St Francis and Brother Leo Meditating on Death is a 1600 oil by El Greco, a Mannerism work, depicting Francis of Assisi, held at National Gallery of Canada.
This painting shows two men in white robes, one standing and one kneeling. The standing man holds a skull in his hands, while the kneeling man looks up at him with his hands together in prayer. The background is dark, with some blue sky visible in the top left corner. The standing man's face is serious and contemplative, while the kneeling man's face is more emotional. The skull is a symbol of death and mortality, and the men's reactions to it suggest a deep sense of reverence and awe. The use of chiaroscuro, a technique that uses strong contrasts between light and dark to create a sense of volume and depth, adds to the dramatic effect of the painting.
Doménikos Theotokópoulos was born in 1541 in Candia (modern Heraklion), the capital of Venetian-ruled Crete, where he was trained in the post-Byzantine tradition of icon painting.
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