The Birth of Saint Francis of Assisi

The Birth of Saint Francis of Assisi

Camillo Procaccini

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Attributed to Camillo Procaccini by Jacob Bean, the rare subject of this drawing with ‘The Birth of Saint Francis’ has been identified by Nancy Ward Neilson (1979): Francis's mother, a lady of high station, wished to give birth to her first child in the stable of the family house in recollection of the humble birthplace of Jesus. In the background is visible the mysterious pilgrim visitor who, according to the Franciscan legend, announced the saintly vocation of the newborn son. Another Lombard representation of this story is a painting by Giovanni Mauro della Rovere (1575-1640), now in the Prepositurale di Saint Marco, Milan (see: Dipinti della Pinacoteca di Brera in deposito nelle chiese della Lombardia, 1, Milan 1969, p. 42, fig. 19). A copy of this drawing is in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Birth of Saint Francis of AssisiThe Birth of Saint Francis of AssisiThe Birth of Saint Francis of AssisiThe Birth of Saint Francis of AssisiThe Birth of Saint Francis of Assisi

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.