Saint Francis and the Marca

Art and Faith Treasures in Treviso

On the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis, Chiese Aperte, as part of its annual training for volunteers, in the spring section open to the public, wanted to explore the presence of the image of this Saint in Treviso and its Province.

For this reason, in the Brother Sun hall of the San Francesco convent in Treviso, on May 14 at 6:30 PM, Don Paolo Barbisan, Director of the Cultural Heritage Office of the Diocese of Treviso, as well as the creator of Open Churches, held a conference as an art historian to illustrate the places where these images are preserved and to describe them in their uniqueness.

First of all, it started by highlighting the number of artworks depicting St. Francis in our diocese. There are as many as three hundred, a record number, although given the local dedication, those of St. Anthony surpass it.

He then went on to explain the choice of the image on the poster in which the saint looks at us with a most noble face: it is a fragment in the apse of the Calandri Chapel that Talberto di Luisforte and Caterina Robegan dedicated to the Virgin. The painter is Gentile da Fabriano, already active in the Richieri Chapel.

The second image of the saint that Don Barbisan spoke about is located in the crypt of the Duomo di Treviso, in a niche with the Madonna and Saints in Adriatic style, decorated by a friend of Petrarch, Pietro da Beone. One of the two saints is Saint Francis: he can be recognized by his tonsure, unkempt beard, and suffering eyes. This is exactly the description given by his first biographer, Thomas of Celano.

Another representation of the saint is with Saint Clare, both bearers of the Word. The presence of the saint tells us that in Treviso there was a convent of the Poor Clares since 1232.

Another image depicts the saint in full figure holding a lily, a symbol of purity that points to the stigmata on the hands and side.

The author is likely an artist from the workshop of Tomaso da Modena.

In the Church of San Nicolò, San Francesco is depicted on two columns, even though we are in a Dominican church. We are in the second half of the fourteenth century, and on one column, there is a Madonna with San Domenico on the left holding scriptures and a lily. On the right, however, there is a narrative scene rather than a sacred conversation, in which Francesco is facing a church.

In the other column, we have the Madonna del Parto, recognizable by her starry mantle, flanked by Saint Francis and Saint Dominic, or perhaps Saint Thomas Aquinas, since he writes about the Incarnation. Both mendicant orders were indeed committed to demonstrating the incarnation of Christ and the figure of Mary as a mediator through their sermons.

We must remember that the columns, which seem like spontaneous works, were actually gifts from testamentary bequests, representing the eponymous saints or those to whom the donors were devoted. These donations also included the possibility of being buried in the church.

In the church of San Francesco, near the tomb of Dante’s son, there used to be the ark of the good Gherardo da Camino, and here we find a relief in which Saint Francis presents the nobleman to Mary. A commendatio, that is, a mediation of the saint at the altars of heaven.

In the church portal, we instead see a rarity in the language it expresses in the lunette. The Virgin Mary is depicted with the Baby Jesus in her arms, who touches her neckline to seek milk. On the sides are the archangels Gabriel and Michael with the lily scepter, a symbol of the Annunciation, and the globe, a symbol of passion and judgment.

In San Francesco, there were many altars with many altarpieces. With the Napoleonic suppression, many of these altarpieces ended up in France, leaving here those of the Franciscans. Some have been preserved at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice as models for painting students.

This church, after being emptied over the centuries by various historical events, was reborn in 1928, through a cultural association among the best of the time, among whom the figure of Luigi Coletti stands out, president of the artistic heritage of the Trevisans, who chose the date of the temple’s reopening on the day of the canonization of Saint Francis.

On this occasion, Bishop Andrea Longhin hands the keys to the friars for the reopening of the church, during a gathering of the city in the name of Beauty.

And it is in San Frascesco that there is a fresco that recalls this moment, probably by Giovanni Barbisan, located above the entrance of the sacristy.

Here are mentioned the various characters of the time who attended the ceremony: the podestà Giovanni Faraoni, Oddo Celotti, and the same Luigi Coletti. But the figure that stands out is undoubtedly the Saint with the temple of San Francesco in an open hand.

Don Barbisan continued to enumerate and describe a series of paintings present in our area depicting Saint Francis: in Dosson di Casier, in Riese PioX, in Castelcucco, in Noale, in Scorzè, in Biancade, and in Castelfranco.

Finally, the conference ended with a surprise, as Father Oliviero had hinted while introducing the conference and the speaker: the creation of a new altarpiece for the church of Santa Maria di Sala, dedicated to the stigmata of Saint Francis, a copy of that by Federico Barocci (1535-1612), now known only through prints.

The copy was made by Antonio Guidolin, a renowned restorer and painter, and is now on display at the Church of San Francesco until the end of September, after which it will go to its permanent location in Santa Maria di Sala.

The audience of this conference was able to gain insights for taking a walk to visit the churches of the city to rediscover the face of Saint Francis in its various versions, but also the opportunity to take trips outside the city to discover the works of art in our churches spread throughout the territory.