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Notes
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According to his biography, the young Saint Francis of Assisi, the son of a wealthy merchant, gave his expensive clothes to a poor knight. The next night God sent him a vision of a great palace, and promised it to him and his soldiers (that is, the army of Franciscan friars he was to found). This the first of eight paintings from the back of an elaborate double-sided altarpiece by Sassetta, which was one of the outstanding artistic commissions of fifteenth-century Italy. The theme of poverty and its rewards runs through the altarpiece, perhaps encouraged by the stringent attitudes of the Observant (reformed) Franciscans, who attracted many followers at this time. Francis’s elegant dress contrasts vividly with the knight’s ragged clothes: his spurs are silver and his robe is silver, painted over with a red lake glaze.
Title
Saint Francis meets a Knight Poorer than Himself and Saint Francis's Vision of the Founding of the Franciscan Order
Date
1437-44
Medium
Egg tempera on poplar
Measurements
H 87 x W 52.5 cm
Accession number
NG4757
Acquisition method
Bought with contributions from The Art Fund, Benjamin Guinness and Lord Bearsted, 1934
Work type
Painting
The National Gallery, London
Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England
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