Pictorial initial and tailpiece (page 384) from Les Petites Fleurs de St. François (The Little Flowers of St. Francis)

Francis of Assisi (1181, 1226) was an Italian mystic and founder of the Franciscan order whose spiritual practice profoundly shaped Western Christian art and iconography. Though not primarily a visual artist, his devotional intensity and philosophical writings, particularly his emphasis on nature, humility, and divine presence in everyday life, became foundational subjects for centuries of European painting, sculpture, and manuscript illumination. His life and teachings were documented in hagiographies and visual cycles that became central to the development of Renaissance art.