Viewing Room Virtual Tours of Exhibitions & Collections

Join our curators as they take you on delightfully guided tours of the world's greatest artworks.

Viewing Room Special Event | Giovanni Bellini’s “St. Francis in the Desert”

Viewing Room LIVE | Giovanni Bellini’s “St. Francis in the Desert” with Peoria Riverfront Museum curator Bill Conger, guest curator Bill Heidrich and board member Dr. Sarah Zallek, neurologist, OSF HealthCare. From the Frick Collection.

View Giovanni Bellini’s “St. Francis in the Desert” in the Frick Collection on Google Arts & Culture HERE!

The Frick Collection | “St. Francis in the Desert” 

"...this painting may well be Giovanni Bellini's masterpiece, one of the finest works in The Frick Collection, and possibly the greatest Renaissance painting in America. The artist has portrayed St. Francis of Assisi (1181/2-1226) alone in a stony wilderness, stepping forward from his simple shelter into a golden light that seems to transfigure him spiritually.

"Painted on the commission of Giovanni Michiel, Venice. Taddeo Contarini, Venice (1525). Palazzo Corner, Venice. Purchased c. 1850 by W. Buchanan. Sir John Murray and others sale, June 19, 1852, Christie's, Lot 48, sold for £735 to J. Dingwall, Tittenhurst, Sunninghill, Berkshire. Thomas Holloway, apparently acquired with the estate of Tittenhurst. Bequeathed by him to his sister-in-law, Miss Mary Ann Driver (Lady Martin-Holloway). Bought in 1912 from the trustees of Miss Driver by Colnaghi and Obach. Knoedler. Frick, 1915."

Source: Paintings in The Frick Collection: French, Italian and Spanish. Volume II. New York: The Frick Collection, 1968.