1562 - 1625
Saint Francis Supported by Angels
oil on canvas, cm. 110.5 x 90.5
The painting, in excellent condition, features one of the most successful subjects of religious painting of the 16th and 17th centuries, that of Saint Francis of Assisi comforted by angels after receiving the stigmata. To confirm the success of the subject depicted, it is enough to think that artists of great fame such as Orazio Gentileschi, Orsola Caccia, Giuseppe Nuvolone, Annibale Carracci have executed the same work, often with a very similar setting.
The work in question, coming from an important private collection in Vicenza and presented here on the market for the first time, can be traced back in our opinion to the hand of the Lombard painter Guglielmo Caccia known as Moncalvo. A pupil of Giovanni Francesco Biancaro, he is considered the most important exponent of Counter-Reformation art in Piedmont, so much so that he is called the Raphael of Monferrato.