Eyeing Envy in the Arena Chapel

• Autores: Matthew Gerald Shoaf
• Localización: Studies in iconography, ISSN 0148-1029, Nº. 30, 2009, págs. 126-167
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • An analysis of Invidia (Envy), one of the frescoes painted by Giotto di Bondone in the Arena Chapel in Padua, Italy. This image is indicative of the way in which the “visual intensity” of Giotto's depictions served to make knowledge memorable. The author uses Invidia to exemplify how inventive aspects of Giotto's narrative pictures in the Arena Chapel served to reinforce knowledge generated through viewers' engagement. A consideration of how the subject of envy figures in these frescoes reveals a several-pronged pictorial campaign to curb antipathy among neighbors, an aim that aligned with the public order that the Commune of Padua sought to enforce. As scholars have tended to interpret Giotto'a Invidia as a depiction of avarice, reframing the figure in terms of medieval discourse of envy is a useful point of departure for further study.