Cigoli – Saint Francis in Prayer (93 × 77 cm). The painting depicts Saint Francis of Assisi in a moment of prayerful ecstasy. The artist concentrates on the psychological expressiveness of the face and the saint’s intent gaze fixed on the Crucifix. A subdued palette and soft chiaroscuro create an atmosphere of deep contemplation. The traditional attributes – the Crucifix, a skull, and an open book – underscore themes of asceticism, meditation on the transience of life, and mystical closeness to Christ. The composition is calm and focused, with careful attention to the texture of the monk’s habit, characteristic of Italian painting of the late Renaissance and early Baroque.

The author of the painting is Lodovico Cardi, called Cigoli, one of the foremost Florentine masters of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. He studied under Alessandro Allori but freed himself fairly early from the Mannerist manner, developing a more realistic and emotionally charged style that anticipated the Baroque. His paintings Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata and The Martyrdom of Saint Stephen, which earned him the nickname “the Florentine Correggio”, are in Florence in the Uffizi and the Palazzo Pitti respectively. He was a friend of Galileo Galilei and incorporated scientific observation into his works (for example, in the dome of the Pauline Chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore he depicted the Moon with “spots”, as Galileo saw it through the telescope).

Size: 93 x 77 cm.