{
"data": {
"id": 142293,
"accession_number": "1966.125",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Virgin and Child Appearing to Saint Francis of Assisi, 1680s. Luca Giordano (Italian, 1634\u20131705). Oil on canvas; framed: 273 x 229 x 10 cm (107 1/2 x 90 3/16 x 3 15/16 in.); unframed: 239.4 x 195.7 cm (94 1/4 x 77 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund, 1966.125",
"current_location": "217 Italian Baroque",
"title": "The Virgin and Child Appearing to Saint Francis of Assisi",
"creation_date": "1680s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1680,
"creation_date_latest": 1689,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Italy"
],
"technique": "oil on canvas",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "P - Italian 16th & 17th Century",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 273 x 229 x 10 cm (107 1/2 x 90 3/16 x 3 15/16 in.); Unframed: 239.4 x 195.7 cm (94 1/4 x 77 1/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 2.73,
"height_inch": 107,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"width": 2.29,
"width_inch": 90,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.1875,
"depth": 0.1,
"depth_inch": 3,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.9375
},
"unframed": {
"height": 2.394,
"height_inch": 94,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 1.957,
"width_inch": 77,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "signed lower center: Jordanus F.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 300917,
"title": "Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions",
"description": "Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10-October 16, 1966).",
"opening_date": "1966-09-10T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301412,
"title": "Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage",
"description": "Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 13-September 19, 1971).",
"opening_date": "1971-07-13T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Private collection (Florence, Italy), sold through Heim Gallery (Paris, France), to the Cleveland Museum of Art.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1966",
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "This work represents the High Baroque tradition of illustrating the visions and ecstasies of holy figures. St. Francis stands to the right of the apparition of the Virgin and Child, while motioning to a mother with three young infants, a symbolic representation of Charity. A popular Italian saint, St. Francis of Assisi (1181?- 1226) was famed for his many holy visions and was reported to have received the stigmata, bodily punctures that echoed the crucifixion wounds of Christ. Close observation of the painting reveals that Giordano originally painted St. Francis motioning his hands towards the Virgin and Child, perhaps reaching for the Infant Christ. In the final version, however, St. Francis gestures to the figure of Charity, as a witness to the saint's spiritual vision. The saint thus serves as the intermediary for humankind, appealing to the Virgin and Child for the sake of Charity. St. Francis, the founder of the Franciscan order of monastics, dedicated his life to assisting the poor and remains one of the most popular Catholic saints.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60469542"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1966.125-the-virgin-and-child"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 116",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n140"
},
{
"citation": "Ferrari, Oreste, and Giuseppe Scavizzi. Luca Giordano. Napoli, Italy: Edizioni scientifiche italiane, 1966.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 91\u20132, 94; Reproduced: fig. 181",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lee, Sherman E. \"Golden Anniversary Acquisitions.\" The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LIII, no. 7 (September, 1966): 181\u2013285.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 214; Mentioned: p. 279, no. 59",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Young, M. S. \u201cLetter from U.S.A: Great Guns at Detroit and Cleveland.\u201d Apollo: The International Magazine for Collectors 84 (September 1966): 237\u201338.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 239\u2013240; Reproduced: p. 241",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums.\" The Art Quarterly XXIX, no. 3-4 (1966): 289\u2013318.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 301",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. \"Luca Giordano: The Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Francis of Assisi.\" The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LV, no. 2 (February, 1968): 39\u201352.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cover, fig. 1",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 116",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n140"
},
{
"citation": "Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 85, 398, 574",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Trkulja, Silvia Meloni. \"Luca Giordano a Firenze.\" Paragone: Mensile di Arte Figurativa e Letteratura XXIII, no. 267 (May 1972): 25\u201374.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 52, n. 51",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. \u201cAn Important Addition to Solimena\u2019s Oeuvre.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 8 (October 1972): 219\u201327.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 221\u20132, fig. 6",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152446"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 140",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n160"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 349; Reproduced: p. 350",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Ferrari, Oreste, Luca Giordano, and Giuseppe Scavizzi. Luca Giordano: l'opera completa. Napoli, Italy: Electa, 1992.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 80",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1966.125",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1966.125/1966.125_web.jpg",
"width": "730",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "406572",
"filename": "1966.125_web.jpg"
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"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1966.125/1966.125_print.jpg",
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"full": {
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},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": "Donna and James Reid Gallery",
"athena_id": 142293,
"creators": [
{
"id": 2178,
"description": "Luca Giordano (Italian, 1634\u20131705)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1634",
"death_year": "1705",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1966-05-25T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1680,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1680s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": true,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"The Apparition of the virgin to St. Francis of Assisi"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-09-09 19:14:07.857000"
}
}