Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, c. 1595

Oil on canvas, 92.5 × 127.8 cm

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford

Room I · The Early Years (c. 1592–1597)

Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy, Caravaggio, c. 1595 — Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Probably Caravaggio's first painting of a religious subject. Rather than the saint receiving the stigmata in broad daylight, he paints a night scene: an angel holds Francis as he faints, while a pale light breaks through the dark.