The chapels
The left chapel is dedicated to the Stories from Jesus Childhood and to the Life of the Virgin Mary; these are frescoes of the Giotto school, executed between 1315 and 1320. The one in the centre is the largest of the three and above it is an architrave upon which rests an expressive 15th-century Crucifix. The front wall is decorated by an Annunciation by Domenico Panetti (15th cent.).
The two side walls have a similar iconography: high up there are coloured 14th-century drapes, lower down images of the Virgin Mary and various saints, some of which date back to the second half of the 15th century. The ceiling with grotesques is noteworthy: a very strange presence of pagan origin in an ecclesiastical setting, bearing witness to the close ties between the monastery and the court, where such decorations were fashionable in the late 1600s. The chapel on the right has the Passion as its theme and is the work of two masters of the Giotto school: one from the end of the 13th century painted Jesus Raised on the Cross and the other from the middle of the 14th century.
last modified
Apr 16, 2012 05:48
