Orvieto Cathedral: Cappella di San Brizio Frescoes
Angelico, Fra; Signorelli, Luca
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Alternative Title
Cappella di San Brizio
Date
1444-1503Description
View of the fresco depicting the Lamentation; Two side chapels lie off the main crossing of the cathedral. The Cappella del Corporale, on the north side, was built between 1350 and 1356: it is two bays deep, with quadripartite vaults. The Cappella di S Brizio, a virtually identical structure on the south side, was begun in 1408 and completed in 1444; it was decorated by such artists as Fra Angelico, Benozzo Gozzoli and Luca Signorelli. Fra Angelico finished only two of the vault triangles: Christ as Judge and a gold-backed group of Prophets. The frescoes illustrating the End of the World are well documented. They are Signorelli's most complex and famous work. In 1499 he was contracted to finish the vault, abandoned 50 years before by Fra Angelico; the board liked the result and in 1500 assigned the decoration of the rest of the chapel to Signorelli. It was finished in 1503, with a break in 1502 when funds were lacking. In the scenes, which include the Last Judgement (in several parts, including the Damned, the Appearance of the Antichrist and the Resurrection of the Flesh) Signorelli explored the dramatic possibilities of the nude. By giving the demons near human form, but by colouring them with every shade of putrefying flesh, he made his cataclysmic vision fearful. Through his dynamic use of form and figural energy in the crowded scenes he created active compositional rhythms. Vasari wrote that Signorelli 'showed the way to represent nudes in painting as if alive'. Beneath the main scenes are remarkable small-scale grisaille scenes, which illustrate the underworld as described by pagan poets and Dante (the poets appear in the centre of each group of grisailles). Throughout the chapel the contours are often incised with a stylus; they were probably marked through a cartoon and in the grisailles correspond with the work of assistants, one of whom was his nephew, Francesco Signorelli (d 1559). Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/ (accessed 2/4/2008)
Type of Work
fresco (painting)Subject
cycles or series, death or burial, New Testament, Renaissance
Rights
Rights Statement
Licensed for educational and research use by the MIT community only