o have only the very best work in their
chapel, that at first they only entrusted to him the painting of the
vaulting, already begun. They were wise to be careful in their choice,
for they were probably conscious of the extreme beauty of their
cathedral, and, in particular, of the exquisite architecture of this
chapel. Orvieto Cathedral is one of the finest and most impressive of
the Italian churches, and from its foundation in 1290, the authorities
had been notoriously lavish in their expenditure for its building, and
fastidious in their choice of architects, sculptors, and painters.[63]
From the point of view merely of decoration, they could have given the
work to no better artist than Signorelli, and the first impression, on
passing into the chapel from the austere and spacious nave, is of the
harmonious plan, both of colour and design, with which the original
beauty of the architecture has been enhanced, and its graceful
characteristics accentuated.

The roof is of very perfect shape, and the spaces well adapted for
painting. It is divided in the middle by an arch, thus having two
complete vaultings, each with four spandrels. The walls are high and
spacious, also divided in two parts, in each of which, on either side,
is a large fresco. Signorelli has separated the lower part of the wall
by a painted frieze of delicate gold and ivory, and in the lower half
executed a series of portraits, each surrounded by medallions in
_grisaille_, containing small subject-pictures, the rest of the space
being filled with an intricate pattern of grotesques. The south wall, in
which are three small windows, has been unfortunately disfigured by a
_baroque_ seventeenth-century altar, whose projections hide a part of
the frescoes. Opposite is the entrance, a magnificently-proportioned
portal, with a rounded arch, most delicately decorated in colour. Every
inch of the walls is covered, and for the most part by the work of
Signorelli himself, the above-mentioned grotesques, the merely
ornamental painting, and a few of the medallions alone being by his
assistants.

In describing the frescoes I intend to begin with those of the vaulting,
and then to work gradually round the walls from the left of the
entrance, where the first of the series of larger paintings begins with
"The Preaching and Fall of Antichrist."

In the spandrel opposite the Christ of Fra Angelico, Signorelli has
painted eight angels holding the symbols of the Passion, wh