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Giotto by Francesca Flores d'Arcais

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John Cappetta

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It shouldn’t be that surprising that Giotto painted Jesus feasting on the blood of sinners that blue-skinned Lucifer is harvesting in the depths of Hell.

After all, people tend to think of renaissance art as stuffy, but Europeans were dealing with plagues and violence and witches were still brewing beer and all kinds of crazy sh*t was going on.

Ironically, given that the Romans were fond of murdering early Christians, Jesus is taking his judgemental vocab from the gladiator pit: thumbs up for the saved on the left, thumbs down for the damned on the right. Giotto definitely did not forget that Judas was the first condemned usurer, trading Jesus to the Romans for some cash, nor usured cash from Enrico who was paying for this commission. Giotto is careful to make sure that Judas is hung conspicuously in the pit of hell, right next to Lucifer and the other usurers. Enrico also probably didn’t forget that Judas is the most hated man in Christendom, given that all of Padua was angry that they owed him money and was ready to dump him. The scene of him offering the chapel to the Marys is also a symbol of Enrico offering the chapel to the city, like I can’t give you your money back BUT how about a room where you can reflect on how you’re not perfect either? K? Great.

The Last Judgment is on the chapel’s back wall, right above the exit. So all of the weird stuff is there to be surreal, like super real. There are angels rolling the sky up like a scroll, packing space-time away for the next doomed, self-aware species, because human time is actually ending. Those saved on the right are levitating, breaking the bonds of gravity to float around in paradise forever. Souls are climbing out of their coffins, reborn as cosmic babies to have their actions judged by Jesus who, fyi, doesn’t give AF at all that they look like babies because he knows what they did. Basically we can read this as a thanks for attending mass, please come again because God probably hates you and you know what is coming.

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Comments (3)

Zhengyu Zhou
3 years ago

In this painting, God sits in the middle of the painting, highlighting the fact that God is the most important part. We can also see the angle, people, and devil.

amaskalo
3 years ago

In this painting, you can tell that there is a clear distinction between the person in the middle who is God and everyone else. God is circled and highlighted to remind the viewer that in the Last Judgement, he is the one who decides all. This painting shows the beautiful imagery that was explained in Revelation. All the angels are above, you see the kingdom, and you can see how nasty and ugly hell is. This painting is amazing.

ann
3 years ago

In this painting, there is a clear distinction between paradise and hell. Christ is sitting on the throne in the center of the picture. Aside from being the center of the picture, Christ is also the biggest of all the figures, signifying His importance. Giotto uses the size of the many figures in this painting to depict importance and status. On the right and on the left of Jesus Christ sit the twelve apostles on their own individual thrones, robed in splendor. Six of them sit on each side of Jesus. Jesus is sitting in a sort of circular halo, which could signify the radiance of His glory. There are angels surrounding the halo. Above the apostles and Jesus are a whole host of heavenly beings, holding trumpets and flags, with golden halos around their heads and some with wings. Underneath Jesus is the cross being held up by the archangels Michael and Raphael. The cross is separating Heaven and Hell, which signifies that the only escape from Hell is through the cross. The bottom figures in paradise are the smallest and most likely represent the mere mortals. There is a man kneeling in front of a church, heavenly figures, and the cross, which may represent someone pleading for repentance. You can see the red wrath of God flowing from the circle of Jesus' glory down into Hell. The figures in Hell are the smallest and are subjected to violence and torture by demons and Satan who is a large, ugly figure sitting on the back of a green serpent.