St. Francis of Assisi Stigmatization

Completed in 1300 by Giotto di Bondone, the Stigmatization of St. Francis covers a variety of points we talked about in class. First, it is not hard to tell that this painting is a religious painting, as were many of Giotto's paintings. This painting in particular is directed to St. Francis of Assisi. We mentioned in class that Giotto was a supporter of the Franciscans. It was originally painted for the Church of San Francesco, but today can be found in the Musée du Louvre.

Stigmatization of St. Francis shows a great deal of intensity, detail, and feeling. The detail of the painting allows us to see the intensity on the face of St. Francis. When I look at his face, I see a stern but sort of confused look. To me it seems like he is confused as to was is happening, but is letting it go because of his faith and trust in God. In the painting, a six-winged angel is stigmatizing St. Francis. As we talked about in class stigmata is when a person gets the same crucifixion wounds as Jesus did. St. Francis was the first saint to receive stigmata. Also in the painting, Giotto uses his technique in order to create three-dimensional figures on a flat surface. This is something we talked a lot about in class, that Giotto was the first artist to have emotion and three-dimensional.

On the bottom of this piece there are three of Giotto's paintings in smaller proportion. I am not exactly sure as to why those are there. I would guess that the three pictures in the bottom show us glimpses of St. Francis's life before the stigmatization. They show his importance to the church, his group of Franciscans going to the Pope, and also his love for nature in the bottom right.

http://www.artble.com/artists/giotto_di_bondone/paintings/stigmatization_of_st_francis_(louvre)