ROME.- Saint Francis of Assisi is often remembered through familiar images: the humble friar, the lover of nature, the saint who spoke to birds and saw all living things as part of one shared creation. But a new exhibition at MAXXI in Rome looks beyond that traditional iconography to ask a broader question: what can the gaze of Saint Francis still teach contemporary art — and contemporary life?

Opening to the public on May 22 at Extra MAXXI, “Creatures, Creators. Saint Francis and Contemporary Art” brings together works by major Italian artists from the postwar period to today, including Alberto Burri, Giorgio Morandi, Mario Giacomelli, Maria Lai, Piero Manzoni, Mario Schifano, Ettore Spalletti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Stefano Arienti, Paolo Canevari and Bruna Esposito. The exhibition, curated by Beatrice Buscaroli, runs through September 20, 2026.

Organized by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of Italy’s Ministry of Culture and Fondazione MAXXI, the project forms part of the official initiatives marking the eighth centenary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi. Rather than presenting Francis simply as a religious subject, the exhibition treats him as a living presence — a way of seeing the world, of understanding nature, fragility, poverty and the sacred.

At the heart of the show is the Canticle of the Creatures, the celebrated poem in which Saint Francis gives thanks for the sun, moon, water, fire, earth and all living beings. For the exhibition, that text becomes a point of departure for exploring Italian art from the second half of the 20th century to the present. The result is a dialogue between memory and the present, between spiritual inheritance and artistic experimentation.

Several works from the MAXXI collection — including pieces by Stefano Arienti, Paolo Canevari, Bruna Esposito, Maria Lai, Piero Manzoni and Ettore Spalletti — are placed in conversation with historical and contemporary works that shift attention away from the saint’s image and toward his ideas. His legacy appears not as a fixed symbol, but as an ethical and poetic force that continues to resonate today.

The exhibition moves through different artistic approaches to matter, nature and existence. Works by Pier Paolo Calzolari, Stefano Arienti and Bruna Esposito create a symbolic landscape marked by natural signs and delicate presences. Alberto Burri, Mario Giacomelli, Giorgio Morandi and Ennio Morlotti bring the visitor closer to the essential qualities of material, time and silence. Later sections include visions by Mario Schifano, Maria Lai, Antonio Del Donno and Paolo Canevari, alongside artists from more recent generations who revisit Franciscan themes through transformation, symbol and the living world.

One of the highlights of the exhibition is the presentation of new works commissioned specifically for the project. Jacopo Benassi, Chiara Calore, Aron Demetz, Fulvio Di Piazza, Marco Cingolani, Andrea Mastrovito, Alessandro Pessoli and Nicola Samorì have created previously unseen works that interpret the Franciscan gaze through landscapes, figures, symbols and references to nature.

For MAXXI, the exhibition is also an invitation to reconsider Saint Francis as the parvolus — the “little one” — a creature among creatures. It asks visitors to look again at the world around them: at places, living beings, poverty, humility and respect for others.

Maria Emanuela Bruni, president of Fondazione MAXXI, said the exhibition grew out of a strong collaboration with the Ministry of Culture’s Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity and aims to reflect the many layers of the Franciscan vision. Angelo Piero Cappello, director general for Contemporary Creativity, described the project as an opportunity to see Saint Francis not only as part of iconographic tradition, but as a generative force whose ideas still shape the relationship between human beings, nature and ethics.

Davide Rondoni, president of the National Committee for the celebration of the eighth centenary of Saint Francis’s death, emphasized the revolutionary power of the word “creature,” saying it reminds us that every living thing is worthy of love and attention. Francesco Stocchi, artistic director of MAXXI, noted that Franciscan thought — the bond with living beings, the idea of fragility and the relationship between humanity, nature and spirituality — continues to run through contemporary artistic research.

Buscaroli, the exhibition’s curator, describes the project as risky, revolutionary and deeply necessary. In her view, Saint Francis remains urgently relevant: a figure capable of opening a space for dialogue and hope in a world shaped by conflict, individualism and fragmentation.

The exhibition is accompanied by the catalogue Creature.Creatori. San Francesco e l’arte contemporanea, edited by Beatrice Buscaroli and published by Dario Cimorelli Editore, with the support of Aeroporti di Roma.