Rick Steves Best of Italy by Rick Steves

Author:Rick Steves
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avalon Travel
Published: 2016-09-10T16:00:00+00:00

Duomo interior

This cathedral put Orvieto on the map; with lots of pilgrims came lots of wealth. Two future popes used the town—perched on its easy-to-defend hilltop—as a refuge when their enemies forced them to flee Rome. The sparkling stained glass is the restored original, from the 14th century. The fine organ, high on the left, has more than 5,000 pipes. Look high up in the right transept at the alabaster rose window.

• Turn and face down the nave to look a few steps to your right; near the first pillar is a beautiful white-marble statue.

Pietà: M The marble pietà was carved in 1579 by local artist Ippolito Scalza. Clearly inspired by Michelangelo’s Pietà, this exceptional work, with four figures, was sculpted from one piece of marble. Walk around it to notice the texture that Scalza achieved, and how the light plays on the sculpture from every angle.

• To the right of the main altar is Orvieto’s one must-see artistic sight, the...

Chapel of San Brizio: This chapel features Luca Signorelli’s brilliantly lit frescoes of the Day of Judgment and Life after Death (painted 1499-1504). Step into the chapel and you’re surrounded by vivid scenes crammed with figures. Although the frescoes refer to themes of resurrection and salvation, they also reflect the turbulent political and religious atmosphere of late 15th-century Italy.

The chapel is decorated in one cohesive story. Start with the wall to your left as you enter, and slowly turn counterclockwise to follow the plot:

In the Sermon of the Antichrist M (left wall), a crowd gathers around a man preaching from a pedestal. It’s the Antichrist, who poses as Jesus to mislead the faithful. This befuddled Antichrist forgets his lines mid-speech, but the Devil is on hand to whisper what to say next. His words sow wickedness through the world, including executions (upper right). The worried woman in red and white (foreground, left of pedestal) gets money from a man for something she’s not proud of (perhaps receiving funds from a Jewish moneylender—notice the Stars of David on his purse).

Most likely, the Antichrist himself is a veiled reference to Savonarola (1452-1498), the charismatic Florentine monk who defied the pope, drove the Medici family from power, and riled the populace with apocalyptic sermons. Many Italians—including the painter Signorelli—viewed Savonarola as a tyrant and heretic, the Antichrist who was ushering in the Last Days.

In the upper left, notice the hardworking angel. He looks as if he’s at batting practice, hitting followers of the Antichrist back to earth as they try to get through the pearly gates. In the bottom left is a self-portrait of the artist, Luca Signorelli (c. 1450-1523), dressed in black with long golden hair. Signorelli, from nearby Cortona, was at the peak of his powers, and this chapel was his masterpiece. He looks out proudly as if to say, “I did all this in just five years, on time and on budget.” Next to him (also in black) is the artist Fra Angelico, who started the chapel decoration five decades earlier but completed only a small part of it.

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