Antichrist, Simon Magus, and Dante's ‘Inferno’ XIX

Abstract

Luca Signorelli's frescoes portraying the last days and the end of the world which decorate the Cappella di San Brizio in Orvieto Cathedral are often described as reflecting Dante'sCommediaor as having a Dantesque quality. Commissioned in 1500 to complete the decoration of the cathedral begun by Fra Angelico half a century before, Signorelli painted — along with such scenes traditionally associated with the Last Judgment as the Resurrection of the Dead, the Damned in Hell, and the Saved in Paradise — two frescoes which portray the deeds of Antichrist and the signs of the end. Together with his illustrations from Dante'sPurgatorio, also at Orvieto, these frescoes depict the key events of Christian eschatology. The entire cycle reflects, in other words, the artist's awareness of eschatology as encompassing not only the fortune of the soul after death, but also the events which occur in the last days of the earth's history, a view of eschatology which is both personal and cosmic. It is certainly appropriate to see Dante's influence upon the artist's representation of such scenes as the ‘anti-Inferno’ and the suffering of the damned in hell. Although the subject matter need not have been drawn exclusively from Dante, a knowledge of theCommediahelps one to understand these frescoes better. Both Dante and Signorelli reflect a concern with the last events which is typical of their times, and along with other artists and poets, they share a common background in Christian eschatology. In some respects, therefore, their individual achievements are analogous, so that an understanding of the frescoes can also help us to understand theCommedia, even though the painter worked a century and a half after the poet. Particularly, Signorelli's ‘Fatti dell’ Anticristo,’ a portrayal both of the traditional Christian beliefs concerning the great deceiver of the last days and of late medieval apocalypticism, provides insights into Dante's description of the contemporary church inInferno19 (Fig. 1). The artist and the poet each draw upon long-established Christian iconography and symbolism to infuse their work with an apocalyptic expectancy which, by placing contemporary scenes in a cosmic perspective, underscores its religious significance and ultimate consequence.