In this book, Louise Bourdua examines how Franciscan church decoration developed between 1250 and 1400. Focusing on three important churches - San Fermo Maggiore, Verona, San Lorenzo, Vicenza and Sant'Antonio, Padua - she argues that local Franciscan friars were more interested in their own conception of how artistic programs should work than merely following models for decoration issued from the mother church at Assisi. In addition, lay patrons also had considerable input into the decoration programs. These case studies serve as a multiform model of patronage, which is tested against other commissions of the Trecento.
In honor of Professor Julian Gardner( history of art, U. of Warwick, UK), some of his former students present 12 papers drawing inspiration from his teaching and writing. The wide ranging contribution
The rise of the mendicant orders in the later Middle Ages coincided with rapid and dramatic shifts in the visual arts. The mendicants were prolific patrons, relying on artworks to instruct and impress
