Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata
Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267-1337) · c. 1295-1300
Kneeling on the bare rock of Mount La Verna, Francis of Assisi looks up at a six winged seraph bearing the crucified Christ, and thin golden rays shoot from the apparition into his hands, feet and side. The event took place in September 1224, two years before his death, and made him the first recorded person to bear the wounds of the Passion on his own body. Giotto sets the miracle in a compressed Tuscan landscape of pink crags, with a chapel and a startled companion friar to the left. Below, a predella of three narrow scenes tells more of the story: Pope Innocent III dreaming of a friar propping up the collapsing Lateran basilica, the papal approval of the Franciscan rule, and Francis preaching to a congregation of birds.
Everything here is built for legibility from a distance. Giotto models the brown habit with real bulk so that Francis reads as a solid body kneeling on solid ground, and he uses gesture rather than ornament to carry meaning. Notice the hands, opened and turned outward in shock and acceptance, and the way the golden rays physically link the two figures, turning an invisible grace into a diagram anyone could follow. The rocks are simplified into faceted blocks, a stage set rather than a study of nature, which keeps attention on the encounter. The panel carries the inscription Opus Iocti florentini, the work of Giotto the Florentine.
The altarpiece was painted for the Franciscan church of San Francesco in Pisa and was taken to France under Napoleon. It is one of very few panels bearing Giotto's signature, although scholars still debate how much of the surface is by his own hand and how much by his busy workshop.
Did You Know? The signature Opus Iocti florentini on the frame makes this one of only three surviving panel paintings that carry Giotto's name.
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