Towards the end of this exhibition there’s an oddity: a gold frame enclosing a scrap of unprepossessing brown cloth with a knotted rope. It could be a modern piece using fabric and hemp like Alberto Burro’s Sack, 1953, nearby. Except it’s the actual habit of St Francis of Assisi from the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence. It’s not every exhibition that has a relic of a saint.
Actually, this has two. Nearby there’s a frame enclosing an ivory horn on a chain; it looks like one of those 17th century tromp l’oeil paintings that seems to be the thing it depicts. This one really is a horn, given to Francis by Sultan al Malik al-Kamil of Egypt. This came about after Francis sought the sultan out when he accompanied a crusade, an encounter depicted in a painting by Fra Angelico nearby, showing Francis offering to walk through fire as the Sultan looks impassively on. These things bring Francis vividly into the show, almost in person.
