Returning Holy Land pilgrims are saved from drowning by prayer, even as winged demons circle the mast of their ship. Fragmentary late-1300s or early-1400s fresco in the Chiesa Di San Francesco, Lucignano, Tuscany, Italy.
Lucignano, Val di Chiana, Tuscany, Italy: this detail of a fresco in the Chiesa di San Francesco, once thought to show a scene from the life of St. Francis of Assisi, may actually relate to a pious widow named Michelina, a mercenary soldier named Pandolfo and returning Holy Land pilgrims praying to be saved from drowning. Local cultural officials, supported by scholars, believe a large female figure painted above the stricken sailing ship depicts Blessed Michelina of Pesaro (c. 1300-1356). After her husband and son both died, she followed the teachings of St. Francis by giving away her belongings and devoting herself to helping the poor and sick. Miraculous events attributed to her prompted a fast-growing cult, and she was eventually beatified in 1737 by Pope Clement XII. The soldier of fortune, Pandolfo II Malatesta (1325-1373), came from a warlike dynasty that once ruled eastern Italian towns and cities. He fought for Milan and Florence as a captain of mercenaries and attributed his salvation in a raging storm to the intercession of Michelina. The ship is shown here amid stormy seas close to the safe haven of Venice, but with winged demons circling its mast and the pilgrims praying for their lives. But one friar holds up a cloth bearing the likeness of a woman, presumably Michelina. The Church of St. Francis stands in Piazza Tribunale in this well-preserved medieval town east of Florence. The St. Francis fresco cycle here was painted by influential early Renaissance Sienese artists Bartolo di Fredi (c. 1330-1410) and Taddeo di Bartolo (c. 1363-1422), but it is not known whether either man had any involvement in the shipwreck fresco. However, the fact that the town’s former Franciscan convent houses another painting of Michelina suggests that members of the Malatesta family may have lived in Lucignano and may have helped promote her cult.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Chiesa di San Francesco, Piazza Tribunale, Lucignano, Arezzo province, Tuscany, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1300s, 1400s, 14th, 15th, ad, adriatic, afraid, art, century, chiesa, christian, christians, church, , danger, dangerous, demons, di, drowing, early, family, fear, flying, francesco, francis, frantic, fresco, frescoes, frightened, haven, holy, italian, italy, land, late, lucignano, malatesta, manning, mast, miracle, miracles, painting, paintings, panic, peril, perilous, pilgrimage, pilgrims, prayer, prayers, praying, renaissance, return, rigging, rough, safe, sailing, sails, saint, salvation, san, saved, sea, seas, ship, ships, shipwreck, storm, storms, stormy, terrified, tragedy, tuscan, tuscany, wall, winged
