Saint Francis Adoring the Crucifix

In 1585 Annibale Carracci, then in his mid-twenties, painted one of his first works for a patron outside Bologna, a Pietà for the high altar of the Capuchin friars in Parma. The Capuchins were the strict reformed branch of the Franciscan order, and in that altarpiece Francis kneels beside the dead Christ. When it was restored in 1956, the date 1585 turned up on the stone under Christ's hand. This small canvas, 75 by 57 centimetres, belongs to the same year, and here the saint is alone, adoring the crucifix. A picture this size was made for prayer in a private room. It later belonged to the Pio family in Rome, and it has been on the Capitoline since the middle of the 18th century.