Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata (Giotto)

Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata is a tempera and gold on panel painting by Giotto, made around 1295 to 1300 and measuring 313 by 163 centimeters, now held in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Its main scene shows Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata in prayer on Mount Alverno, and three predella panels beneath it depict further episodes from his life: the Dream of Pope Innocent III, in which the pope sees the collapsing Lateran basilica held up by Francis, the Approval of the Franciscan Rule, and the Sermon to the Birds. The painting broke from the static, inexpressive figures of the Italo-Byzantine tradition to make a moment of action its central subject, a shift that influenced the generation of Giottesque painters who followed him.