Phillipps, Evelyn March: The frescoes in the Sixtine chapel (London: John Murray, 1901)

SIGNORELLI AND DANTE

131

Orvieto is recorded, but the fame of this
masterpiece must have attracted him to a
city which lay on the direct route from
Tuscany to Rome, and it does not need
Vasari to tell us that “ Michel Angelo
studied the works of Signorelli, as every one
may see.”
His admiration for and knowledge of
Dante shaped his scheme. It is said that
his copy of the “ Divine Comedy ” was illus-
trated on the margins with his ideas of
the poet’s characters. He is as energetic,
but less violent than Signorelli, and succeeds
in elevating his subjects into the sublime.
His profound studies of life stood him in
good stead, for, while he is said to have
dispensed in great measure with models, no
fault has been found with his drawing. On
the other hand, such a mass of nudities
has been objected to as unsuited to the
sanctity of the place. Successive popes
proposed to efface the great work; finally
Pius IV. employed Daniele da Volterra to
clothe a number of the figures, a commission
which earned him the nickname of the