Scrovegni Chapel — Giotto Makes Emotion Architectural
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
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Transcript
Enrico Scrovegni commissioned this small chapel in the early fourteenth century, and Giotto covered its interior with a tightly organized cycle of biblical scenes. The innovation is not simply that the figures look more realistic. Emotion, gesture and architecture work together so that the viewer can follow a narrative almost cinematically.
The patron came from a wealthy banking family, a profession frequently criticized by medieval theologians for usury. Scholars have therefore long discussed the chapel in relation to reputation, devotion and salvation, though simple claims that it was built only to “buy forgiveness” go beyond what the evidence can prove.
What is clear is that private wealth created a work that later became public cultural heritage.