This book presents in word and image the façade
of Orvieto Cathedral, the reliefs of which are considered to
be among the most beautiful and powerful of the Trecento. The
town of Orvieto, located half-way between Rome and Florence, played
an important and strategic role in the political struggles in Italy
during the latter part of the thirteenth century. Frequently the
place of residence for popes and their Angevins allies, it became
the seat of the Curia under Pope Nicholas IV, which brought wealth
and economic growth to the community. Moreover, it enabled earlier
plans for a new cathedral, initiated around 1285, to be finally
realised. It was Pope Nicholas himself who laid the foundation
stone of the new Duomo in 1290, and although building activity
continued until well into the seventeenth century, most of the main
portion of the building was complete by 1308, creating a dazzling
and unique Gothic structure. The façade of the Cathedral in
particular, is a masterpiece of design and relief sculpture.
Its rich decorative carving is of outstanding quality and the
innovative, compelling iconographic programme spreads across all
four piers of the lower façade.
The corpus of photographs by David Finn, taken specially for
this publication, shows the skill and narrative details of this
vituoso display of relief carving, while the text by Anita Fiderer
Moskowitz, Professor of Art History at the State University
of New York, Stony Brook, explains the building in the
context of related Italian Gothic architecture, and discusses the
problems and controversies regarding the design and
ornamentation of the façade as well as the puzzling
question as to its artistic attribution. The author also
interprets the basic iconography of the sculptures and
provides full descriptions for the detail images.
200 pages, 180 illustrations, Bibliography
"The photographs alone will be a great help to both scholar and lay reader alike, and the highly readable text provides a very reliable up-to-date resume of the current scholarship on these extermely significant works of of late medieval, or, as some would say, early Renaissance, Italian sculpture." (Roger Tarr, in: The Art Book, Volume 17, Issue 4, Nov. 2010, p. 52)