Question 1

True or false: Signorelli was primarily known as a sculptor, not a painter.

Accepted Answer

False. He was a renowned painter of frescoes and altarpieces, especially in central Italy. He never worked as a sculptor.

Question 2

True or false: Luca Signorelli was a student of Leonardo da Vinci in Florence.

Accepted Answer

False. Signorelli was older than Leonardo and trained under Piero della Francesca. Leonardo was not his teacher.

Question 3

True or false: Signorelli’s work in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel was destroyed to make room for Michelangelo’s ceiling.

Accepted Answer

False. Signorelli’s frescoes on the side walls survive; only the ceiling was replaced by Michelangelo.

Question 4

True or false: Luca Signorelli was a major influence on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes.

Accepted Answer

True. Michelangelo studied Signorelli’s use of musculature and dramatic poses in the Orvieto Chapel, directly inspiring his own Last Judgment.

Question 5

True or false: Signorelli painted the entire ceiling of the Sistine Chapel before Michelangelo.

Accepted Answer

False. The Sistine Chapel ceiling was painted by Michelangelo. Signorelli worked on the side walls earlier, but never the ceiling.

Question 6

True or false: Signorelli completed a triptych for the church of Santa Croce in Florence.

Accepted Answer

False. He painted an altarpiece for the church of Sant’Agostino in Sansepolcro, not for Santa Croce in Florence.

Question 7

True or false: Signorelli’s frescoes in Orvieto Cathedral include one of the first anatomically accurate depictions of flayed skin.

Accepted Answer

True. In the 'Resurrection of the Flesh,' Signorelli painted a figure with its own skin peeled back, showcasing his advanced anatomical knowledge.

Question 8

True or false: Signorelli’s own son died of plague, and he painted his son’s corpse into a fresco.

Accepted Answer

True. After his son Antonio died from plague, Signorelli reportedly painted his body into the 'Resurrection' scene in Orvieto as a tribute.

Luca Signorelli Trivia Questions