The Scrovegni Chapel

The Scrovegni Chapel was built in 1303 by the will of Enrico Scrovegni, perhaps with the intention of honoring his father mentioned by Dante in the usurers of Hell in the Divine Comedy. The chapel was consecrated in 1305 and dedicated to Santa Maria della Carità. The external façade is in exposed brick, with a simple two-pitched roof and decorated with a mullioned window and a Gothic portal. Inside it is just as simple, with a single nave with a barrel vault. Here we find the most important cycle of Giotto's frescoes, which shows an evident artistic maturity of the Master, obtained over the years, as he uses new and elaborate chromatic techniques to give volume to the forms, varying their intensity also thanks to the light. The deep blue painted ceiling is the backdrop to the symphony of colors on the walls. On the walls the panels arranged in a spiral sequence, tell the events in a clear way starting from the period preceding the birth of the Virgin until the Last Judgment. The first of six episodes begins from above with the story of Joachim and Anna, parents of Mary and resumes on the opposite facade with the stories of the Virgin, ending on the triumphal arch with God the Father who entrusts the task of the Annunciation to the Archangel Gabriel . On the middle band there are the first five stories of the life of Jesus that continue on the opposite wall, on the arch we find the betrayal of Judas. In the lower area we find the Passion and on the opposite wall the end of the cycle with Pentecost. Iconographically, the composition is typically medieval, in the center dominates Christ, the judge, under him his cross that divides Heaven from Hell. Below we find the allegories of the seven virtues opposed to the seven vices, as if Giotto wanted to give those who admired them the possibility of choice. In the presbytery there are three marble statues depicting the Madonna with Child between two angels; behind it a pentagonal apse with the funeral monument of Enrico Scrovegni.