Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata

Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata — Federico Barocci. c. 1581.

Medium: Etching on cream laid paper. Dimensions: Plate: 23 × 14.7 cm (9 1/16 × 5 13/16 in.); Sheet: 23.3 × 15 cm (9 3/16 × 5 15/16 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

A painter and skilled engraver, Federico Barocci was an experimental etcher. Here he explored the effects of light and shade by sequentially stopping out sections of the plate with a wax resist while immersing it in acid. The areas protected by the resist were not etched, while the parts that were exposed to the acid throughout the entire process were etched with dark, thick lines. The suggestive, hallucinatory effect of the resulting print dramatizes the saint’s moment of revelation, as the details of the terrestrial world fade into the pale background.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.