Hulin de Loo, Georges: Early Flemish paintings in the Renders Collection at Bruges: exhibited at the Belgian Exhibition, Burlington House, January 1927 (London, 1927)

BEGINNING OF THE 16th. CENTURY. 5? ST. FRANCIS
OF ASSISI, STANDING IN A LANDSCAPE. *-j—
& Oa\ panel : SI centimeters high by 28 centimeters wide. 5S
HERE St. Francis of Assisi is shown in the country,
standing, with the stigmatae in his hands and feet;
his clothes are grey and in his right hand he is
holding a red book. The landscape is reproduced in a truly
remarkable manner, showing an understanding of light effects
and of atmospheric subtilities that reveals a painter of great
talent. Worthy of note are the shades of a very decided green
in the foreground that by degrees merge into a very pure
grey and end in the blue mountains in the distance, s-—■—J--
3t At first sight the picture produces a strange effect, it is
different to what we are accustomed to see in the Flemish
16th. century. This impression is due, we suppose, to the
fact that our unknown artist drew his inspiration for the
figure of the Saint from an Italian model that he had perhaps
copied line for line, placing it in a landscape that, at least,
was of his own composition. It is certain that our St. Francis
by the way in which the head is bent, by the long straight
nose, the attitude of the hands and feet, by many of the
details of the habit (the rope girdle, for instance, placed
in the same way), in many points recalls those strange