Saint Francis of Assisi

1680-1725

Name(s) currently unknown

Denver, CO, USA, Denver Art Museum (current location)

This exquisite work from the late 17th or early 18th century shows Saint Francis of Assisi (ca. 1182-1226), the founder of the Franciscan order. His habit is bound with a simple knotted cord. The crucifix he would have held in his outstretched hand is now missing. At 47 inches (120 cm), he is somewhat smaller than life size.

While religious statues—objects of devotion rather than artworks—were often repainted and updated, this one seems to have its original surface, making it a prized work today. It is made out of a single piece of wood, with arms pegged into the base, the join covered with gesso. The face is made of layer upon layer of lacquer like paint, a technique called encarnación, for its resemblance to flesh. The tiny scratch lines (called sgraffito) reveal the gold leaf beneath the paint, adding to the lifelike illusion. The statue has a hollow back, revealing that it was designed to stand against the back of a retable, or retablo. Viewers would identify Saint Francis from his habit and from the skull that he typically holds, a reminder of human mortality. His knotted belt was part of the Franciscan habit, and its three knots represent the Franciscan vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Most statues from Spanish America, like this one, are unsigned and name of the carver of this one is not known. Based on its style, the statue is like to have been made in Puebla, which was the second largest city of New Spain, originally founded for Spanish residents. By the mid-17th century, Puebla had numerous thriving sculpture workshops.

Franciscans, vowed to poverty, wore rustic habits of coarse wool. On this statue the weave of the cloth is captured in part by the over paint of dark dots and dashes, but also by estofado. To create estofado, the part of the work representing clothes was covered by gold leaf. This gold was then completely covered in paint, and then artisans scratched through the paint to reveal the gold beneath.

St. Francis may have originally been found in the church of a Franciscan convent, or as a statue in a larger retable (retablo). Out of fashion by the early 19th century, many retablos were dismantled, their pieces sold individually.

Statues like these reminded members of religious communities of their founding values, like Saint Francis’s poverty and chastity. St. Francis showed that certain attitudes and actions, like piety, brought one closer to the values of the otherworld. Set in a retable (retablo), this statue would have likely been only one of many images meant to inspire devotional practice.

Reproduced courtesy of the Denver Art Museum. Gift of Mr. Robert Stroessner

Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.

Maquívar, María del Consuelo. 1995. El imaginero novohispano y su obra: las esculturas de Tepotzotlán. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.