Scavizzi. Luca Giordano. Napoli, Italy: Edizioni scientifiche italiane, 1966.
• Lee, Sherman E. "Golden Anniversary Acquisitions." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LIII, no. 7 (September, 1966): 181–285.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.