giotto and scenes from the life of st. francis and bonaventure and frescoes

The two frescoes in the previous essay are the most familiar of Giotto's 28, familiar because they show St. Francis of Assisi as a "21st century man"--preaching to the birds and "connected" to Christ through the stigmata. Here are some others from the 28 which are not so familiar, with my comments.

Renouncing His Wealth

This scene (# 5) depicts St. Francis giving up all earthly wealth to follow the "hand" of God--toward which he is directing his own hand. Note that Francis is nearly naked, following the command of Christ in Mk. 6 to travel lightly in this world. On the other side of the empty space is Francis' father, dressed in his gilded garments, shod with shoes (Francis has no shoes), upset that his haloed son has chosen the path of renunciation. When a worshiper hears from the Gospels that the original disciples left all to follow Christ, s/he had an example of this in St. Francis.

I think sometimes about Francis' renunciation. Certainly this is highlighted in every source about the Saint's life you will consult. But, in fact, how much of a disadvantage was renunciation? Was it easier for Francis to get recognition of his rule because his family was influential, even though Francis renounced the wealth? Was Francis able to get his own "business" started in life (the religion business) because he had a family who would help him with publicity, funding, etc.? Religious reformers are often put to death--witness John Huss; witness Savonarola. The fact that Francis was widely embraced so soon after his death may have had something to do with his (secular) family connections.

Scattering the Demons

One of my favorite of the frescoes was Francis' scattering the demons from over the city of Arezzo.

Got to love this fresco, which is Scene 10. The description in the book by Bonaventure is: "the Blessed Francis was staying outside the city of Arezzo and over the walls of that city he saw a great horde of demons trying to create havoc...and so he sent his companion Sylvester...to the city gates and said, 'Tell those Demons that in obedience to God they are to leave.' This represents one of the many scenes where Francis has special connection with the celestial realm. But we don't talk about this stuff today, do we?

St. Francis and the Muslims

Another theme from Giotto's frescoes which receives no press today is the challenge issued by Francis to the (Muslim) sultan. Francis lived in an era where the Turks were a major threat to Europe, and where a contest for supremacy of one God over another was very much the essence of how the religions related to each other.

I really am sorry for the poor quality of this image, but the larger one wouldn't "fit" on my page. As Bonaventure says, here Francis appears before the Sultan with a challenge. He says (scene # 11), "If you have doubts about leaving the faith of Mohammad for that of Christ, call for a great fire and let your hold men enter the fire with me, whoever is saved will believe in the other's faith." Isn't this the other way around? It would seem that whichever one gets burned up would be testimony to the fact

that his God was not as powerful. In any case, we see the common religious theme of "challenging the other's gods." This appears as early as Elijah and the Prophets of Baal in I Kings; the motif continues until the modern era.

Conclusion--Holding Up the Church

Let's conclude this essay with one more--on a dream seen by the powerful Pope Innocent III. This appears near the beginning of the scenes (# 6).

The account in Legenda by Bonaventure has: "the Pope...had another dream in which he saw the church of St. John Lateran about to fall, and a humble scorned man who supported the church on his shoulders so that it wouldn't fall." St. John Lateran was the official church of the Pope in the 12th/13th century. It was the "3rd Lateran Council" of 1215, for example, which promulgated the doctrine of transubstantiation.

So, here we have probably the most powerful Pope in the history of the Catholic Church up until that time, Innocent III, dreaming of his church collapsing, with some humble man holding it up. Since this scene is # 6, it occurs just after St. Francis has renounced all his worldly goods. Some historians have suggested that had Francis not come along when he did, the Protestant Reformation would have happened much sooner than the 16th century and, perhaps, would have been a much more significant split. In any case, Francis "as Atlas" here makes for quite a compelling object lesson.

I will only need one more essay to "finish" what I want to say about the frescoes and then relate briefly a dream I had up on my return.

1968