Santa Chiara St. Clare Italian Tapestry

Santa Chiara, St. Clare is an Italian jacquard wall tapestry. Saint Clare of Assisi is an Italian saint and one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. She founded the Order of Poor Ladies, a monastic religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition, and wrote their Rule of Life; the first monastic rule known to have been written by a woman. Following her death, the order she founded was renamed in her honor as the Order of Saint Clare, commonly referred to today as the Poor Clares.

The artwork is a detail depicting Saint Clare from a fresco (1312–20) by Simone Martini, an Italian painter born in Siena. The original is housed in the Lower basilica of San Francesco in Assisi, Italy. Martini (1284 – 1344) was a major figure in the development of early Italian painting and greatly influenced the development of the International Gothic style.