Basilika Santo Fransiskus dari Assisi: Perbedaan antara revisi

 

 

 

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The churches have been decorated by the greatest late medieval Roman, [[Umbria]]n and Tuscan artists of their time, giving these churches an unequaled importance in the development of Italian art. The lower church has [[fresco]]s by renowned late-medieval [[artist]]s, such as [[Cimabue]] and [[Giotto di Bondone|Giotto]]; in the upper church are a series frescoes depicting scenes in the life of St Francis attributed to Giotto and his circle.

 

== The lower basilica ==

Brother Elia had designed the lower basilica as an enormous [[crypt]] with ribbed vaults. He had acquired his experience by building huge sepulchres out of hard rock in [[Syria]].

 

 

Entering the lower basilica, one sees at the other side of the vestibule the chapel of [[Catherine of Alexandria|St. Catherine of Alexandria]], erected about 1270. It was enlarged by Gattapone da Gubbio and decorated at the expense of Cardinal Egidio Albornoz, papal legate in charge of the Papal States (from 1350 to 1367). He was initially buried here but his body was later transferred to [[Toledo]], Spain. The frescoes with the eight episodes from the life of St. Catherine were painted in 1368-1369 by ‘Andreas pictor de Bononia’. This painter, called Andrea, is most probably [[Andrea de’ Bartoli]] (c. 1349 - 1369), the court artist of Albornoz (and not [[Andrea da Bologna]], as usually, but wrongly, attributed). The saints in this chapel were painted by Pace di Bartolo d'Assisi (1344-1368). The stained glass windows are the work of Giovanni di Bonino of Assisi (mid 14th century)

 

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The other chapel on the left is dedicated to St. [[Peter of Alcantara]].

 

*[[Saint Louis of Toulouse]] and [[Stephen I of Hungary|Saint Stephan]] with frescoes by [[Dono Doni]] (1575) and stained glass, attributed to Simone Martini.

*[[Saint Anthony of Padua]] with frescoes by [[Cesare Sermei]] (1610,)

The frescoes in the right transept depict the childhood of Christ, partly by Giotto and his workshop and the ''Nativity'' by the anonymous Maestro di San Nicola. The lowest level shows three frescoes representing St. Francis posthumously intervening in favour of two children. These frescoes by Giotto were revolutionary in their time, showing real people with emotions, set in a realistic landscape.

 

On the transept wall [[Cimabue]] painted his most famous work "Our Lady enthroned and Saint Francis" (1280). This is probably the nearest likeness to St. Francis. This static painting in Gothic style is in stark contrast with the lively frescoes of Giotto.

 

This Chapel of [[Saint Nicholas]] of Bari, at the northern end of the transept, was commissioned by the papal legate Cardinal [[Orsini family|Napoleone Orsini]] and it contains the tomb of the cardinal’s brother, Giovanni Orsini, who died between 1292 and 1294 . The funerary monument is set in a niche above the altar, with the recumbent effigy of a young man placed inside a mortuary chamber and flanked by two angels. The reliefs were carved by an Umbrian sculptor, probably of local origin. Between the tomb and the stained glass window appears a frescoed triptych attributed to Giotto's school, representing the Madonna and Child with Saint Francis and Nicholas . The cycle decorating the walls of the chapel, completed by 1307, comprises twelve scenes painted on the ceiling and on the walls illustrating the life and miracles of St Nicholas A scene of the chapel’s dedication is painted above the arch of the entrance on the southern wall: the Redeemer receives the homage of Giovanni Orsini, presented by St. Nicholas, and of Napoleone Orsini, presented by Saint Francis. The stained glass windows show Cardinal Napoleone presented to Christ in the summit and his brother presented to Saint Nicholas in the zone below. At the southern end of the transept cardinal Orsini commissioned another chapel, dedicated to St John the Baptist, which was probably originally built for the tomb of Napoleone Orsini himself, but the cardinal was never buried there and the tomb remained empty . The parallel architectural arrangement of both Orsini chapels suggests that they were conceived together. However, the decorations of the chapel dedicated to Saint John the Baptist were never finished . Pietro Lorenzetti ( or his workshop) executed a frescoed triptych with a Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Francis.

The left transept was decorated by the Sienese painter [[Pietro Lorenzetti]] and his workshop between 1315 and 1330 (attributed by Vasari Pietro Lorenzetti and also (wrongly) to Giotto and Puccio Capanna) . This cycle of tempera frescoes are his masterworks. They depict six scenes from the ''Passion of Christ''. The fresco of ''Deposition of the Cross'' is especially emotional. There were about 330 work-stages needed to complete this cycle. Beneath the monumental "Crucifixion" scene, Pietro Lorenzetti has executed a fresco of Madonna and Child, accompanied by Saints John the Evangelist and Saint Francis ( the so-called 'Madonna dei Tramonti'). The fresco is accompanied by a frescoed niche containing the liturgical implements and a fictive bench.

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The juxtaposition of the ''Childhood'' and the ''Passion'' frescoes emphasizes the parallel between the ''passion'' of Christ and the ''compassion'' of St. Francis.

 

The papal altar in the apse was made out of one block of stone from [[Como]] in 1230. Around the altar are a series of ornamented Gothic arches, supported by columns in different styles. The 12 columns that surrounded the altar were removed in 1870. The fine Gothic walnut choir stalls were completed in 1471 by Apollonio Petrocchi da Ripatransone, with the help of Tommaso di Antonio Fiorentino and Andrea da Montefalco.

 

 

== Crypt ==

Halfway down the nave one can descend into the crypt via a double stairway. This burial place of St. Francis was found again in 1818. His remains had been hidden by brother Elia to prevent the spread of his relics in medieval Europe. By order of [[Pope Pius IX]] a crypt was built under the lower basilica. It was designed by Pasquale Belli with precious marble in neo-classical style. But it was redesigned in bare stone in neo-Romanesque style by Ugo Tarchi between 1925 and 1932.

 

 

== Friary of St. Francis ==

 

The friary now houses a vast library (with medieval [[codex|codices]] and [[incunable]]s), a museum with works of art donated by pilgrims through the centuries and also the 57 works of art (mainly of Florentine and Sienese schools) of the Perkins collection.

 

== Upper basilica ==

One enters the upper basilica from the loggia of the friary. The slender Gothic style of the upper basilica gives a completely different impression.

 

Large glass stained windows, placed halfway up the walls, shed their coloured light on the masterworks of Giotto and Cimabue. The windows in the choir were produced by German craftsmen, active around Assisi in the last part of the 13th century. The windows on the left hand side of the nave were made by a French workshop (1270), while those on the right hand side are attributed to the workshop of [[Maestro di San Francesco]]. These stained glass windows are among the best examples of 13th c. Italian glasswork.

 

 

The choir has 102 wooden stalls with carvings and marquetry by [[Domenico Indovini]] (1501). In their centre, on a raised platform, stands the papal cathedra.

 

The west end of the transept and the apse have been decorated with many frescoes by [[Cimabue]] and his workshop (starting in c. 1280). The magnificent ''Crucifixion'', with St. Francis on his knees at the foot of the Cross, stresses again the veneration of the Passion of Christ by St. Francis. Sadly, the frescoes of Cimabue soon suffered from damp and decay. Due to the use of lead oxide in his colours and to the fact that the colours were applied when the plaster was no longer fresh, they have deteriorated and have been reduced to photographic negatives.

 

Prior to him there had been some decorations in the upper right hand section of the transept by an (anonymous) Northern Master, probably an English artist (1267-1270). He realized the two [[lunette]]s and the [[roundel]]s on the west wall with paintings of the ''Angel'' and the ''Apostles''. Another (anonymous) master, the Roman Master, painted the ''Isaiah'' and the ''David'' and the remainder of the wall under the eastern lunette.

 

The upper part on both sides of the nave, badly damaged by the earthquake of 1997, was decorated in two rows with in total 32 scenes from the Old Testament (starting with ''Creation of the World'' and ending with ''Joseph forgives his brothers'') and the New Testament (from the ''Annunciation'' to ''The Women at the Tomb''), while the upper register of the entrance wall is covered with two frescoes ''Pentecost'' and ''Ascension of Jesus''. Since it took about six months to paint one bay of the nave, different Roman and Tuscan masters, followers of Cimabue, have performed this series of scenes such as [[Giacomo]], [[Jacopo Torriti]] and [[Pietro Cavallini]].

 

The two frescoes of the life of Isaac (''Isaac blesses Jacob'' and ''Esau in front of Isaac'') in the middle register of the third bay, are traditionally ascribed to the young Giotto (1290-1295) (previously wrongly ascribed to Cimabue by [[Vasari]]). But even this has been controversial. Many critics esteem these the work of the anonymous Isaac Master and his workshop. Deducing from stylistic details, attesting to his Roman background, some think that the Isaac Master may have been [[Pietro Cavallini]] or a follower. Pietro Cavallini had painted around 1290 a similar fresco ''Isaac blessing Jacob'' in the convent of the church [[Santa Cecilia in Trastevere]] in Rome. The position of the resting Isaac looks like the same position of the Virgin in Cavallini's mosaic ''Birth of the Virgin'' in the apse of the church [[Santa Maria in Trastevere]] in Rome. The Isaac Master is considered one of the first practitioners of the true fresco (''[[buon fresco]]'') technique.

 

But the most important decorations are the series of 28 frescoes ascribed to the young [[Giotto]] along the lower part of the nave. Each bay contains three frescoes above the [[dado (architecture)|dado]] on each side of the nave, two frescoes in the east galleries beside the entrance, and two more on the entrance wall. Giotto used the ''Legenda Maior'', the biography of St. Francis by St. [[Bonaventure]] (1266) to reconstruct the major events in the life of St. Francis. The prototype for this cycle may have been the (now lost) St Francis cycle by [[Pietro Cavallini]] in the church [[San Francesco a Ripa]] in Rome. The paintings are so vivid, as if Giotto had been a witness to these events. According to [[Vasari]], they were executed in the period between 1296 and 1304.

 

 

The first span of the ceiling is decorated with frescoes of the "Four Doctors of the Church“ ( Jerome, Augustine, Gregory and Ambrose), attributed either to a young Giotto or to one of his followers. The third span presents four heart-shaped medallions of the Christ, Mary, John the Baptist and Francis, painted by [[Jacopo Torriti]].

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{{reflist}}

* {{cite book|last=Bellucci|first=Gualtiero|title=Assisi, Heart of the World|publisher=Edizioni Porziuncola|location=Assisi|year=2005}}

* Borsook, Eve. The Mural Painters of Tuscany, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1980.

* Lunghi, Elvio, The Basilica of Saint Francis at Assisi. The frescoes by Giotto his precursors and followers, Thames and Hudson, London, 1996.

* {{cite book|last=Smart|first=A.|title=The Assisi Problem and the Art of Giotto : A Study of the Legend of St. Francis in the Upper Church of San Francesco, Assisi|year=1971|location=New York|year=1983}}

 

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