Kehinde Wiley, Saint Francis of Adelaide, 2006.
Cast marble dust and resin Edition 250, hand signed and numbered. 12 x 10 x 5.5 inches 
 
Mr. Wiley's  second Neoclassical bust, St. Francis of Adelaide, was influenced was Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingre’s stained glass window, St. Francis of Ad- elaide in Paris at The Chapel of Saint Ferdinand. The strong, proud, athletic young man is dressed in street attire and holding a symbolic book and scep- ter. He appears as a learned monarch. His soul searching contemplative eyes have the feeling of Cezanne’s “Still Life with Skull” or Rogier van der Weyden “Portrait of a Man Holding a Book.” The composition is familiar but the influences are beyond easy recognition. The philosopher appears as a hero in pursuit of revealing the universal truth in the 21st Century.
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