Volltext Seite (XML)
Looking round him at Orvieto, Signorelli might see, not merely the comparatively small production of a ceiling by Angelico; his imagination might feed on the examples of great bygone sculptors. He could leisurely examine the bas-reliefs of the time of the Pisan revival, the Giot- tesque ones of Andrea Pisano. He might perhaps still see mosaics by Orcagna. He certainly followed the ideas of Dante in the conception of an Inferno. What Signorelli did in S. Brizio at Orvieto; how he adorned the walls, and with what taste he combined his pictures with the architecture which surrounds them must however now be told. The Cappella S. Brizio is a rectangle in two subdivisions, each subdivision having three lunettes and a groined ceiling. An en trance leads through the lower side. The upper naturally holds the altar. Each of the lunettes is one picture, vast in size. All the pic tures are at a certain height, their lower borders resting on Active marble skirtings, adorned in the centre with square panels inclosing portraits, and medallions as satellites, with scenes derived from Dante’s Purgatorio, or subjects taken from mythology. In the first lunette to the left of the entrance, Antichrist falls, head downwards, from heaven, pursued by the archangel, sword in hand. An innumerable crowd peoples the world below. The hea venly wrath confounds a mass of mortals in every sort of action, on foot, on horseback. They are hurled to the ground or fall on their backs, faces, sides, in such variety of attitude as one can scarcely imagine. On the foreground to the left, stand Luca Si gnorelli with Angelico, according to tradition, by his side; they look on whilst Antichrist on a pedestal, inspired by the devil, preaches to a multitude who listen, commune, or distribute to each other the wealth which is the reward offered with full hands by the tempter. In front of a splendid temple, occupying the right distance, episodes too numerous for description are depicted. 1 The next lunette on the same side represents Paradise. The happy of both sexes stand in extasy, attended by angels who de- 1 On the centre of the skirting below this fresco, a likeness of Dante fills a square panel. The medallion in dead colour beneath its base represents Dante and Virgil meeting Cato; the opposite one vertically — Dante and Virgil examining the rock, and the meet ing of Dante with Manfred; the medallion to the left, Dante and Virgil awaiting the approach of the angel on the waters, that to the right the poets ascending the rock, Virgil showing Dante the sun, and Dante recognizing Belacqua. The lower part of the fresco of the fall of Antichrist is damaged and the colour a little abraded.
