Figures painted with extraordinary sculptural power. Skilful deployment of architectural and spatial orchestration. Dramatic and vibrant treatment of narrative. Chromatic tones of restrained and convincing naturalness. These stylistic features make the fresco cycle in the Scrovegni Chapel, painted by Giotto in the early 14th century, the apex of that renewal of Italian and European art of which Giotto, the favourite pupil of the great Cimabue, was the undisputed protagonist at the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century.

Created after the conclusion of a major restoration of the frescoes and of the entire chapel, built by the rich Paduan banker Enrico Scrovegni, this 13th volume of the series Mirabilia Italiæ studies and examines for the first time in exhaustive detail not only the pictorial cycle, illustrated with numerous close-ups, but also the architectural structure of this beautiful building and the many other works of art that it contains.