Saint Francis consoled by the Musician Angel (or The Vision of Saint Francis), embroidered picture, Northern Italy, 1600-22

Picture of brown silk embroidered with silver gilt thread and coloured silks in long and short stitches with laid and couched work.
The scene depicts an interior of a small room where St Francis lies sick in bed. One friar is seen carrying food on a tray while another kneels in prayer. The room houses four doves, a lamb, a cat, a crucifix, an icon of the Virgin, a skull, a sun-dial, grapes, a gourd, vases, tables etc. An angel playing a violin hovers above. The iconography of the saint consoled by the music of the angel refers to an episode narrated by San Bonaventura and Fioretti: when St. Francis was very weak in the body, due to abstinence, and his battles with demons, he began to think about glory and bliss of those blessed with eternal life, and therefore prayed to God to grant him the grace to taste a small part of that bliss. Suddenly an angel appeared to him, with great splendour, who had a violin in his right hand and the bow in his left. And while St Francis was astonished by that vision, the Angel began to and immediately the soft melody comforted his soul and annulled every bodily sensation.
This scene of angelic consolation for the penitent suffering of Saint Francis was not treated by artists in Medieval and Renaissance times, but it became a popular in the second half of the sixteenth century. In accordance with the renewed spirituality of the period, and with the reforming zeal of the Capuchin order (an independent branch of the Franciscans approved by Pope Paul III in 1536), the cult of Saint Francis enjoyed revived popularity.
Among the first works of this new iconography is a lost altarpiece by Francesco Vanni for the Capizucchi chapel in the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore in 1592, and the famous San Francesco vision painted by Caravaggio by San Francesco in 1594.
An inscription at the bottom left begins with 'FLOS DIANA', but the rest is illegible. There was originally another inscription over the shelf above the saint's head, but this is only apparent from traces on the back of the embroidery. The picture is bordered by compartments outlined by scrolls. The central compartment at the bottom has a fleur-de-lys (badge of the Farnese family) with the initials 'R F' for Ranuccio Farnese within a glory, with a scroll and motto above which is illegible. Ranuccio I Farnese (28 March 1569 – 5 March 1622) reigned as Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Castro from 1592. He married Margarita Aldobrandini on 7 May 1600 in Rome. The central compartment at the top contains the arms of the Farnese and Aldobrandini families, indicating a commemoration of the union. The other compartments contain fruit sprigs, animals and flowers, among which daisies ('margarita' in Italian).

Purchased by the V&A in September 1965 for £100 from Mrs. J. Smith, Riverside Antiques, Hungerford, Berkshire (Registered File no. 65/2264). It was heavily conserved when it was acquired by the Museum by Mrs. Sheila Landi, a full account of which can be found in Studies in Conservation, 1966.

The quartered coat of arms inside the top border tell us that this embroidery was almost certainly commissioned to commemorate the marriage of Ranuccio Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza (1569 - 1622) to Margherita Aldobrandini (1586 - 1646), niece of Pope Clement VIII. Alongside the arms are a sprig of daisies, the Italian name for which is 'Margherita', indicating the identity of the wife. The Duke's personal device, a rayed sun with a lily set below his motto ('Adversa provecta notis') appears in the lower border. From this we can also infer the object's terminal dates: the marriage took place in 1600 and Duke Ranuccio died in 1622.

This embroidery is based on a painting by the monk-artist Paolo Piazza (ca.1557 - 1621, also known as Brother Cosimo), a member of the Capuchin religious order, active as an artist in Italy and the southern parts of the Holy Roman Empire. The painting on which the engraving was based became part of the Imperial collection at Prague. Indeed, Emperor Rudolf II (1552 - 1612) was a patron of Piazza's and commissioned him to paint a representation of the Adoration of the Kings in the Capuchin church at Innsbruck. Piazza is also know to have worked for Pope Paul V (reigned 1605 - 1621) and Cardinal Scipio Borghese (1577 -1633). Importantly, he undertook a commission to paint a Last Supper in the refectory of the Capuchin monastery of San Bernadino, Piacenza, in 1610. While at Piacenza he may have met Duke Ranuccio, whose firstborn son had very recently been born deaf and mute. Ranuccio himself frequently suffered with illnesses, and may have commissioned Piazza to create the painting by way of fulfilling a sacred obligation, the result of vows made in connection with his afflictions. An engraving of Piazza's painting by Raphael Sadeler I (1561 - 1628) is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The identity of the embroiderer is not known.

This type of pictorial embroidery using straight stitches of various lengths was perfected in Italy by the middle of the 16th century. 'Painted' embroideries of this type were usually based on printed or painted sources. They would have been small devotional pieces for churches, chapels or houses.

The family of Duke Ranuccio Farnese were great patrons of the arts. He himself contracted the painters Agostino Carracci and Leonello Spada to work for him, as well as the sculptor Francesco Mochi, who completed equestrian statues of Ranuccio and his father in 1620 and 1624 respectively. He also commissioned the architect Giovan Battista Aleotti to design the Teatro Farnesiana (built 1618 - 1628) in the Palazzo Pilota in Parma. Importantly, Ranuccio's great uncle, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, commissioned in the third quarter of the 16th century a set of embroidered vestments for the Opera del Duomo in Florence which still survive today.

The 16th century saw a revival of the cult of St. Francis of Assisi, a notable figure of the Counter-Reformation. This depiction of the saint is typical, showing the newly-expressed emotional and ecstatic side of his life and experiences. This scene, taken from the Little Flowers of St. Francis (Italian: Fioretti di San Francesco), became a favourite among Italian artists, and was treated by, to name a few, Guercino, Francesco Trevisani and Carlo Saraceni. The story as told in the Little Flowers of St. Francis goes that St. Francis, in his final illness, stopped at Rieti en route to Assisi. He asked a monk named Brother Pacifico, who had been a troubadour in his secular life, to sing the praises of God in his presence in order to ease his suffering. Brother Pacifico refused, fearing he might upset the other monks, and so an angel descended from heaven to comfort Francis with heavenly music. So sweet was the angel's singing that the saint lost all bodily sensation, and his soul would have ascended to heaven there and then had the music not ceased.

The new Franciscan iconography was very popular with the Capuchins, who were descended from the original Franciscan order. In fact, Francis is often shown wearing a Capuchin habit. This composition is reminiscent of 16th century Mannerist depictions: Francis is not shown in the open air or in a grotto, but is inside a small, well-ordered room arranged according to strict rules of perspective.

This small devotional embroidery shows St. Francis of Assisi in ecstasy. The scene is taken from an episode in the Little Flowers of St. Francis, a series of biographical exerpts from the saint's life, in which he is visited by a heavenly musician during his final illness. This type of object was usually based on a printed or painted source, and we are lucky to know exactly who it was that designed this embroidery: it is based on a painting by Paolo Piazza (ca.1557 - 1621). An engraving of the painting by Raphael Sadeler I is known to survive. The embroidery was almost certainly made for Duke Ranuccio Farnese (1569 - 1622) and his wife Margherita Aldobrandini (1586 - 1646), whose arms appear in the top border.

T.246-1965