Signorelli, Luca (c. 1450–1523)

Italian painter from Cortona in Tuscany. His tense line and carefully defined musculature brought a new sense of energy and movement to the nude human figure, and his frescoes of The End of the World 1499–1503 in the Cappella di S Brizio, Orvieto Cathedral, according to Michelangelo, inspired elements in his own Last Judgement.

Signorelli was probably trained by Piero della Francesca, and was one of the group of painters chosen to decorate the Sistine Chapel 1481–83; he contributed two frescoes, one painted over in 1571, the other surviving: The Testament of Moses. After his time in Rome, Signorelli produced work for Loreto's Sta Casa (influenced by Verrochio), for Perugia Cathedral (Virgin and Child with Saints about 1484), and for Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence – his Court of Pan involves a complicated and obscure allegory. Later commissions came from a range of towns, including his home town, where he painted The Lamentation over the Dead Christ 1502. His works, like those of Antonio Pollaiuolo, display a fascination with the male form.

A work on canvas was Pan (Berlin), destroyed during World War II. His later years were spent in Cortona where he ran a workshop producing altarpieces.