Checkout is 9a – 1030a, don’t miss it! Van to Civita scala, 2p, don’t miss it! In between, sketch like hell!
Great day to hike the hill
I didn’t expect a smaller town such as Orvieto to have a Cathedral so magnificent. Interestingly the bronze fore door was crafted in the 60’s to replace the original wood door, very controversial.
But the real tour de force of this cathedral is the San Brizio Chapel:
“Located in the San Brizio Chapel in Orvieto Cathedral, Luca Signorelli’s “Last Judgment” was painted between 1499 and 1504. Signorelli’s frescoes represent the first monumental celebration of the nude form of the Italian Renaissance. Angels and demons are engaged in a dramatic struggle for the souls of the saved and the damned, which are embodied in idealized male and female nudes. Signorelli’s beautiful figures left an indelible impression on Michelangelo, who, only a few years later, would produce his own triumph of the nude in the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and then again decades later in his own “Last Judgment.” “ https://rockyruggiero.com/shop/masterpiece-showcase/signorellis-last-judgement-frescoes-in-orvieto-cathedral/
https://www.theflashpacker.net/visiting-orvieto-cathedral-facts/
https://www.romeartlover.it/Orvieto2.html
“The Damned Cast into Hell & The Elect: The emotional peaks (sic) of Signorelli’s chapel. Brightly colored, muscular demons dynamically wrestle, torment, and drag terrified sinners into eternal damnation” – Google
This is just one scene in this room of many which taken together is like a story board for a modern movie with lasers in the sky, skeletons turning back into men, cities on fire. Violent, meant to inspire fear and compliance. Unsettling. Wow.
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Fantastic cinghale prosciutto sandwich from a little alley shop, with acqua frizzante. Asked a nice Canadian lady what sandwich she got. She pegged my nationality from the get go, very rare. But she let me know that I may qualify for an Irish passport! I wonder if I have the documents??
Crazy ride to Civita scala with Andrea who turns out to be Mario even tho we called him Andrea many times. The tractor comes to take our luggage up the hill, apparently we have booked him just for our group. The walkway is not really wide enough for this overgrown golf cart, as we find out when he literally squeezes by us walkers on his way back down.
It’s been a great start today for our sketching workshop. I will take a pause on posting for a bit so I can focus on the class.
WearyTravelers.net 