Allegory of Poverty

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Long after St. Francis has passed, his story continues to be depicted. In this iconic fresco painted by Giotto in 1320, the mystical marriage of St. Francis to Lady Poverty is depicted. Although Giotto did not come up with the comparison of St. Francis marrying poverty to the long mythicized marriage of Jesus to the church, he expertly depicts it here in the lower basilica in Assisi. Again the motion of Giottos style is present in Jesus leading Lady Poverty by the wrist to the hand of St. Francis. Again St. Francis and Poverty are depicted without shoes showing their rejection of material wealth and poor status. 

  • Title: Allegory of Poverty
  • Creator: Giotto di Bondone
  • Date: c. 1320
  • Location: Lower Basilica di San Francesco, Assisi Italy

A Medieval Influencers Idealization of St. Francis 

Dante Alighieri has a very clear stance on his appreciation of St. Francis’ mission. The majority of canto XI of Paradiso is dedicated to the story of St. Francis as told by St. Thomas of Aquinas in the VI heaven of the Sun. St. Thomas of Aquinas was a Dominican Friar who Dante depicted as disgruntled with the “current '' Dominican order. To show his disagreement, St Thomas tells the story of St. Francis. He prasis St. Francis as a prince who worked towards a noble goal.

Dante's determination of greed to be the excessive use/want of material wealth takes fruition in his devotion to praise St. Francis mission to renounce material wealth and turn to a humble life of poverty as told through St. Thomas. The wedding to Lady Poverty is one of the major “life” events mentioned in St. Thomas’ recount. Although the event is not actual, the allegorical event demonstrates, as in Giotto's cycle of frescos, St. Francis’ dedication to poverty and sacrifice of material wealth and property.

However, Dante does have problems with a “contemporary” division of the Franciscan order as they have a loose interpretation of the Franciscan rule and allow the ownership of property. “But now his flock is grown so greedy for/new nourishment that it must wander far,/ in search of strange and distant grazing lands;” (Paradiso XI, 124-126). These lines are delivered near the end of St. Thomas’ story and describe the straying division of the order. The “new nourishment” in “distant grazing lands” refers to the property the contemporary Franciscans sought against the original Order’s rule of devotion to poverty including no ownership of property. 

Allegory of Poverty