The Descrizione del Sacro Monte della Vernia (1612) depicts the monastery and dramatic rocky terrain of La Verna, the site where Saint Francis received the stigmata. The gifted baroque draftsman Jacopo Ligozzi was hired to illustrate the volume and he cleverly designed overslips pasted on 5 of the 22 engraved illustrations in a before-and­-after fashion to demonstrate the changes to the topography since Saint Francis’s time.

Drawing on the Gallery’s holdings of Franciscan imagery, spanning the 15th through the 18th centuries, this exhibition places the Descrizione del Sacro Monte della Vernia within its most significant artistic and art historical context by examining traditional representations of the experiences of Saint Francis on the mountain of La Verna and innovations on traditional Franciscan subject matter characteristic of the Counter Reformation.

The exhibition is curated by Ginger Hammer, assistant curator, department of old master prints, National Gallery of Art.