Exhibition themes St. Francis

The Life of St Francis

Arthur Boyd’s depictions of The life of St Francis began as a series of pastel drawings that he undertook following a visit that he made with his wife Yvonne in 1964 to the towns of Assisi and Gubbio. Boyd had a particular affection for Italy and was stimulated by spending time in these areas where the well-known medieval saint had lived.

He was also inspired by a biography of St Francis by art historian, Tom Boase, President of Magdalen College at Oxford, who he had known since 1956. Boyd had hoped that the pastels would be included in a new edition of Professor Boase’s biography. However Thames and Hudson decided that it would be too costly to include colour reproductions, so Boyd undertook a suite of striking lithographs depicting the same subjects that were included in the publication.

Boyd was well aware of the great images of the life of St Francis by artists of the past but took an unconventional approach to the subject of the trials and tribulations of the saint. His images surprised Boase who also acknowledged that they were ‘in many ways nearer the facts than the older versions’.

The full impact of Boyd’s vision was finally realised in a breathtaking series of tapestries woven at the Portalegre Tapestry Workshop in Portugal. In his imagery Boyd traverses an emotional range from brutal to tender, from loving to unearthly mysticism. They reveal St Francis’s rejection of wealth, status and worldly appearances, in favour of a spiritual life for the benefit of other beings.