GUARIENTO d'Arpo

The walls of the chapel of the Palazzo Carrara in Padua were fully covered by panels with paintings of the Madonna, St Matthew Evangelist and 25 angels. After the reconstruction of the palace in 1779 the panels were transferred to the museum.

Among the angels there are four archangels, one of them is shown by this picture. This archangel wearing a decorated robe weighs the souls at the last jjudgment by the scales in the left hand while killing the little devil with the spear in the right hand. The representation shows the influence of the French Gothic.

Probably part of a dismantled polyptych, the composition of the panel recalls the same scene in the Giotto fresco in the Scrovegni Chapel at Padua but appears to have been influenced by the Rimini school.

This polyptych was above the main altar in the church of San Martino in Piove di Sacco, outside of Padua.

This fresco was painted for the Hall of the Great Council in the Palazzo Ducale. Almost completely destroyed in the 1577 fire, the remains of the fresco were, in 1903, rediscovered under the large canvas Il Paradiso which Tintoretto was commissioned to paint for the same wall. Guariento’s fresco, too, depicts Paradise. In the centre there is an enthroned Virgin being crowned by Christ, while, to far left and right, are aedicule like those from a portico church fa�ade, under which one can see the figures of the Annunciation: the Angel Gabriel on the left, and the Virgin Mary on the right. Angels playing musical instruments surround the central figures and the Evangelists are shown before the throne; saints, prophets and martyrs are depicted alongside in individual stalls with gothic tracery.

The heat of the fire reduced the surviving fragments to a near monochrome, while in places where the plaster has fallen, one can see the red traces of the preliminary drawing.