The brush-strokes are bold
and firm, and the outline slightly incised in the plaster. Under each
head Signorelli has painted the names LVCA and NICOLAVS, and on the back
is a most interesting inscription, apparently painted by himself,
although the words are most probably the composition of the Treasurer.
The following is a translation: "Luca Signorelli, an Italian by race,
citizen of Cortona, renowned for his skill as a painter, comparable to
Apelles for attainment, has, under the rule and in the pay of Niccolo
Franceschi, of the same race, but a citizen of Orvieto, Treasurer of the
vestry of its Cathedral, painted with clear meaning this chapel,
dedicated to the Virgin, with figures of the Last Judgment; and, eager
for immortal fame, on the back of this inscription, has painted the
effigy of both, life-like, and with wonderful art. In the reign of Pope
Alexander VI. and of the Emperor Maximilian IV. in the year of grace
M.CCCCC. in the third Kalends of January."

FOOTNOTES:

[60] "Italian Painters," i. 92.

[61] Vasari, iii. 690.

[62] It was not till the seventeenth century that the chapel was
dedicated to the Madonna di San Brizio, on account of a Byzantine
miraculous picture of the Virgin, still on the altar.

[63] For an account of the Cathedral, see the Padre della Valle's
"Storia del Duomo di Orvieto."

[64] "Il Duomo di Orvieto." Ludovico Luzi. Firenze. Le Monnier, 1866.

[65] Preserved among the Archives of the Cathedral. Transcribed by
Vischer, p. 349, etc.

[66] The head of Luca is reproduced, divided from the other, as the
frontispiece.

CHAPTER VI

LATER PAINTINGS

We have seen that during the four years and a half in which Signorelli
was engaged on the great work of the Orvieto frescoes, he yet spent some
part of the time in his native city, and there, in 1502, he painted the
signed and dated "Deposition" with its _predelle_ for the church of
Santa Margherita, now removed to the Cathedral. Vasari thus speaks of
it: "In Santa Margherita of Cortona, his native town, belonging to the
Frati del Zoccolo, he painted a dead Christ; one of his most excellent
works."[67] This dead Christ is the figure which by its realism and
pathos gave rise to the legend, already quoted,[68] that it was painted
from the body of his own son. It is an exact counterpart of the "Pieta"
in the Orvieto frescoes, except that it is here reversed. It is a work
of great beauty and feeling, painted with sincere emot