An exploration of the enduring legend of St Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio, its reinterpretation as a metaphor for social inclusion, and its transformation into a major tapestry series by Australian artist Arthur Boyd, highlighting the craftsmanship of Portugal's Manufactura de Tapeçarias de Portalegre.
The legend of St Francis of Assisi taming the Wolf of Gubbio is a powerful tale that has resonated for centuries. According to the story, a ferocious wolf terrorized the Italian city of Gubbio, initially preying on livestock before turning its attention to humans, lingering at the city gates to attack those who ventured out alone.
Francis, a man who had renounced a life of wealth and founded the Franciscan order, arrived in Gubbio by the early 1200s having fully embraced a life of poverty and devotion to nature, amassing a significant following. Despite warnings, he sought out the wolf's lair. When the wolf appeared, its demeanor shifted dramatically, becoming docile and submissive, it placed a paw in Francis's hand and accompanied him peacefully back into Gubbio.
This narrative has been depicted in art, such as the tapestry Manufactura de Tapeçarias de Portalegre (The Wolf of Gubbio with St Francis in a bent tree) by Arthur Boyd (1974). In contemporary Assisi, standing near the basilica that houses Francis's remains, a local guide offers an interpretation that reframes the legend.
She suggests that while Francis was a historical figure who lived in the region, the wolf was likely not a literal animal but a metaphor for a marginalized person-a bandit, a sex worker, or someone ostracized by society. The essence of the story, therefore, is Francis's unconditional love and acceptance for all humanity, regardless of social stigma.
This moral is visually chronicled in a series of 13th-century frescoes in the basilica, most often attributed to Giotto di Bondone, which depict Francis's journey from renouncing earthly comforts to performing miracles and achieving sainthood. The city of Gubbio has embraced the literal version of the story, erecting a statue of Francis with the tame wolf and selling souvenirs that depict the event as historical fact.
Some even cite archaeological evidence, noting that wolf bones, possibly from the creature, were reportedly unearthed during a church renovation in the late 1800s. The tale captured the imagination of Australian artist Arthur Boyd during his 1964 visit to Italy. Though familiar with St Francis, Boyd was deeply moved by the frescoes and the atmosphere of Assisi, spending the next decade reinterpreting the story through drawings, paintings, lithographs, and ultimately tapestries.
Boyd, born in 1920 into a prominent artistic family, was already a celebrated figure by the late 1960s, with a career highlighted by international exhibitions, a commission for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and representing Australia at the 1958 Venice Biennale. His close circle included art luminaries like John Perceval, Sidney Nolan, and John Olsen.
It was Nolan and Olsen who connected Boyd with Manufactura de Tapeçarias de Portalegre (TMP), a renowned tapestry workshop in Portalegre, Portugal, to translate his St Francis series into woven form. For the first half of the 1970s, Boyd collaborated closely with TMP as they undertook their largest order: converting 20 pastel artworks into tapestries. This massive endeavor involved millions of stitches and years of round-the-clock labor, with the complete collection finally displayed 51 years after the project began.
TMP was founded in 1946 by Guy Fino and Manuel Celestino Peixeiro, producing its first tapestry in 1947. Under the direction of Fino's daughter Vera, the workshop gained a stellar reputation for quality, bolstered by a Portuguese government policy allocating 1% of the national budget to public art, which fueled its growth. By the time Boyd engaged them, TMP occupied a bustling space filled with looms.
Tapestry creation is essentially the translation of an image into a fine grid of colored stitches, akin to pixels. What distinguished TMP was its innovative "splitting the stitch" technique. In traditional tapestry, diagonal lines appear stepped or stair-like because each stitch is a single color. TMP's method involves separating individual threads and weaving in different colors, producing smooth, flowing lines that precisely capture the nuances of the original artwork.
This technical mastery allowed Boyd's expressive pastels to be rendered with remarkable fidelity in textile form, ensuring the spiritual and emotional resonance of the St Francis series was preserved in a durable, tactile medium
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