Giotto, The Boy Jesus Among the Doctors

1303-1305
Fresco
Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy

Except for placing Jesus' chair on the same level as the others, this is the traditional arrangement, with the boy in the center, the bearded scholars ranged to his left and right, and the parents entering from the left. The setting is pictured as if it were the nave of a church, with the participants seated before an abbreviated screen separating them from the sanctuary. Later images will press the scene farther back into the apse, where the sacrifice of the Mass would take place.

This is the first panel on the left in the middle register on the north wall of the chapel. It follows in sequence from the Slaughter of the Innocents, the last panel on the right of the middle register on the south wall, and it is then followed by the Baptism of Christ.

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Photographed at the chapel by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.