ROMANESQUE PAINTER, Italian, (active in 1220s)
St Francis of Assisi, before 1224
Fresco
Cappella di San Gregorio, Subiaco
In the Chapel of San Gregorio in the lower church at Subiaco can be found the earliest portrait of St Francis. This fresco represents him without halo and stigmata, therefore it was probably made before 1224, when he received the stigmata. More on this work
Born circa 1181, in Assisi, duchy of Spoleto, Italy, Saint Francis of Assisi began his life as a confirmed sinner. His father was a wealthy cloth merchant who owned farmland around Assisi, and his mother was a beautiful Frenchwoman. Francis was not in want during his youth; he was spoiled, indulging himself with fine food, wine, and wild celebrations. By age 14, he had left school and become known as a rebellious teenager who frequently drank, partied and broke the city curfew. He was also known for his charm and vanity.
He was expected to follow his father into the family textile business. Instead of planning a future as a merchant, he began daydreaming of a future as a knight; knights were Medieval action heroes, and if Francis had any ambition, it was to be a war hero like them.
Pedro Subercaseaux
Francis eagerly took his place with the cavalryI have no further description, at this time
Pedro León Maximiano María Subercaseaux Errázuriz (December 10, 1880 – Santiago de Chile, Chile, January 3, 1956) was a Chilean painter; son of the painter and diplomat Ramón Subercaseaux Vicuña. He painted many portraits about events from the history of Chile, such as the Crossing of the Andes. He painted portraits of the history of Argentina requested during the Argentina Centennial. He married Elvira Lyon Otaégui in 1907, but the Pope later annulled their marriage so that they could both get into religious orders. More on Pedro Subercaseaux
In 1202 war broke between Assisi and Perugia, and Francis eagerly took his place with the cavalry.
Francis and the men of Assisi came under heavy attack, and in the face of superior numbers, they took flight.
Unskilled and with no combat experience, Francis was quickly captured by enemy soldiers. Dressed like an aristocrat and wearing expensive new armor, he was considered worthy of a decent ransom Francis would spend nearly a year in such miserable conditions , during which time he may well have contracted a serious disease. Also during this time, he would later report, he began to receive visions from God.
After a year of negotiations, Francis' ransom was accepted, and he was released from prison in 1203. When he came back to Assisi, however, Francis was a very different man. Upon his return, he was dangerously sick in both mind and body — a battle-fatigued casualty of war.
Baccio Maria Bacci
St Francis of Assisi and the leper, c. 1927
Oil on canvas
37.3cm × 42.0cm
Florence in the Italian
Baccio Maria Bacci (1888 - 1974) was an Italian painter of the Tuscan Novocento movement. He also published various books on contemporary art movements.
He was born in Florence, he traveled to Paris in 1908. He returned to Florence in 1910 and exhibited with Giovanni Costetti, gaining the encouragement of Emilio Cecchi, Thomas Neal, and Matteo Marangoni. During 1913-1918, he painted in a style influenced by the Futurists, with canvases titled Aeropittoriche. In his later years, he painted for a number of churches and created mosaic designs. More on Baccio Maria Bacci
One day, as legend has it, while riding on a horse in the local countryside, Francis encountered a leper. Prior to the war, Francis would have run from the leper. Viewing the leper as a symbol of moral conscience, he embraced and kissed him, later describing the experience as a feeling of sweetness in his mouth.
Giotto di Bondone (–1337)
Renunciation of Wordly Goods, c. 1295 Edit this at Wikidata
Fresco
Height: 230 cm (90.5 in); Width: 270 cm (106.2 in)
Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi, Assisi, Umbria, Italy
Giotto di Bondone (–1337), see below
In order to raise money to rebuild the Christian church, he sold a bolt of cloth from his father's shop, along with his horse. His father became furious upon learning of his son's actions and subsequently dragged Francis before the local bishop. The bishop told Francis to return his father's money, to which his reaction was extraordinary: He stripped off his clothes, and along with them, returned the money back to his father. The bishop gave Francis a rough tunic, and dressed in these new humble clothes, Francis left Assisi.
Giotto di Bondone, 1295-1300
Christ, who told him to rebuild the Christian Church, 1297-99
Fresco
270 x 230 cm
Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi, Assisi, Umbria, Italy
Giotto di Bondone (–1337), see below
Francis, now in his early 20s, began turning his focus toward God. Instead of working, he spent an ever-increasing amount of time at a remote mountain hideaway as well as in old, quiet churches around Assisi, praying, looking for answers, and helping nurse lepers. During this time, while praying before an old Byzantine crucifix at the church of San Damiano, Francis reportedly heard the voice of Christ, who told him to rebuild the Christian Church and to live a life of extreme poverty. Francis obeyed and devoted himself to Christianity. He began preaching around Assisi and was soon joined by 12 loyal followers.
The Pope approving the statutes of the order of the Franciscans
Frescoe
Le Louvre
Giotto di Bondone (1266/7 – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto, and Latinized as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages. He is generally considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the Renaissance.
In his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, the late-16th century artist and art historian Giorgio Vasari describes Giotto as making a decisive break with the prevalent Byzantine style and as initiating "the great art of painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing accurately from life, which had been neglected for more than two hundred years."
Giotto's masterwork is the decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, also known as the Arena Chapel, completed around 1305. This fresco cycle depicts the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ. It is regarded as one of the supreme masterpieces of the Early Renaissance.[4] That Giotto painted the Arena Chapel and that he was chosen by the Commune of Florence in 1334 to design the new campanile (bell tower) of Florence's Cathedral are among the few certainties of his biography. Almost every other aspect of it is subject to controversy: his birthdate, his birthplace, his appearance, his apprenticeship, the order in which he created his works, whether or not he painted the famous frescoes in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi, and his burial place. More Giotto di Bondone
In 1209 Francis led his first eleven followers to Rome to seek permission from Pope Innocent III to found a new religious Order. After several days, the pope agreed to admit the group informally, adding that when God increased the group in grace and number, they could return for an official admittance.
José Benlliure y Gil (1855–1937)
Saint Clare of Assisi is received by Francisco
I have no further description, at this time
José Benlliure y Gil (30 September 1858, Valencia – 5 April 1937, Valencia), was a Spanish painter.
He was born at Cañamelar, Valencia, studied painting under Francisco Domingo Marqués, and showed from the first such marked talent that he was sent to the Spanish school in Rome. From 1903 to 1913, he was director of the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts.
He was one of the select circle pensioned by the Spanish government for residence in Italy and executed several state orders for the decoration of public buildings. He became the leader of the Spanish art colony in Rome.
Benlliure obtained several successes in Paris, Munich, Stuttgart and Berlin with his paintings. In 1903 he assumed leadership of the Spanish Academy in Rome, a position he would keep for ten years.
In late 1919 he offered a tribute to Rome with an exhibition of 45 paintings in Madrid in the halls of the Theatre Royal. When he returned to Valencia he was appointed as honorary president of the Circle of Fine Arts in Valencia, and became director of the Museu de Belles Arts de Valencia, a position he held until 1924. He received the Grand Cross of the Crown of Italy and the Cross of Officer of the Legion of Honor from the French government. More on José Benlliure y Gil
Hearing Francis preaching in the church of San Rufino in Assisi in 1211, a young noblewoman Clare of Assisi became deeply touched by his message and realized her calling. On the night of Palm Sunday, 28 March 1212, Clare clandestinely left her family's palace. Francis received her at the Porziuncola and thereby established the Order of Poor Ladies
St. Francis and the Sultan
I have no further description, at this time
Robert Lentz is a Franciscan friar. Besides painting many hours each day, he teaches apprentices, writes, and conducts workshops on art and spirituality.
Brother Robert was born in rural Colorado in 1946. His grandparents emigrated from tsarist Russia in the early 1900's. He studied Byzantine iconography by apprenticing himself to a master painter from the school of Photios Kontoglou in a Greek Orthodox monastery founded from Mount Athos.
His icons reflect his experiences among the poor in this country and in the Third World, as well as his Franciscan and Russian roots. They are filled with bright colors and often depict contemporary subjects. While always striving to remain true to the essence of Byzantine iconography, he adapts traditional conventions in order to minister better to the emerging Church. His icons remain transcendent expressions of the ancient Christian Tradition, and they invite us into communion with God and the saints. More on Br. Robert Lentz
In 1219 St. Francis and Brother Illuminato accompanied the armies of western Europe to Damietta, Egypt, during the Fifth Crusade. His desire was to speak peacefully with Muslim people about Christianity. He tried to stop the Crusaders from attacking the Muslims at the Battle of Damietta, but failed. After the defeat of the western armies, he crossed the battle line with Brother Illuminato, was arrested and beaten by Arab soldiers, and eventually was taken to the sultan, Malek al-Kamil.
Unknown artist
St. Francis and the Sultan
I have no further description, at this time
The incident was immortalized in art across Europe in the centuries after it happened. For Christians, the radical vision of fraternity and forgiveness which the saint from Assisi carried to Damietta was adapted to fit his developing spiritual reputation and the political reality of Order and the Church — especially in relationship to Islam.
After an initial attempt by Francis and the sultan to convert the other, both quickly realized that the other already knew and loved God. Francis and Illuminato remained with al-Kamil and his Sufi teacher Fakhr ad-din al-Farisi for as many as twenty days, discussing prayer and the mystical life. When Francis left, al-Kamil gave him an ivory trumpet, which is still preserved in the crypt of the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi.
Francis was soon preaching in up to five villages per day, teaching a new kind of emotional and personal Christian religion that everyday people could understand. Francis' message was spread far and wide, and thousands of people were captivated by what they heard.
Orazio Gentileschi, (1563–1639)
The Stigmatization of Saint Francis
Oil on canvas oil on canvas
Height: 165.10 mm (6.50 in); Width: 116.20 mm (4.57 in)
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Orazio Lomi Gentileschi (1563–1639) was an Italian painter. Born in Tuscany, he began his career in Rome, painting in a Mannerist style, much of his work consisting of painting the figures within the decorative schemes of other artists. After 1600, he came under the influence of the more naturalistic style of Caravaggio. He received important commissions in Fabriano and Genoa before moving to Paris to the court of Marie de Medici. He spent the last part of his life at the court of Charles I of England. He was the father of the painter Artemisia Gentileschi. More on Orazio Gentileschi
In 1224 Francis reportedly received a vision that left him with the stigmata of Christ — marks resembling the wounds Jesus Christ suffered when he was crucified, through his hands and the gaping lance wound in his side. This made Francis the first person to receive the holy wounds of the stigmata. They would remain visible for the rest of his life. Because of his earlier work treating lepers, some believe that the wounds were actually symptoms of leprosy.
When his health began to decline rapidly, Francis went home. Knights were sent from Assisi to guard him and to make sure that no one from neighboring towns would carry him off (the body of a saint was viewed, at the time, as an extremely valuable relic that would bring, among many things, glory to the town where it rested).
Francis of Assisi died on October 3, 1226, at the age of 44, in Assisi, Italy. More on Francis of Assisi
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