Explore the Provenance of this artwork, St. Francis in Ecstasy (Bellini).
Zuan Michiel commissioned Bellini to create St. Francis in the 1480s. Taddeo Contarini acquired the painting after Zuan Michiel's death. In 1660, Bellini's St. Francis was mentioned in Marco Boschini’s dialect poem, after Boschini saw the painting in Giulio Guistiniani’s palace. At the end of the eighteenth century, the picture still remained in the Cormaro Palace, according to Abbate Lanzi. The painting might have left Venice for the first time at some point between 1796 and 1852. It was offered for sale at Christie’s on 19 June 1852 and claimed to have originally been made for "a convent in the Milanese."In 1915, the painting entered the Frick Collection in New York City, displayed prominently in what was the living room of Henry Clay Frick, an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. Frick had acquired the painting even though he had little interest in religious paintings, but he valued this painting for its extensive landscape. The painting remains in the Frick Collection and is considered one of its finest assets.  The painting is in excellent condition. The painting was included in the 1857 Manchester Art Treasures exhibition.
New York Henry Clay Frick Venice landscape New York City 1857 Manchester Art Treasures Marco Boschini Frick Collection