The St. Francis of Assisi in ecstasy by Ortensio Crespi is an important example of Lombard seventeenth-century painting. The canvas, initially attributed to Cerano (Giovanni Battista Crespi) was subsequently traced back to his younger brother, Ortensio Crespi, for the more independent and original style, generally characterized by material preciousness and a marked naturalistic sensitivity, of Nordic origin.

With a loose and experienced workmanship and in the fluid, cold and pearly color scheme, the saint of Assisi is depicted in prayer with hands joined and fingers intertwined, kneeling near a book (the Gospel, but also an image of the Rule of the order of Friars Minor) , leaning against a skull. The figure of the Saint in ecstatic prayer is immersed in a landscape with Nordic characters that intends to evoke the Casentino forests, in particular the Monte della Verna where St. Francis loved to retire in prayer. 

Saint Francis is dressed in a rough Capuchin-style habit (one piece with the hood, and the obvious patches). The particular datum of the nail coming out of the back of the Saint's right hand takes up in a realistic way the description of the impression of the stigmata given by his biographers.

The skull, anachronistic for St. Francis but responding to the spirituality of the seventeenth century, is one of the most widespread iconographic attributes of the penitent saints. It indicates the transience of earthly things and the importance of striving for eternal values.