Sculpture, San Francesco d'Assisi con Croce, Cordone Dorato e Uccelli (92 cm) - - 92 cm - Wood

I continue the insertion of the individual lots of my Alpine-area altarpiece group with this imposing and evocative polychrome solid wood sculpture of Saint Francis of Assisi, standing 92 cm tall and dating to the late 16th or the early 17th century (circa 1580–1630).
The Saint is depicted standing, with a dark beard, tonsure, and the traditional brown Franciscan habit cinched at the waist by a long gilded relief-carved cord with classical knots. In his right hand he holds a large cross, while two small birds carved in wood are perched—one on the right shoulder and the other directly on the left hand—evoking the famous episode of the sermon to the birds.
The entire figure is carved from a single solid trunk of hard wood. Looking at the base photo one immediately notices the rough traces of manual axe-and-chisel work of the period, with no sign of modern mechanical saws, besides the natural checking from wood shrinkage. The ascetic and intense face, the heavy folds of the habit, and the hood carved on the back convey the spiritual strength of Alpine sacred sculpture from the Early Modern period. The surface still preserves its old layered polychromy on a gypsum ground, and the remains of gilding on the cord, with an authentic patina of time never altered by recent repainting.