EST, EST, EST, PROPTER NIMIUM
EST, HIC IO. DE YC. D.
MEUS MORTUUS EST.
The stone makes part of the pavement at the foot of the altar, is much broken at the edges, and seems hardly to be in its place. The church is in two heights, the intermediate floor having a large opening in the middle. It is partly of an ornamental pointed architecture, and partly of what we might call Saxon or Norman, of which style we also find a little church within the town. There is a road from Bolsena to Orvieto, but it is very bad; part of it is on an old Roman way, formed of large blocks of lava, many of which have been displaced. From Monte Fiascone the road is good, and towards Orvieto, beautiful. This city stands upon an insulated hill, or rather on a perpendicular rock of tufo, resting on a considerable hill of the Siena clay. The hills towards Bolsena are formed in the same manner, and where the tufo is of small extent, it offers very striking features. The approaches to Orvieto seem entirely artificial; and the only entrance for carriages is of recent construction. The city abounds in large palaces, which announce its former prosperity, but our first object is of course the cathedral. This was founded in 1290, in memory of the miracle at Bolsena, and dedicated to Santa Maria Annunziata. The first stone was laid by Pope Nicolas IV., and the first mass was celebrated in 1297, so that part at least seems to have been run up very quickly. The following inscription is on the outside:
EDAT LAPIS HIC NOMEN PENE OBLITERATUM LAURENTIUS
MAYTANI SENENSIS PRIMUS MIRIFICI HUJUS OPERIS
MAGISTER, POST DIUTINOS IN EODEM IMPENSOS LABORES,
AB URBE VATANA REPUBLICA PREMIIS ABUNDE CUMULATUS,
OBIIT ANNO 1330.
We had letters to a Signor Palazzi, who seemed to have all the dates of every thing in Orvieto at his command. This gentleman assured us, that the whole body of the edifice, including the front, was the work of one man; and moreover that there were entries in the church books, of certain sums of money paid to Laurentius Maytani for drawings on parchment of the façade. He had found in an old lumber-room, among other things belonging to the church, two drawings on parchment, one very nearly resembling the present front, and the other somewhat more different. They are worm-eaten, and otherwise damaged, and the drawing partly obliterated, and he concludes these to be the very drawings mentioned and paid for. The evidence seems pretty strong, yet it is not quite decisive, and the styles of the front and sides are so different, that I can hardly believe them to be the designs of the same person. The work not only does not unite, but the heights do not correspond. The front is highly ornamented and very rich, but hardly pleased me as well as I expected. Some large faces at the bottom of the piers, which are enriched with sculpture, must be condemned, because they interrupt the apparent construction. Perhaps it was to obviate such an objection, that they are not plane surfaces, but form a sort of sculptured tapestry, indicating in some degree the form of the piers below. This contrivance injures the effect of the sculpture, without doing any thing for the building, but I will not enumerate all the little faults. In the middle is a great square with numerous figures, and in the centre of this is a large rose-window, which is beautiful both on the outside, and on the inside. This disposition forms at once the finest and most peculiar feature in the design. There are two windows over the side-doors, which are filled with slabs of alabaster, and there are others partially filled in the same way. Externally, this has very much the appearance of a blank, but internally the effect is good, where the slabs fill the divisions of the architecture; but where they are composed of small pieces, whose colours and veinings do not correspond, it is bad. The sculpture is in general very good, and some of the figures are even beautiful. There is a row of leaves on one of the mouldings surrounding each doorway, which is executed at once with freedom and delicacy; while a similar decoration to one of the side-doors, has all the hardness and dryness you would expect in the thirteenth century. The stone chiefly employed is a yellowish marble, with veins of a colour somewhat deeper: a beautiful material. A reddish brown limestone, or marble, is also employed, and there is a small quantity of very dark serpentine. The whole effect of colour is very beautiful. There are mosaic ornaments and pictures of the same material. The latter do not harmonize very well, and perhaps do not belong to the original design. The body of the church is striped with alternate courses of a whitish limestone, and dark gray lava. A semicircular rib goes up each pier, but there are no buttresses exposed; the lower windows do not correspond in position with those of the clerestory, and are more ornamented; they have a mullion which the others have not. The mass of the building inside retains its original form, but the details of the side-aisles have been sadly modernized. The length of the transept is only equal to the width of the nave and aisles. This and the choir are vaulted, but there is no preparation for vaulting the nave or side aisles. There are two magnificent marble monuments at the altars opposite the aisles, where many of the architectural enrichments are beautifully designed and exquisitely executed. If they have a fault it is, that the precision and fineness of the edge gives them something of a metallic appearance. At each end of the transept is a small chapel. That on the left, called the Chapel of the Sacrament, is said to have been added about 1350. The other, dedicated to the Madonna, in 1500. On comparing them, we find that the first has some marks of a higher antiquity than the other, but the two openings from the church are exactly alike, and I must confess, if I had not been told the contrary, I should have considered both as nearly coeval with the body of the building, except in a few mouldings, which might have been added or altered afterwards. Besides the drawings attributed to Lorenzo Maytani, Sr. Palazzi shewed us others, also on parchment, exhibiting projects of alterations by Ippolito Scalzi. I at first suspected that they were all by this artist, but a more careful consideration convinced me of the contrary. Scalzi’s have no feeling of the character and expression of Gothic architecture. We were shown also the ancient robes, the pianeti and the tondinella, embroidered about the year 1200, and ornamented with figures which have considerable merit.