Orvieto Cathedral, 2013

The only destination we really wanted to see again before Rome and south was Orvieto and its great cathedral, with which we were very impressed in 2011. I did four posts on Orvieto and the cathedral then, starting with http://roadeveron.blogspot.it/2011/05/orvieto-1.html. Very impressed.

On the blue roads out of Tuscany and into
Umbria, a procession of these little hill towns

We parked at the sosta, then took the funicular up the hill
and the bus to the cathedral

Another Italian Gothic; Zebraesque; a later vintage of Gothic, as France and
elsewhere were well into Flamboyant when this was done; not fully completed
until early 1600s; both the transepts issue in sizable chapels; and the apse is
squared-off, like an English cathedral

Orvieto's facade is said to be the best of the Italian Gothics;
I'd put it into the running for best Gothic facade, period; the
carving is incredible as are the mosaics; and there is none of
the usual damage from national or religious wars, revolutions,
etc.

Looking from one of the great panels up to the spires

Columns by the central door

Across the facade, bronze attributes of the Evangelists

Mosaic detail: after giving birth, Mary is having roast chicken; Vicki, with her
binoculars, sees so much more than I do

From the Baptism mosaic: most people don't know it, but the river Jordan was at
one time a Blue Ribbon trout stream

Interestingly, the nave has (beautifully-painted) timber vaulting; the transepts
and chancel have the more traditional four-part Gothic stone vaulting

The windows are half alabaster and half stained-glass

The Chapel of the Corporal, in which are housed relics, etc., related to the Miracle
of Bolsena (1263), in which drops of blood appeared on the altar cloth during
Eucharist, thus "proving" the relatively new doctrine of Transubstantiation; "two,
four, six, eight: time to transubstantiate!" (in the immortal words of Tom Lehrer)

Frescoes in the Chapel by Ugolino di Prete Ilario, 14th

This detail shows how, when cooked, the wafer bleeds

Moving right along to the starboard transept and the Chapel of San Brizo there,
here is the ceiling painted by Fra Angelica

The chapel has quite a bit of interest, hells and judgments and such, and portraits
of great writers, some of which I posted in 2011; but here simply (the blond in
black) is the artist, Luca Signorelli, who finished all this about 1499, and of whom
I think highly, despite the fact he was from Cortona, a town which to this day has
inadequate parking for visitors

Valley view from Orvieto, near the cathedral; a beautiful place