"St. Francis in the Desert"

St Francis in Ecstasy (or St Francis in the Desert as it is sometimes known) is a large painting from Giovanni Bellini which was completed in circa 1480 using the trademark oils that this artist preferred to use over the normal choice of egg tempera within Renaissance Italy.
Francis of Assisi was an Italian saint from the 12th century who lived much of his life in relatively impoverished conditions. That said, the content in the piece should not be considered an accurate representation of his life, but more a symbolic depiction using the artist's creative license. Bellini puts several animals within this painting which point towards the saint's known love of nature but he also did so in many of his other paintings, too.

250 years after the death of St.Francis, Bellini depicted him in a state of ecstatic transport, his arms open to receive an indefinable radiance that all but overwhelms him.  Francis  is one of the most popular of Catholic saints, Bellini is similarly beloved in the field of Italian old masters. And for similar reasons: As stone walls emit heat after sundown, the Venetian’s pictures seem to generate light and beneficence from within. Bellini's St. Francis stands on the ledge of a rocky outcrop, against a backdrop that is pure Tuscan landscape, in no way resembling a “desert” (as advertised in the title). It appears to be early spring. A laurel tree leans in from the left. Vines grow over a frame at the entrance to Francis’s retreat. Some trees remain bare while others are in flower. A handsome town and hilltop fortress can be seen in the distance beneath a bright blue, cloud-flecked sky.  The rocky outcrop resembles the Tuscan mountain of La Verna, where, near the end of his life, Francis went to fast for 40 days. Notice the wavy, corkscrewing contours of the turquoise ledge and the dark, differently shaped leaves and slender saplings silhouetted against sunlit terrain. The painting’s variety and specificity and the subtlety of Bellini’s paint application are all minor miracles in themselves.

It was at La Verna, legend tells, that Francis received the stigmata, the wounds of the Passion — a sign of his profound identification with Jesus. It is said that a donkey carried Francis up the mountainside at La Verna — hence Bellini’s donkey in the middle ground, with its sympathetic eyes and gangly, girlish legs. Nearby is a gray heron — a solitary water bird evoking hermit life. Farther back, we find a flock of sheep. A shepherd — the only other human in the picture — turns to look at us. There is magic in this detail alone since it establishes a triangle of curiosity and concern. Below Francis’s extended right hand you can make out a rabbit peering out of its burrow. Its innocent expression — straight out of a children’s book — provides a playful counterpoint to the saint’s dazed, awestruck face. The creature’s shy, peek-a-boo presence provides tender ballast to the hallucinatory vividness of Francis, who is undergoing something that can only be registered with awe.