Page 27 - Vision & Ecstasy - Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione's St. Francis.

Although to many this is a Catholic painting which is far from today’s taste, the imagery retains such power
that it cannot fail to impress. Castiglione is here exhibiting a tour de force in the freedom of his handling of paint
in the figure of St Francis which is brushed with a skittering, hatched handling flecked with carmine and red in
primarily monochromatic tonality. The artist shows below the rock slab two books – both the Old and the New
Testament, the one leading inexorably to the other. Adjacent to the books is a skull or Vanitas referring to
Ecclesiastes 1.2 ‘Vanitas vanitatum omniaVanitas’ (Vanity of vanities, all is vanity). The realism of these still life
elements is one of the most intense beauty. The saint here epitomises humanity’s yearning to commune with
both God and Salvation. Francis, therefore, appears to almost devour the Cross in his ecstatic love.The three
dimensional rock, rendered in heavy impasto, might be said to represent the thorny and hard path to salvation
while the knotted cincture or winding waist cord leads the viewer into the picture plane of the painting almost
like an umbilical cord linking the spectator to Salvation and the Life Eternal. It could be deemed to represent
an escape route from Purgatory for the worshipping onlooker. Perhaps only Federico Barocci has approached
such intense levels of mysticism in his nocturnal St Francis receiving the Stigmata in Urbino.

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St Francis once said “Grant me the treasure of sublime poverty: permit the distinctive sign of our order to be that it does not
possess anything of its own beneath the sun,for the glory of your name,and that it have no other patrimony than begging.” His
final words were “I have done what was mine to do;may Christ teach you what you are to do.Do not seek to follow in the footsteps
of the men of old;seek what they sought.”These sentiments are the true message of Castiglione’s St Francis in Ecstasy.

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Ihereby record my thanks to both Helen Langdon and Jonathan Bober for submitting to the task of writing for
this, yet another, catalogue but one that I regard as imbued with great significance. Many thanks also toTimothy
Standring for being so generous in partaking of his specialised knowledge; to Canon E.A Carmean for advice on
spiritual matters; to Alfred Cohen, Karen Kyburz at The Witt Library, Agata Rutkowska and Lucy Whitaker at
The Royal Collection, Heidi Raatz atThe Minneapolis Institute of Art for their generosity in providing images;
to all at Fotomec and Tipostampa as always. Lastly I thank Emma Broadbent for assisting me with this project.

PATRICK MATTHIESEN

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