One of my favorite places on earth is in Padua, Italy.
Scrovengi Chapel, also called the “Arena Chapel” (thanks to the remains of a Roman arena that nudge up next to one side of the building), was the project of a wealthy Paduan banker, Enrico degli Scrovegni, who began constructing the building in 1300 to complement the family palazzo he was going to build on the same site.
Every wealthy family had a chapel, and this one was by no means of ostentatious size or glittering magnificence.
What makes the Scrovegni Chapel so compelling and so mind-blowingly beautiful are the frescoes that cover the inside of the chapel. Scrovegni commissioned famed – and young – Florentine painter Giotto di Bondone to render the artwork.
Giotto is a wonderful story in his own right, having been discovered almost by accident. When I first heard this story from my Paduan almost-DIL,…
