The Cathedral Builders Part 19

Great conjectures have been made as to the real author of the Arca di Agostino at Pavia. Vasari says--"La quale e di mano _secondo che a me pare_ di 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 no doc.u.ments to show that the Sienese brother sculptors ever came to Pavia, and a.s.serts 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 thousand _lire 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 was _capo 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 and _cupolini_ which 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 by Merzario.[154] Over the colonnade of the Arca are twelve statues, but in front of these stand the _Quattro 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 Mediolanensis_ has 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 n.o.bilis et Egregii militis et juris periti D Folchini de Schiciis qui obiit anno D,MCCCLVII Die Julii et heredum ejus Just.i.tia, Temperantia Fort.i.tudo Prudentia Magis. Bonino de Campilione me fec."[155]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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, has been 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.

FOOTNOTES:

[143] "Anno itaque MXCIX ab incolis praefatae urbis quaestum est ubi tanti operis designator, ubi talis structurae edificator invenire posset: et tandem Dei gratia inventus est vir quidam nomine Lanfrancus mirabilis aedificator, cujus concilio indicatum est ejus basilicae fundamentum."--From Muratori, quoted by Merzario, _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. I. chap. iv. p. 168.

[144] See chapter headed "Troublous Times."

[145] This tower, which is almost as light and elegant as that of Giotto in Florence, became historically famous in the wars between Modena and Bologna in 1325, when the famous Secchia was hidden there--the subject of that curious heroi-comic poem _La Secchia rapita_.

[146] Calvi, _Notizie sulla vita e sulle opere dei princ.i.p.ali architetti, pittori e scultori_, etc., vol. i. p. 39.

[147] Frix is an abbreviation of Frixones, a name we find two centuries later in an artist of the same guild, working at Milan cathedral, Marco da Frixone a Campione. Another Frix worked at Ferrara a century later.

[148] See chapter on "The Florentine Lodge."

[149] _Artisti Lombardi del Secolo XV_, di Micheli Caffi.

[150] _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. I. chap. iv. p. 161.

[151] The silence of that learned St. Thomas was so proverbial that his fellow-students called him the "Bue muto" (the dumb bull). Apropos of this, Albertus Magnus made his famous witty prophecy--"Tomaso may be a dumb bull, but the day will come when his bellowing will be heard throughout the world."

[152] Merzario, _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. I. chap. viii. p. 243.

[153] Difendente Sacchi, _L' arca di S. Agostina ill.u.s.trata_, etc.

[154] Merzario, _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. I. chap. viii. p. 248.

[155] V. Vairina, _I Scriptiones Cremonenses Universae_, p. 14, N. 53.

CHAPTER III

THE TUSCAN LINK

I.--PISA

The very mention of Pisa brings to our minds Niccol 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 Niccol 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 mediaeval days, when the arts protected themselves by forming into const.i.tuted 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 Niccol'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 doc.u.ments 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 a.s.sist 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 pa.s.s a very severe novitiate before being admitted as members; but the sons and nephews of _Magistri_ were, we learn, ent.i.tled 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 ent.i.tled to take pupils and apprentices in their own studios. The large number of pupils who studied under Niccol Pisano suggests his eminent position in the guild.

Second: There was the _laborerium_, 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 pa.s.sed the schools, but were not yet Masters.[157] A graphic sketch from a Masonic _laborerium_ is given by Nanni di Banco, in the relief under the shrine of the _Quattro Coronati_ on 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 a.s.signed 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 the _laborerium_.[158]

Third: There was the _Opera_ or 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 was _Opera_ (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 is _Fabbriceria_. The members of this Ruling Council are generally four in number, and are called _Operai_ in Tuscany, and _Fabbricieri_ in 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 one _operaio_, as in Pistoja, when in 1250 Turrisia.n.u.s 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 the _Superiore_, a sort of president. If there were a reigning Prince, he was usually elected president. In the _Opera_, 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 the _Opera_. Here orders were given for the purchase of materials, and estimates considered for the payment of either work or goods. The _Opera_ had 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 the _Opera_ had a knack of growing very rich.

Between the _Opera_ and the _laborerium_ was a responsible officer called the _Provveditore_. Judging from the entries in his private memorandum-book, his responsibilities must have been endless, and his occupations mult.i.tudinous.

There was also a treasurer, a secretary, and two _Probiviri_, sometimes called _Buon 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 doc.u.ments exist of the early Lombard times, but the archives of the _Opere_, 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 a.s.serts 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 Niccol, 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 Niccol 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 Daedalus.

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 from _Buscare_, 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 .... INGENIOR?U DULICHIO ... PREVALUISSE DUCI[160]

MENIB' JLIACIS CAUTUS DEDIT ILLE RUIN?A HUJUS AB ARTE VIRI MENIA MIRA VIDES.

CALLIDITATE SUA NOCUIT DUX INGENIOS UTILIS ISTE FUIT CALLIDITATE SUA.

NIGRA DOM' LABERINTUS ERAT TUA DEDALE LAUS?E AT SUA BUSKET?U SPLENDIDA TEMPLA PROBANT.

N HABET EXPLU NIVEO[161] DE MARMORE TEMPL?U QUOD FIT BUSKETI PRORSUS AB INGENIO.

RES SIBI COMISSAS TEMPLI C?U 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 a.s.serts 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 Ca.s.sino, 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 soon after that, we certainly find the usual organization of _laborerium_ and _Opera_.