Saint Francis of Assisi

In 1582 Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, archbishop of Bologna, published a treatise on sacred images. A religious picture, he argued, should be clear, truthful and able to move whoever prays before it. The museum thinks this small canvas, painted in Bologna around 1585, was probably made under his influence. Francis of Assisi is pushed up against us, eyes wet and turned upward, one hand raised to his head. A wooden crucifix leans on his shoulder, a rosary runs through his fingers, and a skull at the bottom edge recalls death. The 18th-century inventories named only the Carracci family, and Annibale's name was settled on it in the 20th century. It may be the small Saint Francis listed in 1607, when officials of Pope Paul V, Scipione Borghese's uncle, seized the pictures of the painter known as the Cavalier d'Arpino.