Giotto - Sacifice of Gioacchino - Scrovengi Chapel, Padua - art postcard

Art Postcard
• Work of art title:  Sacrificio di Gioacchino
• Artist (if known):  Giotto
• Media or other details:  painting?
• Publisher / Gallery: Capella degli Scrovengni, Padua
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp & postmark details (if relevant): na
• Size: modern
• Notes & condition details:

NOTES:

Size: 'Modern' is usually around 6in x 4in / 'Old Standard' is usually around 5 1/2in x 3 1/2in. Larger sizes mentioned, but if you need to know the exact size please ask.

All postcards are not totally new and are pre-owned. It's inevitable that older cards may show signs of ageing and use, particularly sent through the post. Any faults other than normal ageing are noted.

Stock No.:A325

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Postage & Packing:

UK (incl. IOM, CI & BFPO): 99p

Europe: GBP 1.60

Rest of world (inc. USA etc): GBP 2.75

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Payment Methods:

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NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information:

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The Scrovegni Chapel, or Cappella degli Scrovegni, also known as the Arena Chapel, is a church in Padua, Veneto, Italy. It contains a fresco cycle by Giotto, completed about 1305, that is one of the most important masterpieces of Western art. The church was dedicated to Santa Maria della Carit� at the Feast of the Annunciation, 1303, and consecrated for use in 1305. Giotto's fresco cycle focuses on the life of the Virgin Mary and celebrates her role in human salvation. The chapel is also known as the Arena Chapel because it was built on land purchased by Enrico Scrovegni that abutted the site of a Roman arena. This space is where an open-air procession and sacred representation of the Annunciation to the Virgin had been played out for a generation before the chapel was built. A motet by Marchetto da Padova appears to have been composed for the dedication on March 25, 1305.^[1]

The chapel was commissioned by Enrico Scrovegni, whose family fortune was made through banking. At this time charging excess interest when loaning money was considered to be usury, a sin so grave that it resulted in exclusion from the Christian sacraments, and many early bankers were concerned lest their trade jeopardised their souls.^[2] It has often been suggested that Enrico built the chapel in penitence for his father's sin of usury and to obtain absolution for his own. Enrico's father Reginaldo degli Scrovegni is one of the usurers encountered by Dante in the Seventh Circle of Hell. Recent studies have debated whether Enrico himself was involved in usurious practices and if the chapel was intended as restitution for his own sins. Some scholars tend to suggest that Giotto's frescoes in the chapel reflect these concerns with usury and penitence, although the issue is controversial and others see a more secular set of concerns.^[3] Enrico's tomb is in the apse, and he is also portrayed in the Last Judgment presenting a model of the chapel to the Virgin.

The chapel was attached to a new palace built by Enrico Scrovegni and was ostensibly a family oratory, but it also served some public functions related to the Feast of the Annunciation.^[4]

Giotto was an architect as well as an artist, and recent research has argued that he designed the chapel.^[5]

Apart from Giotto's paintings, the chapel is unornamented and features a barrel vault roof. Giotto's Last Judgment covers the entire wall above the chapel's entrance and includes the aforementioned devotional portrait of Enrico. Opposite it, on the chancel arch above the altar, is an unusual scene of God in Heaven despatching an angel to Earth. Each wall is arranged in three tiers of narrative frescoes, each with four two-meter-square scenes. Facing the altar the narrative sequence begins at the top of the right hand wall with scenes from the life of the Virgin, including the annunciation to her mother, St. Anne, and the presentation at the temple. The series continues through the Nativity, the Passion of Jesus, the Resurrection, and the Pentecost. The panels are noted for their emotional intensity, sculptural figures, and naturalistic space. Beneath the main scenes at dado level, Giotto used a faux architectural scheme of painted marble decorations and small recesses containing figures of the Virtues and Vices painted in grisaille (monotone).

One of the most gripping paintings in the chapel is Giotto's portrayal of The Kiss of Judas, the moment of betrayal that represents the first step on Jesus' road to the Crucifixion.^[6]

type=printed postcards

theme=artists signed

sub-theme=art

number of items=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=unposted