In a new light : Giovanni Bellini's "St. Francis in the Desert" / Susannah Rutherglen and Charlotte Hale ; foreword by Keith Christiansen ; contributions by Denise Allen, Michael F. Cusato, O.F.M., Anne-Marie Eze with Raymond Carlson, Joseph Godla ; with the assistance of Katie Steiner

Author: Rutherglen, Susannah
Additional Titles: Giovanni Bellini's "St. Francis in the Desert"
Published: New York : The Frick Collection in association with D Giles Limited, London, 2014.
Copyright Date: ©2015
Physical Description: 232 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 29 cm
Additional Creators: Hale, Charlotte, 1959-, Christiansen, Keith, Allen, Denise, Cusato, Michael F., Eze, Anne-Marie, Godla, Joseph, Carlson, Raymond (Art historian), and Frick Collection

Availability

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Contents

Foreword: encountering Bellini's St. Francis / Keith Christiansen -- "The footprint of our lord": Giovanni Bellini and the Franciscan tradition / Susannah Rutherglen -- The desert and the city: Marcantonio Michiel and the early history of St. Francis / Susannah Rutherglen -- From the grand canal to Fifth Avenue: the provenance of Bellini's St. Francis from 1525 to 1915 / Anne-Marie Eze with the assistance of Raymond Carlson -- St. Francis in the Desert: technique and meaning / Susannah Rutherglen and Charlotte Hale -- St. Francis in the Desert and the art of linear perspective / Joseph Godla and Denise Allen -- The formative stimulus for Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert: history and literature of the Franciscan movement in Late Medieval Italy / Michael F. Cusato, O.F.M.

Summary

"Giovanni Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert is a masterpiece of Venetian Renaissance art that has inspired generations of visitors to The Frick Collection. This monumental panel painting portrays Francis of Assisi, the medieval Christian saint who renounced earthly riches to embrace a humble existence of poverty, prayer, and obedience to the Gospels. Departing from canonical representations of the holy man's life and miracles, Bellini has imagined Francis alone in a mountainous wilderness, stepping forward from his simple shelter into a golden light that seems to transfigure him spiritually. For centuries, viewers have puzzled over the work's meaning--seeking explanations in a variety of pictorial and textual sources. Until recently, however, the artist's practical conception and realization of this extraordinary vision have remained largely unexplored. In a New Light presents the collective findings of an unprecedented technical examination of St. Francis in the Desert. Following a series of in-depth analyses--including infrared reflectography, X-radiography, microscopy, and paint sampling--an international group of specialists considered the artist's working process and its implications for the picture's meaning. Their findings provide a "glimpse over Bellini's shoulder" and open new avenues of research into Venetian Renaissance painting and its cultural and religious context. Also published here for the first time are recently discovered documents pertaining to the provenance of St. Francis in the Desert during the nineteenth century, as well as synthetic studies of the work's Franciscan milieu and early history." -- Publisher's description.

Subject(s)

ISBN

9781907804397
1907804390

Bibliography Note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 206-222) and index.

Source of Acquisition

Purchased with funds from the Roy Laurens Bovard Renaissance Fund; 2015.
Purchased with funds from the Roy Laurens Bovard Renaissance Fund; 2015

Endowment Note

Roy Laurens Bovard Renaissance Fund

View MARC record | catkey: 16417031