St Francis in Ecstasy 1485

Giovanni Bellini painted Saint Francis in Ecstasy in Venice during the late 15th century. Bellini places Saint Francis in the Italian countryside, absorbing divine light. This moment references the saint’s legendary receipt of the wounds of Christ, known as stigmata. But in the early 15th century, the Franciscans were a reformist order. Bellini’s subject embodies a new, active, and public role for religious life. Francis is shown outside a cave, barefoot and vulnerable. He is neither within the traditional setting of a church nor performing a traditionally saintly act. Bellini’s naturalistic approach asks us to consider how people, even holy figures like St. Francis, are shaped by their physical environments. We know that the city of Venice was a very powerful mercantile republic at this time. Bellini's painting challenges the norms of Venetian society by venerating poverty and praising the natural world. As historians, we look at everything from the economics of Italian city-states to the biographies of leading religious figures to better understand the conditions of artistic production.