article for October 4, 2019

Article of the day for October 4, 2019 is Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata (van Eyck).
Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata is the subject of two unsigned paintings, nearly identical except for their size, that were both completed around 1430. Art historians usually attribute them to the Flemish artist Jan van Eyck. The larger panel measures 29.3 cm × 33.4 cm (11.5 in × 13.1 in) and is in the Sabauda Gallery in Turin, Italy; the smaller panel is 12.7 cm × 14.6 cm (5.0 in × 5.7 in) and is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The paintings show Saint Francis of Assisi kneeling in front of detailed rock formations as he receives the stigmata of the crucified Christ on the palms of his hands and soles of his feet. A panoramic landscape seems to relegate the figures in the foreground to secondary importance. The Philadelphia wood panel comes from the same tree as that of two paintings definitively attributed to van Eyck, and the Italian panel has underdrawings of a quality that probably could only have come from him. Today the consensus is that both were painted by the same hand.