Resumen de Fictive Frescoes with a French Connection
The writer considers the significance of the modest materials used for four unusual mid-14th-century paintings on fabric which are ascribed to the Neapolitan Master of the Franciscan Temperas and were commissioned by King Robert of Anjou and his Queen, Sancia of Majorca. The paintings are the earliest extant examples from this period whose patronage by a royal house of French background allied them to related works made north of the Alps. The modest character of canvas or plain silk emphasized the humble penitential nature of their Passion-dominated imagery. Such a deliberate choice by the king and queen was used to portray Passion scenes and Franciscan saints reflecting the influence of the strict Spiritual Franciscanism they favored even at court. Visual similarities with French fabric-backed pictures define a propagandistic tie between the related dynasties of the Angevins of Naples to the Valois of France.
