Orvieto between Art and History
Orvieto
In the 9th-8th century. BC the cliff of Orvieto was inhabited for the first time by Etruscan populations. This settlement has been identified with the Etruscan center of Velzna (in Latin Volsinii), a flourishing city starting from the beginning of the 6th century. BC The Orvieto boulder destined for the cult of the main national divinity and perhaps of the entire Etruscan pantheon, was divided into neighborhoods by the two sacramental streets: cardo and decumanus. The decumanus (West-East) would have had on its route to the west Porta Maggiore and the primitive cut of the boulder, the Quarry, and to the East Porta Soliana, now hidden under the Rock near which stood a temple, which was called Augural by archaeologists. On the cardo (North-South) were Porta Vivaria to the North and Porta S. Maria to the South. The names are relatively modern, but the existence of the gates is very ancient. Among the existing and rediscovered temples, the most "heated" debate is that regarding the identification and location of the Fanum Voltumnae, which the most recent criticism today traces back to Orvieto and probably to the area west of the cliff. What did Velzna/Volsinii mean in the our ancient history? Livy counted it among the strongest in Etruria; Pliny called it most opulent: Valerio Massimo rich, adorned in customs and legislation, leader of the Etruscans; Floro is the most civilized of all the cities of the Tuscan confederation. Volsinii fought against Rome in the year 280 BC and was forced to surrender its weapons to the consul Titus Coruncanius. As Roman power expanded, Volsinii made enormous efforts to resist; but after the revolt of the servants against the nobles, the Romans destroyed the city under the consul Fulvio Fiacco (3rd century BC). "It fell last among all the Italian peoples: plundered, burned and destroyed, two thousand of its statues were taken away by the victors."
With Volsinii, the Etruscan nation, already master of the sea and the heart of Italy, perished. The destruction of the city was followed by the deportation of the inhabitants, who were largely forcibly transferred to the hills overlooking Lake Bolsena, giving rise to the new Volsinii. The name of the city also seems to date back to this era: in fact Velzna becomes Volsinii-veteres or even Urbs Vetus (old city) in contrast with Volsinii-novi, today's Bolsena. When an irreversible crisis arrives for the Roman Empire too (3rd century AD) and Volsinii is again invaded and devastated (5th-6th century AD), the ruined city will in turn be abandoned by the inhabitants who returned to occupy the Orvieto cliff. Subsequently it became Lombard. In 596 Orvieto was in fact occupied by the Lombard Agilulf and had its own bishop and later, in 606, its own counts. In the 11th century Orvieto became a municipality.
Shortly before the year 1000, the city began to flourish again, expanding its urban structure by building fortifications, towers, churches and palaces. The establishment of the Municipality is witnessed starting from 1137. Twenty years later a treaty was signed with Pope Adrian IV, which increased the papal influence on the city and gave rise to the clash between the Guelph (pro-papal) and Ghibelline (pro-imperial) factions. Orvieto became a Guelph stronghold in central Italy against the repeated attacks of the Ghibelline exiles and the Swabian emperors: Frederick I and Henry IV. The thirteenth century saw progressive institutional adjustments, which led to the creation of the General Council of the Quattrocento (1215), the election of the Captain of the People (1250), the formation of a government of the elders of the arts with a prior (1256) and, finally, the creation of the magistracy of the Seven Lords (1292). In the meantime, municipal jurisdiction extended from Monte Amiata to Orbetello. The period is also particularly flourishing in building activity, in fact the churches of San Lorenzo degli Arari, San Francesco, San Domenico, Santa Maria dei Servi, the monumental complex of Sant'Agostino, and public buildings such as the Palazzo Town Hall, the People's Palace and the Papal Palace. In 1290, construction of the cathedral began. In 1281-84, Pope Martin IV settled in Orvieto, filling the city with Frenchmen, against whom the people rebelled. In 1334 Orvieto found its first Lord in Ermanno Monaldeschi della Cervara who dominated until 1337. In 1354 Cardinal Albornoz occupied Orvieto, submitting it to the state of the Church.
In the Renaissance, the feudal society of the Middle Ages, based above all on the agricultural economy and on an intellectual and cultural life inspired by religious thought, transformed into a society dominated by central political institutions, which advocated an urban economy and secular patronage in art and literature. Renaissance as the period in the figurative arts that was opened by Giotto and closed by Michelangelo, the era in which modern humanity and consciousness came to light after a long period of decay. In the Napoleonic era, Orvieto, "capital of the Orvieto territory", first constituted a canton in the Roman Republic (1798), then in the district of Todi in the Trasimeno Department (1809). In 1816 it returned to the Papal States as the seat of government. In 1860, a few days before the Piedmontese intervention in the Marche and Umbria, the Orvieto and Umbrian volunteers commanded by Col. Masi and called "Hunters of the Tiber", forced the papal troops of the Orvieto garrison to surrender. The event caused an accident diplomatic between Turin and Paris, given that the agreements between Cavour and Napoleon III did not contemplate the occupation of the city and territory of the Patrimony of San Pietro by volunteer formations. To resolve the issue, Viterbo and Montefiascone were returned to the Pope, but Orvieto instead managed to obtain annexation to the newly established Kingdom of Italy, after having demonstrated, on the basis of archive documents, that the city and its territory had never part of the Patrimony of San Pietro starting from 1360. In 1860 the annexation of the Orvieto territory to the Kingdom of Italy with its aggregation to the province of Perugia. Cultural life, especially in the last twenty years of the 19th century, is characterized by the activity of the "La Nuova Fenice" Academy and by the major restorations carried out in the Cathedral and in the medieval buildings.
VOLSINII (ORVIETO) ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE ETRUSCAN STATE
Pliny called it most opulent: Valerio Massimo rich, adorned in customs and legislation, leader of the Etruscans; Floro is the most civilized of all the cities of the Tuscan confederation. The Etruscans originally occupied the region between the Tiber and the Arno, which took the name of Tuscany from them. The period of maximum splendor reached the 4th century BC. Subsequently, they were absorbed by the Romans, with Volsinii (Orvieto) the last city to resist. Among the ancient peoples of pre-Roman Italy, the Etruscans are those who have most attracted the interest of modern for the very high artistic level achieved and for the poor knowledge of their language, which offers no points of contact with any other known…Already the ancients were not able to explain the presence of this powerful and refined people in the fragmented and often rough panorama of the people of pre-Roman Italy. The historian Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, attributed the origin of the Tyrrhenians (as the Greeks called the Etruscans) to a mythical founder, Tyrrhenian, who moved to central Italy after fleeing from a remote region of Asia Minor. In contrast, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, another Greek author writing in the 1st century BC, attributed an Italic origin to the Etruscans.
Finally, the Latin historian Titus Livy, a contemporary of Dionysius, thought he could support a northern origin of the Etruscans, who arrived in Italy from central Europe. Today we know much more about the origins of that people. The Etruscan civilization derives directly from the Villanovan civilization which was widespread during the Iron Age (9th-8th century BC) precisely in the areas where the Etruscan civilization flourished. The remains of this civilization, coming, like the Etruscan ones, above all from tombs and necropolises, testify to strong influences of the Nordic populations, in particular Celtic (Celts), which will also be found in Etruscan art, especially in the most ancient periods. Subsequently, starting from the 8th century BC, we begin to notice a change in the artefacts coming from those regions and there is a gradual transition to that type of art, characterized by very strong and evident Greek influences. The Etruscans, therefore, can be defined like the successors of the Villanovans, permeated by the influence of Greek art, which arrived in Etruria from Magna Graecia. Despite being a culture originating from Italy, therefore, the Etruscan one presents itself as a civilization strongly permeated by oriental, and in particular Greek, influences. The prevailing social structure among the Etruscans was the city, which had social and architectural characteristics similar in many respects to those of Greek cities, in particular the great accuracy with which the doors of the defensive walls were decorated, in large squared stones. Like the Greek cities of Magna Graecia, the Etruscan ones were also connected to each other in leagues: of particular importance, because handed down to us from sources, was the one that brought together the twelve cities of Velzna or Volsinii (ORVIETO), Vulci, Volterra, Veio, Vetulonia, Arezzo , Perugia, Cortona, Tarquinia, Cere, Chiusi, Roselle.
Between the 7th and 6th centuries BC the Etruscan cities reached their maximum expansion and in 540 BC a mixed fleet of Etruscans and Carthaginians defeated a Greek fleet off the coast of Alalia, in Corsica, putting an end to the Hellenic expansion towards the Tyrrhenian Sea northern. However, the moment of the great naval victory of Alalia also marked the culmination of the parable for the Etruscan civilization. A few years later, in 510-509 BC Rome, which until then had been governed by an Etruscan monarchy, the Tarquins, escaped this influence and began a policy of expansion in the Etruscan area: Pompeii and Capua were lost starting from 505 Starting from the 5th century, the center of gravity of Etruscan civilization moved entirely north. Between the 4th and 3rd centuries the Etruscan civilization collapsed: Veii was conquered by Rome in 396, between 356 and 311 Tarquinia and Cerveteri fell, at the beginning of the 3rd century Perugia, Arezzo, Cortona, Vulci and, in 264 , Volsinii (present-day ORVIETO). The Etruscan cities were each governed by a king.
Many of the insignia of the power of the Etruscan king were subsequently adopted in the Roman state to designate the power of the superior magistrates, the consuls and the praetors: the golden crown, the ivory throne, the scepter adorned with an eagle, the tunic and the purple cloak woven with gold, finally the lictors, originally bodyguards who always accompanied the kings carrying on their shoulders the sign of his power to punish, that is, the bundle of rods with the axe, which they would call the fasces There were two aspects of Etruscan society that most struck Greek observers: first of all "the role of women, who, unlike what happened in Greece, actively participated in social life; secondly, the wealth and luxury that characterized the way of life of the Etruscan ruling classes". In Etruscan society the banquet (or symposium) had enormous importance and this is demonstrated by the fact that very often the deceased were represented on the lids of the sarcophagi as if they were participating in a banquet, lying on the characteristic triclinium bed. Furthermore, the Etruscans were the protagonists of an extraordinary artistic flowering. The art of the Etruscans is characterized by a marked realism and reflects their joy of living and their love for the pleasures of everyday life, such as banquets, activities and sporting competitions. More than anything else, however, the Etruscans appreciated music: the sound of the flute and lyre accompanied all their daily activities, even the simplest ones. Furthermore, the funerary art is unique, as it comes from necropolises, among which those of Cerveteri, Tarquinia, Chiusi and Orvieto with their underground chamber tombs, or those of Norchia, with their cave tombs are particularly famous. The funerary furnishings and paintings allow us to discover a rich, even opulent society.
Many of the insignia of the power of the Etruscan king were subsequently adopted in the Roman state to designate the power of the superior magistrates, the consuls and the praetors: the golden crown, the ivory throne, the scepter adorned with an eagle, the tunic and the purple cloak woven with gold, finally the lictors, originally bodyguards who always accompanied the kings carrying on their shoulders the sign of his power to punish, that is, the bundle of rods with the axe, which they would call the fasces . There were two aspects of Etruscan society that most struck Greek observers: first of all "the role of women, who, unlike what happened in Greece, actively participated in social life; secondly, the wealth and luxury that characterized the way of life of the Etruscan ruling classes". In Etruscan society the banquet (or symposium) had enormous importance and this is demonstrated by the fact that very often the deceased were represented on the lids of the sarcophagi as if they were participating in a banquet, lying on the characteristic triclinium bed. The religious practice for which the Etruscans were most famous, already in ancient times, was haruspicy. The Romans even called it Etruscan discipline, referring to a special ability of Etruscan priests to have a privileged relationship with the gods and to be able to recognize ominous warning signs to prevent them from generating negative events. Thus in the Etruscan world the ability to divine the future through the interpretation of signs, which could be meteorological events such as lightning, rain and winds, the flight of birds in a particular area of the sky grew and developed into a real art.
According to the Latin writer Publius Terentius Varro (1st century BC) and beyond, their main god was Vertumnus, a divinity who was depicted in various ways and who had his main cult center in the sanctuary of the "FANUM VOLTUMNAE" in Volsinii (ORVIETO). Every year the Etruscans gathered in Volsinii to celebrate religious rites, games and events. The FANUM, in addition to hosting Pan-Etruscan festivals and games, was also a meeting point for the kings of the twelve Etruscan cities, where they met to make the most important political and religious decisions.
Civita (Balneum Regis)
Civita was founded by the Etruscans about 2,500 years ago and they made it a thriving city, favored by its strategic position from a commercial point of view, given its proximity to the most important communication routes of that period. From the few documents found it appears that Civita di Bagnoregio and Bagnoregio were two districts of the same city which until the 11th century. it was called Balneum Regis. Legend has it that it was Desiderio, king of the Lombards (756-774 AD), who gave it this name, healed from a serious illness thanks to the thermal waters present in the city. Some artistic artefacts have come down to us to document the Lombard phase which Charlemagne put an end to in 774, returning the territory to the Pope. From this date Balneum Regis became part of the dominion of the Church even if during the feudal period, the city, with its always rebellious attitude, became a serious problem for the papacy. The feudal lordship ceased around the middle of the 22nd century when Bagnoregio became a free municipality. The city was occupied in 1186 by Frederick Barbarossa's son, Henry IV, who aimed against Orvieto. The Monaldeschi family of Orvieto exercised control of Bagnoregio in order to preserve it as a Guelph garrison in the context of the clashes against the Ghibellines of Viterbo. The epilogue of this control took place in 1457 when the inhabitants rose up giving rise to a violent rebellion which led to the destruction of the Cervara castle, from which the Monaldeschi had exercised their power for over a century. In memory of these events, two basalt stone lions holding human heads between their paws were walled above the area of the Porta di Santa Maria in memory of the victory of the people of Civita.
In the last decade of the 15th century. The Church's control over the city was strengthened: the "government of the cardinals" began. The downward trajectory began after the earthquake of 1695, which caused serious damage to the streets and buildings and forced many inhabitants to leave the city. The succession of other earthquakes with consequent landslides and mudslides risked leaving Civita completely isolated, contributing to an increase in the transfer of the population elsewhere, to the point of almost total abandonment. The writer Bonaventura Tecchi had called it the "Dying City" as the vast clay banks that support it are subject to continuous erosion. The majestic "calanchi", partly covered by poor vegetation, extend for kilometers and at sunset they give the entire landscape a lunar appearance.”
The Etruscans and the Sea
The Etruscans were in the beginning a people of sailors, and it is no coincidence that the Sardinian sea was renamed with the name of its new inhabitants, the Tyrrhenians, as the Etruscans were originally called. Homer sings to us about the god Dionysus who was captured by the Tyrrhenians and who managed to free himself only after transforming them into dolphins. The Etruscan occupation reached as far as Corsica, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands and the Spanish coasts. Evidence of the Etruscan civilization has come to light in Sardinia, Northern Africa, Southern France, Spain, Greece, Asia Minor and Cyprus and this attests to the existence of a very important Etruscan merchant navy which rivaled the dominion of the sea with Greeks, Carthaginians and Phoenicians. The exchange on the seas with all these peoples changed the lifestyle and helped the development of Etruscan society and economy, especially in the production of luxury objects, from ceramics to goldsmithery, with specialized artisans. The first ships were small and therefore there was no need for particularly important ports of call and the ships were washed ashore on the beaches or moored in natural and safe shelters, such as coastal lakes and lagoons or river mouths. Subsequently, the relationship with the Greeks stimulated, in particular, the development of the coastal centers of southern Etruria.
In the first half of the 7th century. BC Cerveteri was in contact northwards especially with Vetulonia, which then overlooked the safe waters of a coastal lake. On the coasts along this route many small towns were born, acting as ports of call, such as Orbetello or Marsiliana, a locality located at the mouth of the Albegna river which then formed a large lagoon. Along the coastal route towards the north, the port of Pyrgi also arose, which became the most important port of Cerveteri starting from the 6th century. BC With the intensification of trade and the appearance of larger ships, numerous ports of call arose along the entire coast, particularly where there were natural shelters. Real ports were also born and, in parallel with the formation of city centres, numerous coastal settlements arose. At the beginning of the 6th century. BC the main cities founded real commercial ports, distant from the urban center to avoid any possibility of penetration by any attackers. Pyrgi on the Tyrrhenian Sea became the official port of Cerveteri while Spina (before its discovery it was thought of as a mythological city like Atlantis) was the most important commercial port on the Adriatic Sea. Situated on a bend of the Fiora river, navigable at the time, Vulci controlled the river traffic directly or via, perhaps, a port of call at the mouth, 10 kilometers away from the main centre. The territory further north, probably still dependent on Vulci, instead referred to the natural ports of Orbetello and Talamone.
The peak of the Etruscan thalassocracy, that is, of their dominion over the sea, was reached in the Archaic Age (early 6th - early 5th century BC), a period which corresponds to the splendor of this people: there is a date in particular which marks the beginning of an ascending parable of well-being and wealth, around 540 BC, the date of the Battle of the Sardinian Sea. The continuous skirmishes between the crews of the Greek ships, interested in the coasts of southern France with the Phocaean colony of Massalia (Marseille) and Corsica where was the colony of Alalia (Aleria), and Etruscan, culminated in a tragic naval battle. The battle pits Greek ships against Etruscan and Punic ships: despite the favorable outcome for the Greeks, the strong decimation of the crews and the loss of many ships forces them to abandon the central-northern sector of the Tyrrhenian Sea. From the second half of the 5th century BC, however, the scenario changed radically. In fact, while the Etruscan cities had reached the peak of economic development, the Greek colonies gave rise to an overwhelming cultural and political growth. Even on the borders between Etruria and Lazio a new significant danger had arisen: the city of Rome, once dominated and governed by an Etruscan dynasty had become independent, going on the offensive. The decline of the Etruscans began in 474 BC on the sea, when the Greeks of Italy led by the city of Syracuse inflicted a decisive defeat on them near Cuma after which they lost control of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Even on the mainland the situation rapidly deteriorated: from the middle of the 4th century BC the once flourishing commercial and military power of the Etruscans was thus reduced to city-states entrenched in their territories of origin in central Italy. The superb city-states, without of a strong national identity, they failed to coordinate an effective resistance, and were thus defeated one by one with Orvieto (ancient Volsini) the last to fall. With the loss of political independence, the cycle of an ancient people who for centuries had excelled in culture and wealth in the western Mediterranean basin came to an end.
ORVIETO AND THE CATHEDRAL
The inspiration to build such an important work was born through the miracle of the corpus Domini as they wanted to create a grandiose shrine that would pass down this divine sign over time. On November 13, 1290, the foundation stone was laid for the most important spiritual, cultural and economic adventure that the city has ever undertaken. The work was initially designed and directed by the architect and sculptor Lorenzo Maitani (1275-1330) and also had the objective of sealing the fame of an ambitious municipality whose borders extended from Monte Amiata to the Tyrrhenian Sea. Its construction took three centuries (from 1290 to 1607) and around 2,500 workers and more than 150 artisans and artists were involved. Not even the internal struggles within the municipality or the terrible plague of 1348 prevented the Orvietans from completing what was to be “one of the most beautiful works in the world”. In addition to Lorenzo Maitani, the project for the first construction also bears the names of Arnolfo di Cambio, Fra' Bevignate and Giovanni Uguccione.
The grandiose building started in Romanesque style, had a basilica plan with three naves and a semicircular apse. There were numerous changes subsequently, especially those concerning the façade, which can be documented thanks to some projects on parchment still preserved in the Palazzo dell'Opera del Duomo and considered among the oldest projects in the history of architecture.
The majestic façade is an unprecedented combination of architecture, sculpture and mosaic of the Italian Gothic style that blends with the Romanesque and Byzantine ones. The sculptures and mosaics are placed according to a biblical reading criterion in which the main events of the Old and New Testament are represented. 52 meters high and 40 meters wide. In the solemn central door, divided into squares, the seven corporal works of mercy are depicted: giving drink to the thirsty and food to the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering pilgrims, visiting the sick, visiting the prisoners and bury the deceased. Above the loggia, the result of a skilful marble embroidery by Andrea Orcagna, we find the fantastic Rose Window, set like a gem, in a frame of 52 heads of saints in panels; above, in twelve paired niches, the statues of the apostles, on the sides the twelve prophets and, in the corners, mosaics depicting Augustine, Gregory the Great, Jerome and Ambrose.
Inside there is a finely crafted bas-relief depicting the Redeemer. In the evocative vision, within pure gold backgrounds, there are the four marble pillars carved in bas-relief. From the left, on the first pillar are the themes of creation taken from the book of Genesis; the second pillar illustrates the stories of Abraham, patriarch of the people of Israel; in the third pillar, we continue with the images of the main evangelical episodes while the fourth pillar is entirely dedicated to the theme of the Last Judgement, then taken up inside by Luca Signorelli in the fantastic pictorial cycle of the chapel of San Brizio. Above the pillars the bronze symbols of the four evangelists are evident, the work of Lorenzo Maitani; they were cast between 1320 and 1330 and represent, from left to right, the evangelist Matthew (the Angel), the evangelist Mark (the Lion), the evangelist John (the Eagle) and the evangelist Luke ( the bull). At the apex of the cusp there is the bronze effigy of the Lamb of God, created in 1352 by Matteo di Ugolino da Bologna. At the center of the symbols of the four Evangelists, under a bronze canopy (on either side of which are six angels) is the composition of the Madonna enthroned with the Child; it was placed on site at the end of the second project of the facade, around 1329. The mosaics on a gold background extend over every part of the facade and with the exception of the baptism of Jesus, created on cardboard by the Orvieto painter Cesare Nebbia, the other representations illustrate the history earthly life of the Virgin, with her parents Joachim and Anna, the presentation of Mary in the temple, the Annunciation and the wedding with Joseph.
LUCA SIGNORELLI (CORTONA 1445 - IVI 1523)
Luca Signorelli was among the Renaissance artists most committed to the representation of a scientifically rational space. As confirmed by the scant historical fragments, he trained in the provincial Umbrian environment and his works are influenced by the perspective spatiality of Piero Della Francesca, whose pupil he was probably during his stays in Perugia and Urbino. However, the stimuli of the Florentine artistic culture were fundamental for the artist, a period in which the figures were loaded with chiaroscuro and plastic effects, achieving balance between the masses and their insertion into space: from this period we remember "the Flagellation" (Milan , Brera), and "circumcision" (London, National Gallery). In 1482 he was in Rome, active in the Sistine Chapel painting the panel in which Moses delivers the rod to Joshua and the Death of Moses.
In the following years, Signorelli's style becomes clearer in its original characteristics, from the compositional scheme to the use of color and light as a function of the definition of volumes in space, as appears, for example, in the altarpiece for the cathedral of Perugia (1484 ), the tondo of the Madonna with Child and nudes in the background (1490-95, Florence, Uffizi) and the Education of Pan (formerly in Berlin, destroyed in the Second World War). Signorelli's creative streak found a happy expression in the fresco technique: the Stories of St. Benedict in the large cloister of the Monteoliveto Maggiore Abbey (1497-98) have a predominantly narrative character, while in the last phase his art undergoes a strong dramatic and expressionistic accentuation, evident in the famous cycle of frescoes with the Last Judgment of the chapel of S. Brizio in the cathedral of Orvieto (1499-1503), where, among other things, Stories of the Antichrist, Resurrection of the Flesh are painted , Hell, Paradise and various figurations taken from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Numerous figure drawings by Signorelli, of great quality, are preserved in the Louvre and the Uffizi in Florence.
LORENZO MAITANIARCHITECT 1270-1330
Lorenzo Maitani, architect and sculptor, was born in Siena in 1270,
son of the sculptor Vitale di Lorenzo known as Matano. In 1310 he was called to Orvieto
by Pope Boniface VIII and appointed master builder of the Cathedral, a position he held until his death in Orvieto in 1330. He designed the façade, developed according to a distinctly Gothic model, new and original compared to Italian and European types. before 1310 he had traveled to Orvieto on various occasions to strengthen the unsafe construction of the cathedral. He interrupted his stay in Orvieto in 1317 and 1319-21 to repair the aqueducts of Perugia, in 1322 to give his opinion on the continuation of the works on the cathedral of Siena and in 1323 on the planned construction of the castle of Montefalco, in 1325 to restore the castle of Castiglione del Lago.
From the 1310 document in which Lorenzo is designated "universalis caput magister" of the Orvieto cathedral, it appears that he was entrusted with building the façade and supervising its sculptural decoration.
Two drawings of the facade in the cathedral museum illustrate the genesis of the Maitanesque project, which from a verticalism derived from the French Gothic architecture of the Île-de-France, moved on to a more refined and balanced conception. This compromise between French and Italian spirit and aesthetic principles is also felt in the wonderful reliefs that cover the four pillars of the facade.
The four bronze angels in the act of lifting the edges of the canopy protecting the marble group of the Madonna and Child placed above the central door, and the four symbols of the Evangelists, also in bronze, protruding from the above the cornice that runs over the pillars of the facade;
Due to affinity with them, the reliefs of the three lower areas of the first pillar which from the Creation of the animals reach up to the Expulsion of the progenitors from Paradise, and the reliefs of the two lower areas of the fourth pillar with the Resurrection of the Dead, the Hell and the host of the elect and the reprobate.
In his reliefs, Maitani has a well-defined personality which ensures him a leading place in fourteenth-century Tuscan sculpture.
The profound knowledge of the anatomy of the human body is coupled with an exquisite sense of linear eurythmy, strengthened by French influences, which bends the transparent and light garments to a soft flow. And it is precisely this calm and serene lyrical spirit that distinguishes him artistically in the history of architecture and sculpture.
BEAUTY
Kalón means everything that pleases, that arouses admiration, that attracts the eye. Beauty is almost always associated with other qualities.b Hesiod (Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony): “He who is beautiful is dear, he who is not beautiful is not dear”. The oracle of Delphi, when asked about the criterion for evaluating Beauty, replies: "The fairest is the most beautiful". According to mythology, Zeus assigned an appropriate measure and a fair limit to every being: the government of the world coincides thus with a precise and measurable harmony, expressed in the four mottos written on the walls of the temple of Delphi: "The most just is the most beautiful", "Observe the limit", "Hate hubris (arrogance)", "Nothing in excess The Greek common sense of Beauty is based on these rules, in accordance with a vision of the world that interprets order and harmony as that which places a limit on the "yawning Chaos", from whose throat it arose, according to Hesiod , the world.
SAN PATRIZIO WELL
“It is certain that the ancients never made a building equal to this one, either in terms of industry or artifice” Giorgio Vasari It was 7 December 1527 when, on the occasion of the "sack of Rome", the then Pope Clement VII fled from Rome besieged by Landsknechts and takes refuge in Orvieto.
The cliff conveys a certain security to the pontiff who, however, realizes that a serious problem could be water. In fact, the waters are downstream and if it didn't rain and the Alemanni besieged Orvieto it would probably be the end. It was decided to build a well that had never been built before and the young Florentine architect Antonio Sangallo was commissioned. He had recently been elected master builder of the San Pietro factory, succeeding Raffaello Sanzio. Sangallo immediately got to work and after having examined Valle la Rupedi Orvieto decides to use the water from the ancient sources of San Zeno, stating: "this is the water that will save us". There is a difference in height of over 50 meters to overcome but the idea of the well was already born in his mind, the most incredible that human imagination had conceived up to that historical moment. 62 meters deep and 13 meters wide, it is an enormous cylinder vertically divided into two concentric sectors; 72 windows open which have the function of transmitting the little light coming from the mouth of the well to the two stairs located outside the cylinder. These climbs are each made up of 248 steps, designed to allow the transit of donkeys and mules used for transporting water bottles.
They have a spiral shape so as to convey traffic in two directions, one uphill and the other downhill. After a short period in which it also had the nickname "St. Patrick's Purgatory", in the nineteenth century it took on its current name of St. Patrick's Well following the legend of the Irish Saint, according to which Patrick was the guardian of a bottomless cave, the very famous "St. Patrick's Well", from which after having seen the pains of Hell, one could access Purgatory and even glimpse Paradise! “You have seen in part what you wished to see...If from now on you live worthily, you are sure that after death you will come among us; but if you live badly you have seen what tortures await you.” Sancti Patricii Purgstorium, H.da Samtrey
ORVIETO UNDERGROUND
The Rupe di Orvieto was born about three hundred thousand years ago following the eruption of the volcanic complex of the Volsini Mountains.
Orvieto, a thousand-year-old city suspended between heaven and earth, has revealed another aspect that makes it unique: a maze of caves is hidden in the underground darkness of the cliff.
The geological nature of the boulder on which the ancient Etruscan Velzna (later Volsinii) stands today has allowed
the inhabitants to dig, over the millennia, an incredible number of cavities, caves, wells, cisterns and tunnels that extend, overlap and intersect beneath the modern city.
The stratigraphy conditioned the circulation of underground water and over the millennia, the inhabitants of the Rupe operated in such a particular way in the subsoil of the city, to the point of digging over 1200 caves.
The need for water supply was therefore the reason that probably started it
to underground constructions.
The Rupe, colonized as early as the 9th century BC, saw one of the most important Etruscan cities, the ancient Velzna, prosper. The first hypogea dug by man in search of water date back to this period, an irreplaceable asset in a city which, impregnable due to the rock walls that defended it, had to be able to resist sieges.
The Etruscans built ingenious cisterns for the conservation of rainwater as well as an extensive network of tunnels for its conveyance and very deep wells (with a rectangular section measuring no more than 80 by 120 centimetres) which, having overcome the permeable layers, reached the water table . Thanks to all this, Velzna (then Volsinii, today Orvieto) managed to achieve self-sufficiency for water supply, so much so that it fell into the hands of Rome, in 264 BC, only after having resisted a siege that lasted almost three years.
In the Velzna underground many "dovecots" were also built where carrier pigeons entered and exited to carry out their task.
Underground there are the remains of an entire medieval mill (the mill of Santa Chiara) complete with millstones, press, hearth and feeders for the animals employed at the millstones or an entire olive press, also complete with millstones, press, hearth and water pipes and cisterns.
The Etruscans, founders of the city, made Velzna an example of modernity and organization
and she was so rich that she was known by the nickname of Oinarea.
