The portal of the Umbria Region that allows you to get information on the main places of culture in Umbria (museums, archaeological sites, libraries ...)
The acronym MODO stands for the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo di Orvieto, it is not only a museum but a Museum Network, which has as its fulcrum one of the most precious assets of the artistic heritage of humanity: the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta. It houses the Cappella Nova or San Brizio Chapel, a masterpiece by the painter Luca Signorelli from Cortona.
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Built in the middle of the fifteenth century, the chapel is one of the highest examples of Italian painting for the cycle of frescoes with the Last Judgement, which decorates it entirely, made in part by Beato Angelico (1447-49) and in part by Luca Signorelli (1499-1504). Inside the Cathedral, the sculptural group of the Annunciation by Francesco Mochi, placed in the centre of the apse, the Pietà or Deposition by Ippolito Scalza, and the series of Apostles and Saints created on the model of various artists, including Giambologna and Ippolito Scalza, which had been removed from the cathedral at the end of the 19th century.
Departing from Cathedral, the visit itinerary goes through the MODO nodes, following the main theme, the history of the town and its Duomo. A pathway retraced through the precious artistic collections that the Fabbriceria—organization established to supervise the construction of the Cathedral—has conserved for more than eight centuries. The first floor of Palazzo Soliano houses the collection of Emilio Greco (1913-1995), consisting of 32 plastic and graphic works created between 1947 and 1991 that the artist donated to the city of Orvieto, to which he was linked for having sculpted the bronze door of the Duomo in 1964. The largest collection is preserved inside the Papal palaces, next to the cathedral, where the works of Coppo di Marcovaldo, Arnolfo di Cambio, Simone Martini, Luca Signorelli, Niccolò Circignani, Girolamo Muziano and Cesare Nebbia are exhibited. Between the Cathedral and the Papal Palaces is the Libreria Albèri, built in 1499 to house the precious book collection of Antonio Albèri (1423 c- 1505), bishop, archdeacon of the Cathedral and preceptor of Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, future Pope Pius II. The library, decorated in the early sixteenth century by Luca Signorelli's workshop, is one of the rare examples in Italy of a library annexed to a Cathedral.
