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Orvieto » The Doumo

The Façade of the Cathedral
(a photo by Gaspa)

The 19th-century art and culture historian Carl Burckhardt describes the Duomo of Orvieto as one of the greatest and most amazing polychrome architectural monument in Europe and in the world. For Pope Leo XIII it is the golden lily among all Italian cathedrals, which in the Judgment Day will fly directly into heaven driven by it own unparalleled beauty. In unison with the ancient Catholic traditions, the church was built to celebrate an important event - the so called "Miracle of Bolsena", which happened in 1263. A priest from Bohemia (nowadays Czech Republic) was traveling to Rome where he wanted to stigmatize the heretical distrust in the transubstantiation - the belief that the body and blood of Christ are physically represented in the Eucharist. During the time of a liturgy in a church in Lago di Bolsena blood began to drip on the cover under the chalice on the altar. The cover with blood spots was immediately brought to Pope Urban IV, who in this time was relaxing in Orvieto as many of his predecessors used to do to escape from the summer heat and the political intrigues in Rome. The pope announces a miracle right away and ordered a church to be built in Orvieto in honour of the miracle.

The Interior

A miracle was the building of the cathedral itself, because in the town severe feuds were taking place in that time. According to Dante they were even worse than those between the families of Montagues and Capulets in Verona, immortalized by the Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet". The starting of construction works was also impeded by the creation of a special committee, which to create and approve the plan of the cathedral. This took almost 30 years. The building process prolonged in three centuriesand 33 architects, 152 sculptors, 68 painters and 90 masters of mosaics took part in it. The result structure is an astounding mixture of two different architectural styles, which very clearly represents the transition from Romanesque to Gothic architecture. The initial design of Duomo was most probably made by the Florentine architect Arnolfo di Cambio, who also created the plan of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. While in the final stage of the constructing works in the end of the 13th - the beginning of the 14th century, the Sienese architect Lorenzo Maitani was a main figure.

The Exterior

The façade is without any doubt the culmination in the plan of the Duomo. Its attractiveness and deep impact on the visitors are mainly due to its decorative wealth - an impressive abundance of columns, bas-reliefs, sculptures, Gothic spires, sparkling and sumptuous use of various colours, monumental doors, tens of interesting frescoes and all the above unified and supported by four big quadrangular fluted columns, crowned by marvelous Gothic spires. Viewed from the small square in front of it, especially in sunset, the façade will leave unforgettable memories with you. The bases of the four main columns are among the most refined examples of the Italian 14th-century sculptural decoration and they really deserve a closer look. The reliefs were carved by Lorenzo Maitani and his students and depict scenes from the Old and New Testament in stupendous details.

Viewed from the clocktower
(a photo by rdesai)

The Doumo's interior is slightly disappointing after you have seen the lovely façade. Whether the latter took the entire enthusiasm of the architects and builders or it swallowed most of the money for the construction works (and maybe both of them), it is not clear, but it seams as the main body of the church was built only to support the graceful façade. In the interior decoration you will distinguish alternating strips of coloured marble, just as those in the cathedrals of Florence, Siena and Pisa. The highlight is the ensemble of frescoes in the chapel at the end of the south nave, painted in the end of the 15th - the beginning of the 16th century by Luca Signorelli and named "The Last Judgement". According to some art experts it even surpasses the paintings of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, which were created 40 years later and obviously were strongly influenced by those of Signorelli. Several other artists painted the chapel before Signorelli. They created the scenes depicted on the lower parts of the walls, filled with many moving and passionate human figures, making a realistic and, in the same time, grotesquely fantastic effect. The high draftsmanship and the pleasure from the human body are the two main features of this cycle of frescoes, but there are a lot of strange details, which will attract your attention for sure. Scenes of horrible depravity and writhing naked human flesh are represented on the part that has to be the hell. An interesting fact is that one of the female bodies is that of the artist’s adulterous mistress, immortalized in this infernal scene in a way that everybody can see her. In another episode can be seen a sinner with an ear bitten off by a green demon. Signorelli also depicted its own full-length portrait, together with this Fra Angelico - another eminent renaissance artist. Their figures are painted in the lower left corner, beneath the scene with The Sermon of the Antichrist.

The other twin chapel named Cappella del Corporale has not such remarkable frescoes, but it keeps the scared corporal with the blood from the Miracle of Bolsena in an elegant reliquary, inlayed with jewels and having the shape of the cathedral itself. Here you can also see some appealing frescoes by local artists, such as Ugolino di Prete. They depict scenes closely related with the Miracle of Bolsena.