Death and Ascension of St. Francis (detail)
In 2011 art restorers have discovered the figure of a devil hidden in Death and Ascension of St. Francis fresco by Giotto in the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi. The Satanic image went unnoticed for more than 700 years because it is artfully hidden in the folds of a cloud and is invisible from ground level. Until now it was thought that the first painter to use clouds in this way was Andrea Mantegna, with a painting of St Sebastian from 1460, in which high up in the sky there's a cloud from which a knight on horseback emerges. Now we know that Giotto was the first to use this technique. The master may have painted it to spite someone he knew by portraying him as a devil in the painting.
Duccio
1311
