Immediacy

Bellini “St. Francis in the Desert”  c. 1476-78 The Frick Collection

Frick’s caption includes this description “…naturalistic yet transcendental imagery…”.

It is perhaps this sense of significance in all things as well as the radiant light flowing over the landscape that imbues the painting with such magical appeal.

At some point I read (or maybe just imagined) that this painting by Bellini was entitled “St. Francis in Ecstasy.”  Having it in mind as an emblem for this post, I checked the Frick’s website and saw that I was mistaken.  There it is identified as “St. Francis in the Desert.”  The text accompanying the image, however, suggests that my misnomer is not too far off the mark.  The painting’s “magical appeal” is attributed to the sense it conveys of the “significance in all things”.  I think it points to the underlying motivation behind Fairfield Porter’s “realism”.  Late in his life, Porter is said to have “…presented his most overriding concern to be the transfiguration of the commonplace.”   (Louis Finkelstein  “The Naturalness of Fairfield Porter”  ARTS 50 (May 1976): 102-105.)