St Francis Consoled by Angelic Music

The use of copper support was popularised in Bologna by the Flemish artist Denys Calvaert, in whose studio had had the opportunity to learn the technique of painting on copper. Reni often returned to the use of a copper support during his career, producing paintings that were particularly suitable for private devotion. In this painting a musician angel appears to St Francis, who is surrounded by the instruments of penitence and meditation, and depicted asleep with his hand resting on a skull. The subject of angelic consolation became popular during the sixteenth century, when a number of Counter-Reformation tracts endorsed the validity of St Francis’s mystical experiences.