SIMONE MARTINI
(b. 1280/85, Siena, d. 1344, Avignon)

View of the St Martin Chapel

1320-25
Fresco
Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi

The Chapel of St Martin (Cappella di San Martino) is a rectangular room covered by a barrel vault and ending in a hexagonal apse containing three large two-light windows decorated with stained glass. The lower part of the walls is faced with inlays of stone from Assisi, the capitals of the slender columns are covered with gold leaf. The decoration of the walls, executed by Simone Martini, is devoted to St Martin of Tours. The walls are divided into two levels separated by geometric frames with busts of angels at the corners. The saint's life is represented in ten episodes running first along the bottom row and then along the top.

The picture shows a one of the walls of the interior of the Chapel of St Martin.