Full title | Saint Francis before the Pope: The Granting of the Indulgence of the Portiuncula |
---|---|
Artist | Sassetta |
Artist dates | active by 1427; died 1450 |
Series | San Sepolcro Altarpiece |
Date made | 1437-44 |
Medium and support | Egg tempera on poplar |
Dimensions | 88.4 x 52 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought with contributions from the Art Fund, Benjamin Guinness and Lord Bearsted, 1934 |
Inventory number | NG4759 |
Location | Room 52 |
Art route(s) | A |
Collection | Main Collection |
In a vaulted green hall, Pope Honorious III blesses Saint Francis of Assisi, watched by assembled cardinals and various others. This is the third of a series of eight panels depicting episodes from Saint Francis’s life. They were part of a sumptuous double-sided altarpiece Sassetta made for the friars of Borgo San Sepolcro, which was completed in 1444. The back showed Saint Francis in Glory surrounded by these narrative scenes, seven of which are in the National Gallery’s collection.
According to the scripta, the written instructions setting out the subject matter for the altarpiece, this scene shows Pope Honorious III granting Francis the Indulgence of the Portiuncula in 1216. The friars at San Sepolcro may have requested this episode because they believed, wrongly, that Ranieri Rasini, a local holy man who was buried below the altar at San Sepolcro, was a witness to this event. The friar at the far left, turning to look over his shoulder, is possibly intended to represent Ranieri.
In a vaulted green hall a pope blesses Saint Francis, watched by a king and nine cardinals (eight dressed in red, one in blue). Francis’s companions kneel behind him between seated cardinals, while a crowd of clerics and laymen look on. Over the doorway is the papal coat of arms, with crossed keys; these also decorate the cloth of honour behind the pope.
This the third of eight panels depicting scenes from Saint Francis’s life, made as part of a sumptuous double-sided altarpiece by Sassetta. It was completed in 1444 for the friars of Borgo San Sepolcro. The back showed Saint Francis in Glory (Berenson Collection, Villa I Tatti, Settignano) surrounded by these episodes from the saint’s life, seven of which are in our collection. According to the scripta, the written instructions setting out the subject matter for the altarpiece, this scene shows Pope Honorious III granting Francis the Indulgence of the Portiuncula in 1216. Francis had boldly asked Honorius for a plenary indulgence (one that grants complete remission of sins) to be given to pilgrims visiting the Portiuncula, a tiny chapel which Francis had reconstructed and which was the cradle of the Franciscan Order, on 1 and 2 August. To the amazement of the cardinals, the Pope approved. The Portiuncula Indulgence still takes place yearly.
This is a rare scene and Sassetta seems not to have had access to a written account of the granting of the indulgence. Instead, he adapted Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s painting Saint Louis of Toulouse before Pope Boniface VII (San Francesco, Siena). This explains the inclusion of a king, an unlikely figure at the papal court: Lorenzetti’s fresco included Saint Louis’s father, Charles of Anjou, who was present on that occasion. The friars of Borgo San Sepolcro may have requested this episode because they believed, wrongly, that the Blessed Ranieri Rasini, a local holy man who was buried below the altar at San Sepolcro, had witnessed this event. The friar at the far left, turning to look over his shoulder, is possibly intended to represent Ranieri. The prominence of the Pope’s hands, which have a red circle in the centre of his white glove, may be an allusion to Francis’s stigmatisation, which was shown in The Stigmatisation of Saint Francis. The stigmata were understood in Franciscan theology as Christ’s seal upon the indulgence Pope Honorius had granted Francis.
The altarpiece from which this panel comes was constructed and painted in Sassetta’s workshop in Siena and then assembled at San Sepolcro. The main tier and pinnacles consisted of four separate vertical planks, painted on both sides and dowelled together so they were easy to transport (this method was also used by Taddeo di Bartolo for his altarpiece at San Franceso al Prato, Perugia, which was one of the models for Sassetta’s altarpiece). The eight scenes of Francis’s life were painted in pairs on the backs, with four standing saints on the other side. When the altarpiece was dismantled, the panels were sawn down the middle: the standing saints are now divided between the Berenson Collection at Settignano and the Louvre, Paris.
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San Sepolcro Altarpiece
These paintings were once part of one of the largest and most splendid altarpieces of the early Italian Renaissance. Made up of almost 60 panels, the double-sided altarpiece was painted for the high altar of San Francesco in Borgo San Sepolcro, a town near Arezzo. The back, which was seen primarily by the friars, showed Saint Francis in glory surrounded by eight scenes of his life, seven of which are in the National Gallery’s collection.
Unusually, surviving documents tell us a lot about how it was commissioned, constructed and paid for. The project was begun in 1426 but had foundered, and in September 1437 Sassetta took over. In early 1439 two friars visited him in Siena, bringing the scripta, a document stating what he was to depict. Although they provided the text, the artist provided the imagination: the scripta states that the friars, themselves artisans, and the painter together should decide on the details.
These paintings of episodes from the life of Saint Francis of Assisi come from the back of one of the largest and most splendid altarpieces of the early Italian Renaissance. Made up of almost 60 panels and measuring 6 m high by 5 m wide, this double-sided polyptych was painted for the high altar of San Francesco in Borgo San Sepolcro, a town near Arezzo.
Double-sided altarpieces were a particular feature of Franciscan churches in Umbria, where the friars sat in stalls behind the altarpiece. Taddeo di Bartolo had made a similar construction for San Francesco al Prato in Perugia in 1403, and several decades before one was painted for a church in the neighbouring town of Città di Castello. Unusually, surviving documents tell us a lot about how the San Sepolcro altarpiece was commissioned, constructed and paid for. In 1426 the operai (the group that oversaw the works and furnishing of the church) contracted a carpenter to carve a double-sided altarpiece. The young Piero della Francesca began working on it in 1432, but it was abandoned and a new start was made. In September 1437, Sassetta took over the project.
Two copies of the 1437 contract survive (one for the artist, one for the friars). In it Sassetta agreed make an identical wooden altarpiece and to paint it with stories chosen by the friars, using the finest pigments and the best of his skill and ingenuity, within four years. Rather than work at San Francesco, Sassetta chose to remain in Siena: he was to transport the completed sections to Borgo San Sepolcro and assemble them there. For this he was to be paid the enormous sum of 510 florins (the cost of about five respectable middle-class houses at that time).
The first installment was paid in February 1438. Nearly a year later two friars visited Sassetta, bringing the scripta, a document stating what he was to depict. Although they provided the text, the artist provided the imagination: the scripta states that the friars, themselves artisans, and the painter together should decide on the details. In general, they followed the narratives of Francis' official biography, Saint Bonaventure’s Legenda Maior, so closely that it’s tempting to think of them all studying the texts together.
On the front of the altarpiece, facing the nave, were the Virgin and Child with angels (Louvre, Paris), flanked by Saint John the Baptist and the Blessed Ranieri Rasini (Berenson Collection, Villa I Tatti, Settignano) on the left, and Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Anthony of Padua on the right (Louvre, Paris). The predella showed scenes of the Passion of Christ; other saints decorated the pinnacles. The back, seen primarily by the friars, showed Saint Francis in glory surrounded by eight scenes of his life, seven of which are in the National Gallery’s collection. The back-facing predella showed episodes from the life of Ranieri Rasini, a local holy man who was buried beneath the altar.
The altarpiece was installed on 2 June 1444, seven years after it was commissioned. We know from a nineteenth-century drawing that it was inscribed with the name of the artist and the date, and also the names of the two operai responsible, Christopher and Andrew. The eponymous saints for those involved in the commission appeared in the piers and pinnacles.
The altarpiece was dismantled during the Counter-Reformation in the late sixteenth century, and its panels dispersed after the monastery’s suppression in 1808–10 (28 survive in collections across the world).







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