Giotto’s Annunciation to the Virgin in Arena Chapel in Padua between East and West

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that Giotto’s knowledge of the Byzantine painting and illumination - but also of the textual sources - was deeper than conventionally thought and that in the Arena Chapel the painter realized an astonishing fusion between the Eastern and Western iconographical lines of development. About 1303-1305, on the chancel arch of the Arena Chapel in Padua, Giotto painted an extraordinary and original composition, showing the God the Father sending the Archangel Gabriel to announce to the Virgin Mary the miraculous conception of Christ the Saviour. God’s image is painted on a wooden panel inserted in the wall, while the other characters of the scene are made in buon fresco. It is evident that Giotto had looked at a non-Western textual and visual tradition, but it is the first time that in Europe such a specific theme was displayed with a corresponding doctrinal and formal complexity.

Između 1303. i 1305. Giottu je povjereno ukrašavanje unutrašnjosti kapele Arena (Padova) scenama iz Isusova i Marijina života. Cijeli je slikovni program izrađen tehnikom buon fresco, osim prikaza Boga Oca na vrhu svetištnog luka, koji je oslikan temperom i zlatom na drvenoj dasci. Slika je izvorno bila okovima pričvršćena za lijevo krilo vratašca manjeg prostora kojega su zatvarala, a danas se nalazi u Gradskom muzeju u Padovi (Musei Civici, Museo dell’arte medievale e moderna), dok je u kapeli postavljena moderna kopija. Slika Boga Oca u središtu je prizora Odaslanja Gabrijelova s ikonografijom koja je vrlo rijetka u zapadnom slikarstvu. Prikaz je istočnog podrijetla, pa sličnu kompoziciju Giottovoj nalazimo u dva rukopisa iz 12. stoljeća, koja su iluminirana u Konstantinopolu.