Editing Luca Signorelli

{{Short description|Italian Renaissance painter (c. 1441 1445–1523)}}
{{Infobox artist
| honorific_prefix = 
| name             = Luca Signorelli
| honorific_suffix = 
| image            = Signorelli, Luca - selfportrait alone.jpg
| image_size       = 
| alt              = Middle aged or old man with long blond hair and black hat
| caption          = Self-portrait of Signorelli, from ''[[The Preaching of the Antichrist]]'', 1500–1504
| birth_date       = {{birth date text|1441}}
| birth_place      = [[Cortona]], Italy
| baptised         = <!-- will not display if birth_date is entered -->
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1523|10|16|1441}}
| death_place      = Cortona, Italy
| resting_place    = 
| resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline}} -->
| nationality      = Italian
| education        = 
| alma_mater       = 
| known_for        = [[Painting]]
| notable_works    = 
| style            = 
| movement         = [[Early Renaissance]]
| spouse           = Gallizia di Piero Carnesecchi
| partner          = 
| parents          = 
| father           = Egidio di Ventura
| mother           = 
| relatives        = 
| family           = 
| awards           = 
| elected          = 
| patrons          = 
| memorials        = 
| website          = 
| module           = 
| birth_name       = Luca d'Egidio di Ventura
}}

'''Luca Signorelli''' ({{circa|1441/1445}} – 16 October 1523) was an [[Italian Renaissance painter]] from [[Cortona]], in [[Tuscany]], who was noted in particular for his ability as a draftsman and his use of [[foreshortening]]. His massive [[fresco]]s of the ''Last Judgment'' (1499–1503) in [[Orvieto Cathedral]] are considered his masterpiece.

In his early 40s he returned to live in Cortona, after working in Florence, [[Siena]] and Rome (1478–84, painting a now lost section of the [[Sistine Chapel]]).  With an established reputation, he remained based in Cortona for the rest of his life, but often travelled to the cities of the region to fulfill commissions.  He was probably trained by [[Piero della Francesca]] in Florence, as his cousin [[Giorgio Vasari]] wrote.

Cortona hosted a major exhibition in 2023 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of his death.<ref>[https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6350122?ldp_breadcrumb=back&intobjectid=6350122&from=salessummary&lid=1 ''The Massacre of the Innocents with the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi - panel from a predella''], [[Christie's]], Live Auction 20055, Lot 22, December 2021</ref>

== Biography ==
{{One source|section|date=August 2023}}
[[File:Luca Signorelli - Testamento e morte di Mosè.jpg|thumb|''Testament and Death of Moses'', detail]]
He was born '''Luca d'Egidio di Ventura''' in [[Cortona]], Tuscany (some sources call him '''Luca da Cortona'''). The precise date of his birth is uncertain, but birth dates between 1441 and 1445 have been proposed. He died in 1523 in his native Cortona, where he is buried.

His first impressions of art seem to originate in Perugia – including the styles of artists such as [[Benedetto Bonfigli]], [[Fiorenzo di Lorenzo]] and [[Pinturicchio]]. Lazzaro Vasari, the great-grandfather of art historian [[Giorgio Vasari]], was Luca's maternal uncle. According to [[Giorgio Vasari]], Lazzaro had Luca apprenticed to [[Piero della Francesca]]. In 1472 the young artist was painting at [[Arezzo]], and in 1474 at [[Città di Castello]]. He presented to [[Lorenzo de' Medici]] a work which is likely ''School of Pan''. [[Janet Ross]] and her husband Henry discovered the painting in Florence {{Circa|1870}} and subsequently sold it to the Kaiser Frederick Museum in Berlin, though it was destroyed there a few days after the end of World War II.<ref>See: Benjamin, Sarah, ''A Castle In Tuscany'', pp. 63–67 (image of the painting at pp. 64–65), Murdoch Books, Australia, 2006.</ref> The painting's subject is almost the same as that which he also painted on the wall of the Petrucci palace in Siena – the principal figures being [[Pan (god)|Pan]] himself, [[Mount Olympus|Olympus]], [[Echo (mythology)|Echo]], a man reclining on the ground, and two listening shepherds.

Signorelli worked in central Italy, leading a very requested workshop, increasing his importance during the 1490s. He often returned to his native Cortona, and worked in nearby [[Umbria]], especially in [[Città di Castello]], where he left one of his masterpieces: ''the Martyrdome of St Sebastian'' (still in the umbrian town). This painting was very influential for the young [[Raphael]], who worked in the same town and sketched some drawings of the "Martyrdom".

In 1498, Signorelli moved to the Monastery of [[Monte Oliveto Maggiore]] south of Siena, where he painted eight frescoes, forming part of a vast series depicting the life of [[Benedict of Nursia|St. Benedict]]; they are at present much injured. In the palace of [[Pandolfo Petrucci]] he worked on various classic or mythological subjects, including the aforementioned ''School of Pan''. Signorelli remained healthy until his death, continuing to paint and accept commissions into his final year, including the altarpiece of the Church at Foiano.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27759?msg=welcome_stranger|title=Luca Signorelli|last=Cruttwell|first=Maud|publisher=Scholarly|year=1901|via=Project Gutenberg}}</ref>

== Work in Orvieto ==
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2023}}
{{Main|Orvieto Cathedral#Chapel of the Madonna di San Brizio}}
[[File:Luca signorelli, compianto, cortona, dettaglio 01.jpg|thumb|''Lamentation over the Dead Christ'', detail, 1502]]

From the Monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore near [[Siena]], Signorelli went to [[Orvieto]] and produced his masterpiece, the frescoes in the chapel of S. Brizio (then called the Cappella Nuova), in the [[Duomo di Orvieto|cathedral]].

The Cappella Nuova already contained two groups of images in the vaulting over the altar, the Judging Christ and the Prophets, murals initially begun by [[Fra Angelico]] fifty years prior. The works of Signorelli in the vaults and on the upper walls represent the events surrounding the Apocalypse and the Last Judgment. The events of the Apocalypse fill the space which surrounds the entrance into the large chapel.

The Apocalyptic events begin with the ''Preaching of Antichrist'', and proceed to the ''Doomsday'' and ''The Resurrection of the Flesh''. They occupy three vast [[lunette]]s, each of them a single continuous narrative composition. In one of them, the [[Antichrist]], after his portents and impious glories, falls headlong from the sky, crashing down into an innumerable crowd of men and women.

The events of the [[Last Judgment]] fill the facing vault and the walls around the altar. The series is composed of ''Paradise'', ''the'' ''Elect and the Condemned'', ''Hell'', the ''Resurrection of the Dead'', and the ''Destruction of the Reprobate''.

[[File:Luca signorelli, compianto, cortona, e predella.jpg|thumb|''Lamentation over the Dead Christ'', Diocesan Museum, Cortona]]
To Angelico's ceiling, which contained the ''Judging Christ'' and the ''Prophets'' led by John the Baptist, Signorelli added the ''Madonna leading the Apostles'', the ''Patriarchs'', ''Doctors of the Church'', ''Martyrs'', and ''Virgins''. The unifying factor of the paintings is found in the scripture readings in the Roman liturgies for the Feast of All Saints and Advent.

Stylistically, the daring and terrible inventions, with their powerful treatment of the nude and arduous foreshortenings, were striking in their day. [[Michelangelo]] is claimed to have borrowed, in his own fresco at the [[Sistine Chapel]] wall, some of Signorelli's figures or combinations. The lower walls, in an unprecedented style, are richly decorated with a great deal of subsidiary work connected with [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]], specifically the first eleven books of his ''Purgatorio'', and with the poets and legends of antiquity.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=San Juan |first1=Rose Marie |title=The Illustrious Poets in Signorelli's Frescoes for the Cappella Nuova of Orvieto Cathedral |journal=Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes |date=1989 |volume=52 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/751539}}</ref> A ''Pietà'' composition in a niche in the lower wall contains explicit references to two important Orvietan martyr saints, San Pietro Parenzo and San Faustino.

The contract for Signorelli's work is still on record in the archives of the Cathedral of Orvieto. He undertook the task of completing the ceiling on April 5, 1499 for 200 ducats, as well as 600 ducats for the walls, along with lodging, and a monthly payment of two measures of wine and two quarters of corn. The contract directed Signorelli to consult the Masters of the Sacred Page for theological matters. This is the first such recorded instance of an artist receiving theological advice, although art historians believe such discussions were routine. Signorelli's first stay in Orvieto lasted no more than two years. In 1502 he returned to Cortona, later returning to Orvieto to continue the lower walls. He painted a dead Christ, with Mary Magdalene, the Virgin Mary, and the local martyr Saints Pietro Parenzo and Faustino. The figure of the dead Christ, according to Vasari, is the image of Signorelli's son Antonio, who died from the plague during the course of the execution of the paintings.

== 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.

== Major works ==
[[File:Luca signorelli, annunciazione di volterra.jpg|thumb|''[[Annunciation]]'', Volterra]]

* ''The Scourging of Christ'' (c. 1480) <small>– Tempera on roundheaded panel, 84 × 57&nbsp;cm, [[Pinacoteca di Brera]], [[Milan]]</small>
* ''[[Testament and Death of Moses]]'' (1481–1482) <small>– Fresco, 350 × 572&nbsp;cm, [[Sistine Chapel]], Vatican</small>
* ''[[Sant'Onofrio Altarpiece]]'' (1484) <small>– Panel, 221 × 189&nbsp;cm, [[Perugia Cathedral|Museo dell'Opera del Duomo]], [[Perugia]]</small>
* ''Madonna and Child'' (1484) <small>– Panel, 170 × 117.5&nbsp;cm, [[Uffizi]], [[Florence]] </small>
* ''[[The Circumcision (Signorelli)|The Circumcision]]'' (c. 1490–91) <small>– Oil on panel transferred to canvas, 259 × 180&nbsp;cm, [[National Gallery]], [[London]] </small>
*''Madonna and Child with St. Joseph and Another Saint'' (1490–1492) <small>– Panel, diameter: 99&nbsp;cm, Galleria Palatina, [[Palazzo Pitti]], Florence</small>
*''[[Portrait of a Man (Luca Signorelli)|Portrait of a Man]]'' (c. 1492) <small>– Tempera on panel, 50 × 32, [[Gemäldegalerie, Berlin]]</small>
*''The Adoration of the Shepherds'' (1496) <small>– Painted for the church of San Francesco, [[Città di Castello]]</small>
* ''Martyrdom of St Sebastian''(1498) <small>– [[Pinacoteca Comunale, Città di Castello]]</small>
*''The Damned Cast into Hell'' (c. 1499)<small> – San Brizio Chapel, [[Orvieto Cathedral]], Orvieto, Italy</small>
*''[[Allegory of Fertility and Abundance]]'' (c. 1500) <small>– Tempera on panel,</small> <small>[[Uffizi]]</small><small>, [[Florence]]</small>  
*''Lamentation over the Dead Christ'' (1502) <small>– Wood, 270 × 240&nbsp;cm, Museo Diocesano, Cortona</small>
* [[:File:Vitellozzo Vitelli.jpg]] Portrait of [[Vitellozzo Vitelli]]'' (1500–1503) <small>– Panel, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Orvieto</small>
* ''Mary Magdalene'' (1504) <small>– Panel, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Orvieto</small>
* ''Calvary'' (1505)
* ''The Coronation of the Virgin'' (1508) <small>– painted for the Filippini Chapel in the church of San Francesco, Arcevia</small>
* ''[[Madonna and Child with the Holy Trinity and Two Saints|The Trinity, the Virgin and Two Saints]]'' (1510) <small>– Tempera on wood, 272 × 180&nbsp;cm, Uffizi, Florence</small>
* ''[[Communion of the Apostles (Signorelli)|Communion of the Apostles]]'' (1512) <small>– Panel, 232 × 220&nbsp;cm, Museo Diocesano, Cortona</small>
* ''[[Saint Catherine of Alexandria (Signorelli)|Saint Catherine of Alexandria]]'' (c. 1512) <small>– Tempera on panel, [[Museo Horne]], Florence</small>
* ''Madonna with Child and Saints'' (1515) <small>– Painted for church of San Francesco, [[Montone]], now in the National Gallery, London </small>
* ''[[Madonna and Child with Saints (Signorelli, Arezzo)|Madonna and Child with Saints]]'' (c. 1519–1523) <small>– Tempera on panel, Museo di arte medievale e moderna, [[Arezzo]]</small>
* ''Immaculate Conception'' (c. 1523) <small>– Panel, 217 × 210&nbsp;cm, Museo Diocesano, Cortona</small>
* ''Madonna and Child with Saints'' (mid or late 1510s) <small>– Panel, Museo Nazionale di [[Castel Sant'Angelo]], [[Rome]]</small>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="188px" caption="Luca Signorelli's works">
File:1492 Signorelli Portrait of an older man anagoria.JPG|Portrait of an older man (1492)
File:Luca Signorelli, Ritratto di Camillo Vitelli.jpg|Portrait of Camillo Vitelli (c. 1493–1496)
File:Vitellozzo Vitelli (adjusted).jpg|Portrait of [[Vitellozzo Vitelli]]
File:Luca signorelli, santi eligio e antonio, sansepolcro.jpg|''Saint Anthony and [[Saint Eligius]]''
File:Luca signorelli, crocifissione di san sepolcro.jpg|''Crucifixion''
File:Signorelli, Martyrdom of St Sebastian, città di castello.jpg|''Martyrdom of St Sebastian''
File:Luca Signorelli Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels.jpg|''Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels''
File:Luca signorelli, vergine in trono e santi, volterra, dettaglio san girolamo.jpg|''Madonna with Angels and Saints'', detail, San Girolamo ([[Saint Jerome]])
</gallery>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="154" caption="Frescos">
File:Luca signorelli, cappella di san brizio, predica e punizione dell'anticristo 01.jpg|Fresco of the ''Deeds of the Antichrist'' (c. 1501) in [[Orvieto Cathedral]]
File:Signorelli self.jpg|Selfportrait of Luca Signorelli (left) with [[Fra Angelico]]
File:Signorelli Resurrection.jpg|''Resurrection of the Flesh'' (1499–1502), Fresco Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto
File:Orvieto096 kopie.jpg|''The Elect In Paradise''
File:Luca Signorelli 001.jpg|''The Damned.'' 1499-1502. Fresco. [[Orvieto Cathedral|Chapel of San Brizio in Orvieto Cathedral]]. 
File:Luca Signorelli - Christ and the Doubting Thomas - WGA21269.jpg|''Christ and the Doubting Thomas''
</gallery>

== See also==
* [[Signorelli parapraxis]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

== References==
* {{cite book|first=Tom |last=Henry|author2=Lawrence Kanter |title=Luca Signorelli: The Complete Paintings|location=New York|publisher=Rizzoli|year=2002}}
* [[Maud Cruttwell|Cruttwell, Maud]], ''Signorelli''. George Bell & Sons in London, 1899 ([http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27759/27759-h/27759-h.htm online])
* {{cite book |first=Creighton|last=Gilbert|url=http://www.psupress.psu.edu/books/titles/0-271-02140-3.html |title=How Fra Angelico and Signorelli Saw the End of the World |publisher= Penn State Press |year=2002 |ISBN= 0-271-02140-3}}
* Henry, Tom, ''The Life and Art of Luca Signorelli''. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012 ([https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300179262/life-and-art-luca-signorelli Review])

==Further reading==<!-- SN James are COI added by author, can't see they've been used  -->
* James, Sara Nair, ''Signorelli and Fra Angelico at Orvieto: Liturgy, Poetry, and a Vision of the Endtime''. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2003. {{ISBN|0-7546-0813-1}} [http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=3454&edition_id=3534]
* James, Sara Nair, “Penance and Redemption: The Role of the Roman Liturgy in Luca Signorelli’s Frescoes at Orvieto” in ''Artibus et Historiae'' vol XXII, no. 44 Fall, 2001.
* James, Sara Nair. "Vasari on Signorelli: The Origins of 'The Grand Manner of Painting,'" in ''Reading Vasari'', edited by Anne B. Barriault, [[Andrew Ladis]], Norman E. Land, and Jeryldene M. Wood. London and Athens, GA: Philip Wilson Publishers and the Georgia Museum of Art, 2005.
* James, Sara Nair, “Apocalypse in the Visual Arts” for the ''Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception'', published by Verlag Walter de Gruyter in Berlin (Germany), Volume A, 2009.
* Riess, Jonathan B. ''The Renaissance Antichrist: Luca Signorelli’s Orvieto Frescoes'', Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
* Mauro Zanchi, Signorelli, Giunti, Firenze 2016. {{ISBN|9788809994201}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://artuk.org/discover/artists/signorelli-luca-c-14501523 Art UK]
* [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27759 Luca Signorelli] by Maud Cruttwell
* [http://www.cortonamia.com/en/ Cortona the Town where Luca Signorelli was born]
*[https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1874.html Luca Signorelli at the National Gallery of Art]

{{Luca Signorelli}}
{{Sistine Chapel}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Signorelli, Luca}}
[[Category:1440s births]]
[[Category:1523 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Cortona]]
[[Category:Italian Renaissance painters]]
[[Category:Italian draughtsmen]]
[[Category:Painters from Tuscany]]
[[Category:15th-century Italian painters]]
[[Category:Italian male painters]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian painters]]
[[Category:Catholic painters]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]