De heilige Franciscus ontvangt de stigmata 1593

Camillo Procaccini etched this image of ‘The Holy Francis receiving the Stigmata’ sometime in the late 16th or early 17th century. The image depicts St Francis of Assisi kneeling in a landscape, receiving the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, from a seraph in the sky. This subject would have been popular during the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic Church sought to reaffirm its authority through images emphasizing devotion, miracles, and the importance of saints. The image shows the cultural context of its time, with its religious subject matter and idealized landscape. The formal style also echoes the work of Italian artists, reflecting the influence of the Italian Renaissance on European art. To fully understand this etching, we might examine theological texts about St. Francis, histories of the Franciscan order, or records of artistic patronage in Italy. The meaning of art, after all, is deeply entwined with its social and institutional context.