SIGNORELLI
787
SIGNORELLI
fiends see the signe of the crosse, they flye away,
dreading it as a staffe that they are beaten withall.
And in thys blessinge ye beginne with youre hande at
the hedde downwarde, and then to the lefte side and
byleve that our Lord Jesu Christe came down from
the head, that is from the Father into erthe by his
holy Incarnation, and from the erthe into the left
syde, that is hell, by his bitter Passion, and from
thence into his Father's righte syde by his glorious
Ascension".
The manual act of tracing the cross with the hand or the thumb has at all periods been quite commonly, though not indispensably, accompanied by a form of words. The formula, however, has varied greatly. In the earlier ages we have evidence for such invoca- tion as "The sign of Christ", "The seal of the living God", "In the name of Jesus"; etc. Later we meet "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth", "In the name of the Holy Trinity", " In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost", "Our help is in the name of the Lord", "O God come to my assistance". Members of the Orthodox Greek Church when bless- ing themselves with three fingers, as above explained, commonly use the invocation: "Holy God, Holy Strong One, Holy Immortal One, Have mercy on us", which words, as is well known, have been retained in their Greek form by the Western Church in the Office for Good Friday.
It is unnecessary to insist upon the effects of grace and power attributed by the Church at all times to the use of the holy sign of the cross. PVom the earliest period it has been employed in all exorcisms and con- jurations as a weapon against the spirits of darkness, and it takes its place not less consistently in the ritual of the sacramcjnts and in every form of blessing and consecration. A famous difficulty is that suggested by the making of the sign of the cross repeatedly oyer the Host and Chalice after the words of institution have been spoken in the Mass. The true explana- tion is probably to be found in the fact that at the time these crosses were introduced (they vary too much in the early copies of the Canon to be of primi- tive institution), the clergy and faithful did not clearly ask themselves at what precise moment the transubstantiation of the elements was effected. They were satisfied to believe that it was the result of the whole of the consecratory prayer which we call the Canon, without determining the exact words which were operative; just as we are now content to know that the Precious Blood is consecrated by the whole form spoken over the chalice, without pausing to re- flect whether all the words are necessary. Hence the signs of the cross continue till the end of the Canon and they may be regarded as mentally referred back to a consecration which is still conceived of as incom- plete. The process is the reverse of that by which in the Greek Church at the "Great Entrance" the high- est marks of honour are paid to the simple elements of breatl and wine in anticipation of the consecration which they are to receive shortly afterwards.
Thalhofer, Lilurgik. I (Freiburg. 1883), 029-43; Warren in Diet. Christ. Antiq.a.v.;ChurchQuart. Rev., XXX\ (1893), 315-Al; Beresford-Cooke, The Sign of the Cross in the Western Litur- gies (London, 1907); Gretser, De Cruce Christi (Ingolstadt, 1598) ; Stevens, The Cross in the Life and Literature of the Anglo- Saxons (New York, 1904).
Herbert Thurston.
Signorelli, Luca, Italian painter, b. at Cortona, about 1441; d. there in 1523. He was a son of Egidio Signorelli, and his mother was a sister of the great-grandfather of Vasari, from whom we obtain almost all the important facts of his career. A pupil of Piero dolla Francesca, he was largely influenced in his early days by Pollaiuolo, by whom it seems possible that he may have been instructed. His early youth was probably spent in Florence, and his style of painting is essentially Florentine. In 1479 we hear of him in residence at Cortona, taking high office in
the government of the town, and held in great con-
sideration. In 1488, he was elected a burgher of
Citta di Castello, and three years later he was one
of the judges of the designs for the fagade of the
cathedral at Florence. In 1497, he commenced his
first great work at Monte Oliveto near Siena, where
he painted eight frescoes; from thence he went to
Orvieto, where he remained for five years, devoting
himself to painting his magnificent frescoes of the
Last Judgment, which are perhaps his most charac-
teristic works. There he also painted his own por-
trait, with a few bold, clever strokes revealing a great
deal of character. In 1508 he went as delegate from
Cortona to Florence, and the same year passed on to
Rome, where he executed work for Julius II in the
Vatican, now unfortunately no longer in existence,
The Painter Himself with Nicol6 Franceschi
Painting by Luca Signorelli on a Tile preserved in the Opera del
Duomo, Orvieto
having been swept away to make room for the paintings of Raphael and his scholars. Again in 1512 he left Cortona as a representative, bearing an address of congratulation, and went again to Rome, but obtained no new commissions, as other men had taken his place. He returned to Cortona, and there lived to the age of eighty-two, working almost up to the day of his death; he received the honour of a public funeral. Few men left a greater mark upon the art of the period than Signorelli. He is spoken of by Berenson as the "grandest illustrator of modern times", although "by no means the pleasantest". In another place the same critic speaks of his mastery over the nude and action, the depth of refinement of his emotions, and the splendour of his conception, remarking on the extreme power that Signorelli possessed of creating emotion and triumphing when representing movement. Art critics regard his "Pan" at Berlin as being one of the most wonderful works of the Renaissance and one of the most fas- cinating works of art that has come down to us in modern times ; while his frescoes at Orvieto can only be described as magnificent, austere and strange no doubt, but marked by almost perfect genius, with full knowledge of the sense of form, and an awe- inspiring majesty. Signorelli stands out as a master of anatomy and almost the only person who could render complicated movement and crowded action, and in this special department he has rarely been equalled and never excelled. He cannot be properly appreciated without a journey to Cortona, and a visit to Orvieto. His works are scattered through all the little townships of Umbria, and can especially be studied in Loretto, Arezzo, Volterra, Foiano, Arcevia, Monte Oliveto, and Borgo San Sepolcro, while other pictures by him are in the galleries of
