In Italy, at the (now deconsecrated) church of San Francesco in Montefalco, in southern Umbria, to see the frescoes painted by Benozzo Gozzoli in the mid-fifteenth century. In the central apse there is a magnificent cycle depicting events from the life of Saint Francis.

Benozzo Gozzoli ‘Stories from the Life of Saint Francis’ (1450 – 52)

Benozzo Gozzoli ‘The Birth of St. Francis, the Prophecy of the Pilgrim and the Homage of the Simple Man’ (1450 – 52)

Benozzo Gozzoli ‘The Renunciation of Possessions’ (1450 – 52)

Benozzo Gozzoli ‘Sermon to the Birds and the Blessing of Montefalco’ (1450 – 52)

Benozzo Gozzoli ‘Stigmatization of the Saint’ (1450 – 52)

A further fresco cycle by Gozzoli is in the Chapel of Saint Jerome, depicting, amongst other events, the saint removing the thorn from the lion’s paw.

Benozzo Gozzoli ‘Scenes from the Life of Saint Jerome’ (1452)

The church also contains a delightful ‘Nativity’ painted in 1503 by Perugino and a ‘Crucifix’ from the late-thirteenth – early-fourteenth centuries by the Maestro Espressionista di Santa Chiara.

Perugino ‘Nativity’ (1503)

Maestro Espressionista di Santa Chiara ‘Crucifix’ (late 13th – early 14th centuries)