ii Saint Francis of Assist Receiving the Stigmata 1767 Oil on canvas 3 63.5 x 28.9 cm (25 x ii /s in.) The Samuel Courtauld Trust at the Courtauld Institute Gallery, Courtauld Institute of Art, London; inv. 455 PROVENANCE Seilern (1901-1978), London, 1937; by 19-20, fig. 24; Morassi I955a, 37, Probably retained by Giambattista bequest to the Home House Trustees pi. 91; Seilern 1959, 163, pi. CXXXVI; Tiepolo in his studio; upon his death, for the Courtauld Institute of Art, Crivellato 1960, 79; Morassi 1962, probably by inheritance to his son, University of London, 1978. 20, 22; Gaya Nufio 1964, 94, fig. ill; Giandomenico Tiepolo (1727-1804); Piovene and Pallucchini 1968, 134-35, probably sold to Francisco Bayeu EXHIBITIONS fig. 299c; Rizzi 1971, 1:143, 152, fig. 89; (1734-1795), Madrid, 1770-95; upon Venice 1951, no. 99; London 1954-55, Seilern I97ia, 57—58; Knox 1980, 1:328; his death, held in trust by the estate; no. 507; London 1960, no. 419; London Braham 1981, 75, 78, fig. 113; Whistler sold to Leonardo Chopinot, Madrid, 1989, no. 13. I985b, 323; Levey 1986, 272-74, 276, 1795-1800; by inheritance to his wife, 279, fig. 232; Bradford and Braham 1800; Anatole-Auguste Hulot BIBLIOGRAPHY 1989, 25; Helston 1989, 60-61, fig. 13; (1811-1891), Paris; upon his death, Brown 1993, 41, 319, fig. 12; Gemin probably held in trust by the estate; Mayer 1935, 300 (illus.); Coletti 1936, and Pedrocco 1993, 492, fig. 52ia; sold, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 370-71 (illus.); Fiocco 1942, 8, fig. 3; Christiansen 1996, 196-97, 248-49, 253, May 10, 1892, lot 141; private collection, Morassi 1943, 38, fig. 127; Sanchez fig. 4ia; Whistler 1998, 71, 74-75, Brazil, by 1935; private collection, Canton 1949, 633; Lorenzetti 1951, 77, 79, fig. 77; Pedrocco 2002, 308-9, Milan, by 1936; sold to Count Antoine 131-32, fig. 99; Vigni 1951, fig. 125; fig. 281.3.a. Saltillo 1952, 76; Sanchez Canton 1953, IT IS NO SURPRISE THAT AN ALTARPIECE attends him. Francis instead looks upon a depicting the founding saint of the makeshift crucifix, no more than a slender stick, Franciscan order would play a prominent part leaning away from him and out of the picture in the Alcantarine, or Discalced Franciscan, frame. As his companion Leo kneels in prayer at program at Aranjuez. For this work Tiepolo the foot of the cross, the saint weakly holds out drew upon the most common representation of his hands while an eight-winged cherub emits Francis of Assisi, with myriad precedents in thin bands of light (now rather abraded) that the history of art: the moment when he received reach down to Francis to create the imprints of the stigmata in 1224 on La Verna in Tuscany. Christ's Passion on his body. Tiepolo himself had painted the subject In the final painting (fig. 11.2) Tiepolo early in his career, but this work—known clarified the composition considerably, abandon- only from a print (fig. n.i) —presented a highly ing the figure of Saint Leo and the makeshift energized figure, thrust backward into the cross to concentrate on the central relationship viewer's space by the explosive event. In sharp of saint, angel, and cherub. In closer alliance contrast, Tiepolo adopted a profoundly intro- with the textual sources, the sacred event now spective approach for his touching interpretation takes place just before dawn rather than at day- of the subject for Aranjuez. break; the deep blues of the background stand In the sketch, Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) apart from the other, brightly lit altarpieces for reclines on a straw mat draped over a boulder. Aranjuez. As a result the cherub gains in bright- His eyes, barely open, register little awareness ness, and this light focuses more intensely of the half-nude angel with gleaming white on Francis and the angel, clarifying their forms, wings and a flowing saffron robe who gracefully emphasizing the lithe musculature of the angel, 72