Sassetta, 'The Funeral of Saint Francis', 1437-44
About the work
Overview
Saint Francis of Assisi died on 4 October 1226, surrounded by his friars at the chapel of the Portiuncula, outside Assisi. Rather than in a tiny chapel, here the saint lies on a bier in front of the altar of a large pink and blue church, surrounded by friars, church officials and other witnesses.
This is the last in a series of eight scenes of the life of Saint Francis, which were depicted on the back of a complex altarpiece painted for the Franciscan church in the Tuscan town of Borgo San Sepolcro. Here, as elsewhere on this altarpiece, Sassetta has departed from the scripta, the written instructions given to him by the friars, which had simply asked him to depict the saint’s death. He also painted the verification of the stigmata (the wounds Christ received at the Crucifixion, which Francis also miraculously experienced). The change was perhaps prompted by a desire to portray Francis as a second Christ.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Funeral of Saint Francis and Verification of the Stigmata
- Artist
- Sassetta
- Artist dates
- active by 1427; died 1450
- Part of the series
- San Sepolcro Altarpiece
- Date made
- 1437-44
- Medium and support
- egg tempera on wood
- Dimensions
- 88.4 × 53.5 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought with contributions from the Art Fund, Benjamin Guinness and Lord Bearsted, 1934
- Inventory number
- NG4763
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 21st-century Replica Frame
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Dillian Gordon, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings’, vol. 1, London 2003; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2011Devotion by Design: Italian Altarpieces before 1500The National Gallery (London)6 July 2011 - 2 October 2011
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2023Saint Francis of AssisiThe National Gallery (London)6 May 2023 - 30 July 2023
Bibliography
-
1935National Gallery, National Gallery and Tate Gallery Directors' Reports, 1934, London 1935
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1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
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1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
-
2003Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, 1, London 2003
Frame
This reproduction tabernacle frame was made at the National Gallery, for the Saint Francis of Assisi exhibition in 2023. It draws inspiration from the frame on Sassetta’s Pala della Madonna della neve (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence). Meticulously crafted from poplar wood, it is water-gilt with decorative motifs adorning the pilasters and the predella. Within the gilded Romanesque arched frames, incised trefoils in the spandrels are painted in a blue hue. Doric capitals adorn the frames and, along with the pilasters, are embellished with undulating foliage engraved into the gesso. The predella features sgraffito ornamentation.
The Funeral of Saint Francis, one of eight panels from the high altarpiece of S. Francesco in Borgo Sansepolcro, Italy, originally formed a double-sided polyptych. Remarkably, all eight panels share a surviving frame, albeit in parts. In 1935 seven of the panels were detached from their original frames and entrusted to the firm G.P. Coulette, which crafted single frames.
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
About the series: San Sepolcro Altarpiece
Overview
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.