Mirabilia

The cathedral of Orvieto and the final judgment by Luca Signorelli.

Luca Signorelli’s frescoes of ‘The Last Judgement’ in the Cappella di San Brizio in the Duomo of Orvieto is claimed by some to equal or exceed Michelangelo’s famous version of that story painted on the end wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Although Michelangelo’s Sistine ceiling is superb (even considering that a pious Pope had someone later paint decorous bits of clothing over the naughty bits of the completely naked figures of Michelangelo). Signorelli’s frescoes have more lightness, and more narrative. Recently restored, they have a freshness to the eye, and an absorbing narrative. 

Signorelli painted his version of events about 40 years before Michelangelo. Michelangelo is said to have spent three months in Orvieto considering Signorelli’s work before he embarked upon the Sistine wall, and it’s also said that the Sistine shows the influence of Luca Signorelli’s work.

102 photographs.