Author(s): Margaret Pont

Australian Art

Arthur Boyd (1920-1999) produced numerous artworks based on the life and legends of St Francis of Assisi. The original works were produced to accompany a reprint of a 1936 biography of the saint by art historian Tom Boase in the 1960s. Boyd produced both a set of 25 lithographs and versions in colour pastels. In the 1970s he produced 20 tapestries based on the pastels. This volume examines each of the artworks in detail, and each is reproduced (the pastels and tapestries in full colour). Also includes discussion of the significance of St Francis in Italy and key Italian artistic renderings of the saint. Preface by Vincenzo Coli, Custodian of the Sacro Convento, Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi. Introduction by Margaret Manion, Honorary Curator of Medieval and Early Renaissance Art, National Gallery of Victoria. Epilogue by William Cook, a Professor of History, State University of New York. Other colour and black-and-white photos; catalogue of Boyd's St Francis works; early Franciscan sources and biographies; bibliography. Author wrote a Master of Arts thesis at the University of Melbourne on the subject of this book, and is a Research Fellow at the University's School of Art History.