Borges' Library

When the antichrist came to town

Looking at Signorelli’s Rule of the Antichrist, we see the signs he is not the real deal; for despite superficially looking very much like Jesus and despite his performing miracles right in front of our eyes, such as raising the dead, we see in Orvieto a terrifying horned Satan whispering in the fake messiah’s ears. He isn't just telling him what to say either, for his left hand is slipped into the sleeve of the antichrist's rosey robes, like a puppet master calling all the shots.

Worse still, behind the adoring crowds, his black armies are re-taking the Third Temple. Some have suggested the Signorelli’s antichrist was the heretical priest Girolamo Savonarola, only recently burnt at the stake in Florence for just such apocalyptic fear mongering. Many at the time considered him to be a saint. The Pope begged to disagree.

 

 

 

Angelico

The first artist employed to decorate its walls was Fra Angelico. “Famous above all Italian painters,” stated the contract he signed around 1447. Unfortunately, so beloved was this painter by Pope Nicolas V, that he was forced to stop painting after completing only two paintings on the vault: The Christ in Judgment and Angels and Prophets. I overheard a guide telling her group that, while people don’t come to the chapel to see these works by Fra Angelico, over the years she has come to feel they are superior to the more famous ones by Luca Signorelli. She told her captive audience about a time during the restoration of the frescoes, when guides were allowed to climb up the scaffolding nearly to the ceiling. “And the details were perfect,” she said. “Signorelli painted to impress the people standing on the ground, while Angelico painted for God’s eyes.”

Though unable to get any closer than where I was standing, feet firmly on the ground, still from where I stood, I could understand what she meant. Angelico’s paintings exude a peaceful tranquility in what is an otherwise pretty disturbing space. With Christ depicted as Judge in the Byzantine Pantocrator fashion, he seated on a cloud and crowned with a nimbus halo. “Ruler of All” and “Sustainer of the World,” he is surrounded by angels.

 

Duomo

The Orvieto Duomo is one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in Italy. Only an hour or so north of Rome, most tourists are already dutifully impressed before they even arrive. Seeing the medieval fortress town, as it sits perched atop a promontory of soft volcanic rock—over a thousand feet above the valley below—is a sight not many people will not soon forget. The heart of Orvieto, however, has always been her cathedral. Surprisingly grand for such a small town, it is built of alternating stripes of black and white marble in the Sienese style, work was begun in the late 13th century to house an important relic. And no cost was too great in its construction. From the dazzling mosaics that adorn the façade to the many works of sculpture both on the exterior and interior of the cathedral, some of the greatest names of early Renaissance Tuscan art had a hand in its decoration.

Signorelli: Lovely Looky Loos

But I also enjoyed being in the chapel when it was packed full of sightseers and religious pilgrims. They almost always entered in large groups. Like the tide coming in, they would flow into the room, filling up the entire space. Whenever this happened, I’d step outside and watch them collectively have their minds blown. I loved photographing them, with their beautiful and perplexed faces turned upward. As their guide whispered explanations into a microphone, they would slowly rotate in unison—like a sunflower following the movement of the sun. They were following a strict theological program set out by Signorelli five hundred years ago.

 

 

Signorelli: Eastern Wall

 

The cathedral opened at 8:15 am. Being there when they opened the big doors I’d often have the chapel to myself for over an hour.

It was beautiful in the morning, when the light streamed in through the south-facing windows, lighting up the paintings on the eastern wall: The Rule of the Antichrist and the Coronation of the Elect