Saint Francis renounces his Earthly Father

Under the arches of a pink arcade, Bishop Guido of Assisi wraps his cloak around the naked Saint Francis of Assisi. The saint’s discarded boots, shirt and hose lie in a heap on the floor. To the left, Francis’s father, enraged by his son’s rejection of their wealthy lifestyle, has snatched up the costly red robe.

This is the second of eight panels from the back of the San Sepolcro Altarpiece, a large and magnificent polyptych (multi-panelled altarpiece) painted for the Franciscan friars of Borgo San Sepolcro; seven of these scenes are in the National Gallery’s collection. This painting originally sat next to one showing Francis giving his clothes to a poor knight. It depicts the next step in the saint’s renunciation of the world, a kind of inverse ‘rags to riches’ story.

Text: © The National Gallery, London

Painting photographed in its frame by Google Arts & Culture, 2023.