Welcome to the brand new Arthive! Discover a full list of new features here.

Gvarento
d'Arpo

Biography and information

Guvarento d'Arpo - the first major artist of Padua of the fourteenth century. Already in 1338, sources are referred to as "masters." Then he worked in the covered gallery of the church of Degli Eremitani, and later painted the apse of this church. Guvariento was also the home artist of the rulers of Padua, the Carrara family. In the years 1340-1350. he painted the chapel and several halls of the palace of Carrara. In 1365, in recognition of his talent and artistic merit, the Venetian Signoria commissioned him to paint the main wall of the Great Council Hall in the Doge's Palace. This monumental composition, “The Crowning of Mary,” suffered from a fire in 1577 and was then covered with a huge canvas “Paradise” by Tintoretto. The remains of the Guariento fresco were discovered only in 1903. The fresco depicts Mary and Jesus sitting on an architecturally arranged white marble throne with arte Cosmatesca decorations. On either side of them are close groups of angels, side by side and in the foreground in two semicircles arranged one after the other are the prophets, apostles and other angels sitting on the Gothic thrones. The sculpturalness of the figures testifies to the influence of Giotto's heritage on Guariento’s work. The perspective drawing of the richly divided architecture and the expressiveness of the faces resemble Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and the light, whimsical lines, lush folds of magnificent clothes reflect the influence of the Venetian Gothic. However, all these are only components of Guaryento’s deeply individual creativity.

Of the early works of Guariento of Padua, only fragments are also preserved. On performed around 1355-1360. The easel paintings, which once decorated the palace chapel of the Carrara family (the chapel of Degli Carraresi), come to the forefront of a lyrical depiction of spiritual content, which the master conveys in soft forms and imbued with light and lively colors

In the chapel of Degli Carraresi there were also 17 Old Testament scenes of wall paintings, which are now kept in the Padua Academy and are considered the best examples of the art of Guarriento. Teeming with genre details, the dramatic in its tonality of the scene is closely connected with the deliberately composed architectural and landscape environment. His next major fresco cycle, the painting of the apse of the church of Degli Eremitani with scenes of the “Last Judgment”, as well as the life of St.. Augustine, the apostles of James and Philip, presents us with an even more mature artist. Under the rows of pictures there are new and iconographic images, with symbols of seven planets, which, according to medieval astrology, correspond to seven periods of human life: childhood - the moon, adolescence - mercury, youth - venus, maturity - the sun, mars and juno, and old age - melancholic Saturn. Each of these images is accompanied by a female or male figure.

The works of Giotto in the Del Arena Chapel had a decisive influence on the work of Guariento. However, he, like the Florentine and Umbrian students of Giotto, gradually softened the Jotte style, making it more gothic.