The Making of Assisi: The Pope, the Franciscans, and the Painting of the Basilica by Donal Cooper and Janet Robson (review)

Specialist scholars, interested students, and passionate readers alike will warmly welcome the publication of this handsomely illustrated, elegantly written, and excellently researched book. As the frescoes of Assisi are amongst the most important (and most studied) Italian artworks of all times, the risk of producing yet another monograph on the subject was extremely high. Cooper and Robson, however, take a fresh perspective, focusing on patronage and iconography and wisely leave aside the exhausted attribution debate over the authorship of the paintings. The approach itself is not new: indeed it is openly indebted to the seminal studies of Alistair Smart and Gerhard Ruf (as well as to the more recent work of Chiara Frugoni), but the authors have added much that is new through their careful rereading of the documents, by offering a fresher visual analysis of both individual scenes and their actual location within the Basilica, and by setting the art-historical discourse within the most recent debates on function and "meaning," as well as those on physical and intellectual contexts.

Starting from a convincing dating of the nave paintings to the period between May 1288 and May 1297, and from the demonstrable (and indeed well-demonstrated) fact that the murals are the work of a complex and variously articulated workshop which follow a single coherent programme of exceptional visual ambition and intellectual scope, one of the most significant contributions of this volume is the actual attempt to identify the minds that might have lain behind the conception and design of such a programme. This leads naturally on to a revision of traditional ideas about patronage and agency. The established view that Nicholas IV (1288–92), as the first Franciscan Pope, played a leading role not only in commissioning but also in shaping the programme is challenged by the observation that he never visited Assisi, coupled with the fact that the scheme was not only highly site-specific, but also evolved to some extent once work was under way. An analogous argument is used to test the role that might have been played by the Minister General, Matthew of Acquasparta (also traditionally seen as a key impresario), thus shifting attention from the Curia to the Franciscan community at Assisi, particularly to the Provincial Ministers of Umbria and to the Custodians of the Basilica. A subtle and intelligent prosopographical study of office-holders at the Sacro Convento brings to the foreground a number of friars who combined extensive administrative experience with sophisticated theological knowledge, presenting us with a cluster of the names of those who were more convincingly involved in giving shape to Nicholas IV's ambition than any ecclesiastic at the Curia. This research has the merit not only of making us think more broadly about the intellectual context within which the frescoes were conceived but also successfully refining our understanding of the pictorial programme as having been painted for Nicholas IV as much as having been commissioned by him.

There is insufficient space here to allow us to list all the numerous thought-provoking ideas and new insights offered by the authors–some will open up new avenues for research, others will provoke and/or require testing–but together they unquestionably contribute to make this a must-read book, and an indispensable reference for scholars and students for years to come.