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FRIDAY 7th October 2005
ORVIETO
Our last day. With the luggage stowed we were off again, but this time to Rome airport; keen as ever to maintain the pace of previous days we stopped off at Orvieto en route.
The city is also one of the most ancient in Italy, with Etruscan and Roman history, and its medieval influence was considerable, but the Black Death of 1348 ended its position of power. It passed to the church a hundred years after the Black Death, and 32 popes in all were to stay in the city; whilst in Orvieto Pope Clement VII took the fateful decision not to annul Henry VIII marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Orvieto sits on a table-top of volcanic tufa whose sheer sides fall nearly 1000 feet to the vine covered valley floor - a cliff edged remnant of the four volcanoes whose eruptions also bequeathed the soils that produce Ovieto’s fine wines.
We enjoyed a funicular railway ride plus a round robin bus to the Duomo to help us mount the 1000 feet. As soon as we saw the Duomo we understood why Orvieto attracts so many. The facade, recently restored, is beautiful. The architect of the building is unknown, although Arnolfi di Cambio is a possibility (who designed the Florence Duomo). Problems in the subsequent building caused Lorenzo Maitani to be called up, who successfully guided the construction through a crucial stage. He produced the magnificent carvings on the facade. Though building dragged on for over 300 years, exhausting 33 architects, 152 sculptors, 68 painters and 90 mosaicists, the final product is a surprisingly unified example of the transitional Romanesque-Gothic style. The four fluted pillars at the base are among the highlights of 14th c. Italian sculpture, depicting episodes from the Old and New Testaments.
Maitani was also responsible for the four large bronzes of the Evangelists across the first tier, and for the angels over the beautiful central doorway. The mosaics are mostly 18th and 19th century additions, replacements for originals nabbed by Rome. The central bronze doors were made as recently as 1965.
The vast interior of the Duomo is famous chiefly for the frescoes in the Capella Nuova (the last chapel to the right of the altar) - ticket required for entry. Also seen are the massive organ pipe array with its supporting balcony, and the “La Pieta” by Ippolito Scalza (1569).
The earliest works in the “Capella Nuova” are on the ceiling vaults by Fra’Angelico (1447) painted with the assistance of Benozzo Gozzoli. Fra’Angelico was then called to Rome, and work on the frescoes stopped for 40 years. Perugino then appeared, but only worked for 5 days.
Signorelli saved the day, restoring Fra’Angelico’s work and completing the vaults to his original plan. Signorelli then commenced the wall frescoes (1499-1504) creating the extraordinary Last Judgement, Preaching of the Antichrist, Hell and the Resurrection of the Dead.
All this overshadows the opposite transepts Cappella del Corporale, with frescoes (1357-64) by local a artist Ugolino di Prete Ilario.
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