A Saint, a Theologian and a Painter: Francis, Bonaventure and Giotto in the Basilica at Assisi
Msgr. Verdon lectures on themes of prayer, spirituality, and “confirmation to Christ” in Giotto’s fresco cycle in the upper church at Assisi in the 1290s. The frescoes depict the life of Francis of Assisi in twenty-eight episodes that closely follow the saint’s offical biography, written some years earlier by St Bonaventure.
Born in the United States (New Jersey, 1946), Timothy Verdon is an art historian formed at Yale University (Ph.D. 1975). He has lived in Italy for 47 years and since 1994 is a Roman Catholic priest in Florence, where he directs both the Diocesan Office of Sacred Art and Church Cultural Heritage and the Cathedral Foundation Museum (Museo dell’Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore). Author of books and articles on sacred art in Italian and English, he has been a Consultant to the Vatican Commission for Church Cultural Heritage and a Fellow of the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (Villa I Tatti), and currently teaches in the Florence Program of Stanford University. He writes regularly for the cultural page of the Osservatore Romano and in 2010 curated the exhibit “Christ. His Body, His Face in Art” at the Reggia di Venaria Reale at Turin. Monsignor Verdon is also Director of the Centre for Ecumenism of the Archdiocese of Florence. He lives in Florence, where he is a Canon of the Cathedral.
Book signing with Paraclete Press and reception to follow.