( fl Assisi, c. 1290s). Italian painter. The cycle of paintings of the Legend of St Francis (see GOTHIC, fig. 77) in the nave of the Upper Church of S Francesco, Assisi, consists of 28 narrative scenes illustrating events from St Bonaventura’s Legenda maior (1260–63), proclaimed the official biography of St Francis in 1266. Italian literary tradition ascribed these frescoes to GIOTTO and dated them c. 1300. Rintelen (1912) and Offner (1939) rejected this attribution, and since then Italian scholars have tended in general to support the conventional assignment to Giotto and his workshop, while others have recognized the work of at least three different painters (see ASSISI, §II, 2(iv)). The Master of the Legend of St Francis is the comprehensive title for the principal painter, who probably designed and supervised the execution of the fresco cycle in the Upper Church. His work includes most of the episodes, from St Francis Donating his Cloak to a Beggar (scene II; see fig.) to the Stigmatization of St Francis (scene XIX). The scenes are grouped in separate units conforming to the church’s architecture. Each of the four bays along the north and south walls of the nave contains three episodes (each 2.7*2.3 m) arranged from left to right above the dado. Two additional scenes are below the east galleries beside the entrance, and two (each 2.7*2 m) cover the inside wall of the façade. The cycle begins on the north wall of the nave in the bay closest to the crossing and ends on the south wall opposite. Like the biblical cycles above them, the organization of the St Francis cycle recalls Roman models. The prototype may have been Pietro Cavallini’s lost St Francis cycle in S Francesco a Ripa, Rome (Paeseler).

Part of the Masters, anonymous, and monogrammists family

• Legend of St Francis, Master of the
  • works
    • Assisi, §II, 2(iv): S Francesco: The Legend of St Francis
    • Gothic, §IV, 5(v): Painting: Italy, c 1265–c 1320
    • Renaissance, §2: Early Renaissance, c 1300–1450