The frescoes of Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto are considered to be the most brilliant works in the late Middle Ages. Why did the layman Enrico construct this chapel and order mural paintings to Giotto, one of the most famous painters atet claimed the heaviest expenses in his age? And how did Giotto carry out this work getting over the limitation of religious dogma and the patron’s demand?In this paper, I will research the scenes of the chancel arch in association with the process of chapel construction. These are <The Annunciation> at the top of the both sides, <The Pact of Judas> and <The Visitation> of each side in the middle, <The architectural space with lamp> painted with a illusionistic method. These paintings of the chancel arch are located to the fore in the chapel and considered to be reflecting the patron’s opinion most.
For a long time, it has been supported that Scrovegni family, especially Enrico’s father Rainaldo, had been accused as a usurer and that Enrico had built this chapel to repent the family’s sin. But the recent researches on the Paduan documents of the day reveal that Scrovegni family was not so terrible a usurer and Enrico’s end of chapel construction was a kind of business for his image making rather than for repentance.
Enrico purchased the area of Roman Arena in the northeast of Padua in February, 1300. He got the permission to construct his family chapel in April, 1302. At first, the chapel was planned to be just one altar on a small scale and limited to be used only for his family Mass and the private funeral at that time. But the scale was getting bigger and bigger in the process of construction to be equipped with a bell tower, of which the nearby Eremitani monastery complained.
In March of 1304 Pope Benedict XI who was acquainted with Enrico delivered the bull in which those attending the Mass in Scrovegni Chapel at Marian Feast days (Christmas, 25 of December; the Annunciation, 25 of March; Palm day; Ascension Day of Mary, 15 of August) were allowed to have the indulgence of one year and forty days. This made Scrovegni’s private chapel become a public church.
The Annunciation among 4 Marian Feasts is the most related to Arena. Annunciation Feast was performed at Arena from 1278 in Padua, The outdoor performance was dovetailed more closely with the service of indoor Mass after the construction of Scrovegni Chapel. Giotto’s <Annunciation> represents this Mass accompanied with the performance of drama.
It seems that the realistic representation of the illusory space, the curtains behind Gabriel and Mary and the gestures of the figures was intended to remind people of this Mass. This might be a demand of Enrico and Giotto might have created the new method of perspective to fulfill the patron’s desire. <The architectural space with a lamp> at the lowest part of the chancel arch is also very illusionistic. We can suppose that Giotto represented an illusory transept that could not be accomplished due to the complaint of Eremitani monastery.
<The pact of Judas> and <The Visitation> in the middle of the chancel arch used to be a topic of scholarly debate. There are many figures with a moneybag in this frescoes especially in the hell on the western wall and among vices on the bottom of northern wall. This has been considered to be related to the usury of Rainaldo Scrovegni, since Judas in <The Pact of Judas> seized a moneybag with his left hand.
Emphasizing the antithesis of virtue and vice, the paradise and the hell, Anne Derbes interpreted <The Pact of Judas> and <The Visitation> as contrastive concepts of avarice and charity. And she asserted that this antithesis is Enrico’s intension to restore the honor of his family dismissing the shame of usury from avarice to charity. On the contrary, Chiara Frugoni, a historian in the Middle Ages interpreted this as a kind of a business for image-making rather than true redemption.
Enrico changed his private family chapel to a public church for the public image of his family. He intended to show off this chapel at the Feast of Annunciation which was the citywide festival at Arena. And the painter Giotto represented <the Annunciation> in unprecedented realistic perspective to remind the general public of the theatrical Annunciation Mass.
How did they feel when they attended the Mass in this chapel? They might have imagined Scrovegni family as moral citizens. And what is the best of all, they are allowed to have indulgence and can appreciate the most splendid paintings of those days. Now Scrovrgni’s family chapel became almost a place of pilgrimage. It seems that Enrico has succeeded in his business, because we, after 700 years later, remember his name only because he had employed Giotto for his chapel.
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