Borges' Library

Signorelli Parapraxis Diagram

The Orvieto Duomo Exterior

The cathedral was begun in the 14th century. Dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, it was constructed to house one of the most important relics from the Italian Middle Ages, Corporal of Bolsena. The relic is what explains the great splendor of this cathedral--for being in such a small town. The mosaic facade of the duomo is one of Italy's most beautiful. It is dazzling in the late afternoon, when the sun lights them--gold gleaming, the images seem to float off the building.

Fresco

“Fresco” is Italian for “fresh.” There are two types of fresco paintings

Buon fresco is the true fresh. The real deal. Pigments are applied while the plaster is still wet and as the wet plaster dries the paint becomes embedded into the plaster itself. Technically speaking, the plaster does not "dry" but rather a chemical reaction occurs in which calcium carbonate is formed as a result of carbon dioxide from the air combining with the calcium hydrate in the wet plaster.

It’s called “fresh” because an artist is required to get the painting finished before the plaster hardens—like working in lacquer—speed is of the essence and this technique makes re-working the picture difficult without starting all over with fresh plaster.

In contrast to buon fresco, fresco secco is pigment applied on top of dried plaster. This is not long-lasting and in most climates the paint flakes off. Think of ever-impatient Leonardo’s Last Supper. Unless you are working in the ultra-dry climates of a place like the Buddhist cave murals of western China and central Asia, fresco secco will not last. So, we are lucky that Angelico and Signorelli were working in true fresco. This is especially important since Signorelli came on board almost fifty years after Fra Angelico had to drop out. Fifty years for which the chapel had been left untouched—Angelico’s scaffolding still in the same place in had left them and Angelico’s colors going strong.

It was in the fateful year 1500 when a contract was signed that stipulated that Signorelli would be paid 205 ducats to finish the faulted ceilings and 575 ducats to paint the walls. In addition, the painter was to be furnished with ultramarine, a certain quantity of food and wine, and a free lodging, with two beds.

Although he was supplied with the expensive ultramarine—as costly as gold—he had to supply the rest of the pigments in his painter’s palate. These fresco pigments included other blues, like azurite. It also included verdigris malachite; yellow ocher, burnt Siena, and bone black.

Orvieto: The Etruscans

Orvieto's history goes back to Etruscan times. Etruscans liked building their towns on hilltops, and none is as dramatic as Orvieto. Even the name is fun to say! Famous for wine, for a local pasta called umbrichelli, truffles, mushrooms, game, and ceramics, Orvieto is also home to one of the greatest fresco cycles of the Italian renaissance. Student of the great Piero della Francesca and major influencer to Michelangelo, Luca Signorelli is the artist who really put Orvieto on the map--as the place where "the antichrist came to town."

I wanted to be as close to the frescoes as possible, so we found an apartment that was a ten minute walk from the duomo.

 

Orvieto has countless underground caves. Built on soft rock, the people--since the time of the Etruscans-- have been tunneling underground. Our apartment also had such an underground cellar. It was an archaeological site, in fact!

 

 

And did I mention the views?

 

 

The historian Procopius described the war in which the Byzantine general, Belisarius besieged the Goths at Urbiventus (almost certainly Urbs Vetus, Orvieto) in 539: "The city occupies a lone hill that springs from low-lying ground, being on the top level smooth but precipitous at the base. Upon this hill men of old built the city and they neither placed walls around it nor constructed defences of any kind since the place seemed to them to be impregnable by nature. For there is only one approach to the city through the rocks (History of the Wars, VI:20).

 

Our apartment was situated on the original approach to the walled city.

 

 

Seen from behind

Seen from Behind: Perspectives on the Male Body and Renaissance Art
by Patricia Lee Rubin

In Freud's Trip to Orvieto, writer and art historian Nicolas Fox Weber wonders how Freud must have felt when looking at male nudes in all directions in the chapel in Orvieto. Overpowering, like being in a male locker room, Weber says... it reminds him (Weber) of a male orgy. Freud must have been floored, suggests Weber.

Maybe..

That Freud was deeply impressed and moved by the frescoes is a fact--but no one will ever know exactly in what way. We do know he had his famous memory episode, whereby, for the life of him, he could not remember the painter's name... though Freud had declared Signorelli to be his favorite painter... A strange choice, if you think about it. But Freud said that Signorelli was an artist who, in his opinion, had created the finest paintings he hadever  seen.

Wait--is Freud being humble here? Qualifying his opinion in terms of his limited experience? And then to forget--not once--but three times the painter's name....?

This Freudian slip became forever after known as the Signorelli Parapraxis. 

Freud has his story of what happened. But Weber has another theory--related to insecurities over his Jewishness and his sexuality.

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It is true that the male bum is everywhere in Orvieto. 

Apparently, Em Forster, in his diary in 1907 "jotted down a list of names suggesting a sort of gay lineage – Pater, Whitman, Housman – and added ‘Luca Signorelli?’ Alan Hollinghurst goes on, "I assume he had seen his frescoes in Orvieto Cathedral, in which the naked male backside is a pivotal feature, and jumped to his own conclusions."

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But, Signorelli, though he studied under Piero della Francesca, painted in the style of Donatello. That swagger! Hand on hip, leg turned out.... It was the Renaissance male pose par excellence... made famous by Micgelangelo... who is known to have stopped at Orvieto for a few days, but became so entranced by Signorelli's frescoes that he stayed several weeks. Rubin's book, Seen from Behind: Perspectives on the Male Body and Renaissance Art--puts everything in context! I can only imagine how fun it must have been to write...

Highly recommended if you love Michelangelo, Signorelli or Donatello. 

 

Signorelli's Hell

From the Rule of the Antichrist and the End of the World to the Resurrection of the Dead and the Damned Entering Hell, their faces would grow increasingly worried and then alarmed. Not even the Catholic pilgrims in robes and sandals seemed comfortable as they watched the teeming population of the damned being tortured by terrifying demons painting in other-worldly colors all writhing together in the maelstrom of Signorelli’s version of Hell.

A particularly famous detail from this fresco is of a young woman being born on the back of a horned demon in flight. She is completely naked and looking back in horror from the place where the angels of God guard the gates of heaven so no sinners escape. With her long flowing blonde hair, one of the guides--an old timer it seemed-- suggested that Signorelli had painted the likeness one of his previous mistresses in this role as female captive. The leering demon was likened to that if a butcher hauling the carcass of an animal to be skinned back to his lair.

Signorelli and Angelico

Before turning away from the Rule of the Antichrist, which is the most famous fresco in the chapel, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the two portraits in the north corner; for that is a self-portrait of Luca Signorelli standing just in front of the master, Fra Angelico. Quite nice that Signorelli thought to include him in that way.

Cesare Borgia

The guides seemed to all be in agreement that the dapper man in the red velvet hat with matching red tights --his leg spectacularly posed like a French king -- was none other than Cesare Borgia, the son of the Pope who had killed Savonarola.

Signorelli's Pieta

In the evenings, the chapel would grow quiet again. The light long gone, the paintings shimmered in the shadows. At that time, the chapel was emptied of people, and I could stand silently in front of Signorelli's haunting Pieta, which is painted into a niche in the western wall. I overheard a few of the guides mention that Signorelli painted the pieta just after losing his son to sickness. After hearing that, I could hardly keep back the tears when I stood in front of it.  

Evenings in the chapel with Signorelli

 

In the evenings, the chapel would grow quiet again. The light long gone, the paintings shimmered in the shadows. At that time, the chapel was emptied of people, and I could stand silently in front of Signorelli's haunting Pieta, which is painted into a niche in the western wall. I overheard a few of the guides mention that Signorelli painted the pieta just after losing his son to sickness. After hearing that, I could hardly keep back the tears when I stood in front of it.  

When closing time would come, just after six, the guards couldn’t seem to bring themselves to tell me I had to go and would point at their watches and ask me when I would be leaving. I nodded and took my leave resolved to stand there again the next day.