The Cathedral Builders Part 28

Cap. XXVIII. That all orders come from the Grand Master.

Cap. XXIX. How the outgoing officials shall instruct the new ones.

(_i.e._ The council of administration which was changed periodically.)

Cap. x.x.x. That no Master may undertake a second work till the first has been paid.

Cap. x.x.xI. Brick-makers and quarry-men must abide by the rules of the guild.

Cap. x.x.xIV. On those who lie against others.

Cap. x.x.xV. Those who demand a meeting or consultation shall pay fifteen soldi to the guild.

Cap. x.x.xVI. That the Grand Master on retiring from office shall call three _riveditori_[217] to examine his accounts.

Cap. x.x.xIX. That no master of woodwork shall work in stone.

Cap. XL. The _Breve_ (statutes) shall be revised every year.

Cap. XLI. On the entry into the lodge, of Masters from the city or neighbourhood.

The statutes are very fair and well composed, and must certainly have been made from long experience in the guild.

In 1447 we find a further split. The Masters of wood-carving secede from the sculptors in stone, and form their own statutes. Little by little, as art becomes more perfect and requires more freedom, the Masonic monopoly of centuries is dissolving.

We must now return to the building of the Duomo by this mult.i.tude of brethren.

It was in 1259 that the civic Council decided to continue the work of restoration in the Duomo of Siena, and formed a council of nine influential citizens, together with the _Magistri_ of the Masonic Guild, to superintend the work. By February 1321 their ideas and ambitions had so enlarged that they proposed to make the present church the transept, and to add a great nave, "to make a beautiful and magnificent church, with all rich and suitable ornamentation." The new nave was really begun, and a high bare wall with a fine window in it remains to this day to puzzle the tourist. This vast design was, however, abandoned, and the building continued on a less ambitious scale.

Now for details of all these changes. Before Giovanni Pisano's time we only get a few quaint names such as Magister Manuellus, son of the late Rinieri, who made the stalls in the choir in 1259; Luglio Benintendi, Ventura Diotisalvi, Magister Gratia or Gracii, Ristorus, Stefano Jordano, Orlando Bovacti, nearly all of whom were Masters from other lodges either in Lombardy or Pisa. There are besides two other Venture--one Ventura di Gracii, and one Ventura called Trexsa. All these are named as being called in a council of the guild of June 9, 1260, to consider the stability of some vaulting lately made, but I can find no _capo magistro_ at this date. Several of these are names known in other cities where the guild had lodges. Ventura's father, Diotisalvi, built the Baptistery at Pisa; Magister Gracii came from Padua, Stefano Jorda.n.u.s had a son, Johannes Stephani, who was witness to Niccol di Pisa's receipt for payment by Fra Melano of 78 gold lire and IV denarii for his pulpit in the Duomo on July 26, together with Orlando, son of Orlando Bovacti, and Ventura di Rapolano. Niccol himself had with him his son Giovanni, who also graduated in the guild from the school of his father. Here, too, were Arnolfo, Lapo (the younger), with Donato and Goro, who were students in Niccol's school of sculpture, and who worked so well at the sculpture at Siena that when they became _Magistri_ in 1271, the three last were given the freedom of the city.[218] They were not exclusively sculptors, however, any more than Arnolfo was. Lapo was employed in 1281 as architect at Colle, where Arnolfo's reputed father, the elder Lapo or Jacopo il Tedesco, had been engaged by King Manfred long before him.

Goro di Ciucci Ciuti had three sons, Neri, Ambrogio, and Goro, all in the guild. In 1306 we find them all engaged together in the fountain of Follonica at Siena. In 1310 Neri's sons Ciolo and Nuto are mentioned; one of them, having graduated, is old enough to have a pupil, named Teri. Here is the deed of apprentices.h.i.+p--

No. 26. "_1310, 16 Settembre._

"CIOLO, MAESTRO DI PIETRA DEL FU _NERI_ DA SIENA, PRENDE PER SUO DISCEPOLO _TERI_ FRATELLO DI BALDINO DA CASTELFIORENTINO (ARCHIVIO DEL DUOMO DI SIENA. PERGAMENA, 616).

"In nomini Domini amen. Ex hoc publico instrumento sit omnibus manifestum; quod _Ciolus_ magister lapidum de cappella sancti Salvatoris in Ponte, quondam _Nerii_ de Senis, fecit--Ugolinum, dictum Geriolum, de populo Sancti Joannis de Senis--suum procuratorem--ad recipiendum pro eo et ejus vice et nomine, _Terium_, germanum Baldini de Castro Florentino, nunc commorantem Senis, in discipulum et pro discipulo suprascripti _Cioli_. Et ad promictendum ipsi _Terio_, vel ali persone pro eo, quod ipse _Ciolus_ magister tenebit eundem _Terium_ in suum et pro suo discipulo, ad terminum et terminos statuendum et statuendos a dicto _Ciolo_; et quod eum dictam suam artem de lapidibus docebit.

"Actum Pisis, in via publica ante domum habitationis Duccii Nerii Bonaveris, positam in via sancte Marie, in cappella sancte Eufraxie.--Dominice incarnationis anno Domini Millesimo trecentesimo decimo, Indictione septima, s.e.xtodecimo Kal: Octobris, secundum cursum pisanorum.

"Ego Bonaccursus filius quondam Provincialis de Vecchiano--not:--scripsi."--(Reproduced from Milanesi, _Doc.u.menti per la Storia dell' Arte Senese_, vol. i. pp. 174, 175.)

In 1281 a Grand Council was called to revoke the banishment of one of the Lombard Masters, Ramo di Paganello.[219] It seems that Ramo's father was from Lombardy, "de partibus ultramontanis;" but the son had been made a citizen of Siena, whence he was exiled for contumacy.

However, he was such a good sculptor that the edict was revoked. The report begins--

"1281, 20 Novembre.--Item c.u.m Magister Ramus filius Paganelli de partibus ultramontanis, qui olim fuit civis senensis, venerit nunc ad civitatem Sen: pro serviendo operi beate Marie de Senis; ex eo quod est de bonis intalliatoribus et sculptoribus, et subtilioribus de mundo qui inveniri possit: et ad dictum servitium morari non potest, eo quod invenitur exbannitus et condenpnatus per contumaciam, occasione quod debuit jacere c.u.m quadam muliere; eo existente extra civitatem Senensem: si videtur vobis conveniens quod debeat rebanniri et absolvi de banno et condenpnationibus suis, ad hoc ut possit libere et secure servire dicto operi ad laudem et honorem Dei, et beate Marie Virginis, in Dei nomine consulate."

The first head architect, who is definitely styled _Capo maestro dell'

Opera_, is Giovanni Pisano, who, when he came to work with his father at the pulpit in 1266, seems to have taken root in Siena, as did his fellow-pupils Lapo, Donato, and Goro. Arnolfo, the fourth of the group, found his mission in Florence.

Signor Milanesi has not succeeded in finding the doc.u.ment referring to Giovanni da Pisa's election, but he finds that, in 1284, the Sienese, in grat.i.tude for the services he has rendered in the building of the Duomo, and especially the facade, gave him the freedom of the city, and immunity from taxes.[220]

Like most artists, Giovanni must have been Bohemian in his ways, or careless in his political expressions, for in October 1290 he was fined the large sum of 600 lire, and had not the wherewithal to pay.

He got off by paying a third, but even this Fra Jacopo, one of the _Operai_ of the Duomo, had to advance. It was probably repaid from his salary by instalments.[221] From these doc.u.ments we gather that the facade was not designed by Lorenzo Maitani, as has generally been supposed. If the Commune of Siena in 1284 acknowledged Giovanni's talent in building the Duomo and the facade, Lorenzo Maitani, who only began to be chief architect of Orvieto from 1310, certainly could not have been old enough to design the front of Siena cathedral. Moreover Milanesi expressly says that, with all his research in the archives, he can find no mention whatever of Maitani's being connected in any prominent manner with Siena cathedral.[222] He most likely worked at it as Giovanni's pupil, and this, with the general tenets of the guild, would sufficiently account for the similarity between the two churches.

The tenets of the guild were certainly veering towards the Gothic, and each generation of its members made a new step. Jacopo Tedesco at a.s.sisi, and Niccol Pisano in his pulpit, showed the first sign of transition; their sons and pupils, Arnolfo at Florence, and Giovanni at Siena, developed the style still further, and their successors fully expanded it at Milan.

Giovanni was a lover of the Gothic, but was not yet entirely converted. His windows, like Arnolfo's, were pointed, the points emphasized by ornate Gothic gables over them; but the three arches of the doorways are of a Lombard roundness, the pointed effect being only conveyed by the superimposed gables. Yet the turrets and saint-filled niches of the upper part of the facade are as rich, and pointed, and pinnacled as any Gothic cathedral could be. He had not discovered, as the Germans afterwards did, the beauty of the upward line. The old cla.s.sic leaning to the horizontal line still cuts up the design; and the little Lombard pillared gallery still stretches across the front, though beautified and gothicized. He did not forget the sign of the guild in this transition period; for there on the columns, and beneath the arches, are the lions of Judah.

It is not positively certain whether the present facade was the one originally designed by Giovanni or not. We find that in November 1310, a commission of ten Master builders was formed, to superintend the work of the mosaic, already commenced, and to guard against useless expenses. Milanesi supposes this to refer to some mosaics destined for the facade, especially as in 1358 a Maestro Michele di Ser Memmo was paid six gold florins for his work, "per la sua fadigha (fatica) e magistero di Santo Michele agnolo, a musaica (_sic_) che fecie a la facciata di duomo nel canto."[223] The front, as it is at present, has no mosaics; probably Giovanni Pisano's plan was modified in later days. It is certain that after Giovanni's death in 1299 great changes of design were made.

The interior has the same mixture as the facade; there are round arches below in the nave, and pointed windows above in the clerestory.

The black and white marble, significant of the times though it be, detracts much from the effect of the really fine architecture by cutting it up in slices. Fergusson recognized the purely Italian pedigree of Siena cathedral.[224] "That at Siena," he says, "ill.u.s.trates forcibly the tendency exhibited by the Italian architects to adhere to the domical forms of the old Etruscans, which the Byzantines made peculiarly their own. It is much to be regretted that the Italians only, of all the Western mediaeval builders, showed any predilection for this form of roof. On this side of the Alps it would have been made the most beautiful of architectural forms."

We cannot, however, endorse Mr. Fergusson's next a.s.sertion--"in Italy there is no instance of more than moderate success--nothing, indeed, to encourage imitation." In the face of the domes of St. Peter's at Rome, S. Marco at Venice, the cathedrals of Florence, Parma, Padua, Siena, and Monreale, this is rather a hard saying.

The Sienese had, as we have said, proposed to so enlarge the church by adding a huge nave, that the present church would only form the transept. This was begun, but when the works had already advanced the plan was abandoned. Provisional _Magistri_ were called to form a committee, which met in council on February 17, 1321, and here, for the first time in Siena, we find Lorenzo Maitani giving his vote. He was called to attend the meeting from Orvieto, where he had been _capo maestro_ of the works from 1310. He, with Niccola Nuti, Gino di Francesco, Tone di Giovanni, and Vanni di Cione (one of Orcagna's relatives from Florence), formed the council. After due deliberation they p.r.o.nounced on the inconvenience of proceeding with the addition to the Duomo, and decided to build a new church of more moderate dimensions, which should still be large and magnificent. The work now continued without interruption; and on November 20, 1333, we find another Council of Masters was called, in which twelve of the guild severally swear "testis juratis die supra scripta et sancta Dei evangelia, corporaliter tactis scripturis dicere veritatem, suo juramento testificando dixit," etc., that the walls and foundations were strong and firm.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRONT OF SIENA CATHEDRAL. DESIGNED BY MAGISTER GIOVANNI PISANO.

_See page 295._]

The next _capo maestro_ was Master Lando or Orlando di Pieri, son of Piero, a metal-worker of the guild, who was recalled from Naples in 1339. He was a Lombard, though a naturalized citizen of Siena. They say Lando is "a most legal man (_omo legalissimus_), not only in his own special branch (gold-working), but in many others; is a man of the greatest ingenuity and invention, both with regard to the building of churches and the erection of palaces and private houses; a good engineer for roads, bridges, or fountains, and, above all, a citizen of Siena."[225] Here we see signs of the jealousy of the Lombard Guild, which caused the schism of which we have spoken. Lando was truly an acknowledged genius. He made the coronet with which the Emperor Henry VII. was crowned at Milan in 1311. Muratori (cap.

xiii.), quoting an old Latin dissertation on the "corona ferrea," says the maker of the crown was present, "presente magistro Lando de Senis, aurifabro predicti domini Regis, qui predictam coronam propriis manibus fabricavit." We hear no more of his gold work; but in 1322 he was employed in Florence to hang the great bell of the palace of the Signoria, and make it ring (Ita quod de facili pulsatur et pulsari potest), for which he was paid 300 gold florins. In his architectural capacity he was employed at Naples by King Robert of Anjou, but was recalled from there to Siena in 1339, and made _caput magister_ of the builders of the Duomo. The contract, signed on December 3, 1339, binds him for three years at a salary of 200 lire a year.

The accounts of the _Opera_ have some interesting articles connected with the laying of the foundations of the revised plan. In August 1339 the Masters were called into council on the enlargement of the Duomo, as the nave was considered too short, and Ser Bindo, the notary of the guild, had to supply them with five sheets of parchment at one lire a sheet to make designs. Also two lire ten soldi were spent in bread, meat, and wine, which were sent by the guild to the priests who officiated when the first stone was laid. In March, Maestro Lando again applied to Ser Bindo for parchment to make designs, which cost him twenty-three soldi six denari.

Whether these plans were accepted or not, I cannot tell--probably not--for in the following March, Lando fell ill and died. He left a son, Pietro di Lando, also in the guild, and who was naturalized Florentine when he joined that lodge. A doc.u.ment cited by Gaye (_Carteggio_, etc. vol. i. p. 73) shows Pietro to have worked with Giovanni di Lazzero de Como and a Buono Martini at the fortifications of Castel S. Angelo in Val di Sieve; the three architects solicited the Signoria for the pay due to them. This Pietro was the father of Vecchietta, who inherited more than his great-grandsire's talent for working metal.

The next _capo maestro_ after Lando was Giovanni, son of the famous sculptor Agostino of Siena, who was, on March 23, 1340, elected for five years. He had been head of the works at Orvieto in 1337, but did not long remain there, for in 1338 we find him again in the pay of the lodge of Siena, where a doc.u.ment in the archives of the Hospital notes a payment for some work on April 26, to Maestro Giovanni, son of Maestro Agostino of the _Opera_, and of the parish of S. Quirico.[226]

After Giovanni I can find no mention of a _capo maestro_ till February 16, 1435, when Jacopo della Quercia, otherwise "Magister Jacobus, Magistri Petri," was elected _operajo_ (president of the Council), _i.e._ Grand Master. His salary was fixed at one hundred gold florins as long as he lived, and his wife was to have a pension at his death.

There were several conditions specified to which he had to agree. But he had so many other engagements, at S. Petronio in Bologna, at Parma, and Lucca, that he absented himself too much from Siena to please the _Opera_ there. As early as March 1434-35, a month after his election, we find him leaving two of the Council of Administration to rule in his absence. The absence must have been a lengthy one, for on October 22, 1435, the Signoria of the Commune write to him as follows--"Magister Jacobo Pieri electus Operaio, etc. etc.... As you have been fully informed, you ought before the past month to have taken action, and performed the duties undertaken by you in regard to the office of _Operaio_ of our Church, to which our Councils elected you. We and our councillors have waited all the past month, expecting that, for the honour of the Commune, and its needs at the hands of the said _Opera_, you would return. Now we are at October 22, and you do not appear to think of it. G.o.d knows how the citizens are complaining and murmuring against you. Therefore we have decided to write to you, that without fail, and with no delay, you must immediately present yourself to perform your duties, and let nothing hinder you. If you do not do this, it will cause us great astonishment and inconvenience."[227]

The Council of the _Opera_ wrote a long Latin letter at the same time, exhorting their chief to return and satisfy the claims of the Commune.

Whether he came or not I cannot say, but it appears not for any length of time, as on March 26, 1436, we find him at Parma, writing a defiant kind of letter to the _Operai_ of San Petronio at Bologna, who had appealed to him to finish his engagements there. By 1439 we find Jacopo della Quercia had died, and his brother Priam was writing repeated pet.i.tions to the _Opera_ at Siena about his inheritance from Jacopo, which it seems a certain pupil of Jacopo's called Cino Bartoli was withholding from him.

So the work went on for centuries. There are contracts with different Masters for sculptures, for windows, for towers, for chapels, each Master designing the part a.s.signed to him. Francesco del Tonghio obtained great fame for his carvings of the stalls in the choir in 1377, where his son Giacomo a.s.sisted him. We find him in Florence some time later, and his fame must have preceded him, for he is known there as "Francesco of the Choir" (Francesco del Coro).

It is impossible to name a single architect for any of these great buildings; they were all the united work of a self-governed guild.

During the centuries when the Duomo of Siena rose into beauty, her sister of Orvieto also grew under the hands of the same brotherhood.

Lorenzo Maitani, having been trained by his master, Giovanni di Pisa, at Siena, was called to Orvieto in 1310. His family lasted long in the guild, and won much fame. His father Vitale was a master sculptor who had worked under Niccol and Giovanni. His sons Vitale and Antonio both graduated in the Siena or Orvieto Lodge, and Vitale became chief architect at Orvieto for six months only, on Lorenzo's death, when Master Meo di Nuti di Neri succeeded him.

It is not probable that beyond the design, Maitani had much to do with the facade, which was incomplete till about 1500. The beautiful Bible in stone which adorns the pilasters of the three fine doors may have been designed by Maitani, but the work was done by his sons, with the help of many sculptors of the guild from Siena, Florence, and Lombardy. The upper part was not added till the time of Michele Sanmichele of Verona, who in 1509 was nominated chief architect of the facade at a salary of one hundred florins a year. He is described as "Magistrum Michaelem, Magistri Johannis de Verona, princ.i.p.alem magistrum fabrice faciate de Urbe vetere."[228]

[Ill.u.s.tration: DOOR IN ORVIETO CATHEDRAL.

_See page 305._]