The supreme moment in the life of St. Francis, the seraphic Poverello of
Assisi, is the subject of this small panel picture, painted in tempera
colors with a gold background, by an artist of Giotto’s school in the
Romagna, who was probably a direct pupil of the great Italian master, and
whose charm of color and grace of line were vivified by a feeling for
reality of form inspired by Giotto’s example. Toward the close of the
Saint’s life, two years before his death, he retired with some companions
to the solitudes of Monte La Verna. On the morning of the Exaltation of
the Holy Cross, as St. Francis knelt in prayer on a lonely part of the
mountain, there appeared to him a seraph with six flaming wings bearing
the effigy of Christ crucified. Two wings were raised above His head, two
were spread in flight, and and two covered His body. As St. Francis gazed
ecstatically upon this vision, the Savior’s five wounds were miraculously
imprinted on his hands and feet and side. The second figure in the
composition is that of the Saint’s companion, Brother Leo, who by his
aloofness from the dramatic action of the picture serves effectively as a
foil to the figure of St. Francis.
[Madonna and Child. The Master of the St. Ursula Legend]