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The Scrovegni Chapel Frescoes
(paintings, c. 1305)
Nothing about the small and rather plain exterior of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua can prepare you for what is inside. It is like a simple unadorned jewelry box that contains unexpected and priceless treasures. There, in a small private chapel paid for by Enrico Scrovegni as atonement for his father’s usurious and unsavory financial dealings, is a breathtaking series of frescoes by Giotto illustrating the life of Mary and the life of Jesus, as well as a depiction of the last judgment. Nearly every surface is covered in paint, from floor to ceiling, including a bright blue night sky in the curved vault of the roof. There are about forty painted panels, each bursting with creative illustrations of the great sacred stories.
One of the most remarkable of these panels is The Lamentation of Christ, which shows the dead Jesus cradled in the arms of his mother, whose face displays her emotional anguish over the death of her son. That anguish is mirrored in the faces of other onlookers, especially in the faces of the angels who hover above the scene, wailing in grief over the slain Christ. This is not a calm and composed religious scene painted for the inspiration of the devout but a fully human moment, and we grasp the monumental tragedy through the expressions of the onlookers. They take us into the narrative and we experience it through them: through Mary’s unspeakable sorrow, through the lament of the angelic host, and through the gesture of John, whose arms are thrown backward in horror and unutterable grief.
The Lamentation of Christ by Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua [Wikimedia Commons, CC-PD-Mark]
Giotto has created a complex and busy arrangement, and some figures even have their backs to us, adding to the dimension of the work. But everything in the work pulls our eyes toward the face of the dead Christ, who while not at the physical center of the painting is clearly the central focus toward which everything points. Even the rocky ridge in the background descends from the right and toward Jesus. There is no question that something of unbelievable awfulness has taken place. The Son of God has been slain. And Giotto has captured the emotion of the moment.
Giotto di Bondone was born in 1266 near Florence, and spent much of his working life there. In his early days he was a shepherd. One day, while his sheep were grazing, young Giotto grew restless and decided to pass the time in a way that he had come to enjoy—drawing. He’d never had any lessons, but he had a keen eye. He found a sharp, pointed rock that he thought he could make use of, and a large stone with a relatively smooth surface. His instruments weren’t ideal, but he set to work scratching the likeness of one of the sheep onto the stone.
It happened that the most accomplished artist of his time, Cimabue, was taking a walk in the countryside and happened upon the boy. (Cimabue’s art was so esteemed that when he completed his altarpiece, Virgin Enthroned With Angels, it was carried through the streets of the city in a triumphal procession.) Curious to see what the young man was doing, Cimabue was astonished at the lifelike realism that Giotto managed with his rough tools. According to the story that has come down to us by Renaissance-era art historian Giorgio Vasari, Cimabue decided on the spot to take Giotto on as a student. The rest is art history. The student developed into an artist more talented and innovative than his teacher.
Before Giotto, artists mostly worked from predetermined models and prototypes that had been handed down as part of the artistic tradition. These given rules and paradigms determined that artists would not stray far from the Byzantine heritage—art that was stiff, formal, and highly symbolic. But Giotto took another approach, and with it became the fountainhead of Western painting. When he approached a subject, he asked a simple question: What does it look like? And that attempt to paint realistically gave an unusual power to his work. Ignoring normal practices and traditions, he instead painted what he saw and what he felt. He was the first artist in the Western tradition to let his personality and individuality fully shine through. Giotto was not afraid of innovation and experimentation. Some of his experiments, such as in creating a sense of perspective, were not always fully successful. Hence there is a bit of awkwardness in some of his depictions, but somehow that actually adds to their charm and originality.
Giotto’s figures have a sense of weight and volume not seen before his time. When you compare his Madonna and Child (c. 1310) with that of his teacher, Cimabue, you witness a much greater sense of dimensionality. He has not painted a symbol of spirituality and holiness but a person. And he surrounds his people with the natural world, which he renders with great care: stones, trees, animals, and the landscapes in which his painted narratives take place.
Perhaps the greatest achievement of Giotto’s art is the emotional realism he brings to the traditional biblical and historical stories. His works are full of drama, confrontation, tenderness, overwhelming grief, and humor. He emphasizes the human relationships within the stories he illustrates, and we feel the pain or joy of the events he unfolds with his brush. When, for example, he paints the moment that Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, we are drawn into the drama through the piercing eyes of Jesus, filled with intensity and sadness that one of his chosen has decided to turn him over to his enemies. Time stops as we sense the depth of emotion.
In Giotto’s day, canvas painting did not yet exist, so most of his work was done as fresco painting, a process where paint is applied directly onto the walls while the plaster is still wet. This meant that an artist had to work pretty quickly, but what they created was a work of permanence.
The several series of fresco paintings that Giotto did with his new, more realistic style made him famous in his lifetime. His first great fresco series was done for the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. Here, with some help from assistants, he unfolded the life of the saint with emotion and great charm. When he paints St. Francis preaching to the birds, we cannot help but smile at the simplicity and ingenuity of his characterization and at the menagerie of various kinds of birds that eagerly flock together to hear the saint’s message. Another panel, where Francis receives the stigmata, is full of drama and spiritual mystery.
Interior of Scrovegni Chapel, Padua [© Pierre Poschadel/Wikimedia Commons, CC-by-3.0]
Giotto’s greatest achievement, though, is his series of frescoes for the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Including The Lamentation of Christ, these panels are an inventive and emotionally resonant series of moments from the life of Jesus and the life of his mother. Each deserves study as a great work of art in its own right. But considered as a whole, it is a stunning testament to the faith and talent of the West’s first universally admired artist, an artist who brought realism, passion, and drama to the painting of biblical and sacred stories.
Giotto’s artistic talent is heightened by his talent as a storyteller. He doesn’t just paint. He brings the stories to life with his brush and makes us feel as though we are witnessing an unfolding event. It’s all about the little touches that make the personalities of the biblical characters manifest in a way that is convincing and deeply human. We know them. We know their pain. We know their triumph. And we are often moved to a place near to tears.