_The Chapel of St. Anthony the Abbot._[80]--About 1367 two monuments
were erected in this chapel over the sepulchres of two murdered
princes--Messer Ferdinando Blasco, nephew of the Cardinal Albornoz,
and his son Garzia. Some say they met their death at Spoleto where the
father was vice-governor, others that they were killed at Assisi close
to the convent of S. Appolinare by the citizens before they submitted
to the kindly rule of the Cardinal. The chapel had been built by a
liberal Assisan gentleman who also left money for its decoration; but
if there were paintings (Vasari mentions some by Pace di Fænza)
nothing now remains but a rather feeble picture by a scholar of
Pinturicchio. The white stone monuments, the white-washed walls and
the total absence of colour gives an uncared-for look to this
out-of-the way corner of the church. A much brighter spot is the old
cemetery opening out of this chapel, which was built in the fourteenth
century with the intention of adorning it with frescoes in imitation
of the Campo Santo at Pisa. The double cloister seen against a
background of cypresses and firs, above which rises the northern side
of the Basilica, form a pretty group of buildings, and can be better
enjoyed now than in former days, when the bones of Assisan nobles and
franciscan friars were piled in the open galleries.
The Basilica of San Francesco became the burial place, not only of
some of the saint's immediate followers, but also of many
distinguished personages. The large stone tomb at the end of the
church is always pointed out as that of "Ecuba," Queen of Cyprus, who
is said to have come to Assisi in 1229 to give thanks for having been
cured of an illness by the intercession of St. Francis, when she gave
the porphyry vase full of ultramarine which is still to be seen,
though now empty of its precious contents. She is said to have died in
1240, and to have been buried in San Francesco. But this "Ecuba" is a
mysterious person not to be found in the history of her country, which
has led some writers to say that it is Iolanthe, the second wife of
Frederick II, who lies here. It is one of those tombs common in the
time of Giovanni Pisani, but bearing only a faint resemblance to his
masterpiece in the Church of San Domenico in Perugia. "On one side,"
says Vasari, in surprise at the novelty of the style, "the Queen,
seated upon a chair, places her right leg over the left in a singular
and modern manner, which position for a lady is ungraceful, and
cannot be regarded as a suitable action for a royal monument."
The tomb to the right was erected soon after 1479 in memory of Niccolò
Specchi, an Assisan physician of renown attached to the persons of
Eugenius IV, and Niccolò V.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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