Barren Metal and the Fruitful Womb: The Program of Giotto's Arena Chapel in Padua

Abstract

Enrico Scrovegni commissioned the Arena Chapel to expiate the sin of usury, through which the family had amassed a fortune. The program includes several features suggesting a preoccupation with ill-gotten gains. Central to the program's meaning is the juxtaposition of the Pact of Judas with the Visitation. Fertility was understood throughout the Middle Ages as usury's antithesis; usury was condemned because it forces barren metal to breed unnaturally. The Virgin's fruitful womb was celebrated by Bonaventura, among others, as the antidote to avarice: the avaricious “bear no fruit.” Mary's fertility promises salvation for the Scrovegni family.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anne Derbes

Anne Derbes is an art historian who works on narrative painting in medieval art. Mark Sandona is a specialist in comparative literature whose research concerns the iconography of moral abstraction in the Renaissance. They are continuing their collaboration on the Arena Chapel [Art Department, Hood College; English Department, Hood College, Frederick, Md. 21701].

Mark Sandona

Anne Derbes is an art historian who works on narrative painting in medieval art. Mark Sandona is a specialist in comparative literature whose research concerns the iconography of moral abstraction in the Renaissance. They are continuing their collaboration on the Arena Chapel [Art Department, Hood College; English Department, Hood College, Frederick, Md. 21701].