The Ecstasy of Saint Francis [recto]

Art Historical Context

This delicate drawing captures Sebastiano Ricci’s vision of *The Ecstasy of Saint Francis*, a theme that celebrates the saint’s mystical with the divine. Executed between 1706 and 1720, the sheet reveals Ricci’s fluid handling of pen and brown ink heightened with wash, a technique that allowed him to suggest both dramatic light and spiritual fervor within a compact format. The modest size—just over eleven inches tall—invites close viewing, drawing the eye into the saint’s rapt expression and swirling drapery. As a preparatory study on laid paper, the work exemplifies how 18th-century artists ...

About the Artist

Sebastiano Ricci · 1659–1734

Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734) was born in Belluno, in the Venetian Republic, and received his early training in Venice, where he was apprenticed at age twelve to the Milanese painter Federico Cervelli. Some accounts identify Sebastiano Mazzoni as his first master. A youthful scandal involving an unintended pregnancy and a charge of attempted poisoning led to imprisonment in 1678, from which he was ...