Cathedral of Orvieto

At the top of the hill of Orvieto and dominating the other buildings, the cathedral of Orvieto draws up, dedicated to the Assomption of the Virgin Mary, one of the most imposing works of Italian medieval architecture. Of Gothic style, it is in particular famous for its frontage, resplendent with the setting sun, like for the vault of Saint Brice - Cappella San Brizio - decorated with frescos painted by FRA Angelico and Luca Signorelli.

Construction and History

The first stone was posed on November 13rd 1290 by the pope Nicolas IV. Named during more than four centuries Santa Maria delle Stella - Holy Marie of Star - it was renamed Santa Maria Assunta in Cielo at the 19th century.

During the first period of construction, work was directed by FRA' Bevignate but it is with the arrival of Lorenzo Maitani (1308) that radical modifications with the preliminary draft were introduced with the implementation of a Gothic plan in Latin cross. Always of Maitani is the imposing frontage with three gables and three pinions (1310). The completion of the transept was carried out with the vault of the Corporal (1350-1355) and the vault of Saint Brice (1408). Other famous artists appeared in Orvieto like Andrea Pisano in 1347, Andrea Orcagna in 1359, Antonio Federighi (of 1415 to 1456) and Antonio da Sangallo the Young person who remade the pavement of the cathedral. In 1890, one wanted to return to a certain original purity by withdrawing posterior elements dating from the late Middle Ages and the Rebirth.

The frontage

It consists of an immense Gothic triptych from where arise from the low-reliefs, being used as a basis architectural, and of the mosaics whose colors exaltent all the frontage. Its framework consists of four pilasters between which open three surmounted gates of gâbles which join a gallery with arches trefoil dividing the frontage horizontally. The upper part is characterized by a splendid central rosette and ends in three pinions repeating the reason for the three gâbles lower and separated by pinnacles resting on the pilasters. These various elements are surmounted statues of saints.

Low-reliefs of the frontage

Towards 1320-1330 the low-reliefs were carried out which decorate the four pilasters of the base, between the doors, and which is of an exceptional richness. Y are represented, in an interlacing of stems and sheets of acanthus, topics of the Ancien and New Testament. The first pillar tells the creation of the world, Adam and Eve, Caïn and Abel, the life of the Man after the original sin - where one probably sees Maitani itself drawing. The second tells the vision of Abraham or Jessé : the patriarch sees being held the history to come, populated kings and prophets to lead finally to the arrival of the Saver. the vision of Jacob presented in the third pillar sticks to New Testament: angels contemplate in worship various episodes of the life of Jesus, since the Incarnation until the Crucifixion and the Résurrection . The fourth pillar is devoted to the last Jugement: the resurrection of deaths, right conduits with the Paradise where they are allowed to contemplate the glory of God, the Saints, Apostles, Jean and Marie in front of the Redeemer , while in bottoms on the right appear damnés and rejected led in Enfer .

On the pilasters above the low-reliefs, appear four bronze statues of Lorenzo Maitani, the angel, the lion, the eagle and the bull symbolizing the four evangelists.

The rosette

Work of Andrea Orcagna in 1358, splendid the rosette with double circle of posts separated by arcs shows in the center the face of the Redeemer. The figures of the four Doctorss of the Church decorate the angles of the square in which the rosette fits, and that 52 heads border of saints in reliefs of XIVe century. On the left and on the right from the rosette, the marble statues of the twelve Prophètes date from the same period and are surmounted statues out of travertine of the twelve Apôtres carried out in 1556.

Mosaics

All the frontage is decorated mosaics which accompany the architectural elements while developing on big spaces by the topics of the life of the Vierge. These mosaics confer on the frontage its splendor in particular when the rays of the sun come to illuminate it. With the top of the central gate, is represented the Assomption of the Virgin while the gate of left shows the baptism of Christ and that of right-hand side the Nativity of Marie . On the sides of the gâbles of the side doors, one can see on the left the Annunciation and on the right Saint Joachim and Saint Anne . To the level of the rosette, the left part presents the marriage of the Virgin and the right part the presentation of Jesus to the Temple . In the triangular top, above the rosette, Christ appears crowning the Madonna queen of the angels and the saints .

The central door

the central door bronze was carved by Emilio Greco on the topic of works of mercy (1964) and was installed in 1970 in the place of the old doors out of wooden, once alleviated the controversy on this replacement.

The sides of the cathedral show the alternation, inspired of Arab art, of the white and black stone: that of right-hand side opens in carried di Postieria, splendid ogival gate of style pisan, having probably belonged to Santa Maria de Episcopatu, the demolished church on which was set up the cathedral. The left side grows rich by the marble statue of Sybille Eritrea of Antonio Federighi.

Interior

The interior is of type basilical to three naves divided by ten columns and two white travertine and black basalt pilasters, decorated rich person capitals, of which some realized by FRA Guglielmo of Pisa and Ramo di Paganello. Length a 90 33 meters meters and broad for a 34 meters height, the cathedral interferes the Romance forms with the primitive drawing and the ogival twinge of the chorus, the whole lit by twelve openings located at the top of the galleries by large apsidal openings. The pavement, out of red limestone of Prodo, extends from the entry to the apse and gives an illusion length more important than actually.

After the baptismal font (1390-1407) of Luca Giovanni, the basin of water bénite (1485) of Antonio Federighi and the five semicircular vaults of the side aisles, covered frescos (XIV-XVe centuries), the transept crossing lodges 6 statues: a Pietà of Ippolito Scalza (1579), a Christ with the column of Gabriele Mercanti (1627), a Madonna of Raffaello da Montelupo (]), a Ecce Homo also of Scalza, and two statues of Adam and Eve of Fabiano Toti.

Chorus

In the chorus of the church, in the center, dominates a Crucifix out of wooden of the school of Maitani and, over the walls, of the woodcarvings in the Gothic style of Giovanni Ammannati da Siena (1331-1340). Ugolino di Prete Ilario decorated the walls with the platform with scenes of the life of Marie (1370-1384). Behind the platform, stained glasses of Giovanni di Bonino d' Assise completed in 1334 furnish the 16 4,50 and height meters window broad.

The vault of Corporal

In the left arm of the transept, the vault of Corporal (1350-1355) opens which draws its name from the reliquary of Corporal, carried out by Ugolino di silver Vieri covered with translucent enamels, which contained the small altar cloth of the miracle of Bolsena. In 1263, a priest of Bohemian saying the mass saw blood oozing of the host and staining the corporal which recovered the furnace bridge. The pope Urbain IV asked that one transport the corporal to Orvieto. Actually, the crowned linen from now on is exposed in the marble gate vault (1358) placed on the furnace bridge. The cycle of frescos of Ugolino di Prete Ilario which decorates the vault tells the history of Corporal.

The cappella San Brizio

Right-sided of crossing, one can reach Cappella Nova or Cappella San Brizio (1408) - the Saint-Brice vault - which appears among most important testimonys of Italian painting. The particular space design of the vault and the cycle of frescos which decorate it, partly carried out by FRA Angelico (1447-1449) and completed by Luca Signorelli (1499-1504), make this vault a single case in the Italian art. Signorelli designed the vault like a sphere where, around the observer, all the points have the same importance. The painter, conforming to the program of the canons of the cathedral, seeks to strike the imagination of faithful in the tradition of medieval painting, by giving a premonitory vision of the end of the world where Humanity will have to undergo the punishment of divine justice.

All the Christian eschatology is summarized in five scenes: the Antichrist, the last Judgment, Resurrection, the Hell and the Paradise . While FRA' Angelico sticks in its two panels to an extreme care of the detail, Signorelli seeks the overall effect, for example in the last Judgment, accompanied by representations of the architectural type like the colonnade of the lower part or the windows where appear famous characters (Empédocle, Dante, Virgile, Ovide) who read books or codes, pressed on the edge, in a set of illusions and prospect which gives the feeling to enter the painted scene. In its compositions, and in particular in the Hell, Signorelli, taking as a starting point Dante, less seeks to make glory divine that to express the feeling of the human beings in front of a terrifying reality. The artist concentrates thus on the beings which suffer in their heart and their body, depicts in a style naturalist, and which begs by expressing a vain revolt against their fate.

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