3-098-584 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Saint Francis speaking with a figure, c1788-c1789. Alternative title: San Francisco talking to a character. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), the founder of the Franciscan Order, with an elegantly dressed figure wearing a feathered hat, who seems to be the mayor of Assisi. The scene depicts the granting of land to Francis to establish his residence and place of prayer. In the distance, other townspeople appear, one of them with a mace over his shoulder, and in the foreground, a boy holds a rope tied to a stake driven into the ground, presumably to measure the land.