The writer discusses depictions of a dramatic turning point in the life of St Francis of Assisi: the moment he renounced his inheritance, stripped in public, and gave all his clothes back to his father. The earliest painted version of this scene appears to be on a panel at the altar of the Capella Bardi in Santa Croce in Florence. The writer contrasts this version (a subdued, elegiac, almost private episode) with a fresco version painted at the same chapel some 70 years later by Giotto di Bondone. He notes that in the fresco, the dramatic conception of the scene is totally changed; the father is clearly angry and has to be restrained from attacking his son. He discusses the hagiographical problems raised by this change in the dramatic conception of the scene and considers what light the depictions shed on the original dispute.
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