Pictures in Umbria

by Katharine S. Macquoid

After a while, as one stands gazing at the great lunettes overhead, one can picture the two friends, Dante and Giotto, on the space now occupied by the high altar,—the imagination of the poet aiding the skill of the painter to perpetuate the teaching of the Spouse of Poverty.

The tomb of St. Francis is in an open crypt below the high altar; this crypt is called by the Assisans the Third Church; the neighbouring peasants frequently attend the early mass celebrated here.

Owing to the care with which Brother Elias, who succeeded Francis as Vicar-general of the Order, secreted the urn containing the remains of the saint, they were not discovered till the year 1818. A tradition had been circulated, and was firmly believed in, that a third very beautiful church had been built underground, and contained the body of the founder.

This successor of Francis, Fra Elia, was doubtless proud and ambitious; his grasping worldliness and irreligion greatly injured the repute of the Franciscan community, but in this special case he acted wisely. Perugia had determined to possess herself of the precious body, which drew pilgrims from all parts of Europe to make offerings at its shrine; Elias knew this, and therefore, when the basilica was completed, and the saint's remains were removed from their tomb at San Giorgio to the new church, he buried them secretly, and surrounded them by a strongly cemented underground wall of masonry, which effectually baffled all attempts to discover them, though the Perugians made several attacks on Assisi for that sole purpose.

In 1818 the Assisans made a more skilful and sustained excavation. At the end of two months, spent in piercing the rock on which the church is built, and the solid wall of masonry which seemed part of the rock itself, the urn was discovered. The excuse for Elias is that he considered the presence of the saint's body to be the honour and glory of the city of Assisi, to say nothing of the wealth accumulated by offerings at the shrine.

Overhead is the culminating glory of the church, the frescoes on the four central lunettes of the vault, sometimes considered to be Giotto's finest work at Assisi. They represent, in allegory, the poverty, the obedience, and the chastity enjoined by the saint, and embodied by him in the rule of his Order. The fourth spandrel represents St. Francis in Glory.

Probably the poet and the painter stood together on this very spot. Tradition says that Dante aided his friend in the conception of these grand designs. The marriage of Francis to the Lady Poverty seems to prefigure the lines in the Paradiso, for Giotto had finished his work at Assisi before those lines were written.

In the next compartment, a monk, a nun, and a lay-brother of the Order are seen taking the vow of chastity; they are supposed to represent Bernard di Quintavalle, the wealthy noble who became the first disciple of St. Francis; Santa Chiara, who wears the robe of the Second Franciscan Order; the lay-brother, in a Florentine garb, is thought to be Dante. The Virtue, guarded by angels, looks out from a tower above. There are many other figures, mortals, angels, and demons, who indicate in various ways the constant struggle and mortification attendant on the Franciscan calling. Some of the angels with beautiful faces are busily engaged repelling the spirits of the world, the flesh, and the devil, who strive to tempt the neophyte, a naked youth who is being baptized by two angels in a font in middle distance. The good angels hurl the devils over the rocks into depths far below.

The third fresco, Obedience, is also full of allegorical figures, and the Virtue wears the Franciscan robe. The fourth fresco shows St. Francis in Glory, surrounded by throngs of fair-haired angels, who sing hymns of perpetual praise. The truth to nature in these figures is remarkable, some of the faces are beautiful.

One might fill many pages with detailed descriptions of the frescoes on the walls and vaulting of this gemlike church. It takes several days even to see them, and therefore it is wiser to spend some time in Assisi, so as to examine them in their best light.