Hands of Virgil

One of the most beautiful towns in Italy is Orvieto, and in the cathedral is a stunning chapel called the San Brizio chapel. The chapel is decorated with remarkable frescoes by Luca Signorelli (some earlier ones were done by Fra Angelico). The lower chapel walls are decorated with a series of panels in which famous poets are portrayed, including Dante. In this detail, we see the hands of the Roman poet Virgil, who, if you recall, was also Dante’s guide in the Inferno. Each of the poets have books, as we see here, to indicate their supremacy in letters.