Benozzo Gozzoli and Saint Francis

What it is and where it is

Montefalco has warm colors: the red of the Sagrantino vines in autumn, the ruby of its wine, the gold of its oil, the ochre of its mighty walls and narrow alleys and, all around, the softer, bluer colors of the rolling Umbrian hills that crown it... We're not telling you about these colors today, but about the palette of Benozzo Gozzoli, who painted an extraordinary cycle of frescoes right here in the mid-1400s. Enter with us into the 14th-century church of St. Francis, now a museum, and with respect and wonder "read" the story of the saint of Assisi on the walls of the apse.

Why it's special

The apse is a whirlwind of colors and narratives. Its five walls are entirely covered with scenes from the life of St. Francis, divided into three overlapping bands. In an entirely unusual way, the narrative begins from the lower left with the birth (in a cave, like Christ) and rises upward toward Heaven: it dwells on the gift of a cloak to a poor man or the renunciation of earthly goods, and then arrives at the stigmata and other miracles and concludes, in the vault, with Francis in glory among the saints. Striking are the architectures that divide the scenes into several episodes and the backgrounds where perspective landscapes open up or where fairy-tale and colorful cities with a somewhat metaphysical flavor tower over.