Umbria, Italy
Assisi
What is there today
The basilica has two churches one above the other, and in the upper one is the fresco cycle on the life of Francis attributed to Giotto. The town is walked end to end in a morning, and from the square the Umbrian plain is visible as far as the eye reaches.
Why this image comes from here
Francis is the first saint of whom a physical description exists written by someone who knew him, and that changes how he is depicted: he is painted short, thin and dark eyed because that is how he was. With him the sacred image begins to look at a specific person instead of a type.
Pieces from this place
- Saint Francis of Assisi
- Assisi sits on an Umbrian hillside and can be seen whole from the plain. The son of a cloth merchant stripped in its square to give his father back his clothes, and everything else follows from that.