Italian art
Perkins's plunder
Alistair Hicks
St Francis's monastery in Assisi hardly needs another eulogy. Its basilicas were painted by most of the early Renaissance masters. Much of the earliest work, the Cimabues and Cavallinis, were long ago reduced to faint brown holy patches, but the Cimabue masterpiece is still there, hemmed in by Giottos, Pietro Lorenzettis and Simone Martinis.
One of the great academic debates has raged throughout this century over the authorship of the life cycle of St Francis in the Upper Basilica. Traditionally ascribed to Giotto, it is now generally attributed to three main different hands as well as the master's. F. Mason Perkins, an American dealer and critic, entered the fray at the turn of the century to support the lone questioning voice of Bernard Berenson. Though published in 1902, Perkins's small book on Giotto does have a refreshingly critical tone. His writing is unpretentious, as is the rump of his collection, which has recently been installed on permanent view by Air Italia in a room of its own in the Basilica San Francesco. The collection of 57 panel paintings from the 14th and 15th centuries is remarkable not for any specific masterpieces but for the broad view it gives of Tuscan and Umbrian art.
The monastery appears at first sight a surprising destination for the Perkins col- lection. The outstanding neighbouring frescoes exaggerate the mediocrity of the smaller panels. Too many people visit Assisi already. The earthquake-hit monas- tery receives approximately three thousand visitors a day, probably two thousand a day too many for the good of the place. As a dealer and colleague of Berenson, Perkins saw many paintings exported from Italy, yet when he died in 1955 his widow was instructed to bequeath the majority of his collection to the monastery of his beloved Assisi. He lived in the city for much of his life. Some important works have ended up in other museums and a few are un- accounted for, but his wishes appear to have been followed on the whole. The minor works, the 'school of's' and lesser- known artists' works make the visitor realise the full depth of the Italian painting tradition.
Next month's Gothic exhibition at the Royal Academy will show how rich Eng- land is in church art, but it cannot be compared to Italy. Virtually every village `St Christopher': panel by the early 15th- century artist known as 11 Sassetta, from the recently installed Perkins Collection at Assisi Yet Perkins's own restrictions may have supplied his very raison d'être. Italy is not short of great museum collections. It is rich in regional collections: only a few miles away in Perugia there is the extensive Umbrian collection. However, there are very few collections that cut across the regions to reveal what was happening throughout Italy as the Perkins does. It is true that the Perkins collection has a predominance of Tuscan and Umbrian work, but it is not the sole diet. It encourages the viewer to get on his donkey and travel.
Sadly, the installation makes one want to start the journey straight away. Given the context, its location in a 13th-century building, the designers could not have done much worse. They have imposed a sub-Habitat construction of plastics, glass, metal and mint green pine in the centre of the room. The paintings themselves are placed on an immediate canvas back- ground, but they are packaged like shoes in an old-fashioned children's shoe shop. The gold ground of the paintings is soured by the diagonal green planks. The mixture curdles in one's brain.
The top layer of this intruding labyrinth of a structure has a totally separate display. There is an exhibition of photographs devoted to the installation. The scenes of honest workmen swinging on girders were probably initially taken for Air Italia's company report.
Still, the structure can have caused no permanent damage. The Perkins collection is a charming addition to St Francis's monastery. St Francis is held up as the echo of Christ. He renounced his wealth and founded an order based on an oath of poverty. Yet within a century the centre of his foundation boasted the greatest con- centration of high art. The Perkins Collec- tion brings it down to earth with a delight- ful bump.
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