Fig. 2.1 (p. 40): Brancacci Chapel in the church of Santa Trinità, Florence (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). In the 1420s, the wealthy Florentine Brancacci family commissioned painters Masolino and Masaccio to fresco the family’s private chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine, the church of the monastery of the Carmelite order .

Fig. 2.2 (p. 41): Panorama, Sala dei Nove, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (photo credit: Madeline Linnell). The so-called Sala dei Nove (Hall of the Nine) in the Town Hall (Palazzo Pubblico) of Siena was the meeting room of a small group of town councilors that was drawn from the much larger body of legislators who met in the splendid hall immediately adjacent. Local Sienese artist Ambrogio Lorenzetti was commissioned in the late 1330s to decorate the walls with edifying murals that could inspire (and restrain) those charged with governance for the common well being of the citizenry.

Fig. 2.3 (p. 42): Monastery San Marco, Florence (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). The fresco in the cell pictured here represents St. Dominic’s Sixth Mode of Prayer, “praying with his hands and arms spread out like a cross.” While Fra Angelico oversaw the choice and design of the frescoed decoration throughout the entire monastery of San Marco (Florence), and was the chief painter of the major frescoes such as the Crucifixion in the friars’ meeting room, other members of his workshop team played a strong hand in some of the smaller paintings in the friars’ private cells. The entire project is understood to have occupied much of the 1440s.

Fig. 2.4 (p. 43): Refectory, Monastery San Marco, Florence (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). Domenico Ghirlandaio’s fresco of the Last Supper in the dining hall of the Dominican monastery of San Marco (Florence) follows the same template used by Ghirlandaio in the Franciscan monastery associated with the Church of All Saints (Ognissanti) across town, both painted in the 1480s.

Fig. 4.1 (p. 95): Façade, Duomo of Orvieto (photo credit: author). Decorated largely during the 1320s, the stupendous façade of the Duomo of Orvieto includes elements of mosaic (featuring the Virgin Mary, to whom the Duomo is dedicated), statuary, and four marble panels carved in bas-relief with scenes from Scripture. The architect-sculptor Lorenzo Maitani was likely the principal among several artisans who worked on the panels.

Fig. 4.2 (p. 96): Lower façade, Duomo of Orvieto (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). In sequence from left to right, the four sculpted panels on the lowest level of the façade summarize the entire narrative of salvation history. Depicted on the first panel are episodes from Genesis of the Creation to Cain’s murder of Abel. Presented on the second panel are Messianic prophecies from the Old Testament. Scenes from the life of Christ occupy the third panel, and, in the fourth, the Last Judgment.

Fig. 4.3 (p. 96): Façade, Duomo of Orvieto, scenes from Genesis (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). In this scene from the Genesis panel on the façade of the Orvieto Duomo, Eve gives Adam the forbidden fruit as the serpent, coiled around the tree behind them, watches.

Fig. 4.4 (p. 97): Façade, Duomo of Orvieto, scenes from the life of Christ (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). The sixteen scenes from the life of Christ presented on the third panel focus on Jesus’s early life, from the Annunciation to his temptation in the wilderness, and on Passion Week, from his triumphal entrance into Jerusalem to his Passion and Resurrection, concluding with his appearance to Mary Magdalene in the garden.

Fig. 4.5 (p. 97): Façade, Duomo of Orvieto, Madonna and Child (photo credit: author). In the arch above the central portal of the Duomo, cast bronze angels pull back the curtains of a tent to reveal, carved in marble, the Madonna with infant Jesus on her knee. Lorenzo Maitani is credited as the sculptor of this remarkable ensemble (1320s).

Fig. 4.6 (p. 98): Scenes from the life of Mary, Duomo of Orvieto (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). The enormous fresco cycle covering the walls and vaulting of the apse of the Orvieto Duomo features episodes from the life of Mary, dedicatee of the cathedral. The work of local painter Ugolino di Prete Ilario in the 1360s, the frescoes give unprecedented attention to the holy family. An entire row of five scenes (the upper one in this photograph) narrates the episode of Jesus’s teaching in the temple at age twelve, as well as the reunion with his distraught parents.

Fig. 4.7 (p. 99): Scenes from the miracle of the bleeding host, Chapel of the Holy Corporal, Duomo of Orvieto (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). The townspeople of Orvieto have long associated the holy day of Corpus Christi—established in 1264 by Pope Urban IV while living in Orvieto—with a miracle believed to have occurred in 1263 in nearby Bolsena. At the lifting of the Host at Holy Communion, drops of blood were said to have fallen from the wafer onto the altar cloth. In this photograph, you’ll see at the center of the painting by Ugolino di Prete Ilario (1360s) the scene of Pope Urban receiving the stained cloth at the bridge below Orvieto.

Fig. 4.8 (p. 99): Scenes from the Old Testament, vault of the Chapel of the Holy Corporal, Duomo of Orvieto (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). The four sections of the vault directly over the altar in the Chapel of the Holy Corporal, painted by Ugolino di Prete Ilario in the 1360s, depict four Old Testament episodes concerning sacred meals: Abraham’s offering of bread and wine to Melchizedek; Abraham’s meal with the three angelic messengers at the Oaks of Mamre; God’s provision of manna during the Exodus; and the bread. brought by the raven, that sustained Elijah in the wilderness.

Fig. 4.9 (p. 100): Chapel of San Brizio in the Duomo of Orvieto (photo credit: Madeline Linnell). The chapel in the right transept of the Duomo of Orvieto, typically referred to as the Chapel of San Brizio (in reference to the altarpiece of the Madonna and Child), is defined by one of the great masterworks of the Italian Renaissance. The fresco cycle of the End Times and the Last Judgment was completed by Luca Signorelli from 1499 to 1504, after initial work by Fra Angelico fifty years earlier.

Fig. 4.11 (p. 101): Chapel of San Brizio in the Duomo of Orvieto, Resurrection of the Dead (photo credit: author). Signorelli’s depiction of the Resurrection of the Dead on one wall of the Chapel of San Brizio (c. 1500) draws on the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones being re-clothed in flesh: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: ‘I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life’” (Ezekiel 37:5, NIV).

Fig. 4.12 (p. 102): Chapel of San Brizio in the Duomo of Orvieto, classical writers (photo credit: author). Framed in trompe l’oeil windows along the entire lower level of Signorelli’s frescoes in the Chapel of San Brizio (c. 1504) are portraits of great classical authors (with Dante added to their number), surrounded by vignettes of passages from their writings. Visible in this photograph are Ovid and Virgil, glancing in each other’s direction. Depicted around Virgil are scenes of descents into the underworld that are narrated in his works, offering classical precedents to the gathering of the damned souls in the large fresco above.

Fig. 4.13 (p. 104): Central portal, Duomo of Orvieto (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). In the 1960s, following the Second Vatican Council, sculptor Emilio Greco was commissioned to cast in bronze, for the great portal of the Duomo of Orvieto, a set of panels depicting the works of corporal mercy enumerated in Jesus’s discourse on the End Times (in Matthew 25). One bishop of Orvieto—pointing to the doors—would exhort the congregation that to receive the body of Christ in the sacrament should drive the faithful into the world as the Body of Christ carrying out His work of care and compassion.

Fig. 4.14 (p. 109): Monastery of Monte Oliveto, scenes from the Life of Saint Benedict (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). In his Life of Saint Benedict, Pope Gregory the Great narrates how Christ blessed Benedict’s work and “before long he had established twelve monasteries, with an abbot and twelve monks in each of them.” In the visual description of this action painted by Sodoma in the cloister of the Abbey of Monte Oliveto in southern Tuscany (1490s), Benedict stands in the center as architect and supervisor, directing the builders with raised baton in hand.

Fig. 4.15 (p. 115): Crucifixion, Chapter House, Santa Maria Novella, Florence (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). In the meeting room of monasteries (the so-called chapter house), the community’s mission was articulated visually in scenes frescoed on the walls. The seating benches were placed around the walls in a U pattern, both emphasizing the community-wide nature of the action and focusing collective attention on the image typically painted on the principal wall: the Crucifixion. This photograph shows the Crucifixion in the Chapter House of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, frescoed in the 1360s by Andrea di Bonaiuto (sometimes referred to as Andrea da Firenze).

Fig. 4.16 (p. 116): Monastery of Monte Oliveto, scenes from the Life of Saint Benedict (photo credit: Tisha Thompson). This fresco by the painter Sodoma (c. 1500), located in the cloister of Monte Oliveto Abbey in southern Tuscany, shows the common architectural element of a reading pulpit built into the wall of the refectory (top right-hand section of the painting). The pulpit was positioned so that every member could hear clearly the edifying texts read during meals.

Fig. 5.1 (p. 146): Philosophy (or the so-called School of Athens), Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Museum (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). Pope Julius II commissioned Raphael to fresco the walls of the Pope’s library in the Vatican with scenes reflecting the thematic concerns of the four main areas of Julius’s collection of manuscripts: philosophy, theology, poetry (or literature), and jurisprudence (or law). Now incorporated into the Vatican Museums, the room, in reference to a later use, is referred to as the Stanza della Segnatura. Raphael worked on this project from 1509 to 1511. The fresco in this photograph is of the philosophy wall, often referred to as the School of Athens.

Fig. 5.2 (p. 146): Theology (or the so-called Disputà), Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Museum (photo credit: Amy Hughes). The fresco by Raphael on Theology, often referred to as the Disputà, centers on the eucharistic host on the altar, with the persons of the Trinity immediately above.

Fig. 5.3 (p. 147): Poetry, Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Museum (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). In the fresco concerning poetry, Raphael depicts a company of great poets from classical tradition, plus Dante, gathered as a sort of grand reunion of poets laureate on Mount Parnassus, the home of the Muses in classical mythology.

Fig. 5.4 (p. 157): Detail, Philosophy (or the so-called School of Athens), Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Museum (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). In this detail from the School of Athens, four young students—representing four stages of the process of learning—are receiving a lesson in geometry from Euclid.

Fig. 5.5 (p. 163): Bell tower adjacent to the Duomo of Florence (photo credit: author). The rich decoration of the bell tower adjacent to the Duomo in Florence (the construction of which was overseen by Giotto in the 1300s) is composed entirely of series of medallions, or lozenges, summarizing all the great “sevens”: the seven liberal arts, the seven virtues, the seven sacraments, plus seven worthy vocations, the sun and the planets, and other groupings.

Fig. 5.6 (p. 164): Chapter House, Santa Maria Novella, Florence (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). The walls of the chapter house (often referred to now as the Spanish Chapel, after a later use) in the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria Novella in Florence were frescoed by Andrea di Bonaiuto (or Andrea da Firenze) in the 1360s. One wall is filled with schematic figures representing the entire educational curriculum of the Dominicans, presided over by Thomas Aquinas himself.

Fig. 5.7 (p. 166): Chapter House, Santa Maria Novella, Florence (photo credit: Gianna Scavo). Another wall of the chapter house of Santa Maria Novella (frescoed in the 1360s by Andrea di Bonaiuto) depicts an allegorical narrative of the mission of the Dominican order. Featured in the bottom right corner of the fresco are three great thirteenth-century Dominican saints: Dominic, the founder of the order; Peter Martyr, the gifted preacher; and Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of the Dominican theologians.

Fig. 6.1 (p. 175): Panorama, Sala dei Nove, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (photo credit: Madeline Linnell). On the pivotal endwall of the inner council chamber (or the Sala dei Nove) in the town hall of Siena, Ambrogio Lorenzetti (painting in the 1330s) surrounds the figure representing a well-governed Siena with winged figures representing the three Pauline virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Six female figures seated on either side of the central personage, represent the four cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, along with two additional virtues, peace and magnanimity.

Fig. 6.2 (p. 177): Virtues of Good Government, Sala dei Nove, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (photo credit: Madeline Linnell). The second-largest figure frescoed on the left side of the pivotal endwall of the Sala dei Nove in the town hall of Siena represents Justice. From her balanced scales of distributive and commutative justice come two ropes twisted together in the hand of the personage of Concord below her. This cord is then held by the twenty-four representatives walking in pairs toward the seated Commonweal, onto whose staff the rope of Concord is tied (depicted in the bottom-left of this photograph).