Full title | Saint Francis before the Sultan |
---|---|
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 | 86.4 x 53.2 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought with contributions from the Art Fund, Benjamin Guinness and Lord Bearsted, 1934 |
Inventory number | NG4761 |
Location | Room 52 |
Art route(s) | A |
Collection | Main Collection |
Saint Francis of Assisi, eager to defend his faith through martyrdom, went to Syria to preach to its Muslim population around 1219, at the time of the Fifth Crusade (one of a series of invasions of Muslim countries by Christian armies attempting to recapture the Holy Land). He was captured and taken before Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil, who was defending Damietta from the Christian forces. He attempted to convert the Sultan to Christianity, offering to go through fire for his faith. The Sultan politely declined and sent Francis back to the Christian army.
This painting comes from the San Sepolcro Altarpiece, a large and complex altarpiece painted for the Franciscans of Borgo San Sepolcro. The back of the altarpiece depicted Saint Francis in Glory surrounded by eight scenes from his life, seven of which are in the National Gallery’s collection. This panel was next to The Wolf of Gubbio: Franciscan writers treated the two stories together as examples of Francis’s preaching and peacemaking.
Saint Francis of Assisi, eager to defend his faith through martyrdom, went to Syria to preach to its Muslim population around 1219, at the time of the Fifth Crusade (one of a series of invasions of Muslim countries by Christian armies attempting to recapture the Holy Land). He and his companion, Brother Illuminatio, were captured and taken before al Malik al Kamil, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, who was defending Damietta from the Christian forces. According to the Legenda Maior, Francis’s official biography, he attempted to convert the Sultan to Christianity by offering to go through fire for this faith. The Sultan politely declined his offer and sent him back to the Christian army.
The Sultan, in a white turban and with fair hair, sits on a raised throne under a green and pink arcade. In the centre, Francis makes the sign of the Cross and prepares to step into the curling flames. Brother Illuminatio looks on, along with various members of the Sultan’s court, some in turbans (perhaps the imams who had refused the saint’s challenge). Through an arched doorway at the back of the building we can see a barren wilderness with rocky hills, one topped with towers.
This painting comes from the San Sepolcro Altarpiece, a large and complex polyptych painted by Sassetta for the Franciscans of Borgo San Sepolcro. The back showed Saint Francis in Glory (Berenson Collection, Villa I Tatti, Settignano) surrounded by eight episodes from his life, seven of which are in our collection. This panel was in the top row, on the right-hand side, next to The Wolf of Gubbio. The landscape in this panel continued from that painting: the two stories were together treated as examples of Francis’s preaching and peacemaking by the influential Franciscan writer Bartolomeo da Pisa, whose writings inform various aspects of the altarpiece’s iconography.
Although Francis did not actually walk through the flames, the scripta, the written instructions which the friars gave the artist, told Sassetta to show ‘when he [Francis] appeared before the Sultan and entered the fire’. As elsewhere in the San Sepolcro Altarpiece, the artist has used large amounts of gold and silver, some of which is badly worn: the picture would originally have been brighter and shinier. The swirling flames were originally painted in vermillion pigment over gold; the exposed gilding was stippled with a metal punch to give a sense of the movement of a flickering fire. The Sultan’s tunic was originally white over gold – the pattern was scratched into the white pigment to reveal the gold beneath (a technique known as sgraffito) – while the costume of the figure with a sword on the right was silver with a red lake glaze. His sword and belt are blue over silver, which has darkened, as has the robe of the standing figure with the pink turban.
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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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