Frescoes in the Upper Church of San Francesco, Assisi (1290s)

The frescoes above the gallery behind the crossing in the nave of the Upper Church show the unmistakable style of Jacopo Torriti who was chosen by Pope Nicholas IV for the mosaic decoration of the apsidal tribunes of San Giovanni Laterano (1291) and Santa Maria Maggiore (1296) in Rome. The frescoes in Assisi are earlier than the Roman mosaics, as is clear from their more old-fashioned approach to the representation of space.

The decorative program in the nave consists of the fresco cycle Legend of St Francis painted by Giotto beneath the gallery on the lower part of the wall, and episodes from the Old Testament above the gallery in the clerestory on the north wall, and episodes from the New Testament on the south wall. Some of these scenes as well as the vault with the Deesis were painted by Torriti and his assistants.

Reproductions of the frescoes in the Upper Church are listed in the Web Gallery of Art in sections of Cimabue, Giotto, Jacopo Torriti, Master of Saint Cecilia, Master of the Isaac Stories, and Unknown Italian Masters.