The Restitution of the Terrestrial Iconography of St. Francis in the Post-Trent Era: Annibale Carracci’s St. Francis in Penitence

St. Francis of Assisi occupied a prominent place in the minds of Italian churchmen of the late sixteenth and the early seventeenth centuries. The admiration for St. Francis during that period can be compared only to that of the times when he lived, died, and was sanctified, in the thirteenth century.1 The works of art made in the later period in which St. Francis constitutes the main figure bear witness to this admiration. The large number of times and the variety of scenes in which he is featured, are a clear indication of his unique role as one of the great religious models in the era of the Catholic Reformation.