Giovanni Lanfranco (painting by) - St. Francis of Assisi oil on canvas 40 x 32 cm The painting depicts St. Francis of Assisi in a half-length pose, caught in an intense moment of mystical contemplation; the saint, wrapped in the brown Franciscan habit, brings his right hand to his chest while his bearded face, tilted and turned upwards, emerges dramatically from the shadows through a warm and concentrated light that accentuates his spiritual pathos. The composition, set against a dark neutral background, is constructed through a loose and synthetic pictorial material, dominated by deep browns and amber tones that give the image a strong devotional and meditative character. On the back of the frame appears the handwritten inscription "Lanfranco pinxit", probably affixed in ancient times as an attributive memory or collector's reference.The work shows significant affinities with the figurative culture of Giovanni Lanfranco, particularly in the luministic construction of the face, the intense emotionality of the figure and the theatricality of the chiaroscuro rendering. In fact, the twisting of the head, the ecstatic gaze turned towards the light and the way the figure emerges from the darkness recall many of Lanfranco's inventions dedicated to penitent saints and Franciscan figures, where the naturalism derived from the Carracci tradition is transformed into a more dynamic and spiritually involving vision. Similar solutions can be found in the religious production of the Parma master, especially in the Roman and Neapolitan works of his maturity, characterised by a strong emotional accent and a painting vibrant with light.Although it cannot be directly attributed to Lanfranco, the painting appears ascribable to the Emilia environment of the mid 17th century, profoundly influenced by the diffusion of Carracci models and the fortune of Lanfranchian painting. The image of Saint Francis, reduced to the essentiality of the half-length bust and deprived of secondary narrative elements, concentrates all its strength on the inner dimension of the saint, according to a fully Baroque sensibility oriented towards the emotional participation of the spectator. The presence of the inscription "Lanfranco pinxit" constitutes a significant historical-collecting element, testifying to an ancient association of the work with the circle or manner of the master and confirming the perception, already in the past, of the painting's stylistic proximity to Lanfranco's models.