assisi and gubbio and frescoes and giotto and saint francis

I have spent so much time on Giotto's Frescoes of the life of St. Francis in the "Upper Church" at Assisi because of their supreme artistic and theological importance. Though Giotto had a very active painting/frescoing practice for more than 30 years, those depicting the life of St. Francis will forever be the ones for which he is best known. Theologically, the frescoes are important because they take the story of Francis' life from Bonaventure's Legenda (1263) and try to tell the story of a life of faith in successive panels. This final essay will present a few more of the 28 scenes, focusing especially on the ambiguous panels and the way Francis' power spread after his death.

We might divide some of the remaining scenes into: (1) scenes showing Francis' prodigious spiritual connection to God; (2) his capacity to work miracles; (3) his ambiguous actions and (4) the response to Francis after his death. As mentioned earlier, Francis' death appears on fresco 21; seven additional panels portrayed the reaction to Francis' death. I am afraid I will have to be very brief, so here goes.

I. Combining Piety and Miracles

The following scene combines (1) and (2) above.

Here is Scene 14, which Bonaventure describes as follows: "The Blessed Francis got down from the donkey and threw himself into prayer with his arms raised to the sky and said to the thirsty poor man, 'Go to that stone and you will find running water that God in His mercy has given.'" Not only does Francis have a special connection with God, but he is able to see(?), discover (?), or create (?) miracles. The motif of water from the rock is a biblical one.

An Ambiguous Fresco

But then you have a fresco like the following. What is the message, in your judgment?

This is number 16. Here is the description in Bonaventure. "They went into the refectory and began eating, the knight then passed out of this life at once, just as the Belssed Francis had envisaged." So, is this a miracle? It certainly isn't a healing, since the knight ended up dying. Or, is it meant to be a sort of "Nunc Dimittis" ("now let thy servant depart...because my eyes have seen my salvation")? There are a few ambiguous ones.

One "Evidence" from After Francis' Death

Fully 1/4 of the frescoes describe events in the "life" of St. Francis after he has died. For example, scene # 25 should be noted:

Here is Pope Gregory IX dreaming away. But, as luck would have it, he isn't just dreaming about anything. As Bonaventure says: "Pope Gregory was not without some doubt in his heart about the lance wounds of Christ in his side. So, one night...the Blessed Francis appeared in dream, reproache dhim for his doubt, lifted his right arm and showed him the wound in his side." So, this is a sort of "doubting Thomas" fresco, to show not only that great people doubt, but that those doubts can be resolved.

On to Gubbio

So, we left the Church of San Francesco, immeasurably richer because of the frescoes and the music of the choir, happy to have had a conversation with a man in the courtyard below about the ministry of Francis. On we pressed to Gubbio, supposedly the most excellently preserved medieval town in all of Italy. I couldn't vouch for that, but we did see scene after scene like the following.

Virginia loved taking pictures like this--the "through the arch"-type of picture (though it is my photo). As a matter of fact, I learned that this was the "cool" way to take pictures today, even though I am not very good at it. You can't really tell but the narrow roadway is covered with rough rocks. Thus, as you walked through sojme of the narrow "Vias" of Gubbio (the Germans would call them "Die Gasse"), you had the sense that people could, at one time, have shut the doors to their homes and no one, not even one with blazing torches, could have entered.

Conclusion--A Dream

We arrived back in the Pacific Northwest about 9:00 p.m. on July 4, after having left our hotel at 7:00 a.m. (Rome time) that same morning. By the time I got to bed it was midnight PST (9:00 a.m. the next day in Rome). I awoke in the middle of the night--maybe it was the effect of jet lag or maybe it was a dream I was having, but I had no idea where I was. I was completely disoriented. I thought about it for a minute and concluded that I must be in Gubbio, the last town we visited. I looked out the window, and it was pitch black. Maybe I was in Gubbio, I thought. So, I went to the bathroom, but I decided I might need to put my heavy shoes on to get there because the cobblestone streets of Gubbio (where I may have been) would be hard on the feet. Even by the time I got back into bed, I still thought I was in Gubbio. I have never been so confused about place in my life. But finally I awoke and, in the words of John Bunyan, it was a dream!

1969