Francis and Clare at the foot of the Cross
The Christ, probably dating back to the 11th century, is represented alive, upright, almost standing and with open eyes, according to the iconography of the Christus triumphans. In the basilica there is another crucifix placed above the main altar, by an unknown author, commonly called the Master of Santa Chiara and dated 1255-1260. This instead represents a Christus Patiens, melancholy, with the signs of suffering on his face and body, devoid of life. Even the torso and legs are arched and unbalanced, as if giving in to pain and affliction.
At a distance of a few meters the visitor can therefore experience first-hand the historical-artistic passage of medieval painting. This is evident in the representative differences of the different centuries which highlight the process of entirely Western humanization of the pain and suffering of Christ, unthinkable for the Byzantine world.
This new image of the dead Christ had been introduced in Assisi by Fra Elia when he commissioned Giunta Pisano to create a Crucifix for the papal church of San Francesco with his own portrait at the feet of Christ. The same was done by Abbess Benedetta, who commissioned a Patiens Crucifix for Santa Chiara and had herself portrayed in the manner of Fra Elia in the lower table of the cross. In the Crucifix in Santa Chiara the painter painted three characters in adoration: in the center Saint Francis tenderly embracing the feet of Christ and kissing his bleeding wounds, on the right Saint Clare identified by her name, on the left the abbess Benedetta as a long writing explains which justifies her presence: “Domina Benedicta post S. Clara prima abbatissa me fattit fieri”.
If anything, the most curious thing is that in the cross in San Francesco the painter had limited himself to explaining how Fra Elia had that image painted to ask the Lord for mercy, while in Santa Chiara in painting a portrait of the abbess Benedetta the painter had not limited to remembering her as the client of the sacred image, but to visually reinforce the concept he had painted a bag full of coins hanging from her hands clasped in prayer: usually in medieval paintings a bag full of coins appears in the hand in allegories of Avarice, looking like an older woman in dark clothing, not exactly a compliment.
Yet this sort of infamous painting is the prototype of an iconographic invention destined for considerable success, and which originates from a passage from the Legenda Sanctae Clarae dedicated to her ardent love for the Crucifix: "The cry of the passion of the Lord is familiar to her : to her who, now, draws feelings of bitter myrrh from the sacred wounds, now draws more joyful sweetness from it. The crying of the suffering Christ makes her feel drunk and her memory continually presents to her the One whom love has imprinted deeply in her heart. He teaches the novices to cry for Christ crucified and what he teaches with words, he exemplifies together with deeds: since often, while he exhorted them individually to do this, his crying preceded the words". Perhaps the painter could have saved himself the bag with the money, but no one can doubt that the image is effective.
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