The Road Goes Ever On

Monday, June 27, 2011

Arena Chapel (Scrovegni Chapel)

We went to Padua primarily to see the Arena Chapel (aka Scrovegni Chapel). It was consecrated in 1305, and built largely to ensure the salvation of the Scrovegni family, notorious usurers whom Dante had already damned (so to speak), adjoining their palazzo, built on the site of the old Roman arena (hence "Arena"). Nothing of the palazzo remains but the Arena Chapel. It has been venerated and preserved for centuries as home of perhaps the first great Renaissance painting masterpieces, Giotto's Mary and Jesus fresco cycles, which cover two of the walls; the rest of the interior is painted completely with a last judgment and various decorative and illusionary stuff. I'll include just a few pix, grabbed from http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/g/giotto/padova/index.html, which has a great e-tour of the site. Visitation is by reservation, only 20 are allowed inside at one time, and only for 15 minutes; and this after having been de-humidified in an air-lock ante-chamber for 20 minutes. Needless to say, "no fotos!" But it's all worth it, even for just 15 minutes.

You know you have made it when they name a shopping center after you

Magnolias are a major part of the Italian landscape, and they have been blooming
since we got here; this in the park next to Arena Chapel

There it is, Art History Ground Zero

Back side, including the de-humidifying annex (they also show you an educational
video); there is also a museum with great hi-tech stuff; punctuality is enforced...
show up late and you have to buy another ticket, 15 euros, and hope there's an

opening in the next few days...

Inside; the walls are entirely painted, both with the paintings per se
but also with decoration and illusionary stuff

Back wall: last judgment

Relevant detail

Entry into Jerusalem

Betrayal

Lamentation

Padua

From Ravenna we drove north on the blue roads, our goal to see Padua and specifically its Arena Chapel, and then to see Venice from a presumed camperspot in Padua. When we arrived in Padua the camperstops seemed already spoken for, by the weekly market and also by a carnival just being set up. We did a little quick research and decided to head for Treviso, to stay at the free camperstop there, and to take the bus or train into Padua and also Venice. This actually worked, although the commute times were a little more than hoped for. Treviso is a beautiful little city in which to hang-out.

The enormous Palazzo della Ragione in Padua; town hall type place

Originally the interior was adorned with Giotto frescoes, but a fire in the 14th
century destroyed them

Completely functional solar clock; no moving parts

Italians are really into their aged balsamic vinegars; from the
market nearby the Palazzo, this 3 ounce bottle of 100 year
old Grand Reserva Oro can be yours for only 225 euros
(about $310); Vicki bought a small bottle of 100-month old,
surely the most expensive vinegar we ever have bought; not
for fish and chips, she has cautioned me

Padua street scene

First full-sized bronze equestrian statue done in the west
after the fall of Rome, Donatello's Gattmelata; outside
St. Anthony's duomo

Across the street, "Donatello slept here"

Inside St. Anthony's, at the shrine, some incredible reliefs depicting the saint's
many miralces; here, he prevents a man from killing his wife; well, he did kill
her, but St. Anthony resuscitated her, as he apparently did with many others;
as a miralce worker, Jesus was a veritable piker compared with your average
medieval saint

It's a beautiful church, but too dark for the forbidden fotos

Across the nave, looking at the St. Anthony shrine; this is the first church we
have been in where the pilgrims/faithful clearly out-numbered the tourists; yes,
including St. Peter's too

Just a peek at the altar, adorned by six Donatello bronzes

St. Anthony's Duomo, Padua; another Byzantine monstrosity on the outside;
beautiful on the inside

Much interesting and old architecture in this town

Ravenna: The Non-Mosaic Bits

Ravenna is usually a day-trip from Florence or Venice, not really on the way anywhere. The old town is very scenic and pedestrian-friendly, and clearly the city has cultural/touristic aspirations. It's already a World Heritage Site.

They have my vote for 2019

Main square

As I said, pretty much everything of age in

these precincts leans; here's a pretty good

(bad) secular example; the whole place is an

estuary, I think, and from here on north one

gets nothing but the huge lagoons, e.g., the

one Venice sits in; the area west of Ravenna,

after you cross the Apennines, is about the

most intensively cultivated place we have

seen, with every imaginable fruit/vegetable

cultivated; and it is totally flat country; many

canals, although unclear to me whether they

are for drainage or for irrigation...

Being a bit off the main tourist track, Ravenna doesn't get many

tour buses; we did see a few of these out in Classe

Many of the shops feature...mosaics

Actually, mosaics are everywhere; unlike many cities one

sees, Ravenna seems to have a pretty clear sense of itself

The Dante Alighieri Theatre

And Dante's tomb

Dante, reading his email, seems surprised at

something on the monitor; he spent his last

19 years in Ravenna, exiled from Florence;

wrote most of the Divine Comedy here; died

of malaria; I got several bites...

Even though we had seen the Adriatic before, sailing from

Patra in Greece to Bari in Italy, I wanted to see it at this

latitude; I was sorry I did...off-shore natural gas drilling is

very big here

Oops, almost forgot: here is the one picture of one of these

6th century churches, this one St. Vitale and its tower; the

mausoleum of Galla Placidia is on the same grounds

Ravenna Mosaics II

Now in the Neonian Baptistry, more Arian symbolism, very

early 5th century

A very Roman-looking figure (to me)

All around the middle register of the baptistry, empty chairs

awaiting the new converts, and the four gospels

Now in the duomo museum...a 5th century stone tablet for

calculating Mardi Gras, I mean, Holy Week

And in the 6th century bishop's private chapel

this most unusual portrayal of Christ as

warrior, carrying the cross as a sword,

treading upon the lion and serpent, symbols

of evil

And now in the Basilica St. Apollinaire Nuovo; the official

church of King Theodoric of the Goths; Christ and perhaps

the four gospel writers, who have sprouted wings; or maybe
just angel body-guards

Another depiction of Jerusalem

Interior of St. Apollinaire Nuova: 6th century, very much in

the fashion of the Roman basilica (town hall, law courts); on

upper register, girls (virgins, proceeding to Mary) on the left

and boys (martyrs proceeding to Jesus) on the right

When Justinian retook Ravenna, he had most of the Arian/

Goth stuff mosaic-ed over; enlarge and look at the white

marble columns and you'll see some stray hands and arms
they missed

And now in the basilica of St. Apollinaire Classe, out by the

camperstop where we parked (free) two nights; Classe is a

couple km from Ravenna; in Roman times it was the great

naval base for the Adriatic; consecrated in 549

Huge mosaic over the apse; no Pantokrator!

St. Apollinaire himself (no relation to Apollo), who brought

Christianity to the area; rancid with Christian symbolism

Ravenna Mosaics I

We first heard of the mosaics in Ravenna when we were in Istanbul last fall. In Ravenna are the oldest and most intact of the Byzantine mosaics, 6th century. But that is by no means the whole story. Ravenna became the capital of the western empire in the 5th century, as Rome fell, and thus has Roman mosaics as well. Even better, after the Goths had conquered Italy later in the 5th century, they made Ravenna their capital. It so happens the Goths were Arian Christians, that is, followers of Arius, a 4th century bishop and theologian who became the center of the Arian Heresy, perhaps the most ferocious theological debate the Roman Church endured until the Reformation. In a nutshell, it was about arithmetic, Arius arguing that 1=1, emphasizing monotheism and the humanity of Jesus. The eventual winners of the debate, the Roman Church, held that 1=3, emphasizing the divinity of Jesus, and opening themselves to endless ridicule from Muslims, (some) Protestants, and others about their claim of monotheism. In the 6th century, the (non-Arian Christian) Byzantine emperor Justinian conquered the Goths, set everything temporarily aright, and also had many, but not all of the Goth/Arian mosaics "corrected" vis-a-vis the Arianism. Anyhow, it's all in the mosaics. They're not merely beautiful but also convey much interesting and important history. And some would say that it is in Ravenna that Roman art ends and Medieval (Byzantine) art begins. So we had to go there.

I have brutally edited our pix from Ravenna. Only one of the churches themselves is depicted, and none of the baptistries nor other buildings. Alas they are all 5th-7th century, and what else, I ask, survives in Europe from this age? Intact? Still in its original use? Anyhow, they're all siena brick, and some, e.g., the Apollinaire Church in Classe, are quite large. All the towers lean, though not as severely as the one in Pisa. Just about everything of age on Italy's Adriatic coast is sinking or leaning.

In the so-called Arian Baptitstry; it and
the adjoining church are the only remaining
Goth buildings

John the Baptist baptizing an anatomically correct Jesus

(emphasizing his humanity), while the river god of the Jordan

looks on (a Roman artistic convention); the holy spirit dove is
merely figurative (?); "pay no attention to that holy spirit dove
behind the curtain nor question its divinity..."