Stigmata of Saint Francis

The Stigmata of Saint Francis by the Master of the Cross 434 is an early depiction of one of the most important events in Franciscan hagiography — Francis receiving the wounds of Christ on Mount La Verna in 1224. Painted around 1240 and now in the Uffizi, this work belongs to the first generation of Franciscan devotional images produced in Tuscany shortly after the saint's canonization in 1228. The Master of the Cross 434, named after a painted crucifix in the Uffizi, was a leading figure in the Florentine school of panel painting before the rise of Cimabue.

Executed in tempera and gold leaf on panel, the painting features the hieratic frontality and stylized forms of the Italo-Byzantine tradition. Bold dark outlines define the figures against a luminous gold ground, while the drapery folds follow conventional linear patterns with minimal volumetric modeling.