Wolfgang Heinrich Savelsberg, Die Darstellung des hl. Franziskus von Assisi in der flämischen Malerei und Graphik des späten 16. und des 17. Jahrhunderts. (Iconographia Franciscana, 6). Roma, Istituto Storico dei Cappuccini, 1992. 30,5 cm., 392 pp., 36 tav., 224 ill. (€ 80,00).
At the end of the 16th, and especially during the first decades of the 17th centuries, Flemish representations of St Francis of Assisi dramatically increased. An important factor for this flowering of Franciscan iconography was the entrance on the scene of Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. All their principal followers too have left behind paintings on Franciscan themes. In the first part of his book, W.H. Savelsberg explains the historical circumstances which gave origin to this very large and differentiated iconography on Sr Francis. He traces its typology, function and broad influence on engraving. The second part of the book is constituted of a select catalogue of 186 paintings dedicated to St Francis. Many of these are here published and studied for the first- time. The book contains a bibliography, summaries in German, English French and Italian and an index of names and places.
