Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata

Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, 1535–45. Niccolo Boldrini (Italian, c. 1500–after 1566), after Titian (Italian, c. 1488–1576). Woodcut; image: 29.2 x 43.5 cm (11 1/2 x 17 1/8 in.); sheet: 29.2 x 43.5 cm (11 1/2 x 17 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Delia E. Holden Fund, 1960.160

Created in 1535 during the Renaissance period, this work belongs firmly within the religion & mythology tradition. Niccolo Boldrini worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.

As woodcut (Image: 29.2 x 43.5 cm (11 1/2 x 17 1/8 in.); Sheet: 29.2 x 43.5 cm (11 1/2 x 17 1/8 in.)), the work shows the tool marks and layering choices typical of Niccolo Boldrini's output in this period — decisions about ground, underpainting, and glaze that a photograph can only partly convey.

Look closely and the painting opens up. Objects you might pass over — a folded letter, a half-drawn curtain, the angle of a glance — were placed to be read. Figures and gestures here follow a visual vocabulary contemporary viewers would have read fluently — attributes, poses, and settings that identify who is who and what is at stake.

Today the painting is held by Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, where it remains a touchstone for understanding Niccolo Boldrini's contribution to Western art. It has been studied, copied, restored, and argued over for centuries — proof that great paintings keep generating new readings long after their creators have gone.

“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”