Frescoes in the Church of San Francesco, Assisi: Frescoes in the Lower Church: Frescoes in the crossing vault of the Lower Church

In the crossing vault of the Lower Church of San Francesco at Assisi, Giotto created an impressive culmination, both of the paintings there and of Franciscan iconography. Around the keystone with its representation of the Christ of the Apocalypse, the allegories of the three Franciscan virtues and St. Francis in Glory are painted in a radiant halo in the compartments of the vault.

The frescoes in the crossing vault, which are located above the main altar and the tomb of St Francis, hence the most prominent place available for fresco decorations in either the lower or the upper church, are the finest of all the frescoes in the lower church.

The frescoes in the crossing vault also established a new genre in contemporaneous mural painting, for these are the earliest monumental allegories that have survived from the age of Giotto.