n of that unique and lovely life the pictorial conceptions
that have made Assisi the cradle of Italian painting. The great works of
Giotto are in the lower church of the Franciscan monastery. One of these
frescoes represents chastity as a maiden kneeling in a shrine, while
angels bring to her branches of palm. Obedience is depicted as placing
a yoke upon the bowed figure of a priest, while St. Francis, attended by
two angels, looks on; Poverty, whom Francis declared to be his bride, is
pictured as accompanied by Hope and Charity, who give her in marriage to
St. Francis, the union being blessed by Christ, while the heavenly
Father and throngs of angels gaze through the clouds on this nuptial
scene. The fresco called Gloriosus Franciscus is perhaps the crowning
work of Giotto. Francis is seen in a beatitude of glory, with a richly
decorated banner bearing the cross and seven stars floating above his
head and bands of angels in the air surrounding him. Canon Knox Little,
alluding to these interesting works of Giotto, says that "even in their
faded glories they give an immense interest to the lower church of
Assisi. No one can look at them now unmoved, or wander on the hillside
to the west of the little city, with the rugged rocks above one's head,
and beneath one's feet the rich carpets of cyclamen, and before one's
eyes long dreamy stretches of the landscape of Umbria, without being
touched by the feeling of that beautiful and loving life devoted to God
and man and nature, in utter truth, which therefore left such an
impress on Christian art."

The Madonna and saints painted by Cimabue are faded almost to the point
of obliteration, yet there still lingers about them a certain grace and
charm. The visitor to this Franciscan monastery church realizes that he
is beholding the art which was the very pledge and prophecy of the
Renaissance, and he realizes, too, that the Renaissance itself was the
outgrowth of the new vitality communicated to the world by the life and
character of St. Francis. He gave to the world the realization of the
living Christ; he taught that religion was in action, not in theology.
He liberated the spirit; and when this colossal church was being built
(1228-53) the artists who had felt the new thrill of life opened by his
teaching hastened to Assisi to express their appreciation by their
pictorial work on its walls. The qualities of spiritual life--faith,
sacrifice, sympathy, and love--began, for the fir