The Franciscans and the True Cross: The Decoration of the Cappella Maggiore of Santa Croce in Florence

Abstract

This study considers the decoration of the Cappella Maggiore, the high altar chapel, of Santa Croce in Florence as a program of images that communicated specific messages to the friars of the church concerning their role in carrying out Francis' mission. The initial program, executed in panel painting and stained glass circa 1320-1340, emphasized the theological and devotional importance of the cross and its significance to the Franciscans as an object that, in Bonaventure's view, refers to the stigmata given to Francis by God. The centrality of cross to the Cappella Maggiore's program is reinforced by the church's possession of the relic of the True Cross, which the friars enshrined in a crystal reliquary circa 1300. The chapel's later program, completed by Agnolo Gaddi and his workshop from 1388 to 1393, illustrates the Finding and Exaltation of the Cross and emphasizes the potency that the sacred relic had for its many devotees. Franciscan saints and beati, shown in stained glass and fresco, take their place beside the larger narrative scenes and act as models of sanctity for the friars. Together with the Franciscans friars who worshipped in the choir, these images of saints symbolically take part in the discovery of the True Cross contained in the reliquary on the altar.