St. Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata
Described in 1550 and 1568 by Vasari as being found in the church of San Francesco in Pisa, this retable no doubt comes from one of the transept chapels. Often contested despite the presence of the signature, the attribution of this work to Giotto has been reaffirmed by the majority of specialists. The scenes from the life of St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) are comparable to the frescoes depicting the same subject in the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi that are also attributed to Giotto.
Description
A non-traditional representationFor the central portion of the painting, Giotto chose not to depict a full-length, hieratic figure, as one generally sees on 13th-century retables, but rather one of the key moments in the life of St. Francis: the receiving the stigmata of Christ, whom he sees in the form of a seraph while praying on Mount Alverno. The predella of the retable depicts four scenes from the life of the saint: to the left, the dream of Pope Innocent III wherein he sees St. Francis supporting a church about to collapse; in the center, the pope approving the rule of the Franciscan order; to the right, St. Francis preaching to the birds, demonstrating that the Word of God applies to all living creatures.
A work by GiottoThe four scenes are very similar in their iconography, composition, and style to the cycle of frescoes depicting the life of St. Francis in the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi, which the majority of experts attribute to Giotto. The presence of the painter's signature, OPUS IOCTI FLORENTINI, on the original frame leaves no doubt as to the authenticity of the retable and moreover confirms Giotto's intervention in the early 1390s at the building site of the basilica.