Description
The Baptistery of the Duomo of Padua is a 12th-century building beside the cathedral that holds one of the great fresco cycles of the 14th century: the masterpiece of Giusto de' Menabuoi, which covers every wall and the dome. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021.
Look up and you find the Paradise of the dome: around Christ Pantocrator turns a sunburst of angels and saints in orderly rows, their haloes looking from below like a goldsmith's work. In line with Christ is the Virgin in prayer, wrapped in a blue mantle.
Around the drum run the Stories of Genesis, from the creation of the world onwards; on the walls, the lives of John the Baptist, Mary and Jesus, set in carefully painted architecture. In the Wedding at Cana the servants move naturally among the motionless guests.
In the apse, around the altar, the Apocalypse fills the walls with monstrous figures: the Horsemen, the beast with ten horns and seven heads, the woman clothed with the sun, the red dragon. On the altar stands the polyptych by Giusto himself, with the Madonna and Child in the centre.
In the 1370s the baptistery became the mausoleum of the lords of Padua, Francesco il Vecchio da Carrara and his wife Fina Buzzaccarini, who commissioned the frescoes. Fina appears several times: with her daughters at the birth of the Baptist and in the lunette where the saint entrusts her to the Virgin.
Giusto filled the scenes with faces from the court. Francesco il Vecchio plays the centurion in the Crucifixion, while among those watching Christ's miracles are Francesco Petrarca and Lombardo della Seta. In the Calling of St Matthew the Duomo appears as it was in the 14th century.
The Carrara glory did not last long. In 1405, when Venice conquered Padua, Venetian soldiers demolished the monumental tombs of the two lords and covered Francesco's coats of arms with green paint. Giusto himself was buried here, outside the building.
Look up and you find the Paradise of the dome: around Christ Pantocrator turns a sunburst of angels and saints in orderly rows, their haloes looking from below like a goldsmith's work. In line with Christ is the Virgin in prayer, wrapped in a blue mantle.
Around the drum run the Stories of Genesis, from the creation of the world onwards; on the walls, the lives of John the Baptist, Mary and Jesus, set in carefully painted architecture. In the Wedding at Cana the servants move naturally among the motionless guests.
In the apse, around the altar, the Apocalypse fills the walls with monstrous figures: the Horsemen, the beast with ten horns and seven heads, the woman clothed with the sun, the red dragon. On the altar stands the polyptych by Giusto himself, with the Madonna and Child in the centre.
In the 1370s the baptistery became the mausoleum of the lords of Padua, Francesco il Vecchio da Carrara and his wife Fina Buzzaccarini, who commissioned the frescoes. Fina appears several times: with her daughters at the birth of the Baptist and in the lunette where the saint entrusts her to the Virgin.
Giusto filled the scenes with faces from the court. Francesco il Vecchio plays the centurion in the Crucifixion, while among those watching Christ's miracles are Francesco Petrarca and Lombardo della Seta. In the Calling of St Matthew the Duomo appears as it was in the 14th century.
The Carrara glory did not last long. In 1405, when Venice conquered Padua, Venetian soldiers demolished the monumental tombs of the two lords and covered Francesco's coats of arms with green paint. Giusto himself was buried here, outside the building.