Giotto

What re-reading of Francis?

Abstract

This article applies the poetry reading method developed by Walter Benjamin and José Guilherme Merquior to the interpretation of the life of St. Francis painted by Giotto (or his assistants) in the frescos in the upper basilica of Assisi. This method considers not only aesthetic qualities to be important, but also any possible message; indeed, it attempts to draw the message from the aesthetics. The present exercise seeks to make a contribution to current theological thinking by discovering key permanent and practical elements in reading the Franciscan charism, using in this process instruments that the study of symbols employs to interpret the mixture of meanings deposited in culture across the centuries. It is thus useful to have the reconstruction of Francis’s life produced by the “Franciscan Sources” and associated scholars in the last few years in an attempt to rediscover a sense of imaginative continuity in Franciscanism that has direct influence upon the incarnation of Francis’s charism.