Cremona and Caravaggio: St. Francis in Meditation

The painting, which depicts a particularly intense moment of Franciscan hagiography, has a recent critical history, as it was related to Caravaggio by art historian Roberto Longhi in 1943 as probably the work of a quality imitator, if not a faithful copy of an original. In 1951 it was included in the catalog of the celebrated exhibition at the Palazzo Reale, and on that occasion, Danis Mahon affirmed; that it was an original datable to 1606, that is, one of the earliest works from the painter's Neapolitan period. The attribution to Caravaggio convinced scholars more and more over the years, until the 1986 cleaning, which, highlighting the technical quality, erased almost all attributive doubts. The first news about the painting dates back to 1836, when Marquis Filippo Ala Ponzone donated it to the City of Cremona.