Lecture 6: Giotto and the Arena Chapel—Part I
the Golden Gate in Jerusalem to meet his wife. In the Meeting at the Golden
Gate, Anne and Joachim reunite and embrace, joyful in their knowledge.
Note the memorable, mysterious, ominous woman in black near the gate.Next we look at The Virgin’s Suitors Presenting Their Rods. According to
the Golden Legend, when Mary was 14, she left the temple to receive suitors
for her marriage. Because she had taken a vow of virginity, the high priest
sought guidance. He heard a voice tell him that the men of marriageable
age of the House of David should each bring a dry branch and lay it on
the altar. The suitor whose branch, or rod, À owered would be chosen as
Mary’s husband.The elderly Joseph declined because of age. Here we see that he hangs back
at the far left. When none of the branches À owered, the voice told the priest
that the only man who had not presented his rod was the man who would
become Mary’s husband. Notice that all the suitors’ heads are aligned in the
painting, with only the priest’s head slightly elevated.The Suitors’ Prayer before the Rods shows all of the men kneeling. The
heads are even more securely aligned, and they have left the strong solid
wall of blue sky above them. Consider how this blue—painted with precious
azurite in fresco secco—must have resonated when it was newly painted.
Joseph still hides himself at the left edge of the picture—only his haloed
head is seen. Also, note the pyramid of ¿ gures and rods and the fact that
Giotto chooses not to show the À owering of Joseph’s rod but, instead, this
moment of suspense.The Marriage of the Virgin shows a standing-kneeling-standing sequence
on the wall of the chapel. This is the marriage ceremony, and Joseph holds
his À owering branch, upon which the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove,
perches, as the Golden Legend relates, “according to the prophecy of Isaiah.”
Among the disappointed suitors, two may be noted. The man in blue nearest
Joseph seems to be holding his hand up, not in greeting, but threatening to
strike Joseph. Just behind him is a suitor who breaks his rod over his raised
knee. This motif became ¿ rmly established in the iconography of this scene,
famously used by Raphael, among others.