MCCLXXIIII.Magister Jacobus Porrata.da Cumis, fecit hanc Rotam.
MCCLXXIIII.Magister Jacobus Porrata.da Cumis, fecit hanc Rotam.
MCCLXXIIII.
Magister Jacobus Porrata.
da Cumis, fecit hanc Rotam.
Rotamrefers to the wheel window, which is a remarkably fine one, and is not, as some writers think, an illiterate mis-spelling ofportam(door). The rose window is prior to the one which Jacopo or Lapo, the so-called father of Arnolfo, placed in the façade of the Duomo of Arezzo, and is even superior to it in richness of design. To Jacobus Porrata is also attributed the principal entrance of Cremona cathedral, with the statues of the four prophets beside it. Over the architrave rises a species of porch, formed of little Lombard galleries, fringing as it were the arch. Below are the usual lion-supported pillars, the lions being carved in fine red marble. The vestibule above is formed of pointed arches, on each of which a lion crouches to sustain the finishingloggia. The Comacine Masters seem to have formed a school andlaboreriumat Cremona, for among the archives of the Duomo a deed has been found entitledlaborerio, of the year 1289. It was drawn up by the notary Degoldo Malatesta on December 12 of that year, and on the part of the Revdo.P. Cozzaconte, Bishop of Cremona, and the monk Ubertini, director and treasurer to the works of the Duomo, making a contract with Bonino and Guglielmo da Campione to build a stone stairway on the north of the cathedral towards S. Nicolò, etc. etc. The stairs still exist, with remains of some little turrets which formed part of the design.
Baptistery at Parma. Designed by Benedetto da Antelamo,A.D.1178.See page 187.
Baptistery at Parma. Designed by Benedetto da Antelamo,A.D.1178.
See page 187.
At Parma we have also precise data, and a name carven in stone. The cathedral was begun in 1059, four years before that of Pisa. It was finished by 1106, when Pope Pasquale II. consecrated it, the great Countess Matilda being present. In 1117 a part of it fell in an earthquake, and the Bishop Bernardo apportioned thereceipts of several taxes to the rebuilding. Frederic Barbarossa in 1162 confirmed this disposition of the taxes and the work was continued. Thelaboreriumof the Comacines at Parma was at different times under two of their chief sculptor-architects, Benedetto da Antelamo being master of the lodge in 1178, and Giovanni Bono of Bissone in 1281. Benedetto sculptured the now ancient pulpit of the cathedral, which was supported on four columns, and to which the relief of the Crucifixion, signed by him, belonged. It is now in the third chapel on the right. He also designed and erected the Baptistery, which, more than any building of the time, shows an originality of idea quite remarkable. It is built entirely of white marble, is of course octagonal, that isde règle, and is surrounded by rows of little pillared galleries, but in these he has made his colonnettes classical, and has left out the arches entirely, except in the upper one, substituting a solid flat marble entablature for them. The lower part only has a circular arch in each of the eight sides. The arches of the doorways are very deep, and richly sculptured. One has four dark marble pillars on each side of the door, of which the lintels and architrave are richly carved in reliefs. The north door has a Nativity of Christ in the lunette, and a story of John the Baptist beneath it. The west portal shows a realistic Last Judgment above, and on the sides the seven ages of man, and Christ performing the seven works of mercy. On the south door is the allegory of Death from the mediæval religious romance ofBarlaam and Josaphat. The arches between the doors are filled in with niches containing statues supported on black marble Corinthian columns.
All round the building above the base is a frieze of the real old animal myths and symbols, such as the Comacines of two or three centuries earlier delighted in. The march of the times had now substituted actual representations ofscriptural subjects, instead of mere symbols of dark mysteries, but theMagistercould not all at once leave behind him the old emblems which had served his guild for centuries in the way of ornamentation. The building is unique, and shows daring independent thought at a time when independence was most difficult.
Fergusson, however, blames the false principles of design. He says the four upper storeys are only built to conceal a dome, which is covered by a flat wooden roof. The roof seen from above seems to be a flat tiled roof, and it has a pretty solid bell-turret in the centre. The little arches forming the upper range are slightly pointed. This Baptistery, as well as the pulpit in the Duomo, bears the signature of the builder and sculptor, and the date 1196.
"Bis binis demptis annis de mille ducentis.Incepit dictus opus hoc sculptor Benedictus."[137]
"Bis binis demptis annis de mille ducentis.Incepit dictus opus hoc sculptor Benedictus."[137]
"Bis binis demptis annis de mille ducentis.
Incepit dictus opus hoc sculptor Benedictus."[137]
Val d'Antelamo, the native place of Benedictus, is a valley near Lago Maggiore towards Laveno. It seems probable that a branch school or lodge of the Comacines existed here, of which Benedetto was at this epoch at the head,[138]and gave the name to his pupils. They must have emigrated like other branches of the guild, for in the ancient statutes of Genoa we find several mentions of experts in architecture, calledMagistri da Antelamo, who were called in by the city magistrates, when any building work had to be valued or judged.[139]
As early as 1181 in the archives of S. Giorgio, one finds the names Martino and Ottoboni, Magistri Antelami, and as late as Nov. 27, 1855, a sentence was given at the Collegio dei Giudici at Genoa by a Maestro Anteramo. The substitutionof r for l is to this day a very common error among Italians.
In 1161 a squadron of Masters from Lombardy was called to renovate the cathedral of Faenza, which was much ruined. These Masters accepted, and showed themselves most proficient. So says an old writer quoted by Merzario, but whether these very clever architects were the same Antelami branch who worked at Parma cannot be decided.[140]A later Comacine Master at Parma, whose name has come down to us, is Giovanni Bono of Bissone, a little village between Como and Lugano. The grand vestibule of the principal door of Parma cathedral, with its lion-supported columns, its bands of colonnettes and its rich sculpture, was designed by him. In a Gothic inscription over the door deciphered by Sig. Pezzana, we learn that the lions were made by Giovanni Bono da Bissone in 1280, at the time when Guido, Niccolao, Bernardino, and Benvenuti worked in thelaborerium.[141]
This inscription, for which I am indebted to Canonico Pietro Tonarelli, is especially valuable, not only in fixing the epoch of Giovanni Buono da Bissoni's work, but as proof of the organization of the lodge and the brotherhood of its members. The wordfratrumcertainly implies that thelaboreriumwas in the hands of a guild. The Canonico Tonarelli writes in a letter from Parma, that in an estimate in the archives of the Chapter, dated 1354, theFabbriceriawas denominatedDomus laborerii seu fabricæ ... majoris Ecclesiæ, and that the administrators were calledfratres de Laborerio. In Tuscany they were calledOperai, and the office of administrator was theOpera del Duomo. The four names of thefratres, too, have a significance when readin the light I have since found thrown on the organization by the archives of theOperein Siena and Florence. In those lodges one perceives plainly that the administration of the lodge was placed under four persons, of whom two were Masters of the guild, and two were influential persons of the city,i.e.half the council of administration gave the votes of the architects employed, and the other half those of the patrons who employed them. That the same rule held in this earlier lodge at Parma is confirmed by the fact that Niccolao and Benvenuti are found working together with Giovanni Buono at Pistoja in 1270.[142]
Sometimes a single name stands out among the file of Comacines, and one finds several well-known buildings that have emanated from one mind. Such a Master was Magister Giorgio of Jesi, near Como. His name is graven in the stones of many a church. At Fermo on the Adriatic, a "sumptuous" cathedral was built in 1227; a certain Bartolommeo Mansionarius being the patron. On the left south door was a slab with the inscription—"A.D. MCCXXVII Bartolomeus Mansionarius Hoc opus fieri fecit Per Manus Magistri Georgii de Episcopatu Com".... That the mutilated word is Como we prove by a similar inscription on the cathedral at Jesi (the ancient Æsis where the Emperor Frederick II., grandson of Barbarossa, was born). The ancient cathedral of S. Septimus, a truly Lombard building, still exists in part. Here the inscription runs—"A.D. MCCXXXVII tempore D. Gregorii Papae domini Federici Imperatoris, et domini Severini. episcope. æsini. Magister Georgius de Cumo civis æsinus fecit hoc opus."
Here we get the city as well as the bishopric to which Magister Giorgius belonged. He was a citizen of Jesi inthe diocese of Como, and a qualified member of the higher rank of the Comacine Guild. In the little town of Penna in the same province, where the church was ruined in an earthquake, an ancient stone was found with the following inscription in old Latin—"In the name of God. Amen. This work was commenced in the time of the Priest Gualtieri, and completed in that of the Priest Grazia, by Master George of Jesi in the year 1256." By these stones we find that Master George worked in the province of Piceno for thirty years, between Fermo, Jesi, and Penna. To him is attributed the ancient communal palace of Jesi which was rebuilt in the fifteenth century by other Comacine Masters.
THE CAMPIONESE SCHOOL AT MODENA
At Modena, which was once a prosperous Roman colony, and then an independent commune, we find a most interesting family of Comacines, who for more than two centuries worked at the cathedral there, son succeeding father, and nephews following their uncles as architects. The building of a worthy church was the first thought of the newly-made commune in 1099. In Muratori's copy of theActs of the translation of the body of S. Gemignano to Modena, we read—"So then, in the year 1099, the inhabitants of the said city began to demand where they could find an architect for such a work, a builder for such a church; and at length, by the grace of God, a certain man named Lanfranco, a marvellous architect, was found, under the counsels of whom the foundations of the Basilica were laid."[143]
Lanfranco is a name very frequent in Lombardy, but this man, probably from his already acquired fame, was the same Magister Lanfrancus filius Dom. Ersatii de Livurno (Ligurno), who built the cloister of Voltorre, near Lake Varese, in the neighbourhood of the Antelami.[144]The fact remains that all his successors were Comacines, and from places near Ligurno. There is also a similarity of style between the cloister at Voltorre, and the older parts of S. Gemignano at Modena, both showing a grafting of Gothic on the Romano-Lombard style. A curious document exists, a kind of contract, quoted by Tiraboschi in hisCodice Diplomaticoin the Appendix to the historical memorials of the building of the cathedral, long after Lanfranco's part was done. It runs, when Anglicized—"In the nameof Christ, in the year of His nativity, 1244, in the second indiction, on the day of Mercury (Wednesday), the last of the month of November. It has been recorded that between Ser Alberto, once treasurer to the Opera et Fabbrica, and the late Master Anselmo da Campione in the episcopate of Como (Magistrum Anselmum de Campilione, Episcopatus Cumani), a contract was made, by which the said Magister and his heirsin perpetuoshould work at the said church of Modena, and either the said Master, or any other Master, his descendant, should receive every day, six imperials in the days of May, June, July, and August, but five imperials only in those of the other months, for their recompense and their work. Ser Ubaldino, now Administrator of the saidFabbriceria, seeing and considering that the said stipend or remuneration does not seem sufficient according to the course of these and succeeding times, has deliberated and taken counsel with the venerable Bishop Signor Alberto, and with Ser Giovanni, Archpriest of Modena, at the instance and petition of Magister Arrigo (Henry), son of Magister Ottaccio, who was the son of Anselmo aforesaid; and in the presence of the aforementioned Signori, Bishop, and Archpriest, and of the subscribing witnesses, promises and agrees that to the said Magister Arrigo, for himself and his sons and heirs, and for Magister Alberto and Magister Jacopo, his paternal uncles (patruis suis), and the sons and heirs of the same, shall be given over and above to them, and to their said sons, or successors, who shall be masters in that art (qui magistri fuerint hujus artis), eight imperials for each day they work, from the calends of April to the calends of October. In the days of the remaining months in which they shall have worked at the will of the Administrator of the building, they should, and shall have, only six imperials, receiving nevertheless their food from the said lodge, not only on festal days, but on all others, as they have from the beginning beenaccustomed to have. And if at the will of the said Administrator they shall bring other competent Masters necessary to the said works, these shall receive seven imperials for each day, from the said calends of April to those of October, but in other months only five imperials per diem."
This deed was drawn up in the Canonica of Modena, and duly signed by witnesses.
Tracing the predecessors of Arrigo of Campione, father and grandfather, back from 1244, we come very near the time of the first Lanfranco; and following his descendants from Arrigo, head architect in 1244, to his grandson, who finished the tower of the Dome,[145]and made the marble pulpit in the cathedral in 1322, we get a family line of builders lasting unbroken for nearly two hundred years. There still exists an inscription in bad Latin on the cornice of the pulpit, which says that Tomasino di Giovanni, treasurer of theFabbriceria, S. Gemignano, had the pulpit carved, and the tower built by Arrigo or Enrico, the Campionese sculptor (actibus Henrici sculptoris campionensis). It would be difficult now to assign his due share to each of this long line of master-builders; but the Italian critic, Marchese Ricci, gives Lanfranco the credit of the interior, which is in pure Romano-Lombard style, with two aisles and a nave. The nave is much higher than the aisles, and is supported on columns with high Corinthian capitals from some ancient Roman temple. Lanfranco has given a clumsier Lombard air to them by a very large abacus. The crypt is supported on sixty columns, the capitals of which are all Lombard, and of endless variety of form and sculpture. In the centre is the ark (tomb) of S. Gemignano. The wallof the façade, with its little pillared gallery, is also of Lanfranco's time.
The porch, with its knotted pillars supported on lions, is adjudged by Ricci to be the work of Anselmo of Campione in 1209. The sculpture on the façade by Nicolaus and Guglielmo is said to date from early in the twelfth century, and probably belonged to Lanfranco's design before Anselmo put this doorway. They are to our eyes most naïve Bible stories told in rude sculpture—the one side representing the Creation, the other the first men as far as Noah. To contemporary eyes, however, they were great works, for an old grandiloquent low Latin inscription on the façade says—"Inter scultores quanto sis dignus honore Claret scultura nunc Viligelme tua." "Worthy of honour art thou among sculptors. So shines, O William, this thy sculpture." Marchese Ricci, from the peculiar spelling of Guglielmo, thinks that he might have been a German, but as in the Ferrara inscription he is spelt in the Italian way, I think the Viligelme may be only one of those queer reversals of consonants so common in illiterate Italians. If a poor Florentine has a son named Arturo, he will surely call him Alturo, or if Alfredo, he will always be Arfledo. In any way we can descry in this artist, as in many others of his age, the forerunner of Niccolò Pisano, and see in the art of Niccolò only a link in development, not a new art entirely. To Nicolaus and Guglielmo are also attributed the sculptures in the choir, representing the Passion. We shall find them again at Ferrara.
We see, then, that the family of Anselmo, hereditary sculptors and architects of Modena, were certainly the founders of the great school of the Campionese, which lasted some centuries, and to whose hands may be attributed nearly all the great churches in North Italy. The schools,laborerium, andfabbricerieof Modena furnish another prototype of the threefold organization, whichbecomes so distinct in the Opera of Florence and the Lodges of Venice, Siena, and Orvieto. Tiraboschi publishes a notarial Act, dated January 7, 1261, which speaks of thelaboreriumnear the Duomo, where the stones for the fabric were carved; and that there was a covered way between the church and this building which must not be removed or changed.
Gerolamo Calvi, in hisMatteo de Campione, architetto e scultore, says that nearly all the architecture and sculpture executed in and around Milan in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries may be attributed to the Campionesi. He instances the Sala della Ragione at Padua, with its enormous span of roof, its characteristic arcades and galleries, and the Loggia degli Assi, or Loggia del Consiglio, once the Podestà's palace; the church of S. Agostino at Bergamo, built by Ugo da Campione and his son Giovanni, the castle of the Visconti at Pavia, and many others. Campione, though a place of importance in Roman times, and cited in Carlovingian documents, is now only a village on the side of a mountain, near Val d'Intelvi, containing 500 inhabitants. Calvi writes of it that from the earliest times before the renaissance of art,[146]the men of Campione dedicated themselves to building and sculpture, and diffused themselves throughout the north of Italy, working rudely at first, but gaining in style and experience till they produced great works worthy of eternal fame.
It seems probable that in this school we have a link with Florence. The Jacopo de Campione, who was mentioned in 1244 as uncle of the petitioner Arrigo, is named in other documents as a Campionese, is thought by Merzario and other authors to be that famous architect, Jacopo ilTedesco—or the Lombard, who was for centuries taken with certainty to be the father of Arnolfo. We shall speak of his pedigree in another chapter.
The builders of the Duomo of Ferrara were decidedly connected with thelaboreriumat Modena, both lodges originating from the Campione school. The façade has the usual three perpendicular divisions formed by means of chiselled shafts, but each division is divided horizontally into three levels, each one enriched with Lombard galleries. Besides these is a wealth of ornamentation, figures, reliefs,trafori(open work), and foliage of the most fantastic kind. This and the framework of the church are all that remain of the Comacine work, excepting the vestibule, which has all their signs on it. Four columns resting on four red marble lions support it; one of them guards a lamb, and another has a serpent beneath its paw. Here we have still the Comacine mysticism: the lion of Judah guarding the Paschal Lamb, and one of the House of Judah crushing the serpent. Over the porch are more sculptures, and an arched vestibule; over that a kind of Gothic gable, and above the gable a rose window. The whole speaks eloquently of its kinship with the churches of Verona, Parma, and Bergamo. Tradition says the interior and façade were built not much later than 1103. The inscription over the door runs—
"Il mille cento trempta nato. Fo questo templo a Zorzi (Giorgio) consacrato. Fo Nicolao scultore, e Ghelmo fo lo auctore." These are evidently the same Guglielmo and Nicolao who sculptured Lanfranco's front at Modena. Guglielmo was the leading man, and made the design (auctore); Nicolaus chiefly executed it.
But these two were not the only Comacines employed at Ferrara; a MS. copy of an ancient inscription on some old reliefs in the front of the church of St. George, records thenames of Meo and Antonio of Como. "Da Meo di Checco, e da Antonio di Frix. da Como."[147]
Façade of Ferrara Cathedral, 12th century.See page 198.
Façade of Ferrara Cathedral, 12th century.
See page 198.
Before the middle of the thirteenth century, Padua had become the shrine of a miraculous saint. St. Anthony had come over from Lisbon in 1220, and founded at Padua a new order of monks, calledMinori Conventuali, under similar rules to the Franciscans. St. Anthony attracted great crowds of people by his preaching and miracles, and at his death in 1231 he was canonized, and his devotees desired to build a beautiful church over his tomb. The first attempt failed from not having means to pay a good architect, or competent builders, and in 1265 the commune set to work to remedy their mistake. They assigned four thousand lire a year to the re-edification, until such time as the church should be completed. By 1307 all was complete except the cupola, which was added a century later. Vasari attributes the design to Niccolò Pisano; but his able commentator, Milanesi, who lived all his life studying archives, asserts that neither document, inscription, nor tradition remain to prove Niccolò's connection with Padua, while the style of the building is utterly unlike the edifices known to be his.
Some documents in the archives of Padua, unearthed by Padre Gonzali, prove that in 1263, on May 11, there were working in the church as builders, Egidio, son of Magister Gracii; Ubertino, son of Lanfranco; Niccola, son of Giovanni; and Pergandi, son of Ugone of Mantua; and that, in 1264, a Zambono of Como and a Benedetto of Verona, who lived in the district of Rovina, are recorded as builders. There is no record of the architect who designed the church; but judging from the Moorish innovations of style it was very probably either planned by the monks, or designed bythem. St. Anthony was a Portuguese. On his way here he would have passed through Spain, and may have been attracted by the Moorish architecture. He may have even brought a drawing or two of some many-domed building, and have given them to the Lombard architects to work from. Probably some of his monks were—like many Franciscans and Dominicans—members of the Guild of Freemasons, and so trained in the science of architecture.
In any case, the buildings at Padua are neither true Lombard nor true Gothic, and not even Oriental, but a mixture of all three. The Lombard has partly had his way in the façade, where the upper part is full of galleries and archlets; the lover of the new Gothic arches has put his mark on the lower part of the façade; and the monks, who remembered the native land of their saint, have put the seven domes and minarets; the domes, however, were beyond the Comacines of that time, and were not placed till the fifteenth century, when it is to be imagined that the Renaissance doorway and various pilasters and adjuncts were added. Altogether, for a church where Como Masters undoubtedly worked, St. Anthony of Padua is the most unlike their style. They seem to have taken so little interest in the outlandish plan, that they did not sanctify it by a bit of their biblical sculpture.
That monks at that era really did occupy themselves in architecture, we have consistent proofs in the monkish builders of fine churches; and that when they followed this branch, they were probably trained in, and became members of, the great Masonic Guild, is also indicated by the close connection between theMagistri-fratiand the secularMagistri. In the transactions of the guild, monks were frequently called into council by theOperaorFabbriceria; and they often worked at their churches in conjunction with the secular members.[148]In the church of S. Francesco atLodi is an interesting old painting, representing S. Bernardino directing a group of monks engaged in building a convent. Beneath it is written—"Qualiter in ædificatione monasterii Bernardinus fratres hortatus fuerit."[149]
Church of S. Antonio, Padua, 13th century.See page 199.
Church of S. Antonio, Padua, 13th century.
See page 199.
It is through this order at Padua that the link with Germany became strengthened. Albertus Magnus was a Dominican, born in Bavaria. He came to Padua for his studies in theology and the exact sciences, which evidently included the science of building. Merzario says that up to 1223 he taught publicly in Padua, and wrote a work on Perspective.[150]
Don Vincenzo Rossi, Prior of Settignano, however, writes to me, I believe on the authority of Montalembert, that Albertus Magnus attended the university at Padua, and some think also that at Pavia, but only as a student. He held acattedraat Cologne, where St. Thomas of Aquinas was his pupil.[151]
The name of Albertus Magnus is much connected with the Freemasonry of Germany; and soon after his stay in Padua we find Comacine Masters working in Germany. Some Germansavantmight work out this clue, and see if he did not start, or aid in establishing, a lodge at Cologne, for all authors agree that the architecturalMaestranze(as the Italians called the mixed clerical and lay Masonic Guilds) passed over the Alps from Italy, and flourished greatly in northern cities, such as Strasburg, Zurich, Cologne, etc., etc.
In the twelfth century the beautiful church and monastery of Chiaravalle, near Milan, were erected by the CampioneseMasters, on the commission of the noble family of Archinto of Milan. It is a fine specimen of Italian Gothic, with the dome peculiar to that style.
The Visconti of Milan were large patrons of the Campionese school. The fine castle at Pavia, built in the time of Galeazzo II., shows by its style the Comacine hand. It has been assigned to Niccola Sella from Arezzo and Bernardo of Venice, but, as Merzario shows, these men only came to Pavia thirty years after it was finished.
The first stone was laid on March 27, 1360. The archives have been searched in vain to find the architect's name: it is, however, proved that Bonino da Campione was in Pavia in 1362, working at the Area di S. Agostino, so it is probable that some of his brethren of the Campionese school were also employed by Galeazzo. Unluckily, these are so individually sunk in the company, that one rarely gets a prominent name.
Merzario, quoting other writers, attributes to the Campionesi that sepulchral monument of Beatrice della Scala, now in the church of S. Maria at Milan; the mausoleum of Stefano Visconti in S. Eustorgio, and that of Azzo, son of Galeazzo I.; but beyond a tradition that Bonino da Campione sculptured the last, there is no positive proof.[152]
Great conjectures have been made as to the real author of the Arca di Agostino at Pavia. Vasari says—"La quale è di manosecondo che a me paredi Agnolo e Agostino, scultori senesi." His expression, "As it seems to me," is not very decisive proof, truly. Cicognara is not more exact. He "wonders that this most grand and magnificent work is not more famous than it is—and thinks it shows the style of the Sienese brothers, but opines it is more likely to be by some pupil of theirs, if it is not by Pietro Paolo and Jacobello the Venetians." This is vague with a vengeance. Merzario, however, proves that there are nodocuments to show that the Sienese brother sculptors ever came to Pavia, and asserts that the style of the Arca is not at all Venetian.
The learned Difendente Sacchi[153]brings more logic and less imagination to bear on the point. The inscription on the monument proves that it was begun in 1362, placed in 1365, and that the accessory ornamentation was finished in 1370. The books of the administration show that the sums paid for its construction amounted in all to seventy-two thousandlire italiane.
As no artist in especial is named as having received this sum, I should myself imagine that as usual several Masters of the guild worked at it, but that one wascapo maestro, and drew the design. Comparing it with the monument of Can della Scala at Verona, which is a certified work of Bonino da Campione, Sacchi argues that he was the designer and sculptor of this Arca. The style in both is semi-Gothic, the arches following the same curve and resting on columns; the friezes and ornaments are so much alike as to be in some parts identical in design; the crown of pyramids andcupoliniwhich finishes the monument on the top, the form of the pinnacles, and their floriations are more than similar.
The Arca di S. Agostino is, however, the more elaborate. It has ninety-five statues in its niches, not counting statuettes. One may count nearly three hundred distinct works of sculpture in the composition. (Would not this redundancy prove it the work of a school rather than one hand?) Sacchi justly observes that if Can Scaliger confided to Bonino the commission for his monument, it must have been because he had seen proofs of his skill; and where could this have been more probable than in the Arca at Milan?
A suggestive proof of the Arca di S. Agostino being the joint work of the Comacine Guild, is suggested byMerzario.[154]Over the colonnade of the Arca are twelve statues, but in front of these stand theQuattro Santi Coronati, the four artist martyrs. One of these is represented stooping to examine the base of a pillar; another trying the diminution of a column with the T square, and a third measures a reversed capital, and holds a scroll on which is written in Gothic letters,Quatuor Coronatorum; the fourth is working with hammer and chisel.
Now these four saints, being the special patrons of the Comacine Guild, would have little significance to any other artists.
The sepulchre of Can Signorio de Scaliger in Verona was begun in his lifetime, and on his own commission, and cost 10,000 gold florins. He died in 1375, so it must date slightly prior to that.Bonino de Campiglione Mediolanensishas signed his name in marble on the frieze. It is a fine specimen of Gothic ornamentation, at the culmination of the Campionese school.
There were also earlier works of Bonino's at Cremona; one a sepulchre to Folchino de Schicci, a jurisconsult, in the chapel of St. Catherine in the Duomo, beautifully worked with friezes, etc., in bas-reliefs. It is signed in Gothic characters—
"Hoc sepulcrum est nobilis etEgregii militis et juris peritiD Folchini de Schiciis quiobiit anno D,MCCCLVIIDie Julii et heredum ejusJustitia, Temperantia Fortitudo PrudentiaMagis. Bonino de Campilione me fec."[155]
"Hoc sepulcrum est nobilis etEgregii militis et juris peritiD Folchini de Schiciis quiobiit anno D,MCCCLVIIDie Julii et heredum ejusJustitia, Temperantia Fortitudo PrudentiaMagis. Bonino de Campilione me fec."[155]
"Hoc sepulcrum est nobilis et
Egregii militis et juris periti
D Folchini de Schiciis qui
obiit anno D,MCCCLVII
Die Julii et heredum ejus
Justitia, Temperantia Fortitudo Prudentia
Magis. Bonino de Campilione me fec."[155]
Tomb of Can Signorio degli Scaligeri at Verona. By Magister Bonino da Campione, 1374.See page 204.
Tomb of Can Signorio degli Scaligeri at Verona. By Magister Bonino da Campione, 1374.
See page 204.
The other one is the urn for the relics of S. Omobono, protector of Cremona. Unfortunately the urn, which is said to have been very rich and beautifully worked, hasbeen ruined and dispersed. One slab only remains, bearing the inscription,Magister Boninus de Campilione me fecit, with the date, June 25, 1357. So Can Scaliger would have had also other famous monumental works to recommend his choice of Bonino.
I.—Pisa
The very mention of Pisa brings to our minds Niccolò Pisano, whose name stands in all art histories as the fountain-head of that Tuscan development of art which led to the Renaissance. But where was Niccolò Pisano trained and qualified for this high post of honour? A great architect and sculptor does not suddenly become famous and obtain important commissions without having some undeniable credentials.
In those mediæval days, when the arts protected themselves by forming into constituted guilds, no one could call himself a Master unless he were trained and qualified in one of these guilds and had reached the higher grades. To trace Niccolò's place in the great chain of the Masonic Guild, we must go back a little, and gather together the threads of information we have been able to glean, as to the expansion of the guild itself, and here the valuable collections of archivial documents made by Sig. Milanesi from the books and archives of the Opera del Duomo at Siena, and by Sig. Cesare Guasti from those of the cathedral at Florence, will materially assist us. By studying these and putting facts and statements together the whole organization becomes clear, and our former glimpses into the threefold aspect of the lodges at Modena, Parma, and other northern cities become confirmed.
Here in Tuscany we again find the three branches. First: There is the school where novices were trained in the three sister arts—painting, sculpture, and architecture. When pupils were received from outside the guild, they had to pass a very severe novitiate before being admitted as members; but the sons and nephews ofMagistriwere, we learn, entitled to be members by heritage without the novitiate.[156]The hereditary aspect of the lists of Masters certainly displays this right of heritage very strongly. The qualified Masters were entitled to take pupils and apprentices in their own studios. The large number of pupils who studied under Niccolò Pisano suggests his eminent position in the guild.
Second: There was thelaborerium, or great workshop, where all the hewing of stone, carving of columns, cutting up of wood-work was done—in fact, the head-quarters of the brethren who had passed the schools, but were not yet Masters.[157]A graphic sketch from a Masoniclaboreriumis given by Nanni di Banco, in the relief under the shrine of theQuattro Coronation Or San Michele at Florence, where the four brethren are all at work. In looking at it, one is reminded of the old story of the block of marble from which Michael Angelo's David was made, which had laid for many years in the stores of the Opera del Duomo at Florence, it having been once assigned to Agostino di Ducci, who was commissioned in 1464 to make a statue for the front of the Duomo, which was blocked out so badly that the marble was taken away from him, and he was expelled from thelaborerium.[158]
Third: There was theOperaor Office of Administration,which formed the link between the guild and its patrons. The Freemasons evidently adapted their nomenclature to the dialect of the part they were in. In Tuscany the word for this office wasOpera(or Works). There was the Opera di S. Jacopo at Pistoja as early as 1100; and the Opera del Duomo at Pisa, Siena, and Florence. In cities of the Lombard district, such as Modena, Parma, Padua, Milan, etc., the name isFabbriceria. The members of this Ruling Council are generally four in number, and are calledOperaiin Tuscany, andFabbricieriin Lombardy. These were elected periodically, two of them being influential citizens, who acted on the part of the patrons, and two from the Masters themselves. Where the lodge was very small there was only oneoperaio, as in Pistoja, when in 1250 Turrisianus was overseer (superstans) for a year. Later, when the Pistoja lodge was larger, there were two. At Milan there were more than four. Above these was theSuperiore, a sort of president. If there were a reigning Prince, he was usually elected president. In theOpera, all commissions were given, and contracts signed between the city and the Masters, every contract being duly drawn up in legal manner by the notary of theOpera. Here orders were given for the purchase of materials, and estimates considered for the payment of either work or goods. TheOperahad to provide the funds for the whole expenses. Usually this was done in the first instance by appropriating to the work the receipts of one or more taxes. In course of time people left legacies, and theOperahad a knack of growing very rich.
Between theOperaand thelaboreriumwas a responsible officer called theProvveditore. Judging from the entries in his private memorandum-book, his responsibilities must have been endless, and his occupations multitudinous.
There was also a treasurer, a secretary, and twoProbiviri, sometimes calledBuon uomini, who acted as arbiters, for purposes of appeal and verification of accounts.
The identical form of the lodges in the different cities is a strong argument that the same ruling body governed them all. An argument equally strong is the ubiquity of the members. We find the same man employed in one lodge after another, as work required. Unfortunately no documents exist of the early Lombard times, but the archives of theOpere, which in most cities have been faithfully kept since the thirteenth century, would, if thoroughly examined, prove to be valuable stores from which to draw a history of the Masonic Guild.
We will now return to Pisa.
Sig. Merzario asserts that no school of art indigenous to Pisa existed there before the building of the Duomo. He might almost have said before the time of Niccolò, for so far was the half-mythical Buschetto from being a Pisan, that the world has for eight centuries been arguing where he came from! To arrive at Niccolò it is necessary to start from Buschetto. Who was Buschetto? Whence came he? Vasari, in his ignorance of monumental Latin, says, "From Dulichium," and thus the idea was promulgated that he was a Greek. But the inscription (given on next page) on Pisa cathedral says nothing of the kind. It is a flowery eloquence which Cavalier Del Borgo reads as comparing him for genius to Ulysses, Duke of Dulichium, and for skill to Dædalus.
Cicognara judges from his name that he was Italian. Most probably Buschetto was a nickname, "little bush," given him either from a shock head of hair, or derived fromBuscare, to thrash or flog. It is quite possible, though the proofs are not very strong, that he may have been of Greek extraction, descended from some of the Byzantine members of the guild of whom we have spoken before.
BUSKET.[159]JACE ... HIC .... INGENIOR͞UDULICHIO ... PREVALUISSE DUCI[160]MENIB' JLIACIS CAUTUS DEDIT ILLE RUIN͞AHUJUS AB ARTE VIRI MENIA MIRA VIDES.CALLIDITATE SUA NOCUIT DUX INGENIOSUTILIS ISTE FUIT CALLIDITATE SUA.NIGRA DOM' LABERINTUS ERAT TUA DEDALE LAUS͞EAT SUA BUSKET͞U SPLENDIDA TEMPLA PROBANT.N̄ HABET EXPLU NIVEO[161]DE MARMORE TEMPL͞UQUOD FIT BUSKETI PRORSUS AB INGENIO.RES SIBI COMISSAS TEMPLI C͞U LEDERET HOSTISPROVIDUS ARTE SUI FORTIOR HOSTE FUIT.MOLISET IMMENSE PELAGI QUAS TRAXIT AB IMOFAMA COLUMNARUM TOLLIT AD ASTRA VIRUMEXPLENDIS A FINE DECEM DE MENSE DIEBUSSEPTEMBRIS GAUDENS DESERIT EXILIUM.
BUSKET.[159]JACE ... HIC .... INGENIOR͞UDULICHIO ... PREVALUISSE DUCI[160]MENIB' JLIACIS CAUTUS DEDIT ILLE RUIN͞AHUJUS AB ARTE VIRI MENIA MIRA VIDES.CALLIDITATE SUA NOCUIT DUX INGENIOSUTILIS ISTE FUIT CALLIDITATE SUA.NIGRA DOM' LABERINTUS ERAT TUA DEDALE LAUS͞EAT SUA BUSKET͞U SPLENDIDA TEMPLA PROBANT.N̄ HABET EXPLU NIVEO[161]DE MARMORE TEMPL͞UQUOD FIT BUSKETI PRORSUS AB INGENIO.RES SIBI COMISSAS TEMPLI C͞U LEDERET HOSTISPROVIDUS ARTE SUI FORTIOR HOSTE FUIT.MOLISET IMMENSE PELAGI QUAS TRAXIT AB IMOFAMA COLUMNARUM TOLLIT AD ASTRA VIRUMEXPLENDIS A FINE DECEM DE MENSE DIEBUSSEPTEMBRIS GAUDENS DESERIT EXILIUM.
BUSKET.[159]JACE ... HIC .... INGENIOR͞U
DULICHIO ... PREVALUISSE DUCI[160]
MENIB' JLIACIS CAUTUS DEDIT ILLE RUIN͞A
HUJUS AB ARTE VIRI MENIA MIRA VIDES.
CALLIDITATE SUA NOCUIT DUX INGENIOS
UTILIS ISTE FUIT CALLIDITATE SUA.
NIGRA DOM' LABERINTUS ERAT TUA DEDALE LAUS͞E
AT SUA BUSKET͞U SPLENDIDA TEMPLA PROBANT.
N̄ HABET EXPLU NIVEO[161]DE MARMORE TEMPL͞U
QUOD FIT BUSKETI PRORSUS AB INGENIO.
RES SIBI COMISSAS TEMPLI C͞U LEDERET HOSTIS
PROVIDUS ARTE SUI FORTIOR HOSTE FUIT.
MOLISET IMMENSE PELAGI QUAS TRAXIT AB IMO
FAMA COLUMNARUM TOLLIT AD ASTRA VIRUM
EXPLENDIS A FINE DECEM DE MENSE DIEBUS
SEPTEMBRIS GAUDENS DESERIT EXILIUM.
The partisans of the Grecian theory hold much to a MS. said to be now in the archives of the Vatican,—but which Milanesi asserts cannot be found,—which says that the Pisans "Buschetum ex Grecia favore Constantinopolitani Imperatoris obtinuerunt." Morrona also suspects this to be apocryphal; but even if it be genuine, the Pisans may only have asked for one of the Italian architects who were working in large numbers in the East under the Emperors, and building Lombard churches on Oriental ground. It was only in 1170 that Desiderius, Abbot of Monte Cassino, begged Comnenus to send him back some architects, and the Italian sculptor Olinto was among them.
It may well be true, as Sig. Merzario says, that no school existed at Pisa before the Duomo was begun. But soonafter that, we certainly find the usual organization oflaboreriumandOpera.
Old authors tell us that "the most famous Masters from foreign parts vied in lending their help to the building of such an important edifice, under the direction of Buschetto."[162]Another old MS.[163]records that the "Opera of the Duomo was instituted in 1080, some years after Buschetto was engaged, and that the firstoperaiof the Council were Hildebrand, son of the Judge Uberto, son of Leo, Signoretto Alliata, and Buschetto of Dulichium who was architect. The head of these was Hildebrand, and the others were ministers and officers of the Opera, as may be found in the archives of the said Opera."[164]Here we have the full organization of the Comacine House of Works. The dignitaries of the city as President, Treasurer, and Ministers, the head architect also a member of the Council of the Opera. Another old writer calls Buschettocapo della scuola Pisana.
Niccolò, Giovanni, and Andrea da Pisa are fine proofs that the school at Pisa flourished and brought forth brave artists. Even as late as the sixteenth century, when Sansovino was sculpturing the casing of the Holy House at Loreto, we are told that thirty of the best carvers in stone were sent from Pisa to work under the Capo Maestro, Andrea Contucci of Monte Sansovino.[165]
Among theMagistrifrom other parts in Buschetto's time, one of the chief was doubtless Rainaldo, who, judging fromthe inscription near the principal door of the façade, was not only a working sculptor in the guild, but also a full-fledged Master—