St Anthony and St Francis Fresco by Simone Martini

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St Anthony of Padua and St Francis. Fresco, 215 x 185 cm

Cappella di San Martino, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi

On the underside of the entrance arch of the Cappella di San Martino eight full-length saints are painted in four pairs. They are Saints Francis, Clare, and Anthony of Padua - tributes to the Order that administered the Basilica - as well as other saints connected to Robert of Anjou: Louis of Toulouse, his older brother; Elizabeth of Hungary, the aunt of his mother, Mary; Louis IX, King of France, his great-grandfather; Mary Magdalene and Catherine of Alexandria, saints his father Charles II was particularly devoted to.

Simone Martini was a Sienese Gothic artist who developed a highly decorative painting technique that exerted a strong influence on Tuscan art until the mid-quattrocento, decorating haloes and the borders of panel-paintings. Simone's wall-painting technique, focusing particularly on his incorporation of decorative methods traditional in panel-painting, and frescoes.

Martini is believed to have been a student of Giotto di Bondone, the foremost Florentine painter of his day, whom he followed to Rome.

St Anthony and St Francis (1317) fresco by Simone Martini

215 x 185 cms | 84 1/2 x 72 3/4 ins

Lower Church, San Francesco. Assisi | Italy

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