Note 76 — Front matter (continued 4)

It is often supposed that Giotto took the theme of this fresco from the well-known lines of Dante referring to the mystical marriage of St. Francis to Poverty. But Dante wrote the xi. canto of the Paradiso long after Giotto had left Assisi; both painter and poet really only followed the legend recounted by St. Bonaventure of how St. Francis met three women who saluted him on the plain of S. Quirico near Siena. These were Poverty, Charity and Obedience.