How Fra Angelico and Signorelli Saw the End of the World

by Creighton E. Gilbert

The frescoes of the Cappella Nuova in the Cathedral of Orvieto have fascinated visitors from Michelangelo to Freud and Czelaw Milosz because of their dramatic portrayal of the end of the world and the Last Judgment. Creighton Gilbert's study draws on previously overlooked documents to explain the commissioning of this extraordinary cycle of paintings, begun by Fra Angelico in the early 1400s and completed a half-century later by Luca Signorelli. In contrast to most other art historians, who ascribe the iconographic and formal structure of the paintings to Signorelli, Gilbert contends that his predecessor, Fra Angelico, devised the entire program of decoration. Gilbert also situates the cycle in the contexts of liturgical practice, humanistic studies, and the rich body of texts and images shaping the Renaissance conception of the coming of the Antichrist and the world's final moments.

How Fra Angelico and Signorelli Saw the End of the World examines every element in the Cappella Nuova's architecture and complex decoration, which not only represents the coming of the Antichrist, the end of the world, and the Last Judgment but also, on a high dado, features portraits of Dante and other poets, scenes from their texts, and sinuous grotesque ornament. Although Dante's likeness has long been recognized, Gilbert is the first scholar to establish that his great epic, The Divine Comedy, exerted a profound influence on the Chapel's iconographic program.

220 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2002

About the author

Creighton Eddy Gilbert (1924-2011) was a renowned art historian specializing in the Italian Renaissance and was one of the foremost authorities on Michelangelo. He received his bachelor of art degree from New York University in 1942 and eventually earned his doctorate there in 1955. After teaching for a few years at Indiana University in Bloomington, he served as a curator at the Ringling Museums in Sarasota, Florida, as a professor at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and as a professor at Queens College in Flushing, New York. In 1967, Gilbert left for a position at Harvard University, then taught at Cornell University before joining the faculty of Yale University in 1981. The prior year, he was named the editor-in-chief of Art Bulletin, one of the leading journals of art historical research, and he remained in the position until 1985. Gilbert published extensively during his career, including the important texts Michelangelo: On and Off the Sistine Ceiling (1994) and Caravaggio and His Two Cardinals (1995).

Reviews

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, I was not aware that not only was Michelangelo and Freud fascinated by the frescoes but so was Czelaw Milosz~~~ I hope to learn more about Milosz's interest in Signorelli's frescoes (Apparently he was interested in the Rule of the Antichrist painting). The author was a renown art historian and I believe an art collector as well. His writing is beautiful and original. Until his book, most books on the artist were monographs--and his was one of the first to specifically analyze the frescoes in Orvieto.

Two very interesting points about the book.
1) Gilbert contends that it was Angelico who created the overall plan for the chapel. This is not surprising if you think of it.
2) Dante's influence was greater than people thought... in Orvieto, guides do insist that it was Dante's vision that most informed the frescoes.

Gilbert also analyzes the anti-heretical intention concerning the Cathars--but The Renaissance Antichrist: Luca Signorelli's Orvieto Frescoes |Jonathan B. Riess is much better on this...

If interested, I have this essay
https://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksd... with tons of recommendations for books.