ABSTRACT
In the thirteenth century, the Franciscans were key players in the revival of Aristotelian notions of perception, claiming that all knowledge begins with sensory experience. Embellishing a liturgical space, Cimabue’s murals would also have participated in sensorial engagement more broadly, heightening the synesthetic, mystical performance of Mass. In addition to painting scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary in the apse, Cimabue depicted the miracles and martyrdoms of the apostles in the north transept, and in the south transept he illustrated Saint John’s Apocalypse. Accordingly, fueled by the friars’ desire to promote a vibrant contemplative life for themselves and their followers, Cimabue designed his murals at Assisi with the viewer’s sensorial engagement in mind. No documents for the Upper Church’s commission survive, so the exact time frame is uncertain, but at some point, for unknown reasons, the northern painters failed to complete the project, and the Florentine artist Cimabue was brought in to finish it.
