St Francis of Paolo Walking on the Water

Prominently displayed in Liszt’s studio in Weimar was Eduard von Steinle’s painting of St Francis of Paolo walking on the water. The image derives from the story of a ferryman’s refusal to take St Francis across the Straits of Messina – “If he is a saint let him walk on the water” – and the Saint’s safe crossing by way of his cloak spread on the water with his staff holding up one corner of it as a sail. The second of Liszt’s Two Legends of 1863, each one inspired by a significant episode in the life of a    favourite saint – the other is St Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birds – is based on the same story. One of his last displays of piano virtuosity before being ordained Abbé Liszt and turning his mind to higher things, it begins with a solemn quotation of a chorale from his choral piece To Saint Francis of Paolo. Whatever turmoil it passes through, the chorale is rarely lost to sight. The virtuosity is in the rolling, swelling, tempestuous depiction of the sea expressed for the most part in swirling scales and arpeggios. Where the chorale is not to be heard, at the extremity of the turbulence represented by the metrical dislocation in the middle the piece, it is as though St Francis had been swallowed by the waves. He emerges triumphant, however, at the very climax of the construction. The quiet moment near the end is a reference to another image of the Saint, a print by Doré, with the word “Caritas” emblazoned on a cloud and radiating light on the saintly figure walking on the water below.