Fátima Regina FERNANDES and Michelle MASCHIO

Original title: Giotto e o Purgatório: a difícil missão de salvar a alma de um usurário

Published in Paradise, Purgatory and Hell: the Religiosity in the Middle Ages

Keywords: Avarice, Giotto, Injustice, Purgatory, Usury.

The institution of the Purgatory provides a third way for the destination of the souls after death. It was driven by the appearance of the new social stratum, associated with trade, and translated the need of change, because each time more, the ideas and explanations of simplistic character were refused and the society turned against the antagonistic models. In 1303, Giotto is invited to paint a fresco cycle for Enrico Scrovegni, paduan usurer and son of the recently deceased Reginaldo Scrovegni; mentioned by Dante due to his extreme avarice. Enrico, after the death of his father, maybe had thought something to hurry Reginaldo’s arrival in Paradise. From the Scrovegni Chapel, with its extensive and varied iconographic cycle, we want to focus our attention on the fresco, whose theme is Injustice.