A Feminine Saint Francis

Since 2024, the Museo Hermann Hesse Montagnola has hosted a studio space open to local artists, where they can engage with and reinterpret the life and work of Hermann Hesse.

The third guest of the Hesse Artist in Residence program is Giulia Santambrogio (* 1996), who, on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of Saint Francis of Assisi's death, has engaged with this figure, to whom Hermann Hesse dedicated the short monograph "Franz von Assisi" in 1904. The artist's works evoke another text by the writer, "Aus der Kindheit des heiligen Franz von Assisi" (1919), in which chivalric dream and quiet sobriety recall the restlessness that precedes the saint's true calling.

The artist develops the image of a "feminine Saint Francis": a poetic and radical figure combining spirituality and inner transformation. From her dialogue with Hermann Hesse's thought emerges a work that blends literary, mystical, and corporeal elements, exploring female self-determination and inner processes. Santambrogio's work reflects on silence, resilience, and transformation, and enters into an ideal dialogue with the graffito of Saint Francis on the Antica Casa Gamboni in Gentilino, just a few steps from the exhibition, which testifies to the deep roots of this figure on the Collina d'Oro.

Dates and times

- The exhibition is open on 19–20 and 26–27 September 2026, from 10:30 am to 5:30 pm, at the former Artebianca bakery, via Berenice 2, in the village centre of Gentilino

- Vernissage: Friday 18 September 2026, 6:00 pm

Curated by Marcel Henry & Giacomo Agosti.

Entrance