NEW YORK, NY.- Giovanni Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert is a masterpiece of Venetian Renaissance painting that has enthralled visitors to The Frick Collection for generations. The work is also profoundly mysterious, its beauty and depth of detail matched only by the enigma of the artist’s intentions. For centuries, viewers have puzzled over the painting’s meaning—seeking explanations in a variety of pictorial and textual sources. Until now, the artist’s practical conception and realization of this extraordinary picture have remained largely unexplored. The Frick is pleased to announce the publication of In a New Light: Giovanni Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert, which presents the collective findings of an unprecedented technical examination of St. Francis in the Desert and offers new understandings of its meaning through an examination of the artist’s process. In 2011, the results of the study were the subject of an acclaimed dossier exhibition of the same name. Published this month by the Frick in association with D Giles Limited, this highly anticipated and beautifully illustrated monograph is edited by Susannah Rutherglen and Charlotte Hale, with contributions by Denise Allen, Michael F. Cusato, O.F.M., Anne-Marie Eze, Raymond Carlson, and Joseph Godla and a foreword by Keith Christiansen.

Comments Frick Director Ian Wardropper, “St. Francis in the Desert is one of the most beloved pictures in the collection and arguably one of the most important Renaissance paintings in the United States. The discoveries made through the technical analysis published here present a new way of interpreting this masterpiece that will be invaluable to this area of scholarship for years to come. That this volume’s publication coincides with the 100th anniversary of Henry Clay Frick's acquisition of the picture in 1915 makes it all the more significant.

The authors add, “The study of a great work of art always benefits from an interdisciplinary approach, as each specialist brings a different perspective that generates further lines of inquiry. This volume reflects years of ongoing collaboration between The Frick Collection and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We are proud that the unique collections, resources, and expertise of both institutions are represented.”

Following an in-depth technical examination—including infrared reflectography, X-radiography, microscopy, and paint analysis—an international group of specialists considered the artist’s working process and its implications for the picture’s meaning. Their findings provide a “glimpse over Bellini’s shoulder” and open new avenues of research into Venetian Renaissance painting and its cultural and religious context. Also published here for the first time are recently discovered documents pertaining to the provenance of St. Francis in the Desert during the nineteenth century, as well as synthetic studies of the work’s Franciscan milieu and early history.

In a New Light: Giovanni Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert (hardcover, 232 pages; $55.00, member price $49.50) is available at the Museum Shop of the Frick, by phone at 212.547.6848, and on the institution’s Web site http://www.shopfrick.org/index.htm

Susannah Rutherglen served as Andrew W. Mellon Pre-Doctoral Curatorial Fellow at The Frick Collection from 2009 to 2011. Charlotte Hale is Paintings Conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Denise Allen is Curator of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Michael F. Cusato, O.F.M., is Distinguished Professor of History, St. Bonaventure University, and former Director of its Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure, New York. Anne-Marie Eze is Consulting Curator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Joseph Godla is Chief Conservator at The Frick Collection. Keith Christiansen is the John Pope-Hennessy Chairman of the Department of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.