The church of Saint Francis in Pistoia is a church of the XIII century dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi. Construction of the complex began in 1289. The church was built after the Franciscan model, with a single hall covered with trusses and articulated in the transept chapels. The simplicity and decorative style makes barely recognizable Gothic language. The façade was completed only in 1707 with marble covering with white and green stripes. Inside the walls of the nave still bear traces of the decoration with frescoes painted during the fourteenth century. Beyond the great triumphal arch opens the main chapel, decorated with frescoes of St. Francis Stories (1343); the Bracciolini Chapel frescoes with the Stories of Mary carried by the second decade of the fifteenth century; Pazzaglia in the chapel, with frescoes Stories of the Saints Antonio and Ludovico di Giovanni di Bartolomeo Cristiani; in Gatteschi chapel Stories of St. Donnino di Bonaccorso di Cino. Between 1386 and the end of the century they were decorated the chapter house (frescoes by Antonio Vite) and the sacristy. Focusing on the frescoes of the main chapel in San Francesco in Pistoia, discovered during the twenty years of the twentieth century, there is a perception, observing the best preserved fragments of an execution of prime quality. The decorative program of the chapel, which focuses on the stories of St. Francis, recalls the very similar issue cycle of the upper Basilica of Assisi. The stories of the saint stand out for their monumental setting which allows the performer to portray the characters in the natural scale inserted in evocative architectural scenes. The poor condition makes it difficult to read even the most central arch busts presenting figures of the Apostles, Doctors of the Church and not always recognizable Saints except in the jambs including: St. Francis, St. Jerome, St. Augustine and a holy Bishop. On the back wall are figures within newsstands Lazarus, a Santa and a Magdalene, while the times are represented Virtues Franciscan. Vasari pointed as the author of the frescoes in question Puccio Capanna and it is in this direction that moves the first study of this cycle, conducted by Chiappelli, who qualified as "Siena chromatic intonations that escaped to a Florentine practice". These frescoes are indeed one of the rare examples where the Tuscan figurative culture open to that from beyond the Apennines. Unanimously criticism has identified for them an author of the Bolognese master and was the Longhi to propose the name of Scannabecchi Dalmasio based on the presence of the painter in Florence and Pistoia to and more than half of the fourteenth century. The personality of this painter was an important point of contact and artistic mediation between the centers of Bologna and Florence, suggesting Pistoia which confluence center and spread of multiple pictorial instances. To understand the grounds of a "clear painter bolognese extraction for its natural restlessness" (Mellini) in Tuscan environment, it can be useful to bring to light two aspects: the first is related to the figure of Bandino of Ciantori, the client or one of the richest merchants of Pistoia, with traffic in Northern Italy, which took the award in perpetuum of the main chapel of St. Francis, and the second concerns the Giotto's workshop that the loss of the great teacher and was at that time suffered engaged in Milan. A plausible chronological reference may be 1343 date of plaque in the chapel (Previtali, Mellini, Boskovitz) which would establish a post quem term for the Dalmasio activities in Pistoia. In addition, in May 1343 the brothers rely on Lippo Memmi the realization of the polyptych altar (now lost), which according to Vasari was executed by Memmi on Simone Martini design. A plurality of cultural elements emerge from the pictorial language that Dalmasio unfolds on the walls of the chapel, chief among them is that of Emilia usage The expressiveness of the figures in the coat Dono scene, but you hear echoes of the solemn poetic and archaic by Pietro Lorenzetti in 1340 he ended a Madonna and Child with angels (now in the Uffizi) for this church. Spatiality staged by Dalmasio in the stories of the saint can recall that Assisi, especially in the Dream of Innocent III, although with the inclusion of architectural details (discernible in the lintel decoration of the room and the pope read) that deviate a bit 'from the Umbrian model and the integrated vision crucified with interesting details like the obvious inspiration to the dome of the Pantheon for the structure of the apse or inserting a bundle on the window, indicating a descriptive naturalism staff. This spatial planning could be mediated by the lesson of Ambrogio Lorenzetti, as evidenced by the scene of the Sermon to the birds where it is less than the reference to the Assisi model, the more marked is the Sienese master in the walled city views and nell'accesa reddish tone.
