Reginaldo Degli Scrovegni was a usurer. He was so ill regarded that he was even mentioned by the great writer Dante in his Divine Comedy. Dante ran into him in the 7th circle of Hell. To atone for his father’s sins, Reginaldo’s son Enrico built a chapel right next to his estate, over the foundation of an old Roman arena. This became widely known as the Arena Chapel (though it is also known as The Scrovegni Chapel). It was suspected that Enrico was afraid that his father’s sins would damage his own spiritual standing, since he made such an elaborate effort to erase them.
The Arena Chapel in Padua, Italy

He commissioned the greatest painter of the day, Giotto di Bondone, to decorate the inside of the chapel.
The chapel had absolutely no architectural detail on the inside. All decoration would come from Giotto’s frescos. All of the walls, except for the one facing the entrance, have three rows of four frescoed panels each. The panels cover the entire life of the Virgin and the Christ (From the Annunciation to St. Anne to the Pentecost). The panels are spectacular. Their use of facial expression, physical space, and composition were truly revolutionary. The level of intensity of emotion seen in Giotto’s facial expressions hadn’t been seen since antiquity (The majority of figures in Byzantine and Gothic art had idealized faces that were quite serene and all of the emotion was portrayed thru gestures). Giotto completed the frescoes in 1305. The Chapel still stands today; one of the greatest achievements in Western Art.

Sources are Wikipedia and my Renaissance Art class. Tomorrow I'll post some of my favorite individual panels from the site. Stay Tuned!!