Inventing the image of Saint Francis

0:04- [Male Host] We're in Santa Croce, in Florence, the great Franciscan church.

0:08- [Female Host] We're standing close to the main alter. This is an overwhelming space. Much of it covered with fresco painting and the main apse occupied by an enormous alter piece.

0:20- [Male Host] The space is vast and it speaks to the huge crowds that were flocking to the Franciscans.

0:25- [Female Host] They were an enormously popular order.

0:28- [Male Host] The Franciscans are medicants, that is, they're one of the begging orders, like the Dominicans. St. Francis gave up his worldly possessions and his followers do the same.

0:39- [Female Host] Both the Franciscans and the Dominicans were relatively new religious orders that specifically located themselves in the cities in Italy and elsewhere in order to preach to an urban population.

0:51- [Male Host] Cities like Florence has become newly wealthy in the 1200s, the 1300s, and especially in the 1400s. And they grew rapidly. Now of course there were the bankers and merchants, but there we also many poor people. And the Dominicans and Franciscans especially saw it as their mission to preach to the poor.

1:10The wealthy elites of Florence saw the Franciscans as a pathway for their own redemption. And so they give the Franciscans large amounts of money, which allowed them to build churches. But it also allowed them to minister to the poor.

1:22- [Female Host] These wealthy merchants and bankers provide for chapels as a place of burial for their families and gave money to the church so that the friars could say prayers on their behalf. The idea that prayers said on your behalf here on Earth could help release you sooner from purgatory so that you could get to heaven.

1:41- [Male Host] We're standing not only beside the high alter but also in front of a large panel painting. Now this painting of St. Francis was produced only a couple of decades after St. Francis's death.

1:52- [Female Host] He died in 1226 and was canonized, was made a saint, in 1228.

1:57- [Male Host] Here is a contemporary man, a man who people might have actually remembered, being represented in the center of this painting almost as if he was a Byzantine icon. The icon tradition tends to focus on the figure, not in a narrative context, not telling stories.

2:12But here we have both, we have that central figure that's functioning almost like an icon, but surrounded by narratives.

2:19- [Female Host] So here Francis stands in the center, completely frontal, surrounded by gold. That gold coming from that Byzantine tradition. And in this format we see the central figure surrounded by apron scenes, or scenes that tell the story of his life, his miracles, and his ministry.

2:37- [Male Host] This is one of eight 13th century paintings of Francis in this format, although there's a lot of local variation.

2:43- [Female Host] Some show as few as four apron scenes. This one has 20 scenes from Francis's life and miracles.

2:51- [Male Host] The earliest of these paintings is in the town of Pesha, not far from Florence, and that shows six apron scenes. Let's focus on two scenes that are most often represented. The earlier of the two is in the left most column. It's Francis preaching to the birds.

3:06- [Female Host] We see Francis with two friars on the left and on the right a stylized tree with birds perched on branches and beside that, stylized rows of different kinds of birds.

3:18- [Male Host] Francis's biographers tell us that Francis preached to the birds, as if they were rational beings and that the birds responded.

3:26- [Female Host] What we're learning is that Franciscans have a mission to preach to everyone.

3:32- [Male Host] Two scenes to the right is probably the single most commonly represented image of Francis. This is the moment when he receives the stigmata. According to Francis's biographers, late in his life Francis has a vision. He sees a seraph angel on a crucifix and soon after the wounds that Christ received on the cross appear on Francis's body.

3:54This miracle is seen as an expression of his affinity with Christ, the way in which he had lived his life so closely to Christ that he was given this divine gift. The background is gold and three rays emanate from the seraph and reach Francis. And this compositional strategy will be influential in the next century.

4:14Artists like Giotto will create more naturalistic renderings of this vary scene.

4:19- [Female Host] One of my favorite parts are the little rounds that show Franciscan friars that are positioned at the corners of each of the apron scenes. They give us a sense that Franciscan friars were close to Francis himself and that we can be close to Francis and Christ through the ministry of the Franciscans.

4:38In the central panel, Francis is elongated. His right hand is in a gesture of blessing. It's very clear that he's showing us the stigmata.

4:47- [Male Host] Francis is shown wearing rough brown cloth and he's shown barefoot. These are signs of his self imposed poverty. And if you look closely at his belt, you'll see that it's just plain rope. But it's knotted three times. The three knots represent his vows: poverty, chastity, and obedience.

5:04- [Female Host] So while there were those who criticized the Franciscans for building churches as lavish as this one, the Franciscans held that doing so helped them in their ministry.