The Devil went down to Orvieto
The Deeds of the Antichrist by Luca Signorelli. Fresco, 1499-1502. Orvieto Cathedral, San Brizio Chapel, Orvieto, Italy.
The Antichrist pauses to listen to his demonic adviser.
Detail: Possibly a self-portrait of the artist.
. . .The Apocalypse is a rare subject for Italian artists, and this is one of the only known images painted of the Antichrist. It is also one of the most menacing works an Italian painter ever created. But then Orvieto, friendly, beautiful Orvieto, was a completely different city five hundred years ago, a place where a sensitive soul like Luca Signorelli might come to imagine the full depth of human depravity.
In 1499, this Umbrian town was a disease-ridden den of eight thousand souls whose chief claim to notoriety was their enthusiasm for fighting with one another; before 1321, Dante’s Purgatory had ranked the city and its feuding clans, the Monaldeschi and Filippeschi, right up with the Montagues and Capulets of Verona. . .
Read When the Antichrist Came to Orvieto by Ingrid D. Rowland in the NYRB.
May 16th, 2010 at 20:45
natamaan ako bigla sa post na ito, lalo na ng mga linyang ito: “…whose chief claim to notoriety was their enthusiasm for fighting with one another…”
nararamdaman kong kahit tapos na ang botohan sa mapayapang eleksyon at mukhang matino naman ang susunod na mamumuno, nagbabangayan pa rin ang mga Pilipino, lalo na sa internet.