Description of the fresco of a giotto in the chapel of the treasure. The magic of old frescoes: Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Opening hours, ticket prices

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✪ Giotto, Capella del Arena (Scrovegni), Padova, approx. 1305 (Part 1 of 4)

✪ Giotto, Capella del Arena (Scrovegni), Padova, approx. 1305 (Part 2 of 4)

✪ Giotto, Capella del Arena (Scrovegni), Padova, approx. 1305 (Part 4 of 4)

✪ GIOTTO. The Scrovegni Chapel. Bible story

✪ Giotto, Capella del Arena (Scrovegni), Padova, approx. 1305 (Part 3 of 4)

Subtitles

This is the Scrovegni Chapel - a small private chapel connected to the palace that belonged to the Scrovegni family. The Scrovegni family instructed Giotto to decorate this chapel with frescoes. It is called "Capella del Arena" because of its proximity to the ancient Roman arena. When you go inside, as it is 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 a lot of plot scenes, 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 same thing on the ceiling. Here is written a blue sky with the stars and images of Christ, Mary, and other saints and figures. Scrovegni Chapel is very strictly organized. Three rows of paintings descend from top to bottom. I think this is a kind of spiral with a consistent story. It begins with the parents of the Virgin, then the birth of Mary is shown, her wedding, and then we go to the second level, which shows the life of Christ and his sermon. Then, in the bottom row, Passion is shown, events at the very end of Christ's earthly life and immediately after his death. All this appeared, oddly enough, to recognize it 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 usurer, Enrico himself was a usurer. That is, he took interest. As now, if you take a loan from a bank, you pay interest. When you transfer money to a credit card, you pay a commission. And in the Catholic world, the profession of a banker brought a lot of money, but within the framework of this belief system led directly to hell. And Dante, the great late medieval poet, in his most famous poem, The Divine Comedy, sends Father Scrovegni to one of the most terrible circles of hell. Enrico was very worried about 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 this would help his soul go to heaven. We see Enrico himself in this chapel, on the wall above the entrance, where Giotto wrote the Last Judgment: Enrico is on his knees, holding out a chapel to the Virgin Mary. He hands it to three Mariam, 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 above. The damned are on his left, and the blessed are on his right, and it is here that 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 tell her that she will become the mother of the savior of mankind - Christ. Interestingly, Giotto used a pictorial panel when he painted God. This is not a mural. Interestingly, he decided to use a more conservative style, less “earthly”, instead of the style that we see on the frescoes. Let's go back to the Annunciation. On this wall we see the same illusions with which all the frescoes are filled. Look at Mary and the angel. Giotto created an architectural space for each of them. This is not a picturesque panel with a golden background, symbolizing the divine space, Mary and the angel are surrounded by earth. Here is another great example of how architecture was shown, creating a sense of volume, even in this era, to a linear perspective. The 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 artfully created. This is an example of deliberate naturalism, it reflects Giotto's interest in the world, in the present, 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 building that was not preserved, 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.

A church permit for the construction of an 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 public in it was not expected. However, after construction, it was open to the public. The parishioners of the chapel of the papal bull of March 1, 1304 were remitted sins.

The owner of the chapel commissioned the interior decoration of the chapel, Giotto, Italy's first artist of the time. There is an assumption that Enrico built a church to atone for the sins of his moneylender father - Reginaldowhom 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 forgave him this sin.

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

Building architecture

Became the architect of the church fra giovanni   or Giotto himself. The builder chose the simplest option in plan - a rectangle measuring 20 × 9 m with one nave and an altar apse. The building is blocked by a box vault, the ceiling height is 13 m. On the facade there is a three-part Gothic window. On the right side, facing the street, six windows. The left side adjacent to the Skrovegni house is deaf.

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

The fate of the chapel

After the end of Giotto's paintings in the city, the church was consecrated a second time and finally opened. The ceremony was magnificent - for greater solemnity Skrovegni on March 16, 1305 rented fabrics and carpets from the Venetian church of San Marco. The remaining apse was painted in the 1310s. Giotto's pupils from Romagna. The marble altar by sculptor Giovanni Pisano, another leading craftsman of that era, is decorated with two angels with candlesticks and a madonna and child.

Although the church was intended for family use, however, it was opened to the public on the days of the Annunciation. She attracted a very large number of admired public, which even served as the reason for the complaints of neighboring Eremite monks about the outflow of visitors and reproaches to the Skrovegni 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 due to its new owners: they destroyed the entrance portico decorating it and demolished the adjacent palazzo Enrico Scrovegni. This exposed the facade and left the left side of the church without reliable support. Finally, in the city, the church moved to the city municipality, which took serious steps to save the church and frescoes, whose condition has seriously deteriorated.

The last significant restoration work in the chapel lasted about seven years and was completed in 2002. During them, the frescoes were thoroughly 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 year, after 2 years of Giotto's work. The artist had to work in a hurry, and this is due, in particular, to the imperfection of the mural The Last Judgmentwhich he largely left to the cares of his students. The exact authorship of the cycle of Allegories of Vices and Virtues is also called into question. Apprentices' hands are found in many secondary characters of the main cycles. In total, more than 900 square meters are covered with paintings. m. of walls. The frescoes are made in three tiers, with the top located on the bend of the vault.

As art critic Pavel Muratov noted at the beginning of the 20th century, Giotto’s work in the chapel “came to our time in good condition, it was hardly touched at all by the dangerous care of 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 (in particular The Golden Legend   and the proto-gospel of Jacob “The story of Jacob about the birth of Mary”) This allowed him to greatly diversify the plot set. (The theologian helped in the selection of plots Altegrado de Catanei   - the artist depicted him holding on his shoulder a mock chapel in the scene of the presentation of his Mother of God).

The artist solves the topic in the form of a series of dramatic episodes, observing in each the unity of time and place. 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 full coordination of the entire pictorial decoration, is a separate finished work. A characteristic feature of the composition is the energetic construction of volumes and spaces, the rejection of detailed transmission of objects of the material world, generalizations - conventional rocky mountains, buildings. Giotto put an end to the fear of emptiness characteristic of medieval art.

The master establishes a clear proportion between the picturesque spaces, following promising trecento solutions that precede the Renaissance perspective. A strict ordering of spatial plans arrangement organizes the whole rhythm of the interior and a leisurely, measured pace of narration. In the frescoes located to the right of the central axis of the longitudinal walls of the chapel, the artist shifted the perspective point a little to the left, located to the left - to the right. Thus, Giotto subordinated the overall composition to a central point of view, while he coordinated the frescoes with natural light, the source of which is a window on the western side of the chapel.

The color used is bright 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 gaze, brown dimming around the eyes is used. The reverse view 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 fresco characters are often brightly individualized. Heroes are decisively different from the conventional and refined characters of Byzantine and Gothic art. The composition is based on real relationships between characters expressed in views, facial expressions and gestures, and not on ideas or canon.

It is worth noting the novelty of another technique used by Giotto - an illusory architectural decoration, and the cycle of the Allegory of Virtues and Vices, executed 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 be very successful in the era of the Quattrocento and Cinquecento, although in the case of the Scrovegni Chapel it was due to its crampedness and the need for Giotto to create architectural illusions to expand the space.

7. The Nativity of the Virgin 8. Introduction to the temple 9. The ceremony of the staves 10. Praying for the miracle of the staves 11. Marriage of Mary 12. Wedding procession

Presbytery arch   with murals 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, website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.

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

The elaborately painted small chapel from the inside seems like a big cathedral. In his frescoes, Giotto tried to bring the images of biblical characters closer to ordinary people. That is why old Joseph is napping in anticipation of the birth of Jesus, and Judas was all crouched by the kiss of Christ.

It was in the Skrovegni Chapel that the Savior was born for the first time - before, 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 "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 a “popular” name, given in honor of the architect, has taken root. With his generous gift for the inhabitants of Padua, he tried to atone for the sins of his father, the usurer Reginaldo. Reginaldo's stinginess was so famous that Dante even immortalized his name in The Divine Comedy.

Scrovegni Chapel Inspection

In the evenings, the Giotto under Stars special programs are held at the Skrovegni Chapel. Guests can see the starry sky, as well as an animated performance featuring actors from the cultural association teatrOrtaet, who, in costumes of 14th-century characters, tell the story of the Scrovegni Chapel. The tour is conducted only in Italian.

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. At different times of the year, visits of different durations are available:

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

Inside the building they let small groups every 20 minutes. Visitors' access to the chapel is strictly limited - this is a necessary measure. You can not violate a certain temperature 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), the duration of the program is 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 entrance at 13:15), cost - 2 EUR per person. The entrance ticket to the Skrovegni Chapel is also valid for entering the Eremitani City Museum and the Zuckermann Palace. Prices on the page are for January 2019.

The chapel in Italy of the former merchant Enrico Scrovegni is quite inconspicuous and modest in appearance. But inside there are real treasures - murals, authored by the Italian master Giotto.

Construction history

The Scrovegni Chapel (aka Chapel del Arena) was founded in 1300.   Previously, this place was a vast ancient Roman amphitheater - Its foundation was used in the construction of the temple as a foundation.

The original name of the chapel dedicated to the Mother of God is the Church of St. Mary of Mercy.

The current name is Skrovegni - the chapel was named after the person who donated significant funds for the construction of this church building, Enrico Scrovegni, a wealthy Padua merchant.

In 1300, he bought land in the area and ordered the construction of a palace and a chapel here.   According to one version, Skrovegni was not driven by religious motives:   he built this church in order to atone for the sins of his own father, convicted of usury.

The construction of the house church and palace lasted almost 2 years, and in 1305 the church was consecrated (in honor of Madonna del Carite). For her painting, Scrovegni invited the famous Italian artist and architect Giotto di Bondone.

Initially, Capella degli Scrovegni was conceived as an ordinary house church.   for the merchant family. That was the first years after the construction and consecration. But over time, there were more and more people who wanted to look at the frescoes of the famous master, and other parishioners reached out to the chapel, including from the nearby Eremitani church, which caused great displeasure among the monks of Eremitani.

An official protest was even expressed to the Padua bishopbut the bishop allowed access to the Skrovegni church and other parishioners.

In 1328, for a series of acts, Enrico Scrovegni was expelled from Padua. Despite his exile, in his testament of 1336 (Enrico died in Venice), Skrovegni obliged his heirs to make donations to this temple every year.

A century later, another rich family of Padua - the Foscari-Gradenigo family - acquired the palace and the house chapel. After the death of the head of the family, the church fell into disrepair for some time..

At the beginning of the 19th century (1825-1827), the palace that belonged to Ekrico Scrovegni was demolished, and the church remained - 50 years later, it was acquired by the municipality of Padua. Then, in the 19th century, after restoration, Capella degli Scrovegni first opened the door for those wishing to see the famous frescoes.

The last reconstruction of the chapel of degli Scrovegni was made in 2002 (and related mainly to the restoration of frescoes).

On the pages of our site you will also learn about such attractions as the bridge, and what this building is famous for!

Another popular attraction of Italy is the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, and what attracts tourists to this romantic place.

Where is the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, and a description of the famous mosaics located in this basilica of Rome, find out.

Description of Attraction

Capella degli Scrovegni - a fairly simple one-nave church. In shape, it resembles a rectangle (building height - 13 meters, width - 9 meters, length - 20 meters).

The walls of the church are straight, without architectural excesses, ledges and niches,   - that is, the church was designed in such a way that the walls will initially be covered with frescoes. The only exception is the south wall with 6 windows, as well as the western portal. The entire northern wall is flat and smooth.

If you look closely, you can see that the side beams, pedestal and loggias of the upper tier are painted. This was done on purpose to show the prospect on a smooth and even space, without causing damage to the frescoes.

Each wall is dedicated to individual cycles of frescoes.. Giotto's frescoes in the Skrovegni chapel in Padua describe moments in the life of Jesus and his Mother. Separate scenes are dedicated to her life, betrothal with Joseph, the moment of the Annunciation. The upper vault is dedicated to the cycle “Allegories of Vices and Virtues”.

In this fresco chapel, the birth of Christ was first depicted. For some reason, the theme of birth was not touched by artists before; many preferred to bypass it, describing other aspects of the Savior's life.

These murals were fundamentally different from all painted earlier - Giotto “humanized” all religious characters, figures and faces were detailed and realistic. For the first time, Giotto’s murals and frescoes in the Chapel del Arena in Padua gain volume and lively emotions.

For the first time, the figures have acquired depth, marked shadows and chiaroscuro   - the images are no longer as “flat” as before, and Giotto’s artistic transmission was a turning point in European painting of that time.

The predominant colors of the frescoes are azure (very expensive paint at the time), orange, yellow, gold and pink.

Best preserved frescoes, which were written in the technique of "wet plaster"   - the colors remained as bright. But the images using the “dry mural” technique were much less lucky - the colors (especially the red and green tones) faded, the plaster crumbled in places.

It is noteworthy that Giotto, when portraying the Star of Bethlehem, took Halley's comet as the basis, which just passed above the ground in 1301.

You will learn about the famous works of Giotto, which are in the Scrovegni Chapel, from the following video:

Opening hours, ticket prices

Despite the fact that the church is small and inconspicuous from the outside, getting into it is not so easy. A prior appointment is required to visit Capella degli Scrovegni. This applies to visits in the "high season" when the influx of tourists is very large. If you visit Padua during the low season, getting to the chapel is much easier.

The chapel is open to the public:

• january February,
• mid-June - end of July
• november,
• december: from 16 to 24 and from 27 to 31.

So you have to consider this factor if you are going to visit Padua and get to the chapel. Reservation of date and time of visit is required in advance.   (An online reservation is made at least 24 hours before the visit, you cannot visit the chapel on the day of booking) on \u200b\u200bthe website: http://www.cappelladegliscrovegni.it/index.php/en/.

Opening hours - from 9 am to 19 pm.

In the chapel, a limit is set for those present - at the same time no more than 25 people can be in the room.

Visits are also limited.   - A group of tourists can stay in the chapel for no more than 40 minutes. Of these, a video about the history of the construction of the church will be shown for 15 minutes, and after that - free time for exploring Giotto’s frescoes.

artist:   Giotto di Bondone
years of life:   1267-1276 (presumably) - 1337
types of fine art:   painting, murals, wood carving, bell tower project
style:   proto-renaissance

The Capella del Arena is one of the most worthy of the attractions of the city of Padua, which must be visited by every guest of the city. Luxurious interior paintings and frescoes by the hand of the great master - Giotto - compensate for the ascetic exterior of the chapel del Arena and turn it into a heritage of world art.

The chapel was built in the early 1300s on the ruins of the ancient Roman amphitheater. The architectural components of the structure indicate that the original creators of the chapel planned to assign a key role to the interior - murals and frescoes. The absence of partitions, stucco moldings, large planes were to become the basis for religious subjects. The chapel was erected in the name of the Annunciation. The painting of the chapel was entrusted to Giotto.

The earliest of the works of Giotto are considered to be his frescoes for the chapel del Arena in Padua. Frescoes are separate scenes that make the hearts of the audience freeze with admiration.

Giotto di Bondone. Murals for the chapel del Arena in Padua

The frescoes are arranged in three horizontal rows. Scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, her parents, saints Joachim and Anna fill the upper row. In the middle row are scenes from the life of Christ. The Passion of the Lord and Sunday - are presented in the lower, third row. It is noteworthy that the bottom row is located at a height of only 3 meters under the floor, which provides visitors with an excellent opportunity to enjoy the details of the frescoes nearby.

At the time of Giotto, fresco was a new genre of art, and Giotto became one of the first great masters of this genre, the ancestor of new Italian painting. For several centuries, it was the fresco that was the test for the artist’s giftedness. The whole difficulty was that the mural was painted on wet plaster with paints diluted in water. Therefore, the artist did not have the opportunity to correct the mistake, since the plaster quickly dried. Sometimes the size of the paintings was huge. In order to cope with the work, the artist needed not only a hard hand and sharp eye, but also endurance. Creating frescoes was considered a “masculine” work. That is why Michelangelo, for example, called panel painting “an activity for women and wimps.” The technique of such wet murals is called“Fresco boone” . The main advantage of this technique was its high resistance: paint and plaster became one and the original color created by the artist was preserved for a long time.

Giotto began painting murals in the chapel del Arena in 1303. An interesting fact - none of these frescoes was signed by Giotto. His authorship is confirmed by two literary sources in 1313. According to one source, Giotto worked at the Chapel del Arena in 1303-1306. Another document says that the construction of the chapel began in 1303, and Giotto painted murals at the time the construction was completed.

Giotto di Bondone. “Meeting at the Golden Gate”

“Meeting at the Golden Gate”. This is a story about the meeting of Joachim with Anna, the parents of the Virgin Mary, at the Golden Gate after the expulsion of Joachim. Sensuality, purity of human relationships, the power of kindness and love are a powerful set of virtues that makes you hold your gaze on the mural for a long time and experience an inexplicable feeling of warmth.

Giotto di Bondone. “Flight to Egypt”

The name of the work, which portends vanity and anxiety, does not correspond to what we see on the fresco. Calmness, peace of mind, mystery, leisurelyness and somewhere alertness. Majestic rocky desert, procession, measured move. Giotto's “escape” is least like an escape.

Giotto di Bondone. “The Kiss of Judah”

The strength of the gaze, poses, gestures - the two main characters are depicted on the fresco as a single whole, which can easily be separated from the overall plot of the fresco. The meeting of heaven and hell, the crown of Judas became the artistic crown of which. Anxiety and expectation of inexhaustible pain - this is the dramatic effect that Giotto could achieve.

The upper part of the mural was made using the dry mural technique, which was notable for its fragility. Because of his great resilience to destruction, Vasari called this technique “a terrible invention.” Unfortunately, this “terrible invention” deprived contemporaries of the opportunity to contemplate the small details of the “Kiss of Judah” fresco (in particular the weapons of the guards), which were genuinely created by Giotto.

Giotto di Bondone. “Mourning of Christ”

“Mourning of Christ” is one of the central themes in European religious painting. This is a true masterpiece of Giotto and the pearl of the chapel del Arena. There are no analogues of tension in the painting of that period. The center of the composition are two close faces: the dead Christ and his mother. This decision dramatically enhances the drama of the depicted.

Human vices and virtues - only 14 images, Giotto expressed them under the main frescoes of the chapel del Arena, on the marble basement. The creator presents a peculiar lesson to humanity: evil will be cast into the abyss of Hell, and human kindness will be rewarded in Paradise. They emphasize the monumentality of the images - the gray shades in which Giotto performed these works. Gray as if turns art into stone sculptures. It is important to note that it was Giotto who first applied such a technique in the history of painting. Over time, this technique got its official name -Grisaille.

Narrow eyes of characters, large features, broad cheekbones, strong physique of characters - this is Giotto's style. Every detail of the frescoes makes sense, every figure - meaning. The emotions, feelings, gestures of the heroes of the frescoes of Giotto give the chapel Del Arena mystical power that no visitor can resist.

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Giotto di Bondone: paintings, murals, creativity, photo works, biography -on the portal 2 queens. ru!

The paintings of the chapel del Arena by Giotto are the greatest masterpiece of Italian art in execution technique, design and creative genius, and they are a unique ensemble of paintings for that time. Giotto came to Padua as a mature artist with his own unique painting style, during the heyday of his talent, at the invitation of Enrico Scrovegni in 1304 or 1305, where he painted the chapel for Scrovegni and performs several other works that have not been preserved.

The painted chapel del Arena Giotto revolutionized European painting. Padua frescoes became a real revelation for Italy at the beginning of the 14th century, you can immediately see all the merits of the master’s work, which provided him with the honorary position of a great innovator in the history of art, which is a model for other artists. The artist here establishes a clear proportion between the picturesque spaces, anticipating the perspective of the Renaissance.

Chiaroscuro

With the cappella del Arena painting, Giotto made a revolution in European painting, it is here that a new stage begins, when the plastic qualities of objects and the depth of space become the main task of painting, when modeling of volume by shadow becomes paramount and in this connection light begins to be interpreted not as medieval color radiation, but as real illumination, in a certain way directed in contrast to the medieval "color radiation".

And although Giotto does not always maintain this unified orientation, and although the bodies and objects in his works still do not cast shadows, nevertheless he first approved the chiaroscuro that for centuries it has become an immutable requirement of European painting.

Fresco Technique

The frescoes of the chapel are relatively well preserved due to the fact that they were created mainly in the “fresco bud” technique, in which paints are applied to wet plaster. When drying, the plaster and paint form a single whole, which allows you to preserve the original color for a long time.

Individual colors, especially ultramarine, some green and red tones, were applied using the "dry mural" technique - the paint is applied to dry plaster, these parts underwent severe destruction.

The barely noticeable strips separating one section of the plaster from another allow you to determine the number of days the artist spent on work on the mural. The murals were painted on wet plaster, each time applying so much that the artist could paint this area in one day (while the surface remains wet). If this site was not difficult, a large area of \u200b\u200bthe day was painted for the day; otherwise, less. When calculating, it turned out that Giotto spent 852 days working at the Chapel del Arena, even taking into account the fact that his students probably helped him, he worked for at least two years to create the Padua ensemble of frescoes.

Capella del Arena building

The chapel was consecrated in 1305 in honor of Madonna della Carita, and in 1306 the wall painting was probably completed. The fact that its execution was entrusted to Giotto is unequivocally confirmed by the chronicles of the XIV century.

A relatively small chapel del Arena, built in the early 1300s. on the ruins of the ancient Roman amphitheater, perhaps according to the design of Giotto himself - in the form of an elongated rectangle with a box vault - a rather extensive (20 meters long, 9 meters wide and 13 meters high) one-nave church, its walls devoid of architectural divisions form large plane, its interior is simple. The originally planned extensive wall surfaces of the chapel were clearly intended for frescoes, since, in addition to the six windows of the south wall and the western portal, it has no architectural divisions, nor sculptural decorations, nor cornices, nor columns, nor protruding ribs. Particularly noteworthy is the north side of the chapel, once adjacent to the house, devoid of windows, and as if specially created for murals. The artist had to solve a difficult task - to find a specific system for the location of the paintings, allowing not only to decorate, but also to rhythmically organize this empty interior.

Thanks to Giotto's frescoes with their radiant colors and clarity of form, the relatively small room of the chapel gives the impression of a large space. Giotto's compositions make up a festive and elegant ensemble, enclosed in an elegant ornamental frame, shining with intense, thick tones of ultramarine, pink-red, blue, yellow, pistachio-green colors, distinguished by a cool blue background. Giotto’s color plays an important role - it not only expresses celestial symbolism, but also helps to give real persuasiveness, plastic volume to figures and objects, highlight the main characters, and reveal the ideological meaning of the composition.

Frescoes of the chapel

Each individual scene is small in relation to the total surface of the wall (2.31 x 2.02 m). On the long walls of the chapel are arranged in three rows of small independent compositions dedicated to the life of the Mother of God and Christ, connected to each other as scenes of one story. Each composition, being part of the whole, can be perceived as an independent work. The frescoes are arranged in even rows and enclosed in rectangles - almost like the facades of proto-renaissance buildings are divided into rectangles. Actually, these are paintings painted on the walls.

The bottom row starts relatively low - at a distance of 3 meters from the floor, and the third row is located at a height of more than seven and a half meters. The size of each figure is about one meter, because the scenes of the second tier are hardly perceived, not to mention the third tier. Yet it is precisely within these small scenes that Giotto’s monumental type wall panel, which then becomes the main decorative and compositional theme of the monumental painting of the Renaissance.

Giotto performed scenes in the style of Cimabue and Arnolfo di Cambio, which were guided by the principles of compositional clarity and integral volumetric space of figures. In the interior of the Capella del Arena, painted by Giotto, the principle of dismemberment and balance is already triumphing.

The narration is leisurely and uncomplicated, filled with calm dignity. Giotto depicts religious scenes in an earthly setting - instead of the golden soil of the Byzantines, he has a landscape or buildings. Giotto borrows some of the scenes from Byzantine art (focusing mainly on miniatures of church books), but processes them, reviving a new life. The characters of the frescoes are depicted against the backdrop of a natural and architectural landscape. The situation, the scene everywhere outlined very sparingly: conditional architectural pavilions resembling sliding decorations on the stage. Thin columns, porticos, arches are needed only to show that the action is taking place in or around the room, to highlight a particular mise-en-scene, to create a frame for the figure. Where the landscape serves as a backdrop, it looks like the hills we know in Russian icons. And no details anywhere. No colorful flashes. Light, cold colors, smooth texture. Omitting minor details, he concentrates the viewer's attention on significant gestures and poses, outlining the figures with a thick expressive contour.

In each scene, several characters are involved, full of restraint, dignity and fortitude, endowed with a magnificent appearance. Heroes of Giotto lose the traditional Byzantine icon-painting appearance of a stocky, broad-faced, they all have a similar type of face - oblong, with a heavy chin and close-set eyes. The characters are wrapped in chamids of simple cut from heavy, plain fabrics draped in large folds. Giotto was the first to realistically write clothes, using folds that seemed to outline a voluminous form hidden under the fabric. Boccaccio wrote that the artist’s heroes are completely living people, they just can’t talk. At the same time, some echoes of the Byzantine canons can be heard in his work. Thus, the holy characters (as befits in icon painting) he is equipped with nimbuses.

In his compositions, Giotto shows various emotions of the character, side of his character, his moral condition. For today's taste, the artist acts at times very uncertainly, but the path that he outlined will subsequently lead to the highest ups of the Renaissance. Even Michelangelo, whom we know, would never have existed, had Giotto not taken these first steps, in our opinion, uncertain.

Opening of the painted chapel

On March 25, 1305, after the end of the painted work, the second consecration ceremony of this small church took place. The fame of his artistic innovations attracted believers into the chapel, because of which even a conflict arose with the neighboring Eremitani church (Hermits). The chapter of the monks of the hermits expressed an official protest to the bishop of Padua, accusing Enrico Scrovegni of pride.

The opening of the chapel for public visits coincided with a surge of interest in the work of Giotto, which marked the end of the XIX century. Fate kept these treasures during the Second World War. Bombs rained down on Padua more than once, but not one of them fell into the chapel. One feels mystical breathing in this fact.