The Last Judgement
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| Giotto, The Last Judgement, 1306 |
This is Giotto's largest work in the Arena Chapel. This extensive description of the Last Judgment in the west of the church is dominated by the large enthroned Christ as supreme Judge in a rainbow-colored mandorla in majesty at its center. The twelve apostles are surrounding Christ. In this area the archangels Michael and Raphael hold the cross in the middle. This fresco contains the Heaven, Purgatory, and the Hell. The bright gold background, Giotto’s style of painting gives the perception that Christ is showing his power.
It is possible that Dante, the great
Renaissance poet and an acquaintance of Giotto's, was inspired by this depiction
of Hell when he wrote The Inferno. In the book Satan is in the deepest part of hell,
devouring people, like in the fresco. In the hell there is lot of individuals
hanging from things that look like trees. Giotto did a really good job by
presenting it, because make the viewer that the hell is cruelest place of all
times.
A curious thing can be found at the bottom
part of the fresco, Enrico Scrovegni the representative of the Arena Chapel, is
portrayed as presenting the chapel to the Virgin Mary.
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