Cappella degli Scrovegni

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Cappella degli Scrovegni.
Cappella degli Scrovegni.

The Cappella degli Scrovegni is a church in Padua, Veneto, Italy. It contains a fresco cycle by Giotto, completed about 1305, that is one of the most important masterpieces of Western art. The church was dedicated to Santa Maria della Carità at the Feast of the Annunciation, 1303; Giotto's fresco cycle focuses on the life of the Virgin and celebrates her role in human salvation. The chapel is also known as the Arena Chapel because it was built on land purchased by Enrico Scrovegni that abutted the site of a Roman arena, where an open-air procession and sacred representation of the Annunciation to the Virgin had been played out for a generation before the chapel was built. A motet by Marchetto da Padova appears to have been composed for the dedication on March 25, 1305.[1]

The wealthy banker Enrico Scrovegni built the private chapel directly accessible from the family palazzo as part of a large family estate; he commissioned its decoration by Giotto, Italy's pre-eminent painter at the time. While it is often suggested that Enrico built the chapel as penance for his father's sins, and though Enrico Scrovegni devoted a paragraph in his will directing his heirs to make restitutions,[2] his motivation is unknown. Enrico's tomb is in the apse, and he had himself painted into the Last Judgment presenting a model of the chapel to the Virgin, which suggest that he was more concerned about his own spiritual well-being. Though the chapel was ostensibly a family oratory, it had city-wide functions related to the Feast of the Annunciation,[3]

Apart from Giotto's work, the chapel is unornamented with a barrel vault roof. Covering the entire wall above the entrance is a Last Judgment by Giotto, which includes a devotional portrait of Enrico Scrovegni. On the side walls arranged in tiers three deep by four wide are fresco groups each scene being roughly two meters square. Facing the altar the sequence begins at the top of the right hand wall with scenes from the life of the Virgin with the annunciation of her mother and presentation at the temple. The series continues through the Nativity and Passion of Jesus, the Resurrection and the final scene Pentecost. The panels are noted for their emotional intensity, sculptural figures and naturalistic space. Between the main scenes Giotto used a faux architectural scheme of painted marble decorations and small recesses.

The Kiss of Judas, one of the panels in the Scrovegni Chapel
The Kiss of Judas, one of the panels in the Scrovegni Chapel

[edit] Anthology of images

The iconology of the fresco cycles are those of the Life of Christ and the Life of the Virgin. The Anunciation occupies a central position over the chancel arch.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ An acrostic in the motet's text suggests Marchetto was the composer.
  2. ^ Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, "'Ave charitate plena': Variations on the Theme of Charity in the Arena Chapel" Speculum 76.3 (July 2001, pp. 599-637) p 600 note.
  3. ^ The connection of the Annunciation of the fresco cycles and the feast is explored by Laura Jacobus, "Giotto's Annunciation in the Arena Chapel, Padua" The Art Bulletin 81.1 (March 1999), pp. 93-107.

[edit] External links

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