Giotto's Apparition of St. Francis at Arles: The Case of the Missing Crucifix?Author(s): Bruce ColeSource: Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 7, No. 4 (1974), pp. 163-165Published by: Stichting voor Nederlandse Kunsthistorische PublicatiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3780484 .

Accessed: 19/03/2014 16:23

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Stichting voor Nederlandse Kunsthistorische Publicaties is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve andextend access to Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 134.208.103.160 on Wed, 19 Mar 2014 16:23:31 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

i63

Giotto's Apparition of St. Francis at Arles: the case of the missing crucifix?

Bruce Cole

Recently in these pages H.W. van Os contributed an illuminating study on Franciscus alter Christus in which he dealt principally with the theme as it appeared in painting during the Quattrocento.1 In the present note I wish not to reopen the investigation of the theological evolution of the theme-admirably treated by van Os- but rather to discuss what is possibly a very early and important example: Giotto's Apparition of St. Francis at Arles in the Bardi Chapel in Santa Croce, Florence (painted about i325).2

In the i8th century the frescoes of the Bardi Chapel were whitewashed over. Shortly after their discovery in I85I they were "restored" by a heavy repaint adminis- tered by the artist Gaetano Bianchi. Figure i shows the Apparition at Arles after the igth-century restoration.3

During the i950S the Bardi frescoes were again "restored." This time an attempt was made to remove all repainting. After this most recent restoration the Apparition at Arles is seen in figure 2, where it is clear that the disfiguring,' often saccharine accretions of previous centuries have been removed.

Now figure i-taken after Bianchi's repainting, but before the work of the I95os-reveals a painted crucifix behind and to the left of St. Francis. After the second restoration-figure 2-the cross no longer appears. Was this because it was a igth-century invention which-on the surface it appears to be? But the question is more

complicated. To see why let us examine the texts of the story.

I find the most complete version of the Apparition story in the First life of St. Francis by Thomas of Ce- lano (written about 1230), where one reads: "While he [St. Anthony of Padua] was preaching very fervently and devoutly to the brothers on this topic, 'Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,' the aforementioned Brother Monaldo looked toward the door of the house in which there were many other brothers gathered and he saw there with his bodily eyes Blessed Francis raised up into the air, his arms extended as though upon a cross, and blessing the brothers."4

St. Bonaventure's Major life of St. Francis (I263), written to replace Celano's Life, has a shortened, less detailed passage on the Apparition: "he [Francis] appeared... to the Chapter of Arles in the form of a cross."5

Thomas of Celano, as we have seen, states that when Francis appeared St. Anthony was speaking on "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." This topic, taken from John I9: I9, describes Christ's Crucifixion.

The strong and early tradition of Franciscus alter Christus6 combined with the subject of Anthony's sermon (the Crucifixion) and both Celano's and St. Bonaventure's statements that Francis appeared "as though upon a cross" and ''in the form of a cross"

I H.W. van Os, "St. Francis of Assisi as a second Christ in early Italian painting," Simiolus 7 (i974), PP. 3-20.

2 For a thorough bibliographical survey of the Bardi Chapel, see G. Previtali, Giotto e la sua bottega, Milan 1974, pp. 326-27. For a stylistic survey of the frescoes, see B. Cole, Giotto and Florentine painting, 1280-I375, soon to be published by Harper & Row, New York.

3 For the restoration, see W. & E. Paatz, Die Kirchen von Florenz, Frankfurt am Main I940, vol. I, pp. 568, 66o-6i. An inscription on the Chapel's altar wall states that Bianchi's restoration took place in I853.

4 This translation is from St. Francis of Assisi: writings and early biographies, ed. M. Habig, Chicago 1972, p. 270. This recent omnibus of sources for the life of St. Francis has an invaluable bibliography. For the Latin versions of the early Franciscan sources, see Analecta Franciscana, vol. IO, 1926-4i.

5 St. Francis of Assisi, cit. (note 4), p. 7I9. 6 The codification of this identification is found in B. Pisanus,

Liber de conformitate vitae beati Francisci ad vitam domini 3esu, ed. Quaracchi, Analecta Franciscana, vol. 4-5, i906-12. On Pisanus's work, which postdates the Bardi Chapel, see van Os, op. cit. (note i), PP. 4-5.

This content downloaded from 134.208.103.160 on Wed, 19 Mar 2014 16:23:31 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

I64 BRUCE COLE

....~~ ~ ~ ~

......

* i~~~~~~~~~~~~_

r a -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.... . .. . .... ._...

i iot ,Apa itino t rni tAls loec,SnaCoe ad hpl.-After Binh's etrto poo:Aiai r92

[.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~- -- --- --- - . .... ..........

|''' t Ru1' f ~W R X;0w ' 1i _sk'''S0

X?!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. . . ..- .. .... ...

S F _ i na N F ifl i _ - 1 _ t g \ s | I | _ *sXE 11 .Maw

I.Tesm rsoatrtersoaino th I950 (poo Afinai nr. 53536)

This content downloaded from 134.208.103.160 on Wed, 19 Mar 2014 16:23:31 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Giotto's Apparition of St. Francis I65

make one think that a painted cross behind the saint would seem not only logical, but necessary as well.7

The fresco's compositional configuration seems to confirm this speculation. We notice that the bordered square within which the crucifix was painted does not line up either with the central arch in front of it, nor with St. Francis (who stands before it with his arms extended looking to our left, very much like the Christ on the cross-Franciscus alter Christus); it appears shifted to our left. This shift allows us to glimpse more of the square and thus to see almost the entire crucifix which, if the square was centered behind the saint, would be blocked by St. Francis's body.8 In other

words, it may not be too farfetched to suggest that the shifted square's raison d'ettre was to contain the crucifix.

What then are we to make of all this? Theologically, historically and in its formal composition, the fresco is more integrated and meaningful with the crucifix, yet it was removed, perhaps because it was thought the invention of Bianchi. If it were, then we must believe that the igth-century painter devised an image which played a vital role in this carefully planned fresco. I doubt it, and strongly suspect that something (the remains of a sinopia? an old copy?) gave Bianchi a clue to what seems to be the now missing linchpin of Giotto's Apparition of St. Francis at Aries.

7 In this connection it is interesting to note that the Apparition scene in the St. Francis cycle at Assisi has no crucifix. This seems to be because the preaching takes place inside and St. Francis appears before a door through which we see outside (see also Giovanni di Paolo's panel of the same subject in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena, published in van Os, op. cit. [note I], p. io). The Bardi fresco is, so to speak, turned inside out and the saint is before a door through which we see an inside wall. Thomas of Celano says only that Monaldo

"looked toward the door of the house." 8 It should be pointed out that the viewpoint of the painted ar-

chitecture of the Bardi Chapel conforms to a viewpoint near the entrance arch, just as its painted light source appears to come from the lancet window of the altar wall. However, the shifted wall in the Apparition scene is moved vastly out of proportion to the rest of the Chapel's painted architecture.

This content downloaded from 134.208.103.160 on Wed, 19 Mar 2014 16:23:31 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions