Lecture 6: Giotto and the Arena Chapel—Part I

Giotto and the Arena Chapel—Part I ................................................

Lecture 6

Giotto worked on what we know today, almost universally ... [as] the

Arena Chapel, beginning about 1303. The Arena Chapel was the palace

chapel for the Scrovegni family palace.

G

iotto was commissioned by the Scrovegni family to fresco the

interior of the family chapel. We will discuss the history of the

Arena Chapel, including its location, its patron, and its signi¿ cance.

After describing the technique of fresco, we will study several scenes from

Giotto’s fresco cycle narrating the life of the Virgin and the life of Christ.

The Scrovegni Chapel (c. 1303), in Padua near Italy’s coast, is called the

Arena Chapel because it was built along with a palace for the Scrovegni

family on the site of an ancient Roman amphitheater. The photo we see is

of the chapel, because the palace no longer exists. A simple structure, the

chapel’s solid, austere exterior gives no hint of the treasure that lies within.

One of the supreme achievements of Western European art can be seen on the

walls of the interior of the Arena Chapel, a fresco cycle of 38 large narrative

scenes and a huge Last Judgment on the entrance wall of the chapel.

The subjects of the wall paintings are the life of the Virgin Mary and Jesus’

life, death (passion), and resurrection. All the painting is the work of Giotto

di Bondone (1266/67–1337), an artist from Tuscany who had already made

a name for himself painting at the shrine of St. Francis at Assisi. Although

it is possible that Giotto worked here until 1310 to complete his cycle,

some scholars suggest a remarkably short span of about two years, so

that the frescoes would have been complete by 1305 when the chapel was

consecrated. But whether it took two years or seven years, the Arena Chapel

is a work for eternity.

In order to see the whole picture, we must ¿ rst discuss the history of the

chapel, its artist, Giotto, and the medium of fresco. Enrico Scrovegni’s

father, Riginaldo (d. 1289), was a wealthy and notorious citizen of Padua.

His wealth and notoriety came from money lending at usurious rates. So