Analysis Of The Passion In The Arena Chapel

Undoubtedly, the early fourteenth century was a highly creative period in Italy which saw many magnificent works created. It was a time, also known as the “Proto-Renaissance” (1280-1400) where Italian scholars and artists were reawakened to the ideas of classical Roman culture. The main types of art practised during the “Trecento” (thirteen hundreds) included tempera panel painting, fresco painting, book painting, relief sculpture and mosaics.
During this period in history, patronage was the driving force for the production of these majestic works. Pieces were commissioned by the Catholic Church, civic societies such as town halls and also wealthy merchants and bankers, the Medici Family being the most influential during the years of the Italian

The scenes of the Passion in the Arena Chapel show that Giotto was inspired by his pre-vious teacher Cimabue. Giotto had a humanist approach to the figures he painted. As I already men-tioned, his figures convey emotion and expression and appear life-like. This can especially be seen in “The Lamentation” scene in the Arena Chapel. The scene portrays the Virgin Mary in despair over the death of Jesus. The pain is evident on the faces of all the figures and the viewer can almost feel the sorrow and desperation in the scene. A rocky mountain ridge draws the eye of the viewer in a diago-nal direction towards Christ. Giotto cleverly placed this downward diagonal line to draw the atten-tion to the most important character in the scene. In addition to this, the outstretched arms of St. John also help to direct the eye centrally into the picture to the body of Christ and they illustrate Giotto’s use of foreshortening. The figures appear natural and are not stylized in the Byzantine tradi-tion used by Duccio in his portrayal of the Lamention on the Maesta altarpiece. Although only a fragment of the original Lamentation by Duccio survives, one can see how Duccio approaches his figures differently to Giotto. The human forms do not appear realistic and lack the emotion and roundness to those of