This masterpiece by Francisco de Zurbarán may have come from the Franciscan convent of Descalzas Reales in Madrid. In the 17th century, it may have been donated to the convent ‘des Colinettes’ in Lyon by the Spanish queen Marie-Anne of Austria. It was acquired at the end of the 18th century by the Lyon painter and engraver Jean-Jacques de Boissieu, from whom the museum in turn purchased it in 1807. 

In a climate of mystical devotion typical of Spain during the Golden Age, the Sevillian painter produced one of the rare representations of the saint as he would have been found by Pope Nicholas V in 1449, in the crypt where the saint was buried in Assisi. He is said to have appeared intact, standing and ecstatic. The viewer's vision corresponds to the miraculous vision of the pope in the presence of the saint's remains, who seems to be continuing his dialogue with God despite his being dead.

The effect is all the more striking given the extreme simplicity of the composition and the fact that the palette itself is virtually reduced to ochres and browns. The light and deep shadows vigorously carve out the volumes that make up the silhouette of Saint Francis, all turned towards heaven. The setting is evoked only by the arch of the niche in the background and by the shadow cast by the saint's body on the wall of his vault and on the floor above which it seems to float.