Giotto Covers the Scrovegni Chapel with Frescoes

On 6 February 1300, the wealthy Paduan banker Enrico Scrovegni purchased land occupying the site of an ancient Roman arena from Manfredo Dalesmanini. Alongside a substantial family palace, Scrovegni planned an annexed private oratory that would also serve as a burial place for himself and his wife, Jacopina d'Este. Bishop Ottobono dei Razzi granted a licence to build, and the chapel was dedicated to Santa Maria della Carità in 1303, traditionally on 25 March. To decorate the interior, Scrovegni engaged Giotto, a prominent Florentine master who had already worked for Franciscan communities.

Giotto, then in his mid-to-late thirties, is thought to have directed a workshop of about forty collaborators to cover the entire interior of the chapel, spanning the nave walls, apse arch, and vaulted ceiling. Later writers, including Francesco da Barberino and Riccobaldo Ferrarese, writing around 1312 and 1313, record his presence in Padua. The decorative campaign is estimated to have required about 625 giornate, or individual work sessions where pigment was applied to fresh plaster before it dried. The frescoes are usually dated to about 1303 to 1305, and the chapel received its definitive consecration on 25 March 1305, although Britannica dates the finished cycle a little later, about 1305 to 1306. The consecration was an occasion for which composer Marchetto da Padova appears to have written a dedication motet.