PUTTING ART (back) IN ITS PLACE

On one of these walls, dedicated to the theme of the theology of the sacrament, Raphael integrated into the actual doorframe a painted ledge used by one of the figures in the painting to peer around for a better view of the Host displayed on the altar. 

The painter Sodoma made use of a window awkwardly piercing one of the arched panels by placing the figure of God at the top of the window-surround. (The window was originally on an outside wall, allowing the sunlight to shine through brightly.)

By painting the shadows cast by the figures on the side walls (notably in the scene of the Resurrection of the Dead) so that the shadows seem to be made by the light shining from the window, Signorelli creates a visual experience of both window and Christ as the source of light.  By ingenuity of design, the artist, we might say, makes the architectural fact answerable to the painted scene.

By painting the shadows cast by the figures on the side walls (notably in the scene of the Resurrection of the Dead) so that the shadows seem to be made by the light shining from the window, Signorelli creates a visual experience of both window and Christ as the source of light.

These patterns of triangles-in-fours running the length of the ceiling lent themselves to thematic groupings of fours.  (In the half of the ceiling above the entrance to the chapel -- on the right half of this photograph -- four groups of the Church Triumphant are labeled: the Patriarchs, the Martyrs, the Virgins, the Doctors of the Church.)

In the frescoed ceiling of the baptistry of the Siena cathedral ... each clause of the Apostles Creed is illustrated in one of the triangular sections created by the ribs of the vaulting, each containing the same figure with the word Credo (“I believe”) coming from his mouth.  The scene visible in this photograph illustrates the clause, "He descended into hell ..." (These sections of the ceiling were painted by the Sienese painter Lorenzo di Pietro, known as Vecchietta, in the 1450s.)

(Four more clauses from the Apostles Creed are depicted in the four triangles in this section of the vault.)

Frescoed in the four sections of the vault directly over the altar are four Old Testament episodes concerning sacred meals: Abraham’s offering of bread and wine to Melchisedek, Abraham’s meal with the three angelic messengers, the provision of manna during the Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land, and the bread brought by the raven that sustained Elijah in the wilderness.  (The frescoes in this chapel were painted in the years around 1350 principally by the Orvietano artist Ugolino di Prete Ilario.)

The Orvieto Duomo, for example, is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and its apse is decorated with an entire cycle of episodes from the life of Mary, arranged to rise from the walls to the vault above. (The apse was frescoed by Ugolino di Prete Ilario between 1370 and 1384).

Scenes from both the Scriptures and the legendary apocryphal narratives include her presence at Pentecost, her death and Assumption into heaven, and her Crowning at the hands of her Son—the scenes depicted in the vaulting at the culminating point of the church.

Piero della Francesca’s frescoed cycle of the Legend of the Holy Cross was commissioned for the apse of the church of the Franciscan convent in Arezzo. (Painted, with interruptions, in the 1450s and 1460s.)

The baptistry in Florence is one of the oldest public buildings in the city, constructed in its present form in the 11th century.  Its striking form as an octagon is typical of early Christian baptisteries ...

The entire ceiling inside is covered by an immense programme of mosaics, created in the 13th century, whose narratives unfold against a background of gold. The commanding central figure, located over the altar, is that of Christ exercising Judgment. 

Four concentric strips of scenes that circle the rest of the ceiling narrate the stories of Creation and Fall in Genesis; of Joseph, sold by his envious brothers to traders only to rise to become the right hand man of the Pharaoh; of the life of Christ beginning with Mary’s youth; and, in the outermost ring, the life of John the Baptist.

All three sets of doors for the baptistry in Florence are notable master- works of storytelling bas-relief cast in bronze.  The creation of the doors began in the 1330s when Andrea Pisano was commissioned to create a new set of doors for the east side of the baptistry with the traditional subject: scenes from the life of John the Baptist.

Sixty years later in 1401, the cloth-finishers guild in charge of the upkeep and decoration of the Baptistry announced a competition among artists skilled in bronze-casting for a new set of doors to be installed on the east side of the Baptistry. ...  It took Lorenzo Ghiberti [the winner of the commission] twenty-one years to complete the project, creating scenes from the life of Christ ...

(This set of Ghiberti's scenes from the Life of Christ are found in the newly-renovated Museum of the Works of the Cathedral [Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, curated by the museum director, Monsignor Timothy Verdon], revealing their original splendor.  Compare this photograph with the previous one, showing the same scenes on the doors in situ.)

With [Ghiberti's first set of] doors acclaimed by all, bringing honor to Florence, the Calimala guild kept Ghiberti on the payroll to produce yet another set of doors, those that Michelangelo would consider worthy to serve as “the gates of Paradise" (and not finished until 1452).

The façade of the Duomo in Orvieto is marked by several notable elements.  (The main decoration of the façade occured in several phases from the 1310s to the 1350s, with the completion of the mosaic panels on the top half lasting into the next century.)

Complex geometric patterns in mosaic decorate even the columns and piers.

Extending dramatically from the façade are four bronze statues of the creatures traditionally taken to represent the four evangelists (the eagle of John, the bull of Luke, the lion of Mark, the angel-man of Matthew, drawn from the images in Ezekiel 1:10 and Revelations 4:6-7).

The outstretched talons of the Eagle seem ready to pluck the one standing below.

Placed in the arch immediately above the main portal is a marble statue of the Virgin Mary, with her child Jesus on her lap, revealed yet enclosed by a bronze-cast pavilion whose curtains are pulled back by three angels in either side.

The architectural elements of the upper zone of the façade serve as frames for a series of scenes from Mary’s life. ... Created in mosaic against a gold ground, these scenes become almost blindingly splendid when struck by the sun’s rays in late afternoon.

In the lower zone, punctuating the entire width of the façade at ground level and framing the three doors, four wide marble pilasters are in carved in bas-relief with scenes from scriptural narrative from Creation to Last Judgment. 

On the left-most pilaster are scenes from the first chapters of Genesis: the story of the Creation (with God shaping the figure of Adam like a sculptor in clay, their two faces identical), the Temptation and Fall and Expulsion of Adam and Eve, concluding with Cain’s murder of his brother Abel.

On the third panel (to the right side of the central door) are 16 readily identifiable scenes from the life of Christ ...

And finally, the rightmost pilaster is carved with the Last Judgment: the general resurrection of the dead from their tombs, the Saved ascending towards Christ enthroned in majesty at the top of the panel, those who rejected Christ herded by demons downwards to the place of wailing and gnashing of teeth.