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The stepped façade of the Duomo is a landmark
for miles around. One of the great medieval buildings of Italy,
founded in 1290 to commemorate the feast of Corpus Domini. The
feast celebrates the miracle of the host bleeding while a doubting
priest was performing mass in Bolsena. Lorenzo Maitani's magnificent
façade, with its bands of grey basalt and white travertine, is
like the enormous frame of a Gothic altarpiece. The reliefs of
biblical scenes by Maitani and his school, dating from the early
14th century, rival the contemporary paintings of Giotto in their
powerful realism. The interior contains the Reliquary of the
Corporal, a marvellously ornate work of art, in the left transept,
and Luca Signorelli's dramatic frescoes of the Last Judgement,
painted in 1499-1504, in the Cappella della Madonna di San Brizio
in the right aisle. The army of nudes, depicted in every conceivable
posture as they strive to avoid their fate, had an enormous impact
on the young Michelangelo.
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Address |
Piazza del Duomo |
Getting
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