Padua - part 2 (The Arena Chapel)

The reason we made this trip to Padua was so that Sarah and Kellin could see the Scrovegni Chapel, aka the Arena Chapel. The fresco cycle by Giotto inside the chapel is one of the most important masterpieces of Western art. How do I know? Because the two highest art authorities I know (Sarah and wikipedia) told me so.


Lara, Sarah, Prof. Hatfield, and Kellin make their way to the chapel. In order to get in you have to make reservations for fifteen minute time slots. Sarah, Kellin, and Prof. Hatfield had a total of 45 minutes each, while Lara and I were only given one half hour each. This was because Sarah and Kellin were going over the presentation of Prof. Hatfield's lecture on the fresco with him.


Before you can enter the chapel, you have to sit in a chamber and watch a little movie for fifteen minutes. All the while the air and temperature are being stabilized or something. Then a sliding glass door lets you into a hallway, then another door lets you into the chapel. I think that this is because, aside from its importance, it was also bombed during WWII, so there was a lot of damage.


It is known as the Arena Chapel because the land that Enrico Scrovegni purchased for it was adjacent to the remains of a Roman arena.


Well, I'm not sure when it was built but the fresco was completed by Giotto around 1305.


Enrico's father Reginaldo degli Scrovegni was the usurer encountered by Dante in the Seventh Circle of Hell. But Enrico probably built the chapel to amend for his own sins.


In a place like this there was obviously no photography allowed. So here are some images from the web. Here is one end. I think this is where Enrico's tomb is located.


Here is the opposite end. The frescoes depict the lives of Christ and of Mary. On this end is the Last Judgement.


And here is a close-up of the Last Judgement.


And finally, here is the famous Kiss of Judas. Judas betrayed Jesus when he told the authorities that he would identify Jesus by means of a kiss.