Editing Luca Signorelli (section)

== Work in Siena, Cortona, Rome, and Arezzo ==
[[File:Luca Signorelli - Two nude youths carrying a young woman and a young man - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|Signorelli paid great attention to anatomy. Two nude youths carrying a young woman and a young man.]]
After finishing the frescoes at Orvieto, Signorelli was often in Siena. In 1507 he executed a great altarpiece for S. Medardo at [[Arcevia]] in the [[Marche]], the ''Madonna and Child'', with the ''Massacre of the Innocents'' and other episodes.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1508 [[Pope Julius II]] summoned artists to Rome, including Signorelli, [[Pietro Perugino|Perugino]], [[Pinturicchio]] and [[Il Sodoma]] to paint the large rooms in the [[Vatican Palace]]. They began work, but soon the Pope dismissed all to make way for [[Raphael]]. Their work was taken down, except for the ceiling in the Stanza della Segnatura. Luca returned to Siena, but mostly lived in his hometown of Cortona. He was constantly at work, but the products of his closing years were not of the quality of his works from 1490 to 1505.

In 1520 Signorelli went with one of his pictures to Arezzo. He was partially paralyzed when he began a fresco of the ''Baptism of Christ'' in the chapel of Cardinal Passerini's palace near Cortona, which is the last picture attributed to him (alternatively, a ''Coronation of the Virgin'' at [[Foiano della Chiana]]). Signorelli stood in great repute as a citizen, entering the magistracy of Cortona as early as 1488 and holding a leading position by 1523, the year of his death.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Signorelli paid great attention to anatomy. It is said that he carried on his studies in burial grounds, and his mastery of the human form implies a familiarity resulting from dissections. He surpassed contemporaries in showing the structure and mechanism of the nude in immediate action, even going beyond nature in experiments of this kind, trying hypothetical attitudes and combinations. His drawings in the [[Louvre]] demonstrate this and bear a close analogy to the method of Michelangelo. He aimed at powerful truth rather than nobility of form; comparatively neglecting color, and his [[chiaroscuro]] exhibits sharp oppositions of lights and shadows. He had a vast influence over the painters of his own and of succeeding times, but had no pupils or assistants of high repute; one being a nephew named Francesco.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|wstitle=Signorelli, Luca|volume=25|last= Rossetti | first= William Michael |author-link= William Michael Rossetti|pages=81–82|short=1}}</ref>

Vasari, who claimed Signorelli as a relative, described him as kindly, and a family man, and said that he always lived more like a nobleman than a painter. Vasari included Signorelli's portrait, one of seven, in his study in Arezzo, along with Michelangelo and himself. The [[Torrigiani Gallery]] in Florence contains a grand life-sized portrait by Signorelli of a man in a red cap and vest, and corresponds with Vasari's observation. In the [[National Gallery, London]], are the ''[[The Circumcision (Signorelli)|Circumcision of Christ]]'' and three other works. Legend holds that Signorelli depicted himself in the left foreground of his Orvietan mural ''[[The preaching of the Antichrist|The Preaching of the Antichrist]]''. Fra Angelico, his predecessor in the Orvieto cycle, is thought to stand behind him in the piece. However, the figure thought to be Fra Angelico is not dressed as a Dominican friar, and Signorelli's supposed portrait does not match that in Vasari's study.