Giotto and Some of His Followers (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IV THE FRESCOES IN THE ARENA CHAPEL AT PADUA THE little church of Santa Maria dell'Arena in Padua (Pl. 15), named from the Roman amphitheater on the site of which it is built, makes, as one approaches it, a drab and insignificant impression in its setting of rich verdure. The building has long, horizontal lines; it is narrow in proportion to its length; only one of its walls is pierced by six high windows. Over the entrance stood originally Giovanni Pisano's marble Madonna, which now is placed on the altar, encircled by Giotto's frescoes, thus giving a valuable reminder that the two greatest creative artists of that time, Giovanni Pisano and Giotto, were working simultaneously here in Padua. Giovanni, the older of the two, was a more emotional personality, and very likely Giotto was influenced by him to a considerable extent. At present, the only ornament on the plain facade is a big, tripartite Gothic window. As one enters through the narrow door, the eye meets with a rich and brilliant play of colors. The room is lofty. The deep blue, star- strewn barreled vault is divided by a broad band across the middle into two large fields, each adorned with five medallions. Along the walls run three tiers of thirty-four fresco compositions, of considerable size, combined into a unified decorative effect by means of the deep blue color of the background. Furthermore, there are in the narrow wall-spaces on the sides of the entrance to the choir four paintings, and on the wall above the door a colossal representation of the Last Judgment. The harmony between the painted decoration and the architecture is, in our opinion, perfect, in spite of the criticisms made of the distribution of the decoration on the wall between the windows. (Cf. A. Moschetti, La Cappella degli Scrovegni,...