Description
The Oratory of St George is a small brick chapel on Piazza del Santo in Padua, next to the Basilica of Saint Anthony. Outside it is plain; inside, every wall is covered by the frescoes of Altichiero da Zevio, one of the great cycles of 14th-century Padua, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021.
The gabled façade, in exposed brick, has a rose window and below it, in a lunette, a high relief of St George slaying the dragon. On either side are two coats of arms with the rampant wolf of the Lupi di Soragna, the family that had the chapel built.
Inside is a single hall with a barrel vault, very much like the Scrovegni Chapel. The ceiling is a starry sky crossed by bands of flowers. Along the left wall run the stories of St George, along the right the lives of St Catherine and St Lucy.
On the altar wall a great Crucifixion dominates, below a Coronation of the Virgin amid choirs of angels; on the entrance wall, scenes from Christ's childhood. Top left, the marquis Raimondino Lupi is painted kneeling in adoration before the Madonna, with parents, brothers and nephews.
Altichiero knew how to guide the eye. In the scene of St Lucy being dragged to the brothel, the lines lead the eye straight to the saint, even though she is off to one side; then you notice the oxen bent with effort and the amazement of the guards, who cannot move her.
In the Funeral of St Lucy, the nave of a church opens up in depth, full of people placed precisely in space. Each figure has a gesture or expression of its own: realism and perspective already looking towards the Renaissance.
Raimondino Lupi, marquis of Soragna, had settled in Padua in 1376 and wanted the chapel as a family tomb. He died in 1379, before the frescoes: they were completed in 1384 by his nephew Bonifacio, who had already decorated the Chapel of St James in the basilica with Altichiero.
In the middle of the hall stood the marquis's marble tomb, held up by columns with two wolves, so tall it almost touched the ceiling. In 1797 the French dismantled it: today only the sarcophagus remains, along the right wall. At the end of the 18th century the oratory was even used as a prison.
The gabled façade, in exposed brick, has a rose window and below it, in a lunette, a high relief of St George slaying the dragon. On either side are two coats of arms with the rampant wolf of the Lupi di Soragna, the family that had the chapel built.
Inside is a single hall with a barrel vault, very much like the Scrovegni Chapel. The ceiling is a starry sky crossed by bands of flowers. Along the left wall run the stories of St George, along the right the lives of St Catherine and St Lucy.
On the altar wall a great Crucifixion dominates, below a Coronation of the Virgin amid choirs of angels; on the entrance wall, scenes from Christ's childhood. Top left, the marquis Raimondino Lupi is painted kneeling in adoration before the Madonna, with parents, brothers and nephews.
Altichiero knew how to guide the eye. In the scene of St Lucy being dragged to the brothel, the lines lead the eye straight to the saint, even though she is off to one side; then you notice the oxen bent with effort and the amazement of the guards, who cannot move her.
In the Funeral of St Lucy, the nave of a church opens up in depth, full of people placed precisely in space. Each figure has a gesture or expression of its own: realism and perspective already looking towards the Renaissance.
Raimondino Lupi, marquis of Soragna, had settled in Padua in 1376 and wanted the chapel as a family tomb. He died in 1379, before the frescoes: they were completed in 1384 by his nephew Bonifacio, who had already decorated the Chapel of St James in the basilica with Altichiero.
In the middle of the hall stood the marquis's marble tomb, held up by columns with two wolves, so tall it almost touched the ceiling. In 1797 the French dismantled it: today only the sarcophagus remains, along the right wall. At the end of the 18th century the oratory was even used as a prison.