Giotto's Last Judgment in the Scrovegni Chapel. The magic of ancient frescoes: the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Video about the fresco "Kiss of Judas"

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✪ Giotto, Cappella del Arena (Scrovegni), Padua, ca. 1305 (Part 1 of 4)

✪ Giotto, Cappella del Arena (Scrovegni), Padua, ca. 1305 (Part 2 of 4)

✪ Giotto, Cappella del Arena (Scrovegni), Padua, ca. 1305 (Part 4 of 4)

✪ GIOTTO. Scrovegni Chapel. bible story

✪ Giotto, Cappella del Arena (Scrovegni), Padua, ca. 1305 (Part 3 of 4)

Subtitles

This is the Scrovegni Chapel - a small private chapel connected to the palace, which belonged to the Scrovegni family. The Scrovegni family commissioned Giotto to decorate this chapel with frescoes. It is called the "Capella del Arena" because of its proximity to the ancient Roman arena. When you go inside, like now ... I must say, it is higher than I expected. There is a special feeling - surrounded by paintings, when you are in a room whose walls are completely covered with frescoes. There are many plot scenes here, but even in these scenes there are "tricks" - fake marble panels. There is a feeling that this is a stone, although in fact it is part of the picture. And the ceiling is the same. The blue sky is written here with stars and images of Christ, Mary, and other saints and figures. The Scrovegni Chapel is very strictly organized. Three rows of paintings descend from top to bottom. I think it's kind of a spiral of telling a consistent story. It starts with the parents of the Mother of God, then the birth of Mary, her wedding is shown, and then we move to the second level, where the life of Christ and his sermons are shown. Then, in the lower row, the Passion is shown, events at the very end of Christ's earthly life and immediately after his death. All this appeared, strange as it may seem today, thanks to the sin of usury, which lay a heavy burden on the conscience of Enrico Scrovegni, who owned the palace nearby, who owned this land, who built this chapel and hired Giotto. His father was a moneylender, Enrico himself was a moneylender. That is, he took interest. Like now, if you take out a loan from a bank, you pay interest. When you transfer money to a credit card, you pay a fee. And in the Catholic world, the banking profession brought a lot of money, but within this belief system, it led straight to hell. And Dante, the great late medieval poet, in his most famous poem, The Divine Comedy, sends Scrovegni's father to one of the most terrible circles of hell. Enrico was greatly disturbed by all this, and therefore, from the point of view of Catholicism, he did a good deed. He built this chapel to atone for his sin of usury in the hope that it would help his soul to enter heaven. We see Enrico himself in this chapel, on the wall above the entrance, where Giotto wrote the Last Judgment: Enrico kneels, holding out the chapel to the Virgin Mary. He extends it to the three Marys, the Virgin Mary stands in the center. Pay attention to where Enrico is written: he is on the side of the blessed. In the image of the Last Judgment, we see Christ at the top. The damned are on his left, and the blessed are on his right, and this is where Enrico is depicted. And we see the starting point of this whole cycle in the upper part of the triumphal arch on the opposite wall, where God calls Gabriel to himself and tells him to go to the Virgin Mary and inform her that she will become the mother of the savior of mankind - Christ. It is interesting that Giotto used a pictorial panel when he painted God. This is not a fresco. Interestingly, he decided to use a more conservative style, less "earthly", instead of the style that we see in the frescoes. Let's go back to the Annunciation. On this wall we see the same illusions that fill all the frescoes. Look at Mary and the angel. Giotto created an architectural space for each of them. These are not picturesque panels with a golden background, symbolizing the divine space, Mary and the angel are in an earthly environment. Here's another great example of how architecture was shown to create a sense of volume, even in this era, to a linear perspective. Two scenes below the Annunciation are beautiful empty architectural spaces, rooms with oil lamps hanging from the ceiling, where a sense of volumetric chiaroscuro is skillfully created. This is an example of deliberate naturalism, it reflects Giotto's interest in the world, in the real, physical space in which humanity exists. Subtitles by the Amara.org community

Church

This land was acquired by him in February 1300 from a certain Manfredo Dalesmanini. According to the documents, the non-preserved building, to which the chapel adjoined, was quite extensive: a room for hot baths, stables, two donjons, two entrance gates overlooking the Eremite monastery and the river.

Church permission for the construction of the oratorium (chapel) was issued on March 31, 1302. The chapel was planned as a building of a private (private) nature and, according to the Bishop of Padua, a large influx of the public was not expected in it. However, after construction, it was opened to the public. The parishioners of the chapel were pardoned by a papal bull of March 1, 1304.

The decoration of the interior of the chapel was commissioned by the owner to Giotto, the first Italian artist of that time. There is an assumption that Enrico built the church to atone for the sins of his pawnbroker father - Reginaldo, which even Dante placed in the 7th circle of Hell in his "Divine Comedy"(XVII, 64-75). Enrico himself was engaged in usury - Pope Benedict XI absolved him of this sin.

Enrico obliged the heirs in his will to make donations to this temple. His tomb, with a full-length marble portrait, is in the apse, and a portrait in the Last Judgment scene on the opposite wall, where he presents a model of the chapel of Our Lady. Art critics rank this pictorial image among the first portraits in Western European painting. It even precedes the portrait of John the Good. Additional subtlety - the figure of the donor Scrovegni is made in the same proportions as the sacred figures to which he is to be, without any hieratic subordination with a reduction in scale. Researchers note the special attention that the artist paid to the image of the donor: fifteen blessed behind Scrovegni were written in one working day, the execution of the portrait of Enrico took four.

Building architecture

The architect of the church was Fra Giovanni or Giotto himself. The builder chose the simplest option in terms of plan - a rectangle measuring 20 × 9 m with one nave and an altar apse. The building is covered with a box vault, the ceiling height is 13 m. There is a three-part Gothic window on the facade. On the right side, facing the street, there are six windows. The left side adjoining the Scrovegni house is deaf.

Obviously, the building was originally planned for painting - all the walls are smooth, there are no cornices, no columns, no protruding ribs.

The further fate of the chapel

After the completion of the paintings by Giotto in the city, the church was consecrated for the second time and finally opened. The ceremony was magnificent - for greater solemnity, on March 16, 1305, Scrovegni rented fabrics and carpets from the Venetian church of San Marco. The painting of the remaining apse was made in the 1310s. students of Giotto of Romagna. The marble altarpiece by the sculptor Giovanni Pisano, another leading master of the era, is adorned with two angels with candlesticks and a Madonna and Child.

Although the church was intended for family use, nevertheless, it was opened to the public on the days of the Annunciation. It attracted a very large number of admiring public, which even served as the reason for complaints from neighboring Eremite monks about the outflow of visitors and reproaches to the Scrovegni family for vanity and vanity.

Little is known about the fate of the building in subsequent centuries. In the 19th century, it was almost destroyed because of its new owners: they destroyed the entrance portico that adorned it and demolished the adjoining Palazzo Enrico Scrovegni. This exposed the façade and left the left side of the church without reliable support. Finally, in the city, the temple went to the city municipality, which took serious steps to save the church and the frescoes, the condition of which had seriously deteriorated.

The last significant restoration work in the chapel lasted about seven years and was completed in 2002. During them, the frescoes were carefully cleaned of soot and soot and restored.

Frescoes by Giotto

The murals were ordered shortly after the opening of the church and completed around the city, after 2 years of work by Giotto. The artist had to work in a hurry, and this is due, in particular, to the imperfection of the fresco "Terrible judgment" which he largely left to the care of his students. The exact authorship of the cycle of Allegories of Vices and Virtues is also questionable. The hand of apprentices is also found in many minor characters of the main cycles. In total, more than 900 square meters are covered with murals. m. walls. The frescoes are made in three tiers, with the top one located on the bend of the vault.

As the art critic Pavel Muratov noted at the beginning of the 20th century, Giotto’s work in the chapel “has reached our time in good condition, it has hardly been touched by the dangerous care of the restorers. Nothing detracts from the importance and preciousness of this source of life for all Italian art.”

Style and innovation

Creating frescoes, Giotto was guided by both the Gospels and apocryphal texts (especially «Gold legend» and Protoevangelium James "Jacob's Story of the Birth of Mary"). This allowed him to greatly diversify the plot set. (The theologian helped Giotto in choosing subjects Altegrado de Catanei- the artist depicted him holding a model of the chapel on his shoulder in the scene of presenting it to the Mother of God).

The artist solves the theme in the form of a series of dramatic episodes, observing the unity of time and place in each. Thanks to the simplicity of situations and the expressiveness of gestures, he manages to convey the intended episodes. Each individual fresco of the chapel, despite the complete consistency of the entire pictorial decoration, is a separate finished work. A characteristic feature of the composition is the energetic construction of volumes and space, the rejection of a detailed transfer of objects of the material world, generalizations - conditional rocky mountains, buildings. Giotto did away with the fear of the void, characteristic of the art of the Middle Ages.

The master establishes a clear proportion between the picturesque spaces, following the perspective decisions of the trecento, anticipating the perspective of the Renaissance. The strict orderliness of the arrangement of spatial plans organizes the entire rhythm of the interior and the unhurried, measured pace of the narration. In the frescoes located to the right of the central axis of the longitudinal walls of the chapel, the artist moved the perspective point slightly to the left, those located to the left - to the right. Thus, Giotto subordinated the overall composition to the central point of view, at the same time he coordinated the frescoes with natural light, the source of which is the window on the western side of the chapel.

The color used is light and festive. The main note is set by a deep azure color, which is used as a background.

New stylistic techniques: instead of clear profiles - soft, continuous lines, light tones of carnation. To convey the expressiveness of the look, brown shading is used around the eyes. The reverse angle is often used to portray the silent presence of a character. Clearly and realistically, with an understanding of the anatomy of the human body, folds are drawn. The figures become massive, heavy, "carnal". The faces of the characters in frescoes are often brightly individualized. Heroes are decisively different from the conventional and refined characters of Byzantine and Gothic art. Composition is built on real relationships between characters, expressed in looks, facial expressions and gestures, rather than ideas or canon.

It is worth noting the novelty of another technique used by Giotto - an illusory architectural decoration, and the Allegory of Virtues and Vices cycle, made in monochrome, as if they were marble bas-reliefs. Such a decision in the future will form the basis of a special genre of fresco decoration, which will have great success in the Quattrocento and Cinquecento era, although in the case of the Scrovegni Chapel, it was caused by its crampedness and the need for Giotto to create architectural tricks to expand the space.

7. Nativity of the Mother of God 8. Entrance into the Temple 9. Ceremony of staffs 10. Prayer for the miracle of staffs 11. Marriage of Mary 12. Wedding procession

presbytery arch with paintings on the triumphal arch in front of the apse continues the story of Mary:

13. The Archangel Gabriel receives an order to go to the Virgin Mary 14. The figure of the Archangel Gabriel from the Annunciation 15. The figure of the Virgin Mary from the Annunciation is located on the other side of the opening, opposite Gabriel 16.

Scrovegni Chapel (Italy) - description, history, location. Exact address, phone number, website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.

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Scrovegni Chapel can be called a real treasure trove of Western art. The great Giotto painted it with frescoes, which were revolutionary for their time. It should be noted that this happened long before the Renaissance, during the complete dominance of the Gothic style in art. The artist completed his difficult work in just a couple of years.

A skillfully painted small chapel looks like a big cathedral from the inside. In his frescoes, Giotto tried to bring the images of biblical characters closer to ordinary people. That is why old Joseph is dozing in anticipation of the birth of Jesus, and Judas is all shrinking from the kiss of Christ.

It was in the Scrovegni Chapel that the birth of the Savior was depicted for the first time - earlier artists preferred not to touch on this topic. The painting covers the chapel in three tiers. Among the plots are the birth of the Virgin Mary, the Last Supper, the Last Judgment, allegorical images of vices and virtues.

The fresco "The Adoration of the Magi" depicts Halley's comet, which flew over the earth in 1301, just as the chapel was being built.

The chapel was built by Enrico Scrovegni. Initially, the church bore the name of St. Mary the Merciful, but the "folk" name, given in honor of the architect, took root. With his generous gift to the people of Padua, he tried to atone for the sins of his father, the usurer Reginaldo. Reginaldo's stinginess was so well known that Dante even immortalized his name in the Divine Comedy.

View of the Scrovegni Chapel

In the evenings, the Scrovegni Chapel hosts special Giotto under Stars programs. Guests can watch the starry sky, as well as an animated performance featuring actors from the cultural association teatrOrtaet, who, dressed as characters from the 14th century, will tell the story of the Scrovegni Chapel. The tour is in Italian only.

Practical Information

Address: Italia, Padova, Piazza Eremitani, 8. Website (in English).

Opening hours: the chapel is open to visitors all year round from 9:00 to 19:00. Visits of different duration are available at different times of the year:

• in March, April, May, from June 1 to 15, August, September, October and from December 1 to 15 - 15 minutes;
• in January, February, from 16 to 30 June, July, November and from 16 to 31 December - 20 minutes.

Small groups are allowed inside the building every 20 minutes. Access of visitors to the chapel is strictly limited - this is a forced measure. It is impossible to violate a certain temperature regime and humidity in the room, otherwise the ancient frescoes may fade.

The Giotto under Stars program runs from March 25 to November 4 and from December 27 to January 6 (except December 31 and January 1) from Tuesday to Sunday from 19:00 to 22:00 (last entry at 21:20), program duration - 40 minutes. The maximum number of visitors is 25 people.

Entrance: for adults - 8 EUR, for children from 6 to 17 years old, students under 27 years old and pensioners from 65 years old - 6 EUR, for children under 5 years old - 1 EUR. From Tuesday to Saturday you can visit the chapel with a guide (groups every 15 minutes from 12:15 to 13:30, last entry at 13:15), cost - 2 EUR per person. The entrance ticket to the Scrovegni Chapel is also valid for the Eremitani City Museum and the Zuckermann Palace. Prices on the page are for January 2019.

The Scrovegni Chapel is the church of St. Mary the Merciful, which later received the status of a chapel. It was built in 1300-1303 at the expense of the wealthy merchant Enrico Scrovegni. The building was erected on the site of an ancient amphitheater. According to legend, the owner built the chapel to atone for the sins of his father, the usurer Reginaldo, whom Dante described in the 7th circle of Hell in the Divine Comedy.

The Scrovegni Chapel is known for its rich frescoes, painted by the best artist of that era, Giotto (he is probably also the architect of the building). Frescoes cover the dome and walls of the chapel in three tiers. The murals depict scenes of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ, the life and agony of the Savior, the Last Supper, the Last Judgment, as well as allegorical images of vices and virtues. The murals contain interesting documentary details. Thus, the fresco "The Last Judgment" depicts a donor presenting the chapel itself, and the fresco "Adoration of the Magi" depicts Halley's comet flying over the Earth during the construction of the chapel (1301) as a star.

Scrovegni Chapel on the map

Type: Religious buildings Address: Piazza Eremitani 8, 35121 Padova, Italia. Opening hours: daily 9.00-19.00, the program "Giotto under the stars" is valid 19.00-22.00 (entrance at 21.20), day off - January 1, December 25, 26. Cost: 13 €, for groups over 10 people - 8 €, for children 6-17 years old, students under 27 years old, groups up to 10 people - 6 €, for children under 5 years old, disabled people and accompanying persons - free of charge. How to get there: take buses No. 1, 03, 05, 08, 09, 10, 12, 15, 18, 42, A, AT, ATL, M, T to the Garibaldi giardini stop. Restrictions: persons with pets, food, drinks are not allowed; mobile phones must be turned off. Website.

Church

This land was acquired by him in February 1300 from a certain Manfredo Dalesmanini. According to the documents, the non-preserved building, to which the chapel adjoined, was quite extensive: a room for hot baths, stables, two donjons, two entrance gates overlooking the Eremite monastery and the river.

Church permission for the construction of the oratorium (chapel) was issued on March 31, 1302. The chapel was planned as a building of a private (private) nature and, according to the Bishop of Padua, a large influx of the public was not expected in it. However, after construction, it was opened to the public. The parishioners of the chapel were pardoned by a papal bull of March 1, 1304.

The decoration of the interior of the chapel was commissioned by the owner to Giotto, the first Italian artist of that time. There is an assumption that Enrico built the church to atone for the sins of his pawnbroker father - Reginaldo, which even Dante placed in the 7th circle of Hell in his "Divine Comedy"(XVII, 64-75). Engaged in usury and Enrico himself - Pope Benedict XI absolved him of this sin.

Enrico obliged the heirs in his will to make donations to this temple. His tomb, with a full-length marble portrait, is in the apse, and a portrait in the Last Judgment scene on the opposite wall, where he presents a model of the chapel of Our Lady. Art critics rank this pictorial image among the first portraits in Western European painting. It even precedes the portrait of John the Good. Additional subtlety - the figure of the donor Scrovegni is made in the same proportions as the sacred figures to which he is to be, without any hieratic subordination with a reduction in scale. Researchers note the special attention that the artist paid to the image of the donor: fifteen blessed behind Scrovegni were written in one working day, the execution of the portrait of Enrico took four.

Interior. View of the altar

Building architecture

The architect of the church was Fra Giovanni or Giotto himself. The builder chose the simplest option in terms of plan - a rectangle measuring 20x9 m with one nave and an altar apse. The building is covered with a box vault, the ceiling height is 13 m. There is a three-part Gothic window on the facade. On the right side, facing the street, there are six windows. The left side adjoining the Scrovegni house is deaf.

Obviously, the building was originally planned for painting - all the walls are smooth, there are no cornices, no columns, no protruding ribs.

The further fate of the chapel

After the completion of the paintings by Giotto in the city, the church was consecrated for the second time and finally opened. The ceremony was magnificent - for greater solemnity, on March 16, 1305, Scrovegni rented fabrics and carpets from the Venetian church of San Marco. The painting of the remaining apse was made in the 1310s. students of Giotto of Romagna. The marble altarpiece by the sculptor Giovanni Pisano, another leading master of the era, is adorned with two angels with candlesticks and a Madonna and Child.

Although the church was intended for family use, nevertheless, it was opened to the public on the days of the Annunciation. It attracted a very large number of admiring public, which even served as the reason for complaints from neighboring Eremite monks about the outflow of visitors and reproaches to the Scrovegni family for vanity and vanity.

Little is known about the fate of the building in subsequent centuries. In the 19th century, it was almost destroyed because of its new owners: they destroyed the entrance portico that adorned it and demolished the adjoining Palazzo Enrico Scrovegni. This exposed the façade and left the left side of the church without reliable support. Finally, in the city, the temple went to the city municipality, which took serious steps to save the church and the frescoes, the condition of which had seriously deteriorated.

The last significant restoration work in the chapel lasted about seven years and ended in 2002 . During them, the frescoes were carefully cleaned of soot and soot and restored.

"The Entombment"

Frescoes by Giotto

The murals were ordered shortly after the opening of the church and completed around the city, after 2 years of work by Giotto. The artist had to work in a hurry, and this is due, in particular, to the imperfection of the fresco "Last Judgment" which he largely left to the care of his students. The exact authorship of the cycle of Allegories of Vices and Virtues is also questionable. The hand of apprentices is also found in many minor characters of the main cycles. In total, more than 900 square meters are covered with murals. m. walls. The frescoes are made in three tiers, with the top one located on the bend of the vault.

As the art critic Pavel Muratov noted at the beginning of the 20th century, Giotto’s work in the chapel “has reached our time in good condition, it has hardly been touched by the dangerous care of the restorers. Nothing detracts from the importance and preciousness of this source of life for all Italian art.”

Style and innovation

Creating frescoes, Giotto was guided by both the Gospels and apocryphal texts (especially "Golden Legend" and protevangelium of James "Jacob's Story of the Birth of Mary"). This allowed him to greatly diversify the plot set. (The theologian helped Giotto in choosing subjects Altegrado de Catanei- the artist depicted him holding a model of the chapel on his shoulder in the scene of presenting it to the Mother of God).

The artist solves the theme in the form of a series of dramatic episodes, observing the unity of time and place in each. Thanks to the simplicity of situations and the expressiveness of gestures, he manages to convey the intended episodes. Each individual fresco of the chapel, despite the complete consistency of the entire pictorial decoration, is a separate finished work. A characteristic feature of the composition is the energetic construction of volumes and space, the rejection of a detailed transfer of objects of the material world, generalizations - conditional rocky mountains, buildings. Giotto did away with the fear of the void, characteristic of the art of the Middle Ages.

The master establishes a clear proportion between the picturesque spaces, following the perspective decisions of the trecento, anticipating the perspective of the Renaissance. The strict orderliness of the arrangement of spatial plans organizes the entire rhythm of the interior and the unhurried, measured pace of the narration. In the frescoes located to the right of the central axis of the longitudinal walls of the chapel, the artist moved the perspective point slightly to the left, those located to the left - to the right. Thus, Giotto subordinated the overall composition to the central point of view, at the same time he coordinated the frescoes with natural light, the source of which is the window on the western side of the chapel.

"Mary's Wedding Procession", detail

The color used is light and festive. The main note is set by a deep azure color, which is used as a background.

New stylistic techniques: instead of clear profiles - soft, continuous lines, light tones of carnation. To convey the expressiveness of the look, brown shading is used around the eyes. The reverse angle is often used to portray the silent presence of a character. Clearly and realistically, with an understanding of the anatomy of the human body, folds are drawn. The figures become massive, heavy, "carnal". The faces of the characters in frescoes are often brightly individualized. Heroes are decisively different from the conventional and refined characters of Byzantine and Gothic art. Composition is built on real relationships between characters, expressed in looks, facial expressions and gestures, rather than ideas or canon.

It is worth noting the novelty of another technique used by Giotto - an illusory architectural decoration, and the Allegory of Virtues and Vices cycle, made in monochrome, as if they were marble bas-reliefs. Such a decision in the future will form the basis of a special genre of fresco decoration, which will have great success in the Quattrocento and Cinquecento era, although in the case of the Scrovegni Chapel, it was caused by its crampedness and the need for Giotto to create architectural tricks to expand the space.

The composition of the paintings

Right upper tier dedicated to the story of Joachim, father of the Virgin Mary. It consists of the following images:

1. Expulsion of the childless Joachim from the temple 2. Joachim joins the shepherds 3. Annunciation to St. Anna 4. Joachim's sacrifice 5. Joachim's dream 6. Meeting at the Golden Gate

Left upper tier- follows it chronologically, this is the story of the Virgin Mary:

7. Nativity of the Virgin 8. Entry into the temple 9. Ceremony of the staffs 10. Prayer for the miracle of the staffs 11. Marriage of Mary 12. Wedding procession 29. The Last Supper 30. Washing of the feet 31. Kiss of Judas and the arrest of Jesus 32. Christ before Caiaphas 33. Flagellation Christ

Third tier from the left continues them:

34. Way of the Cross 35. Crucifixion of Christ 36. Entombment 37. Resurrection (Noli me tangere) 38. Ascension of Christ 39. Descent of the Holy Spirit

"Anger"

lower tier(basement) with a height of about three meters depicts a cycle of 14 Allegories of Virtues and Vices, which form the foundation of human earthly life:

40. Caution 41. Strength 42. Moderation 43. Justice 44. Faith 45. Mercy 46. Hope 47. Despair 48. Envy 49. Unbelief 50. Injustice 51. Anger 52. Inconstancy 53. Stupidity

The virtues are placed on the left wall (with windows) from the altar and correspond to the blessed ones depicted in the scene doomsday, vices - on the right and correlated with the damned.

Western wall, opposite the apse, is entirely devoted to one plot:

54. Last Judgment

The rest of the space is occupied by windows and an image of architectural decoration. The ceiling is painted under the starry sky and is divided in two by a wide transverse ornamental strip, along which half-figure images of Christ, the Madonna and the prophets are placed in medallions, four on each side.

Noteworthy are two interior niches in the choirs (coretti), painted by Giotto using the techniques of illusionistic painting, possibly the first trompe-l "oeil (tricks).

"Adoration of the Magi"

Literature

• "Giotto. Padua. Scrovegni Chapel. Frescoes after restoration in 2002. Giorgio Deganello Publishing. 2005

See also

Links

Notes

Hello dear readers. This time we will talk about the building, which became famous thanks to the cycle of frescoes by Giotto. This is the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Quite a small church of Padua, but famous throughout the world.

Italy. Region of Venice. City of Pàdova (Padua). In Italy, we advise you to speak Italian - otherwise you will not be understood. Scrovegni Chapel. There is also such a name: the Giotto Chapel.

The Scrovegni Chapel or the Arena Chapel was founded in 1300. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It got its name thanks to Enrico Scrovegni, on whose lands, and also at whose expense the church was built.

Scrovegni was a wealthy merchant and planned to build Enrico's house church, that is, a building of a private nature.

The opening ceremony of the temple was incredibly magnificent. Enrico, even on this occasion, rented carpets and fabrics from the church of San Marco.

The building was opened to the public on the days of the Annunciation. And it attracted so much attention that neighboring churches even complained about the outflow of visitors, accusing Scrovegni of vanity.

I think there is a grain of truth in this. After all, the merchant entrusted the decoration of the interior of his house church to the most famous artist of Italy at that time - Giotto.

Architecture and decor

Fra Giovanni, the architect of the building, took the simplest version as the basis of the church - a rectangle with an altar apse and one nave.

The altar, created by Giovanni Pisano, is decorated with images of angels and the Madonna.

From the very beginning, the inside of the building was planned to be painted, so all the walls here are smooth.

The merchant entrusted the work of painting the walls to the great Italian artist Giotto. Giotto decorated the entire space from floor to ceiling with his frescoes. It is they who are now called not only the property of the temple, but also the greatest work of art of the Christian world.

The cycle of these frescoes is recognized as Giotto's key work. Moreover, it is considered one of the most important works of Western art.

The artist decided to create a panel with a number of dramatic episodes.

Each fresco here is a separate completed episode. Moreover, Giotto refused the detailed transfer of material objects.

• The overall composition is subject to the peculiarities of the natural lighting of the temple.
• He uses soft continuous lines and light colors.
• The depth of the look is emphasized by darkening around the eyes.
• The faces of the characters are individualized, and the figures are massive.

All frescoes are arranged in three tiers.

The upper one is on the bend of the vault. The artist did the work in a hurry. Some imperfections of the fresco "The Last Judgment" are connected with this. He instructed his students to complete the work on it.

Together, the frescoes tell us the story of the Virgin Mary, Joachim, Jesus Christ.

The most famous frescoes, which are worth paying special attention to:

• "Last Judgment"
• "Adoration of the Magi"
• frescoes dedicated to the Passion of the Lord.

The Giotto Chapel is one of the most beautiful and amazing places we have visited. For the sake of it, it is worth coming to Padova specially.

Working hours

Visiting is possible from 9:00 to 19:00.

What is the price

Standard ticket 13 euros

Giotto is allowed inside the chapel in small groups. The group changes every fifteen minutes.

Before the start, a film is shown about the chapel, about Giotto. Unfortunately, the film is only available in Italian and English. But its plot is clear even without language.

You are not allowed to carry bags, cameras and other things with you. Mobile sound must be turned off.

We bought a ticket for the current session, but they say that this is not always the case. Most of the time you have to wait in line.

There is a park near the entrance to the chapel. Here, in the shade of trees on a bench, you can wait and relax.

Official site: www.cappelladegliscrovegni.it

How to get there

on Tram Padova. Stop - at the station square, on the right. The Scrovegni Chapel is one stop away.

Address: Piazza Eremitani, 8, 35121 Padova PD, Italy

Chapel on the map

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