Forms of the Gift in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy; The Art of Salvation and Socio-political persuasion.

North, Laurence ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6578-1771 (2016) Forms of the Gift in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy; The Art of Salvation and Socio-political persuasion. In: Othello's Island, 17 - 20 March 2016, CVAR Nicosia Cyprus.

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Abstract / Summary

This paper discusses themes of the Gift in relation to The Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy, circa 1306, in particular the narrative form of the frescoes and the function of Giotto’s visual language, with reference to the work of Marcel Mauss, Annette B Weiner, Andrew Ladis Laura Jacobus and Janetta Rebold Benton.

Enrico Scrovegni’s expenditure in the commissioning of the Arena Chapel initiated a complex series of acts around the diverse forms of the gift and the transactional ambition in the gifting of the chapel. The paper examines the narrative of Joachim and Anna in the first register within the context of Giotto’s general use of illusional space and composition, which offers the gift of visual realisation that accommodates, ensnares and manipulates the gaze of its audience.

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