Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italian mystic, poet, and Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. Inspired to lead a Christian life of poverty, he became a beggar and itinerant preacher.
Assisi is a town and commune of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio.
An altarpiece is an work of art in painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting or sculpture, or a set of them, the word can also be used of the whole ensemble behind an altar, otherwise known as a reredos, including what is often an elaborate frame for the central image or images. Altarpieces were one of the most important products of Christian art especially from the late Middle Ages to the era of Baroque painting.
A reredos is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images.
The rood screen is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or wrought iron. The rood screen was originally surmounted by a rood loft carrying the Great Rood, a sculptural representation of the Crucifixion. In English, Scottish, and Welsh cathedrals, monastic, and collegiate churches, there were commonly two transverse screens, with a rood screen or rood beam located one bay west of the pulpitum screen, but this double arrangement nowhere survives complete, and accordingly the preserved pulpitum in such churches is sometimes referred to as a rood screen. At Wells Cathedral the medieval arrangement was restored in the 20th century, with the medieval strainer arch supporting a rood, placed in front of the pulpitum and organ.
Lanercost Priory was founded by Robert de Vaux between 1165 and 1174, the most likely date being 1169, to house Augustinian canons. The priory is situated at the village of Lanercost, Cumbria, England, within sight of Naworth Castle, with which it had close connections. The Lanercost Chronicle, a thirteenth-century history of England and the Wars of Scottish Independence, was compiled by the monks of the priory.
A baldachin, or baldaquin, is a canopy of state typically placed over an altar or throne. It had its beginnings as a cloth canopy, but in other cases it is a sturdy, permanent architectural feature, particularly over high altars in cathedrals, where such a structure is more correctly called a ciborium when it is sufficiently architectural in form. Baldachins are often supported on columns, especially when they are disconnected from an enclosing wall. A cloth of honour is a simpler cloth hanging vertically behind the throne, usually continuing to form a canopy. It can also be used for similar canopies in interior design, for example above beds, and for processional canopies used in formal state ceremonies such as coronations, held up by four or more men with poles attached to the corners of the cloth.
The monumental complex of the Basilica and Convent of San Francisco of Lima, also known as "San Francisco el Grande" or "San Francisco de Jesús", is located in the Historic Center of Lima, Peru. This church together with the Sanctuary Nuestra Señora de la Soledad and the Church del Milagro set up one of the welcoming and artistic corners of Lima. Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Spanish philologist and scholar in this regard commented: "It is the largest and noblest monument that the conquest erected in these prodigious lands".
A retable is a structure or element placed either on or immediately behind and above the altar or communion table of a church. At the minimum, it may be a simple shelf for candles behind an altar, but it can also be a large and elaborate structure. A retable which incorporates sculptures or paintings is often referred to as an altarpiece.
San Francesco a Ripa is a church in Rome, Italy. It is dedicated to Francis of Assisi who once stayed at the adjacent convent. The term Ripa refers to the nearby riverbank of the Tiber.
San Francesco della Vigna is a Roman Catholic church in the Sestiere of Castello in Venice, northern Italy.
The altar in the Catholic Church is used for celebrating the Sacrifice of the Mass.
In ecclesiastical architecture, a ciborium is a canopy or covering supported by columns, freestanding in the sanctuary, that stands over and covers the altar in a church. It may also be known by the more general term of baldachin, though ciborium is often considered more correct for examples in churches. Really a baldachin should have a textile covering, or at least, as at Saint Peter’s in Rome, imitate one. There are exceptions; Bernini's structure in Saint Peter's, Rome is always called the baldachin.
Chiara Offreduccio, known as Clare of Assisi, is an Italian saint who was one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi.
Giotto di Bondone, known mononymously as Giotto and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic and Proto-Renaissance period. Giotto's contemporary, the banker and chronicler Giovanni Villani, wrote that Giotto was "the most sovereign master of painting in his time, who drew all his figures and their postures according to nature" and of his publicly recognized "talent and excellence". Giorgio Vasari described Giotto as making a decisive break from the prevalent Byzantine style and as initiating "the great art of painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing accurately from life, which had been neglected for more than two hundred years".
Regina Coeli Convent Church is a Roman Catholic parish church and former convent built in the historic center of Mexico City, on the corner of Regina and Bolivar Streets.
San Francesco d'Assisi is a 16th-century-style church dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi, located in Alcamo, province of Trapani, Sicily, southern Italy.
The Church of San Bonaventura al Palatino is a small 17th century church building in Rome built on Via Marco Colidio on the Palatine Hill. It is a Franciscan monastery church built by Francesco Barberini on the request of the Blessed Bonaventura Gran and was completed in 1689.
Madonna and Child with St Francis or Madonna of St Francis is a 1514–1515 painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Correggio, now held in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, Germany. It shows Francis of Assisi, with the stigmata, prostrating himself before an enthroned Madonna and Child - the work's theme is the intercession of the Madonna, which was promoted by the Franciscans after the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1473. Francis is supported by Anthony of Padua, whilst on the right are Catherine of Alexandria and John the Baptist and on the base of the Madonna's throne is a small grisaille image of Moses with the tablets of the law. Catherine's wheel bears the painter's signature "Antonivs de Alegri F.[ecit]".
