ve
always been most highly praised by Michelagnolo, nor that certain things
of his divine Judgement which he painted in the chapel were in part
courteously taken from the invention of Luca; as are the Angels, Demons,
the heavenly orders, and other things in which Michelagnolo imitated the
style of Luca, as everyone may see. Luca portrayed in the
above-mentioned work himself and many of his friends; Niccolo, Paulo and
Vitellozzo Vitelli; Giovan, Paulo and Orazio Baglioni, and others whose
names are unknown."[61]

[Illustration: [_Cathedral, Orvieto_

PORTRAITS OF SIGNORELLI AND FRA ANGELICO

(DETAIL FROM ANTICHRIST)]

Fifty-two years before, in 1447, Fra Angelico had spent three months and
a half in this Cathedral of Orvieto, painting the spandrels in the roof
of the Cappella Nuova, as it was then called.[62] He had time to
complete only two frescoes, being either recalled to Rome by Nicholas
V., or to the convent of S. Domenico, near Fiesole (of which, in 1450,
he was made Prior). These two works are among the best and strongest of
his paintings. In the principal space, that over the altar, he painted
Christ in glory, surrounded by a _mandorla_, with angels on either side;
and in the spandrel on the right, a group of sixteen prophets, seated
pyramidally against a blaze of gold background. It is probable that he
had thought out the general scheme of the frescoes, and that Signorelli
only carried out his intention in working the paintings into one great
whole--Christ in Heaven, surrounded by Angels, Apostles, Martyrs,
Virgins, Patriarchs and Fathers of the Church, witnessing from on high
the execution of divine justice below. However that may be, it is
certain that Signorelli, in his painting of the roof, kept most
scrupulously to the older master's arrangement, and in one of the
spandrels actually seems to have worked over his design.

After the withdrawal of Fra Angelico, the chapel remained untouched for
more than fifty years. In 1449 his pupil, Benozzo Gozzoli, who had
probably been his assistant in the painting, demanded permission to
continue the work; but the authorities were not content to grant it, and
it was only in 1499, after some futile negotiations with Perugino, who
appears to have refused the commission, that they finally resolved to
place the decoration in the hands of Signorelli. Perhaps decided to this
step by the success of the Monte Oliveto frescoes, they were yet so
cautious and so determined t