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

St Louis of France and St Louis of Toulouse

1320-25
Fresco, 215 x 185 cm
Cappella di San Martino, Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi

On the underside of the entrance arch of the Cappella di San Martino eight full-length saints are painted in four pairs. They are Saints Francis, Clare, and Anthony of Padua - tributes to the Order that administered the Basilica - as well as other saints connected to Robert of Anjou: Louis of Toulouse, his older brother; Elizabeth of Hungary, the aunt of his mother, Mary; Louis IX, King of France, his great-grandfather; Mary Magdalene and Catherine of Alexandria, saints his father Charles II was particularly devoted to.

The figure of St Louis of France was painted at a later date over a figure dressed in a long white tunic still visible in the lower part of the fresco.