Giotto

==Scrovegni Chapel==
[[File:Giotto - Scrovegni - -31- - Kiss of Judas.jpg|thumb|left|Kiss of Judas, [[Scrovegni Chapel]]]]
Around 1305, Giotto executed his most influential work, the interior frescoes of the [[Scrovegni Chapel]] in [[Padua]] that in 2021 were declared [[UNESCO World Heritage]] together with other 14th-century fresco cycles in different buildings around the city centre.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1623|title=Padua's fourteenth-century fresco cycles, UNESCO declaration|author=|website=UNESCO|language=en|access-date=15 August 2021}}</ref> [[Enrico degli Scrovegni]] commissioned the chapel to serve as family worship, burial space<ref>See the complaint of the Eremitani monks in James Stubblebine, ''Giotto:  The Arena Chapel Frescoes'', New York, 1969, 106–107 and an analysis of the commission by Benjamin G. Kohl, "Giotto and his Lay Patrons", in Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, ''The Cambridge Companion to Giotto'', Cambridge, 2004, 176–193.</ref> and as a backdrop for an annually performed [[mystery play]].<ref>Schwarz, Michael Viktor, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41418713?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents "Padua, its Arena, and the Arena Chapel: a liturgical ensemble"], in ''Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes'', Vol. 73, 2010, 39–64.</ref>

The theme of the decoration is [[Salvation]], and there is an emphasis on the [[Virgin Mary]], as the chapel is dedicated to the [[Annunciation]] and to the Virgin of Charity. As was common in church decoration of medieval Italy, the west wall is dominated by the ''[[Last Judgement]]''. On either side of the chancel are complementary paintings of the angel [[Gabriel]] and the Virgin Mary, depicting the Annunciation. The scene is incorporated into the cycles of ''The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary'' and ''The Life of Christ''. Giotto's inspiration for ''The Life of the Virgin'' cycle was probably taken from ''[[Golden Legend|The Golden Legend]]'' by [[Jacobus de Voragine]] and ''The Life of Christ'' draws upon the ''[[Meditations on the Life of Christ]]'' as well as the Bible. The frescoes are more than mere illustrations of familiar texts, however, and scholars have found numerous sources for Giotto's interpretations of sacred stories.<ref>Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, ''The Usurer's Heart: Giotto, Enrico Scrovegni, and the Arena Chapel in Padua'', University Park, 2008; Laura Jacobus, ''Giotto and the Arena Chapel: Art, Architecture and Experience'', London, 2008; Andrew Ladis, ''Giotto's O: Narrative, Figuration, and Pictorial Ingenuity in the Arena Chapel'', University Park, 2009.</ref>

Vasari, drawing on a description by [[Giovanni Boccaccio]], a friend of Giotto's, says of him that "there was no uglier man in the city of Florence" and indicates that his children were also plain in appearance. There is a story that [[Dante]] visited Giotto while he was painting the Scrovegni Chapel and, seeing the artist's children underfoot asked how a man who painted such beautiful pictures could have such plain children. Giotto, who according to Vasari was always a wit, replied, "I make my pictures by day, and my babies by night."<ref name=Vasari/>{{sfn|Eimerl|1967|p=106}}

===Sequence===
The cycle is divided into 37 scenes, arranged around the lateral walls in three tiers, starting in the upper register with the story of [[St. Joachim]] and [[St. Anne]], the parents of the Virgin, and continuing with her early life. The life of Jesus occupies two registers. The top south tier deals with the lives of Mary's parents, the top north with her early life and the entire middle tier with the early life and miracles of Christ. The bottom tier on both sides is concerned with the [[Passion of Jesus Christ|Passion of Christ]]. He is depicted mainly in profile, and his eyes point continuously to the right, perhaps to guide the viewer onwards in the episodes. The kiss of Judas near the end of the sequence signals the close of this left-to-right procession. Below the narrative scenes in colour, Giotto also painted allegories of seven Virtues and their counterparts in monochrome grey (''grisaille''). The ''grisaille'' frescoes are painted to look like marble statues that personify Virtues and Vices. The central allegories of ''Justice'' and ''Injustice'' oppose two specific types of government: peace leading to a festival of Love and tyranny resulting in wartime rape.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Kérchy|editor1-first=Anna|editor2-last=Liss|editor2-first=Attila|editor3-last=Szönyi|editor3-first=György E.|title=The Iconology of Law and Order (Legal and Cosmic)|date=2012|publisher=JATEPress|location=Szeged|isbn=978-963-315-076-4}}</ref> Between the narrative scenes are quatrefoil paintings of [[Old Testament]] scenes, like [[Jonah and the Whale]], that allegorically correspond to and perhaps foretell the life of Christ.

Much of the blue in the frescoes has been worn away by time. The expense of the [[ultramarine]] blue pigment used required it to be painted on top of the already-dry fresco (''[[fresco secco|a secco]]'') to preserve its brilliance. That is why it has disintegrated faster than the other colours, which were painted on wet plaster and have bonded with the wall.<ref>Wolf, Norbert (2006). ''Giotto''. Hong Kong; Taschen. p. 34. {{ISBN|3822851604}}.</ref> An example of the decay can clearly be seen on the robe of the Virgin, in the fresco of the ''Nativity''.

===Style===
Giotto's style drew on the solid and classicizing sculpture of [[Arnolfo di Cambio]]. Unlike those by Cimabue and Duccio, Giotto's figures are not stylized or elongated and do not follow Byzantine models. They are solidly three-dimensional, have faces and gestures that are based on close observation, and are clothed, not in swirling formalized drapery, but in garments that hang naturally and have form and weight. He also took bold steps in foreshortening and having characters face inwards, with their backs towards the observer, creating the illusion of space. The figures occupy compressed settings with naturalistic elements, often using forced [[Perspective (graphical)|perspective]] devices so that they resemble stage sets. This similarity is increased by Giotto's careful arrangement of the figures in such a way that the viewer appears to have a particular place and even an involvement in many of the scenes.  That can be seen most markedly in the arrangement of the figures in the ''Mocking of Christ'' and ''[[Lamentation (The Mourning of Christ)|Lamentation]]'' in which the viewer is bidden by the composition to become mocker in one and mourner in the other.
[[File:Compianto sul Cristo morto.jpg|thumb|''[[Lamentation of Christ|Lamentation (The Mourning of Christ)]]'', Scrovegni Chapel]]

Giotto's depiction of the human face and emotion sets his work apart from that of his contemporaries. When the disgraced Joachim returns sadly to the hillside, the two young shepherds look sideways at each other. The soldier who drags a baby from its screaming mother in the ''Massacre of the Innocents'' does so with his head hunched into his shoulders and a look of shame on his face. The people on the road to Egypt gossip about Mary and Joseph as they go. Of Giotto's realism, the 19th-century English critic [[John Ruskin]] said, "He painted the Madonna and St. Joseph and the Christ, yes, by all means... but essentially Mamma, Papa and Baby".<ref name=Sarel/>

Famous narratives in the series include the ''[[Adoration of the Magi]]'', in which a comet-like [[Star of Bethlehem]] streaks across the sky. Giotto is thought to have been inspired by the 1301 appearance of [[Halley's comet]], which led to the 1986 [[space probe]] ''[[Giotto mission|Giotto]]'' being named after the artist.