COSITUTTI

Religion was often a reason or rhyme for the creation of Renaissance art. God’s power, perfection and politics were intriguing subject matter for artists with patrons ready to pay for impressive works of art. Fresco art in particular lended itself to such broad majestic themes. Done on plaster walls or ceilings, the artist could paint expansive scenes or cycles that unfolded like visual pages from a book. Signorelli’s massive frescoes of the Last Judgment (1499–1503) in the Orvieto Cathedral, Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and Lorenzetti’s allegorical frescoes of Good and Bad Government in Siena’s Palazzo Pubblico all made an unmistakable statement about the consequences of evil and the rewards of time well spent. So it’s not surprising that one of the most important masterpieces of Western art was painted as a fresco cycle with inspiring scenes from the life of Christ and his mother Mary. What is surprising is that this most celebrated work of art, by the Italian Renaissance master Giotto, is located in a chapel on the estate grounds of a money lenders son who in atonement for his father’s  sins commissioned the fresco.

Reginaldo Scrovegni was a wealthy moneylender from the city of Padua. He was portrayed in the Seventh Circle of Hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy, where usurers are to be found swatting away fire,  like animals swat bugs, with purses around their necks emblazoned with their family coat of arm, their punishment to be served.

So I went on alone and even farther (43)

Along the seventh circle’s outer margin,

To where the melancholy people sat.

When I had set my eyes upon the faces (52)

Of some on who the painful fire falls,

I recognized no one; but I did notice

That from the neck of each a purse was hung (55)

That had a special color or an emblem,

And their eyes seemed to feast upon these pouches.

           Then, as I let my eyes move further on, (61)

I saw another purse that was blood red,

And it displayed a goose more white than butter.

            And one who had an azure, pregnant sow

                                From Dante’s Inferno (Mandelbaum Translation)

In the above excerpt from Dante’s Inferno, the emblem with the azure pregnant sow referred to the coat of arms of the Scrovegni family. It’s no wonder that Enrico Scrovegni, Reginaldo’s son felt compelled to build a private chapel next to the family palazzo in penitence for his father’s sins. He must have been frightened out of his mind after reading of his impending doom and hoped not only to atone for the sins of his father but his own as it was suggested that Enrico was also involved in usurious practices.  So Enrico commissioned Giotto to design a chapel with a series of frescoes on the site of a Roman arena that was on the grounds of his family estate. The vaulted chapel is a work of breathtaking beauty with a ceiling that resembles a starry blue sky. There are generational scenes of Jesus, his mother Mary and her parents Joachim and Anna that unfold like a family album and a particularly sweet scene of the nativity of Jesus and the adoration of the Magi that you might expect on the front of a Christmas card.  The walls of the chapel contain 37 panels in three tiers with scenes of the Annunciation, Allegories of the Vices and Virtues and a compelling scene of the Final Judgment.  Rather than a fire and brimstone rendition, the Final Judgment scene is a gentler reminder of the consequences of sin. One that might be part of a children’s catechism in which their elders stand in judgment with Christ while the saints and angels gather in support of their good deeds and mitigate the bad. Viewing the frescoes begins with a short minute video on the history, design and restoration of the chapel. You must arrive at least five minutes before the time (ore) printed on your ticket (il biglietto) to pass through an environmentally controlled chamber. The area is sealed to allow for cleansing the air before a group is admitted into the chapel. There you are allowed fifteen minutes to view the frescoes.  Although some have complained about the monitored viewing of the Scrovegni frescoes calling it “an unpleasant experience”, I did not find it to be so. I would rather have the experience of seeing a preserved historical site in its indigenous state than having a facsimile where sightseers indulge their Disneyesque needs in a contrived computer generated avatar.  Such experiences have their place but for those of us who what to get up close and personal with what’s left of the endangered species of the art and architecture of our planet the desire to save and conserve an artifact, painting or monument in its truest form is important and the inconvenience is accepted.

The Scrovegni Chapel in Padua is considered to be one of the Great Fresco Cycles of the Renaissance.  It has been over 700 years since the Cappella degli Scrovegni was consecrated yet the frescoes found here remain timeless. Giotto’s achievements in Italian art and architecture are substantial. He designed the Campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral and in 1296 a series of frescoes called the St. Francis cycle in the Upper Church of San Francesco in Assisi. The St. Francis frescoes are part of what has been called the “stubborn mystery of Giotto”, meaning that attributing authorship of the frescoes is troublesome for some who feel that Giotto may not have had a hand in creating them. An Italian art restorer Bruno Zanardi, who cleaned the frescoes between 1978 and 1982 believes that Giotto did not paint the 1296 St. Francis Legend.  Zanardi contends that the style, color and form of these frescoes don’t fit the Giotto profile. Zanardi and others attribute the St. Francis series to a school of Roman artists rather than the Florentine Giotto. Among some, it has even been heard that Florence was not the birthplace of the Renaissance but rather it was Rome.  Rome in atonement for the artistic shortcomings of Florence. Non possibile. Yet I would not speak such heresy. The power, privilege and patrons of the art of Renaissance Rome are not to be taken lightly. I will leave it to Dante to define the creative soul of the Renaissance and their place in the Divine Comedy.