Saint Francis in Prayer

about 1630

Medium

Brush and brown ink and brown wash with red chalk wash, wetted red chalk, yellow chalk, and white opaque watercolor over graphite, on laid paper

Dimensions

29.2 × 20.6 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-211533

Dressed in his coarse brown habit, a cross and rosary tucked into the knotted cord at his waist, Saint Francis stands near a craggy cliff. He lifts his hands in prayer as a heavenly light beams down. In the left background, a monk-undoubtedly Brother Leo, Francis's constant companion-is absorbed in reading; a small house sits in the wooded landscape in the background. Francis is depicted at three-quarter length and pressed against the picture plane, heightening the immediacy of his ecstatic experience. The vigorous technique-employing strong brown wash, thick hatching with pen, and red wash (in the face, hands and belt)-enhance the expressive power of the image. This bold sheet is one of several drawings seemingly made in preparation for a painting (whereabouts unknown), although it is highly finished and signed (at upper right), which suggests that Pynas also considered it a work of art in its own right.