the decoration of the scrovegni chapel in padua (between 1303-1305) has been universally recognized as the most significant and most paradigmatic creation of giotto and one of the capital events in the history of the european painting.
enrico scrovegni, the paduan sponsor of giotto was a very highly placed personage. very rich and ambitious, he acquired in 1300 the area of arena in order to build a palace with a chapel; the dates of construction, decoration and consecration are documented between 1303 and 1305.
for this aristocratic commission, giotto had at his disposal the walls of a small church, which was also asymmetric due to the six windows that open only on the right wall. in order to implement his vast iconographic program, the painter took as point of reference the space between two windows, calculating the insertion of two stories, one on top of the other; the frescos are smaller than those in assisi (200 x 185 cm, compared to 270 x 230 cm).
on the back wall, the florentine artist painted a single grandiose scene, the final judgement.
