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The Naked Duomo. The Body of Christ between Maitani and Signorell Description
With the Bolla Transiturus de Hoc Mundo, on August 11, 1264, Pope Urban IV officially instituted in Orvieto the Feast of Corpus Domini, sanctioning the dogma of the Transubstantiation. This talk will analyze the crucial role that the Body of Christ played in shaping the sculptural and pictorial decoration of the Duomo of Orvieto. I will probe how the concept of the revelation of Christ’s body in the Eucharist, enforced by the Catholic Church during the thirteenth century, informs Lorenzo Maitani’s biblical reliefs on the Duomo façade and Luca Signorelli’s apocalyptic frescoes in the Cappella Nova. Their powerful representation of nude bodies, raising in their heroic human flesh, can been seen to reflect the importance attributed to the Holy Corporal, stored in the cathedral since the early fourteenth century. This talk will show how Christ’s human nature finds its artistic equivalent in the body quality of Orvieto Cathedral. Speaker
Giordano Conticelli is a PhD student in the Division of Art History. Image
Luca Signorelli, Resurrection of the Flesh, detail (1500-02). Fresco, Cappella Nova, Duomo, Orvieto |
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