National Gallery, London
Cheerful, selfless Saint Francis is forcefully present in this enthralling show of art and imagery from the Renaissance to the present inspired by the muse, mystic and social radical
Lark song, white butterflies, moonrise, foals: this is what the artist Richard Long saw on his pilgrimage through Umbria in the footsteps of Saint Francis. His shining phrases radiate across the gallery wall in the shape of the glowing sun Francis saw as his sister. They record not only eight days of seeing through the saint’s eyes, but the character of the man himself: his love of starry nights, of watching the Earth turn, loving his fellow beings, feeling the breeze shiver through Italian trees. It is the perfect start to this show.
And Francis is the perfect saint, for art as for his fellow beings. Born filthy rich in Assisi c 1181, he gives it all up to look after others. He talks to the animals, loves sparrows, wolves and people with leprosy, writes paeans to Brother Moon and Sister Sun, restores churches (and quite possibly the church itself) while roving Italy as an itinerant preacher. He travels all the way to Egypt to meet a sultan, and more than once to visit the pope; both are charmed and he is permitted to found a new order.
