The Wolf of Gubbio

In around 1220, Saint Francis of Assisi was living in Gubbio, Umbria. When a ferocious wolf began attacking livestock and people, Francis rebuked it, and tamed the animal by making the sign of the cross. He promised that, if it stopped terrorising the city, it would be forgiven and cared for. The wolf placed its right paw in the saint’s hand to seal the bargain.

This is the fifth of eight scenes from the life of Saint Francis made for the back of the double-sided San Sepolcro Altarpiece (seven are in the National Gallery’s collection). Of the eight, only this one depicts an event that’s not mentioned in Francis’s official biography. This scene is drawn from the fourteenth-century Fioretti (‘Little Flowers of Saint Francis’).

The notary on the left who records the bargain between the wolf and the saint was perhaps intended as a compliment to Francesco de' Larghi, the notary who did the paperwork for the altarpiece and oversaw payments for it.

Text: © The National Gallery, London

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