The Scrovegni Chapel: a film to celebrate 715 years of beauty
25.03.2020
On March 25, 2020, celebrating the anniversary of the consecretion of the Arena chapel, frescoed by Giotto, celebrated on March 25, 1305, the University of Padua is broadcasting the video "The Scrovegni Chapel: history, restoration, conservation". The film is promoted by the Interdisciplinary Scientific Commission for the Conservation and Management of the Scrovegni Chapel which was established by the Municipality of Padua.
The short film was directed by Marco Toffanin, and was created and produced by the Digital Learning and Multimedia office of the University of Padua. The film uses footage taken over a two-year period assembled by period documents, as a result of the carefully researched documentation of numerous archives and libraries. The film traces the conservation of the Scrovegni Chapel throughout history under its major restoration campaigns. The film offers a documented report from the nineteenth century to the present day and for the first time, includes reassembled clips of vintage films from the historical archive of the dell’Istituto Luce in Rome.
The film is the result of the close collaboration between the Municipality of Padua, the Archeology Superintendency, Fine Arts and Landscape for the metropolitan area of Venice and the provinces of Belluno, Padua and Treviso, as well as the University of Padua. The scientific project is curated by Monica Pregnolato and Giovanna Valenzano. The film illustrates how, in the context of safeguarding the chapel, we have gone from various emergency restorations to the concept of planned and preventive protection to be preserved so that we may share it with the future using the help of scientific research as well as new technologies. This extraordinary monument of art and history holds a universal value for all.
The Italian version was screened in the multimedia room of the Musei Civici at the Eremitani, on September 12th, 2019 at the opening of the meeting of the Scrovegni Commission with the ICOMOS expert, as part of the "Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel and Padua's fourteenth-century fresco cycles" application process for the enlistment in Unesco’s World Heritage register.
The Italian version is voiced by Vittorio Attene, and the English version is voiced by Daisy Tennant, each will be available at the website page https://www.padovaurbspicta.org, as well as that from the Superintendency of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the metropolitan area of Venice and the provinces of Belluno, Padua and Treviso and the University of Padua of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage.
