Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/198

SIGNORELLL 167 ^ro della Francesca: his earliest works are at Arezzo, and date from 1472 ; he then painted at Cittit di Gas- tello, in Perugia, and in 1484 in Borne, in the Sistine Chapel. He gained rapid distinction, was made a citizen of Cittli di €astello, and in 1488 became one of the supreme magistrates of his native place, Cortona. In 1499 he received the commission for his greatest works, the frescoes of the cathedral of Or- vieto, completed about 1503. Loaded with honours, he retired to Arezzo in his old age, where, says Vasari, he lived more after the manner of a noble- man tlian of an artist. Lnca Signorelli's worics fill a very im- portant place in the history of art ; he was one of the first to apply a know- ledge of anatomy to painting; and a severe and noble drawing of the nude distinguishes his greater works, those -especially at Orvieto, where he has had recourse to foreshortening with an un- precedented boldness and intelligence. Whether in the representation of vehement action and passion, or in the scenes of beatitude and tranquil- lity, he displays a powerful and dra- matic conception of character. His colouring was inferior. In his drape- ries Signorelli exhibits great excel- lence; and in his single figures a thorough appreciation of the antique. His peculiar powers are best developed in the extensive frescoes of the chapel of the Madonna di San Brizzio, in the cathedral at Orvieto. Here Luca completed the works commenced by Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, in 1447. They represent the History of Anti- christ, the Besurrection of the Dead, Hell, and Paradise. On April 5, 1499, Luca undertook the completion of the veiling for two hundred ducats, and the painting on the walls for six hundred ducats, besides free lo4ging, and two measures of wine, with two quarters of com, evezy month. These works axe of surprising power, and already, Vasari tells us, that Michelangelo imitated in his own great work, in the Sistine Cha- pel, the angels and demons, and the mode of treatment here adopted by Luca Signorelli in Orvieto. The style of form, too, bears much resemblance to that of Michelangelo, and these frescoes were completed at least two years before Michelangelo exhibited his celebrated "Cartoon of Pisa" to the Florentines, in 1506. The lower part of the walls is occupied by decorative subjects, in chiaroscuro, with circular pictures of the great poets who have treated of the life after death — Hesiod, Ovid, Virgil, Claudian, and Dante ; and with small representations of a mythological and allegorical nature. These fine works are engraved in Della Vidle's Cathedral of Orvieto, The great al- tar-piece in the chapel of Sant' Ono- frio, in the cathedral of Perugia, an earlier work, painted in 1484, and re- presenting the Madonna enthroned, with Saints, combines, says Eugler, in some portions a very harsh natu- ralism, as, for instance, in the figure of Sant' Onofrio, with a noble senti- ment; as regards the whole execution, however, and the glow of colour, it may be considered a master-piece of this painter. Francesco Signorelli, Luca's nephew, was also a distinguished painter; he was living in 1560. In the Palazzo Pubblico at Cortona, is a Madonna and Child, with Saints, by him. Works, Bome, Sistine Chapel, Jour- ney of Moses with Zippora, and other later events in the Life of Moses. Or- vieto, the cathedral, frescoes in the chapel of the Madonna di San Brizzio : in the sacristy, a Magdalen, painted in 1504, and for which Signorelli received nineteen florins, about twenty-two shil- lings, but then worth perhaps nearly twenty times as much. Volterra, San Francesco, Virgin and Child, with