Lugano Event Traces 800 Years of Franciscan Iconography from Giotto to Caravaggio

On the occasion of the Franciscan Jubilee Year, proclaimed for the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi, the Gianluigi Giudici Foundation in Lugano is organizing a historical-artistic meeting titled 'San Francesco e le stimmate. Un racconto attraverso l’arte' (Saint Francis and the Stigmata: A Story Through Art). Curated by art historian Emanuela Rindi, the event will take place on Saturday, October 3, 2026, from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the Gipsoteca Gianluigi Giudici, located at Riva Antonio Caccia 1A in Lugano. The central theme is one of the most dense and recurring subjects in European sacred art: the visual representation of the mystical experience of the Saint of Assisi, with particular attention to the moment of receiving the stigmata on Mount La Verna. This episode, suspended between reality and vision, between the corporeal and the otherworldly, has offered artists of every era an extraordinarily fertile ground for experimentation, testing the ability of the image to make visible what transcends the visible. The meeting aims to explore eight centuries of sacred art, from Giotto to Caravaggio, tracing the evolution of this iconography and its enduring impact on artistic expression.