Legends of the monastic orders : as represented in the fine artsForming the second series of Sacred and legendary art . to assist the reader to discriminate the merit, as well as tocomprehend the significance, of the representation. But even a classification is here difficult. I shall begin withthose subjects which must be considered as strictly are of two kinds :— I. The figures which representSt. Francis standing either aloneor in a Sacra Conversazione; orenthroned, as the Padre Serafico,the patron saint and founder of hisSeraphic Order. II. Those which represent himin prayer
Legends of the monastic orders : as represented in the fine artsForming the second series of Sacred and legendary art . to assist the reader to discriminate the merit, as well as tocomprehend the significance, of the representation. But even a classification is here difficult. I shall begin withthose subjects which must be considered as strictly are of two kinds :— I. The figures which representSt. Francis standing either aloneor in a Sacra Conversazione; orenthroned, as the Padre Serafico,the patron saint and founder of hisSeraphic Order. II. Those which represent himin prayer or meditation as thedevout solitary, the pattern ofascetics and penitents. The earliest known representa-tion of St. Francis has almost thevalue and authenticity of a por-trait. It was painted by GriuntaPisano a few years after the deathof the saint, and under the direc-tions of those who had known himduring his life : it is a small full-length, in the sacristy of his churchat Assisi; which, when I was there,hung high over a door with a cur-tain drawn before it, rather, as itseemed, to preserve than to conceal. St. Francis. (Ginnta Pirano). 248 LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. it. He is standing,—a long meagre figure—long out • of allproportion,—wearing the grey habit and the cord; holding across in his right hand, and in the left the Gospel: the face issmall; the forehead broad; the features delicate and regular;the beard black, thin, and short; the expression mild andmelancholy. Another very ancient figure, with the hood drawnover the head, and in the hand a scroll, on which is written Paxhuic, exists at Subiaco, and is supposed to have existed theresince the time of Gregory IX. (the same Cardinal Ugolini whowas the friend of St. Francis, and ( Protector of the Order).A third, by Margaritone di Arezzo, also with the hood drawnover the head, the Gospel in one hand, the other raised inbenediction, is still preserved in the church of Sargiano nearArezzo. The character
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