Finalmente! After researching this place for several projects (one being my undergrad seminar) I finally got to see the Scrovegni Chapel! I feel like Linda Richman meeting Barbra Streisand. I can die now, excuse me I have to go die now. Giotto was commissioned to paint the chapel in 1303 by the prominent usurer Enrico Scrovegni, who was trying to purchase his forgiveness. (Did you hear that Sallie Mae? God doesn't like usurers! So maybe you erase my student loans and you'll go to heaven. You're choice.) Giotto, coincidentally, was a master of the fresco, the first tp give his figures weight (since Antiquity, of course). he was said to accurately draw from life, and he influenced the subsequent artists of the Renaissance. The chapel is his capolavoro, and If I could show you pictures I would. I got this one off the internets:
We had to leave all our belongings in the cloakroom and then we were sealed into a chamber that dehumidifies all within while we watched a short informative movie (it sounds more fun than it is; really you're just in a glass room for 10 minutes, and it gets cold). Then they only let you stay in the chapel for 15 minutes. Let me tell you this is not enough time! All the panels on the side walls are different scenes from the life of some guy Spanish guy named Jesus. The the back wall is painted with a scene from the Final Judgement (which I've heard is supposed to happen later this year) I don't know if you can see in this horrible internet photo the tiny figure in purple(the color of penitence) on the left side of the crucifix? That's Enrico, himself handing a small scale model of the chapel to Jesus' mama. I guess he is really trying to make up for that usury, going over the Savior's head, right to the boss.
We had to leave all our belongings in the cloakroom and then we were sealed into a chamber that dehumidifies all within while we watched a short informative movie (it sounds more fun than it is; really you're just in a glass room for 10 minutes, and it gets cold). Then they only let you stay in the chapel for 15 minutes. Let me tell you this is not enough time! All the panels on the side walls are different scenes from the life of some guy Spanish guy named Jesus. The the back wall is painted with a scene from the Final Judgement (which I've heard is supposed to happen later this year) I don't know if you can see in this horrible internet photo the tiny figure in purple(the color of penitence) on the left side of the crucifix? That's Enrico, himself handing a small scale model of the chapel to Jesus' mama. I guess he is really trying to make up for that usury, going over the Savior's head, right to the boss.
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