The Vision of the Blessed Gabriele

Gabriele Ferretti died in 1456, a friar from a wealthy Ancona family who had given up his inheritance, like Saint Francis, and led a small Franciscan house near the city. By the time Crivelli painted this, probably around 1489, his relatives and fellow friars wanted him made a saint, and the picture was part of their case. It hung over his tomb and showed the evidence, one of the visions he was known for. Praying at night in a wood near the friary, he saw the Virgin appear and place her son in his arms. Here she floats in an almond-shaped glory ringed with red cherubs, while he kneels barefoot in a patched habit, his sandals set aside on the ground. Accounts from the 18th century describe the painting surrounded by hundreds of silver votive offerings.