Dating the Bardi St. Francis Master Dossal: Text and Image

DATING THE BARDI ST. FRANCIS MASTER DOSSAL: TEXT AND IMAGE The problems of establishing accurate chronological positions for Dugento panel paintings arise from a scarcity of inscribed dates, signatures, extant contracts and related documents.1 With these elements lacking, scholars can arrive at tentative solutions based upon stylistic resemblances to dated works and upon a general knowledge of stylistic evolution. Or, when a panel's subject matter originates in contemporary hagiographical literature, a study of those legends may furnish additional chronological data. If scholars neglect to exhaust this latter source, they may err in correctly dating the work in question. It is our purpose here to demonstrate that existing scholarship concerning the probable date of execution of the St. Francis Altarpiece in the Bardi Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence, rests on an erroneous identification of its sources in Franciscan literature. By first detailing early Franciscan hagiography and then by exploring the panel's dependence upon these thirteenth century legends it is hoped to establish a more precise terminus post quern and terminus ante quern for this work, than those previously reported.2 1 The importance of the scarcity of documentation for the known Dugento works is almost overshadowed by the fact that these few extant paintings may represent only ? % of all Italian work executed in the thirteenth century. That losses may exceed 99% has been recently suggested by E. B. Garrison, "Note on the Survival of Thirteenth-Century Panel Paintings in Italy," Art Bulletin, 54 (1972), 140. 8 This paper represents research undertaken in a graduate seminar on Dugento painting taught by Professor James H. Stubblebine of Rutgers University, at the University of Pennsylvania in 1966. During the final stages of its preparation , the author discovered, in the catalogue of the Columbia University Art Library, a reference to the unpublished doctoral dissertation of W. B. Miller, TAe Franciscan Legend in Italian Painting in the Thirteenth Century, Columbia University, 1961. It became evident, on reading Miller's thorough iconographie study of all extant Dugento paintings on the life of St. Francis, that his conclusions about the erroneous nature of previously published dates for the Bardi 272JUDITH E. STEIN Less than two years after the death of Francis on October 3, 1226, he was canonized as a saint. There was an immediate need for an official legenda to preserve the memory of the humble founder of the Friars Minor. Shortly after the ceremonies of canonization on July 16, 1228, Pope Gregory IX commissioned Brother Thomas of Celano to write the first Vita of St. Francis, which was completed by 1230.3 Francis' first biographer, Thomas of Celano, had to be diplomatic and act as a prudent spokesman who would not heighten the tension arising in the Order. There were some who found the Rule of Francis too strict and idealistic to meet the needs of the developing communities of friars. This group clustered around the figures of Brother Elias, Minister General of the Order from 1221 to 1227 and again from 1232 to 1239, and Cardinal Ugolino, who acceded to the Throne of Peter as Gregory IX in 1227. Others, including the original brothers who had been with Francis through the hard years of the early Order, were opposed to any relaxation of the Rule. Later in the century, the spiritual descendents of the first group would be called "Conventuals ," and of the second, "Spirituals." Celano's first biography tactfully avoided any issue that might have widened the gap within the Order. This does not hold true for Celano's Vita Secunda, in which his sympathies clearly lie with the "Spiritual" faction.4 This supplement was partially based on his earlier dossal, coincided with those of the author. His work will be cited in the course of this paper to indicate the author's indebtedness for insights and information gained from a reading of his manuscript. Readers interested in other discussions of the relationship between early Franciscan texts and images are referred to John Moorman, "Early Franciscan Art and Literature," Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 27 (1942-43), 338-58; and to the careful analyses by Evelyn A. Silber, The Corsini Speculum and Its Franciscan Cycle, unpublished master's thesis, University of...