Page 390 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

388  IT AL Y AND GREECE

Assisi: Basilica di San Francesco

The burial place of St. Francis, this basilica was begun in 1228,
two years after the saint’s death. Over the next century, its
Upper and Lower Churches were decorated by the foremost
artists of their day, among them Cimabue, Simone Martini,
Pietro Lorenzetti, and Giotto, whose frescoes of the Life of St.
Francis are some of the most renowned in Italy. Many of the
basilica’s frescoes were badly damaged in the
earthquake that hit Assisi in 1997, but all have
been restored. The basilica, which dominates
Assisi, is one of the great Christian shrines . Cappella di San Martino
and receives vast numbers of pilgrims The frescoes in this chapel
throughout the year. on the life of St. Martin (1315)
are by the Sienese painter
Simone Martini. This panel
shows the death of the Saint.
Martini was also responsible
for the fine stained glass
in the chapel.

. Frescoes by Lorenzetti
The bold composition of
Pietro Lorenzetti’s fresco,
entitled The Deposition
(1323), is based around
the truncated Cross,
focusing attention on the
twisted figure of Christ.

. Frescoes by Giotto
The Ecstasy of St. Francis
is one of 28 panels that
make up Giotto’s cycle on
the Life of St. Francis (c.1290–95).
KEY
1 A Renaissance portico shelters 5 St. Francis, Cimabue’s simple 8 The Upper Church
the original Gothic portal of the painting (c.1280), captures the has soaring Gothic vaulting
Lower Church. humility of the revered saint, painted with a starry sky,
who stood for poverty, chastity, symbolizing the heavenly
2 The crypt contains the tomb and obedience. glory of St. Francis. Its style
of St. Francis.
6 The choir (1501) features a influenced that of many
3 Steps to the Treasury 13th-century stone papal throne. later Franciscan churches.
4 The vaulting of the Lower 7 Faded paintings by Roman 9 The facade and its rose
Church is covered almost entirely artists line the walls above Giotto’s window are early examples
in frescoes. Life of St. Francis. of Italian Gothic.

For hotels and restaurants see pp438–40 and pp441–3

388-389_EW_Europe.indd 388 14/07/16 10:16 am