Eight hundred years after the death of St. Francis of Assisi, Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence traces a narrative that links devotion, patronage, and courtly relationships in late 17th-century Florence. From September 24, 2026 , to January 31, 2027, the Fabiani Rooms will host the exhibition *St. Francis of Assisi and Giuseppe Nicola Nasini: An Episode of Medici Patronage*, curated by Riccardo Spinelli. The exhibition is sponsored by the Metropolitan City of Florence and organized by the MUS Foundation.And, under the patronage of the National Committee for the Celebration of the 800th Anniversary of the Death of St. Francis of Assisi, the Papal Basilica and Sacred Convent of St. Francis in Assisi, and the Friars Minor Conventual of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, the exhibition takes its starting point from four large canvases painted by Giuseppe Nicola Nasini for the Sacred Convent of Assisi.
The core of the project consists of the four surviving works from a cycle commissioned in 1695 by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III de’ Medici: “St. Francis Receives the Stigmata,” St. Francis, Dying, Puts on the Habit, St. Francis, Dying, Blesses Brother Elias, and Vision of St. Francis to Whom the Virgin Mary Presents the Infant Jesus. A fifth canvas, dedicated to the Miracle of the Thorns and the origin of the “Pardon of Assisi,” has been lost. The temporary return of the four works to Florence makes it possible to reconstruct the history of the commission and the context in which it arose, as well as to trace the relationship between Nasini and the grand ducal court.
The origins of the cycle are linked to the pilgrimage undertaken by Cosimo III to Assisi in 1695. During his stay, the Grand Duke was hosted by the friars of the Sacred Convent in the quarters reserved for the Pope. Upon his departure, he received a precious relic from the Franciscans: a fragment of St. Francis’s hair shirt. Upon his return to Florence, Cosimo III commissioned Nasini to create five paintings for the Sacred Convent, intended as a token of gratitude for the hospitality he had received. The paintings were shipped to Assisi as early as the beginning of January 1696 and placed in the apartment where the sovereign had stayed, set within special stucco frames financed by the Grand Duke himself.
The story of this commission is part of the history of the relationships between Giuseppe Nicola Nasini, Cosimo III, and the court’s artistic circle. Born in Castel del Piano in 1657, Nasini trained in Rome and Venice, thanks in part to the direct support of the Grand Duke, who closely followed his career. After spending several years at the Medici Academy in Rome and living in Venice, the painter was appointed chamberlain of honor in 1689 and superintendent of drawings for the Florence Gallery in 1690. The commission for the Franciscan paintings thus came at an advanced stage in the relationship between the artist and his principal Medici patron.
This relationship was complemented by his connection with the Riccardi family, who had owned the ancient Medici palace on Via Larga—now the Palazzo Medici Riccardi—since 1659. At the time the Franciscan cycle was commissioned, in fact, the building no longer belonged to the Medici: it had been purchased by the Riccardi family in 1659 and converted into their Florentine residence. In the second half of the seventeenth century, the palace underwent an extensive expansion and renovation program, involving some of the leading artists active in the city and close to court circles.
Nasini’s work for Marquis Francesco Riccardi thus also attests to the relationship between the grand ducal court and one of the most influential families in Florence at the time. It is precisely this intertwining of Medici and Riccardi patronage that constitutes one of the elements explored in depth by the exhibition, which, centered around the four canvases from the Sacro Convento, reconstructs the key figures and context through paintings, portraits, sculptures, medals, and documents.
The exhibition’s section dedicated to the Franciscan narrative is symbolically opened by Lodovico Cardi (known as Cigoli)’s *St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata in Prayer Before the Cross*, from the Convent of St. Francis of the Friars Minor of Tuscany. The painting is flanked by works by Giuseppe Nicola Nasini and various portraits of Cosimo III, which help to establish the identities of the key figures involved in the commission.
A particularly significant body of documents consists of the five letters exchanged between Florence and Assisi between January and May 1696. The letters allow us to trace the various stages following the completion of the paintings: the shipment of the works, their arrival at the Sacred Convent, the creation of the frames, and the reactions of the Franciscans and of Cosimo III himself. The documentation thus makes it possible to reconstruct not only the genesis of the pictorial cycle but also the significance attributed to the Grand Duke’s gift from its very inception.
The exhibition also features a facsimile of the preparatory drawing for *Saint Francis, Dying, Dressed in the Habit*, preserved in the Chigi Saracini Collection in Siena. The sheet documents the process by which Nasini developed the composition before transferring it to the large canvas intended for Assisi.
In addition to the 1695 commission, the exhibition features the Reliquary of St. Francis’s Robe, from the Compagnia delle Stimmate of the Basilica of San Lorenzo. The reliquary contains relics of the saint’s habit donated in 1710 by Cosimo III to the Florentine confraternity and expands the exhibition’s exploration of the relationship between the Grand Duke, Franciscan spirituality, and the city of Florence.
The five paintings commissioned in 1695 remained for a long time in the Sacred Convent of Assisi. In the second half of the nineteenth century, following the suppression of religious orders and the transformation of the convent’s spaces, they were removed from their original locations and set aside.
The four surviving canvases were retrieved from storage and underwent restoration beginning in 2017. They were subsequently reinstalled in the Chapter Hall of the Sacred Convent, one of the central spaces in the life of the Franciscan community. Their temporary return to Florence now makes it possible to reconstruct the historical and artistic context of the commission—more than three centuries after its creation—and to reexamine Cosimo III’s role in the story as well as a significant phase in Giuseppe Nicola Nasini’s career. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog published by Edifir Edizioni Firenze.
“Eight hundred years after the death of Francis of Assisi,” said Sara Funaro, Mayor of the Metropolitan City of Florence, “his legacy and his words offer rich insights for reimagining that ‘magnifica humanitas’ evoked by Pope Leo XIV in his encyclical on the epochal shift brought about by digitization and artificial intelligence. As the Metropolitan City of Florence, we pay homage to St. Francis with an exhibition of several works by the Baroque painter Giuseppe Nicola Nasini, commissioned by Cosimo III for the Sacred Convent of Assisi as a sign of gratitude to the Franciscans who had hosted him. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the importance of the Franciscan presence in the Florentine region, which was the original mission site for Francis and his brothers—a legacy enshrined in the Basilica of Santa Croce and the Convent of Ognissanti—and to speak of Florence, but its traces are scattered throughout various locations in the region, as an expression of its mission of evangelization and solidarity with the most vulnerable of all times.”
“Giuseppe Nicola Nasini’s paintings for the convent in Assisi retrace the final moments of St. Francis’s life, capturing on the canvas the intensity of a life and death that remain inspiring to this day,” states Valentina Zucchi, scientific director of Palazzo Medici Riccardi. “The Grand Ducal commission highlights the religious dimension of late-17th-century Florence and exemplifies the artistic sensibilities and qualities achieved in the city, of which Nasini was a highly regarded interpreter. The project thus offers the public a glimpse into a new and evocative chapter of the late Baroque in Florence, one that is also linked to the works executed by the artist himself in the palace at the behest of the Marquises Riccardi.”
“The exhibition,” explained curator Riccardo Spinelli, “is a tribute that Palazzo Medici Riccardi is paying to the patron saint of Italy on the 800th anniversary of his death. On this occasion, an episode of Medici patronage is being brought back to Florence and presented to the public, thanks to the initiative of Cosimo III de’ Medici, who in 1695 commissioned one of his favorite painters, the Sienese artist Giuseppe Nicola Nasino, to create five paintings depicting the life of St. Francis for the Sacred Convent of Assisi, where four of the five—one, unfortunately, is lost—have been preserved for over three centuries.”
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| Cosimo III, St. Francis, and Nasini: The series commissioned in 1695 returns to Florence |
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