We took a biennale break on Tuesday, leaving Venice and heading to Padua/Padova. I had been here in December, but had not gotten a chance to see the Cappella degli Scrovegni. Giotto painted it in 1304-6 and it is considered the earliest work of the Italian Renaissance. One of the panels, especially, represents the first use of emotion in this kind of religious painting. The figures weeping over the body of the dead Christ as not as stiff as people had previously been depicted: they show their emotion. In art history class, the pictures I had seen led me to belive that the chapel was much smaller than it really was. I was surprised by the height of the ceilings nad the amount of craning my neck had to withstand. Only one side of the chapel had windows and Giotto didn’t really care about painting the other side evenly: he allowed for a difference in panel size.
After seeing the chapel, and skipping the uninteresting archeological museum attached to it, we walked down the quiet streets towards the Prado, a large green oval surrounded by a small river which is lined with statues. I had wanted to see the park, but it was too foggy in December. Next, we went to the Basilica di Sant’Antonio. My mother and I had been there, but I wanted to show it to Jess. Inside there are some more Giotto frescoes. There is also St. Antonio’s tomb and relics – his tongue and voice box, as well as his lower jaw. Outside the basilica, we checked out Donatello’s Gatamelata (Honeyed Cat) statue, which Jess had studied and was surprised to see. Then we went to a bakery where I got a meringue the size of my head and she got a rum-soaked cake and a cornmeal cookie. Exhausted, we headed back to Venice.
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