The Virtues and Vices
The visual and moral “foundations” of the virtues and vices are depicted as if carved into the architecture, using a technique called trompe l'oeil to create an illusion of three-dimensional marble. This choice of painting style and the monochromatic palette helps integrate these figures into the architectural framework of the chapel. Each figure is positioned to symbolically support the larger scenes above, similar to how statues are used in the structural design of Gothic cathedrals. This setup not only adds a visual foundation to the frescoes but also ties into the chapel's overall theme of moral and theological lessons.
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The virtues and vices in the Arena Chapel are arranged in pairs, facing each other across the chapel, creating a series of binary opposites. This setup reflects a broader idea about how people tend to structure their thinking in terms of contrasts, something anthropologist Edmund Leach discussed. A similar division can be seen in other works, such as the Standard of Ur, which depicts war on one side and peace on the other. In the Arena Chapel, justice is paired with injustice, and charity is paired with envy.
Giotto uses recognizable symbols to define these opposites. Injustice is shown sitting in a crumbling palace, with trees in the foreground. The figure holds a pike and appears lost in the forest, similar to metaphors found in The Divine Comedy, where Dante describes himself as lost in a dark wood. Below the main panel, a smaller scene, similar to a predella in an altarpiece, shows a person being robbed and stripped of their clothing. Justice, in contrast, is seated in a more stable architectural setting, resembling a Gothic cathedral. She holds the scales of judgment and wears a crown, giving her a resemblance to depictions of the Virgin Mary. The scene below justice depicts a harmonious gathering with people and horses arranged in a frieze-like formation, visually structured in contrast to the chaos of injustice.
Charity, paired with Envy, is shown standing on bags of money, seemingly indifferent to material wealth, as she offers her riches upward. A haloed figure descends from the upper right corner to receive them. Envy, on the other hand, is positioned in a fire, possibly representing hellfire, clutching a bag of money. His tongue turns into a snake that bites him near the eyes, emphasizing blindness brought on by envy. He also has donkey ears, a common symbol for stubbornness and irrationality, and he is identified as a usurer, a person who lends money at unreasonably high interest rates.
Dante also personifies virtues and vices in his journey, often encountering allegorical figures that embody moral and theological concepts. The virtues in the chapel align with Dante’s descriptions of the souls who ascend through Purgatory, gradually purifying themselves until they reach Paradise. Dante placed familiar and famous people in different levels of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, even including the grandfather of Giotto’s patron.
Perhaps, this reference to usury may have been a direct connection to Giotto’s patron, Enrico Scrovegni, whose family wealth came from money lending. Dante placed Reginaldo degli Scrovegni, Enrico’s father or grandfather, in the Inferno, within the inner ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell, where the violent are punished. In this section of The Divine Comedy, usurers sit in a burning desert while fire rains down on them. They are shown swatting at the flames, much like animals shooing away insects, and they wear purses marked with their family crests, making it possible to identify them. Dante considered usury a form of violence because it went against Art, which he described as the grandchild of God. Giotto and Dante, working around the same time, may have shared a similar perspective—or at least a sense of humor—when representing figures associated with money lending.
So I went on alone and even farther (43)
Along the seventh circle’s outer margin,
To where the melancholy people sat.
Despondency was bursting from their eyes; (46)
This side, then that, their hands kept fending off,
At times the flames, at times the burning soil:
Not otherwise do dogs in summer-now (49)
With muzzle, now with paw-when they are bitten
By fleas or gnats or by the sharp gadfly.
When I had set my eyes upon the faces (52)
Of some on who the painful fire falls,
I recognized no one; but I did notice
That from the neck of each a purse was hung (55)
That had a special color or an emblem,
And their eyes seemed to feast upon these pouches.
And one who had an blue pregnant sow
(This person is Reginaldo, because a sow azure on
a silver background is the coat of arms of the Scrovegni family.)
Inscribed as emblem on his white pouch, said
To me: “What are you doing in this pit?
Now be off; and since you’re still alive, (67)
Remember that my neighbor Vitaliano
Shall yet sit here, upon my left hand side.
Among these Florentines, I’m Paduan; (70)
I often hear them thunder in my ears,
Shouting, ‘Now let the sovereign cavalier,
The one who’ll bring
the purse with three goats, come!’” (73)
At this he slewed his mouth, and then he stuck
His tongue out, like an ox that licks his nose.
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