Dante
and Virgil Entering Purgatory
by Luca Signorelli
1500 Fresco detail
The
only one of the busts of philosophers and poets that can be identified with certainty
is Dante Alighieri, and some of the loveliest and most famous of the monochromes
are illustrations of episodes from the Divine Comedy — for the most part
from Purgatory.
In these Orvieto frescoes Signorelli proves that
he is a talented illustrator of Dante, but what is truly fascinating is that he
has succeeded in giving an interpretation of the Divine Comedy that is evocative
and visionary, so similar to more modern styles that one can't help but compare
it to the work of such artists as Fuseli, Blake, Gustave Doré. If one is still
searching for evidence of Luca Signorelli's inventive genius and of his astonishing
versatility, then these decorations will provide it. The decorative scheme is
the following. The series begins below the fresco of the Antichrist, with Homer
and three episodes of Iliad. Below the Apocalypse Empedocles, the philosopher
of Agrigento, who leans out to watch the scenes of his prophecy. The series of
the poet goes on below the painting of the Resurrection, where Lucan is represented,
with two scenes of Pharsalia (The slaughter of the Pompeians and the murder of
Pompey). The figure of Horace is surrounded by four medallions, in which some
stories taken from Hades are narrated. It seems that Ovid - in the following panel
- is speaking to an invisible interlocutor. The four scenes represent episodes
of the metamorphoses. Virgil looks amazed aat the scene of the Damned. Dante -
with some sccenes taken from the first two cantoes of Purgatory - is working.
Other two medallions represent the martyrdom of St Faustine and SDt Peter Parenzo
killed by hte heretics of Orvieto (1190). This picture shows Dante and Virgil
Entering Purgatory.