San Francesco, Assisi - Lower Church


Chapel of Santa Caterina (St Catherine of Alexandria)


  Built around 1340 for Franciscan nuns. The influential Spanish Cardinal  Egidio Albornoz was buried here in 1368, but he was quickly dug up again and moved to Toledo. A cardinal's hat is supposed to hang in the chapel to commemorate him, but I saw no sign of it when I was there.  

The frescoes show the life and unpleasant matrtydom of Catherine of Alexandria and her convert, the Empress Faustina, and art historians have agonised over them. They were definitely painted by a chap called Andrea, but which one? The contract of 1368 said it was ‘Andreas Pictor de Bononia’,  which causes confusion as there isn’t a place called Bononia, but it does sound a little bit like Bologna.  There was an artist called Andrea from Bologna, working at the time, but the general view is that it wasn’t him. The big money is on Andrea di Bartoli,  who was court artist to the Albornoz family.  Just to add to the confusion, he came from Bologna too. 

 


The martyrdom of the Empress Faustina

 

 


The Empress Faustina visits St Catherine in prison.


The Beheading of St Catherine and the carrying of her body to Mount Sinai


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