This is the second of the twenty-eight scenes (twenty-five of which were painted by Giotto) of the Legend of Saint Francis but this was painted first, while the first scene was the last.

A stylistic difference between the first two scenes can be observed. The scene of St Francis giving his Mantle to a Poor Knight, takes place in the open air, at the foot of two rocky hills.

The town perched on the hill on the left is Assisi; we can see its crenellated wafls, the profile of its towers and roofs against the sky and the church of San Damiano outside the walls. Anyone who has had the opportunity to see hillside towns such as Cortona and Assisi from the plain below can fully understand the accuracy of this painting. A rocky landscape such as the one shown here is an inheritance from Byzantine painting. It is a conception that was to be beautifully expressed in the Miracle of the Spring and Stigmatization of St Francis, and adopted by nearly all later painters up to the beginning of the fifteenth century.

The beautifully rendered mantle is reminiscent of the blanket that covers the old patriarch's legs in Isaac Blessing Jacob. The folds of this garment have such convincing thickness that it almost seems possible to insert a hand into them.