The Vision of Saint Francis

Lodovico Carracci · c. 1602

Medium

Oil on copper

Original size

37.2 × 28.6 cm (14 5/8 × 11 1/4 in.); Framed: 50.8 × 40.7 × 3.2 cm (20 × 16 × 1 1/4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Mannerism

The Vision of Saint Francis radiates the kind of intimate spiritual intensity that only small-format devotional painting can achieve — its copper support giving the colours a jewel-like luminosity that larger canvases simply cannot match. Lodovico Carracci was the anchor of the celebrated Carracci family workshop in Bologna, and while his cousins Annibale and Agostino ultimately left for Rome, Lodovico remained to shape an entire generation of Emilian painters. His style occupies the space between the reform realism the Carracci championed and a distinctly personal emotionalism — figures in his work seem caught in genuine spiritual experience rather than posed for effect. Painting on copper allowed him to build up glazes with extraordinary precision, producing a surface that appears to glow from within rather than merely reflect light. The Carracci founded their Accademia degli Incamminati in Bologna around 1582 specifically to counter the artificiality of late Mannerism, and works like this one demonstrate how effectively that mission translated into devotional painting — grounded, emotionally direct, and technically meticulous. Our hand-painted oil reproduction is rendered on canvas by a skilled studio artist working directly from the original, preserving the warmth of Carracci's palette, the soft drama of his light, and the quiet contemplative mood that has made this work a distinguished part of the Art Institute of Chicago's permanent collection.