By Rona Goffen (NHC Fellow, 1986–87)
University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988
From the publisher’s description:
Goffen considers the church of Santa Croce, the Bardi Dossal, and Giotto’s cycle of Saint Francis both in relation to each other and in the context of the history and spirituality of the Franciscan order during its first century. The dossal is the visual equivalent of the writings of Celano, the first biographer of Saint Francis. The hero of the dossal is the Spiritual ideal, but by the time the Bardi family had commissioned its chapel of Saint Francis, almost a century after the dossal was painted, the Conventuals had effectively taken over the church and friary of Santa Croce. Giotto’s cycle of Saint Francis in the Bardi Chapel is understood as the representation of the Conventual Saint Francis, the purposeful and controlled hero of Bonaventure’s biography, which had been imposed as the only official life of a saint.
Subjects
Art / History / Religion / Art History / Murals / Catholic Church / Italian Renaissance / Religious Art / Order of Friars Minor / Basilica de Santa Croce / Saint Francis of Assisi / Giotto /Goffen, Rona (NHC Fellow, 1986–87). Spirituality in Conflict: Saint Francis and Giotto's Bardi Chapel. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988.