Saint Francis in Prayer

Bernardo Strozzi

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the waist up, a man with pale, peachy skin and wearing a monk’s robe rests his elbows on a rock with his hands together in prayer in this vertical painting. He is lit from our left, and the background and edges of the composition are mostly in deep shadow. The man’s body and head lean to our left, and he looks at us with dark eyes under gathered brows. He has a long, straight nose, high cheekbones, and his pink lips are parted. He has a dark moustache, and his hair is cut into a ring around his close-cropped crown. He wears a brown hooded robe, and a string of rosary beads hangs from his joined hands. A slender crucifix leaning against a stone in front of him is obscured at the top by what might be a swath of white fabric. The top part of a skull, its surface a golden brown, sits on our side of the rocks. A few plants are tucked in around the skull and boulders. The background is nearly black except for a diffuse pale green halo framing the young man’s head.