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Home>Exhibitions>Past>2018>Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

February 25 – July 8, 2018
West Building, Ground Floor - Gallery 22

Nicolò Boldrini after Titian, Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, c. 1530, woodcut, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

The Descrizione del Sacro Monte della Vernia (1612) depicts the monastery and dramatic rocky terrain of La Verna, the site where Saint Francis received the stigmata. The gifted baroque draftsman Jacopo Ligozzi was hired to illustrate the volume and he cleverly designed overslips pasted on 5 of the 22 engraved illustrations in a before-and­-after fashion to demonstrate the changes to the topography since Saint Francis’s time. Drawing on the Gallery’s holdings of Franciscan imagery, spanning the 15th through the 18th centuries, this exhibition places the Descrizione del Sacro Monte della Vernia within its most significant artistic and art historical context by examining traditional representations of the experiences of Saint Francis on the mountain of La Verna and innovations on traditional Franciscan subject matter characteristic of the Counter Reformation.

The exhibition is curated by Ginger Hammer, assistant curator, department of old master prints, National Gallery of Art.

Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

Cosmè Tura, Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, 1470s, miniature on vellum, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection, 1946.21.14
Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

German 15th Century, Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, 1500/1510, woodcut, hand-colored in green, yellow, indian red, and blue, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.606
Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

Lucas van Leyden, Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata, c. 1514, engraving, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.5690
Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

Nicolò Boldrini, Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata (after Titian), c. 1530, woodcut on laid paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 2005.14.1
Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

Annibale Carracci, Saint Francis of Assisi, 1585, engraving, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Fund, 1977.78.1
Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

Pietro Faccini, Saint Francis with the Christ Child, 1590s, etching, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1972.65.20
Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

Jacopo Ligozzi and Domenico Falcini, The Chapel of the Cardinal [plate G], in Fra Lino Moroni, Descrizione del Sacro Monte della Vernia (Florence, 1612), engraving with an engraved overslip of a rock revealing stairs when lifted, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Acquisition funded by a grant from The B.H. Breslauer Foundation, 2013, 2013.67.9.8
Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

Lucas Emil Vorsterman, Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata (after Sir Peter Paul Rubens), 1620, engraving, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Fund, 1978.29.6
Shown from the waist up, a man with pale, peachy skin and wearing a monk’s robe rests his elbows on a rock with his hands together in prayer in this vertical painting. He is lit from our left, and the background and edges of the composition are mostly in deep shadow. The man’s body and head lean to our left, and he looks at us with dark eyes under gathered brows. He has a long, straight nose, high cheekbones, and his pink lips are parted. He has a dark moustache, and his hair is cut into a ring around his close-cropped crown. He wears a brown hooded robe, and a string of rosary beads hangs from his joined hands. A slender crucifix leaning against a stone in front of him is obscured at the top by what might be a swath of white fabric. The top part of a skull, its surface a golden brown, sits on our side of the rocks. A few plants are tucked in around the skull and boulders. The background is nearly black except for a diffuse pale green halo framing the young man’s head.
Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

Bernardo Strozzi, Saint Francis in Prayer, c. 1620/1630, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Joseph F. McCrindle, 2002.78.1
Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

Guido Reni, Head of Saint Francis, before c. 1632, black, red, and white chalk on blue laid paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1972.5.1
Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

Rembrandt van Rijn, Saint Francis beneath a Tree Praying, 1657, drypoint and etching, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.7156
Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

Sebastiano Ricci, The Ecstacy of Saint Francis, 1706/1720, pen and brown ink and brown wash on laid paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mrs. Rudolf J. Heinemann, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.172.1.a
Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna

Johan Baptist Enzensberger, The Stigmatization of Saint Francis, 1760s, pen and brown ink with gray wash over graphite on laid paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2007.111.75

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Passes: Admission is always free and passes are not required

Attendance: 41,532

Online Feature: Sacred Mountain of La Verna

Film Essay: Heavenly Earth: Visions of Saint Francis in Italian Cinema (PDF 326KB)

Film: Francesco d’Assisi
April 1 at noon
East Building Auditorium

Film: The Flowers of Saint Francis
April 1 at 2:30
East Building Auditorium

Film: Uccellacci e uccellini (Hawks and Sparrows)
April 1 at 4:30
East Building Auditorium

The Description of the Sacred Mountain of La Verna: Jacopo Ligozzi’s Innovative Guide to a Franciscan Sanctuary in Context
Video, Released: August 28, 2018, (55:04 minutes)
The Description of the Sacred Mountain of La Verna: Jacopo Ligozzi’s Innovative Guide to a Franciscan Sanctuary in Context
Audio, Released: July 10, 2018, (55:04 minutes)
Press Event: Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna
Audio, Released: February 20, 2018, (33:22 minutes)