St Francis beneath a Tree, Praying, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1657
etching, h 181mm × w 246mm More details
Here is yet another striking Catholic subject in Rembrandt’s etched work, this time the hermit St Francis. For this depiction, Rembrandt did not select the traditional moment when the saint receives the ‘stigmata’, the wounds of Christ. Instead he chose the moment of prayer just before. The building in the landscape is Italianate in character, appropriate for a saint from Assisi.
