Hulin de Loo, Georges: Early Flemish paintings in the Renders Collection at Bruges: exhibited at the Belgian Exhibition, Burlington House, January 1927 (London, 1927)

portraits attributed to Margaritone of Arezzo and which are
to be seen in the Museums of Siena and of Arezzo, as well
as at the Vatican; the one in this latter gallery seems, even
more than the others, to be a distant prototype of our Saint.
It is understood that we do not think that our Flemish artist
of the 16th. century was directly inspired by this picture of
Margaritone; but we know, in particular from a fresco by Barna in
the Cathedral at Arezzo, representing the Crucifixion with several
Saints (about 1340 ?), that the Italian artists of the 14th. century
went back to these portraits of St. Francis, but modified them more
or less to suit the taste of the time : they were supposed
in fact, to have been done from an original painted in the
Saint’s lifetime, and it might be one of these later replicas
38 This inference might perhaps be strengthened by the
inscription painted on the chanfrin of the frame, on the
-t-—1 « Dit belde es ghemaect naer trechte ghelyke » t—-
■-t--: « Dat Sente Frantzoys ghync op eerderycke » s-r—
--?--s « Zulc was Frantzoys zyns levens - tijd » r-:--
-—1—t--1 « Dus meerct syn wese, de Wonde en tabyt » t-:—
which may be translated as follows : « This picture is made according
« to the perfect likeness of St. Francis, when he walked this
« earth; thus was St. Francis in his lifetime. Mark his aspect,
38 As is the case for the heads by Margaritone, our painting
may claim to have been done from an original drawn from

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