Description
In this fresco from the Chapel of Saint Martin at Assisi, Simone Martini depicts a child brought back to life through the saint’s intercession. Martin bends in prayer beside the boy, while the mother and the witnesses react with hope, fear and astonishment.
A crenellated tower and a rocky landscape frame the episode. The many faces, garments and gestures turn the miracle into a shared human experience. The painting forms part of the early fourteenth-century cycle devoted to the life of Saint Martin.
The participants’ exchanged glances convey fear and hope without relying upon exaggerated movements. The story belongs to the devotional traditions surrounding Martin, rather than to a contemporary visual record of a documented event. Despite areas where paint has been lost, the surviving figures still show the painter’s ability to portray a whole community responding emotionally to one child’s fate.
