135 03 The presence of St. Francis in the area around Arezzo has been confirmed since 1211 and it is in this area, precisely on the Monte Verna, while seeking out silence and prayer, that the Saint received the stigmata in 1224. He died just two years later in 1226 and was canonised in 1228. So, in this area, since the mid-13th century, the cult of the Umbrian saint has spread widely. This involved the foundation of chapels and churches in his name, and an increasing present of monks who followed him. In 1290, in the city of Arezzo itself, building work began on what would become the St. Francis' Basilica. With its incomplete façade, the single nave Basilica is home to a considerable wealth of works of art from numerous periods, including frescoes, wall paintings and the beautiful stained glass of the large rose window in the façade created in 1524 by Guillaume De Marcillat. St. Francis' Basilica is universally renowned because it houses one of the Renaissance's masterpieces, the Legend of the True Cross fresco cycle, inspired by the Golden Legend by Jacopo da Varagine, painted on the walls in the Bacci Chapel by Piero della Francesca probably between 1453 and 1459. The chapel belonged to the Bacci family, a wealthy family of merchants from Arezzo who initially commissioned the job of decorating it to the Florentine, Bicci di Lorenzo. He painted the four Apostles on the vault, the two Doctors of the Church on the intrados of the arch and the Last Judgement on the chapel's triumphant arch. In 1452, Bicci died and Piero della Francesco took over the commission. The Legend of the True Cross encompasses all the special characteristics of the artist's painting: a rigorous spatial perspective structure, the representation of important figures in an atmosphere of diffused, discreet and metaphysical lighting; clear cut chromatic contrasts between warm and cold shades used to substantiate the space using light. Especially in Constantine's Dream the glow that lights up the scene reveals the artist's supreme sensitivity to light which can also be found in the battle scenes, The unusual features of Piero della Francesca's painting can be found in the frescoes in Arezzo that now shine under a new light. Light isBack on Piero della Francesca Arezzo \ Italy