The Cathedral Builders Part 29

The enthusiastic work of the numberless artists all vying with each other in beautifying this marvellous church bore rather heavily on the funds of the _Opera_, for in August 1521 the _camarlengo_ had to stop the expenses of the facade and finish some more needful parts of the church first. So "Mag. Michael Johannes Michaelis, Caput Magister dicte Fabrice," was given permission to absent himself for three days a week, for other work (no doubt the church at Spello), and the _Opera_ continued his salary on half-pay.[229] About this time a compet.i.tion was offered among the _Magistri_ for the best design for the chapel of the Three Kings at Orvieto. Antonio Sangallo and Michele were the two best, and when Pope Clement VII. fled to Orvieto from the sack of Rome in 1527, the choice was made with his concurrence, Michele's being chosen. Both San Michele and San Gallo rose to extreme eminence in the guild; many of the finest palaces in Florence and Venice were by them. It is interesting to find that they were both Lombard brethren of the guild by hereditary descent.

The preponderance of Lombards in all these later lodges is sufficient proof of the connection of these lodges with the older Comacines, from whom their ancestry can be traced direct.

In April 1422 we find Maestro Piero di Beltrami da Biscione and his Lombard companions arranging with the _Opera_ for the purchase and cutting of marbles and travertine. In September 1444 Guglielmo di Como and his brother Pietro da Como were commissioned to make a mausoleum in the Duomo for the Bishop of Siena. A contemporary of theirs was Giuliano da Como, who was of such repute in the guild, that the Council of the _Opera_, "considering the _virtu_ of Maestro Giuliano and the desirability of keeping him in Siena, deliberated to accord to him a loan he requested, of seventy florins to buy a house."[230]

Again, on May 25, 1421, the Republic of Siena wrote to Filippo Visconti Duke of Milan that a Maestro Giovanni, son of Maestro Leone da Piazza near Como, was anxious to return to his native country, to see his family and to arrange a law-suit; and they recommended him to the Lords of Milan because he had greatly won the affection and esteem of the Sienese republic by his good life and his eminence in his art of sculpture.

A certain "Maestro Alberto di Martino de c.u.mo in provincie Lombardie"

was engaged by the _Opera_ on March 2, 1448, as a builder, in company with Giovan Francesco of Valmaggia and Lanzilotto di Niccola of Como.

When the Piccolomini wanted to build a splendid palace in Siena, they did not choose their architects from the faction of their townspeople, but from the original Lombard branch. Martino di Giorgio da Varenna (near Bidagio on Lake Como) was chief architect, and Lorenzo from Mariano in the Lugano valley a.s.sisted him as sculptor. He carved the beautiful capitals and friezes in the palace, and his work so pleased the Piccolomini, that they employed him to erect an altar and decorate their chapel in the church of S. Francesco. Milanesi says that Lorenzo da Mariano was one of the best artists of his time for foliaged scrolls and grotesques.[231] In 1506 he was _capo maestro_ of the Duomo of Siena. Maestro Lorenzo was no doubt one of the precursors of the sculptors of the beautiful cathedral of Como, and the richly ornate Certosa of Pavia, who were trained in the Sienese _laborerium_.

A fellow-countryman, named Maestro Matteo di Jacopo, came from Lugano with Lorenzo, and together with Maestro Adamo da Sanvito (also in Val di Lugano) undertook the great engineering work of making an artificial lake, to drain the then malarious country round Ma.s.sa in Maremma.

Martino di Giorgio had a relative who became more famous than himself.

This was Francesco di Giorgio di Martino--three names in rotation are generally enough to supply an Italian family for centuries,--who continued the work at Palazzo Piccolomini (Vasari gives him the credit for the whole), and was one of the architects of the palace at Urbino.

Milanesi, the commentator of Vasari, a.s.serts that Francesco was the son of a seller of fowls in Siena, because he found the name of a "Giorgio di Martino, pollajuolo," in the registers, but seeing that he was bred in the guild, it is much more likely that he was related to the Giorgio di Martino already eminent there. His family had certainly become citizens of Siena by that date.

Maestro Francesco di Giorgio Martini holds a large share in the correspondence of the Sienese government and of the _Opera_ in the latter part of the fifteenth century.

On December 26, 1486, we find him first entering the pay of the Sienese Commune as public architect. He has a salary of 800 florins, and is bound to fix his home at Siena. He was recalled from Urbino for the purpose, having orders to arrive within six months, but the Duke Guidobaldo was not at all willing for him to leave. On May 10, 1489, the Duke writes to say that the absence of his architect (_mio architector_) would be a serious injury to him.

During the time Francesco remained in Umbria he seems to have done the Commune good political service by keeping them informed of the dangers that threatened Florence from the offensive alliance between Lorenzo de Medici and the Pope Innocent VIII., who designed to take Citta di Castello for Francesco Cibo. This would have endangered the peace of Siena, so the architect warned them to be prepared.

After this, Magister Frances...o...b..came the bone of contention among several princes and republics. The Duke of Milan wrote, on April 19, 1490, to the Signoria of Siena, begging them to send the "intellexerimus magistrum Francisc.u.m Giorgium Urbinatem" (see how the place he last worked at is named as his residence!) to Milan to give his opinion on the mode of placing the cupola. The Commune gave the permission, and on June 27, 1490, we find Magistro Francisco di Georgi di Siena (here again at Milan he is styled of Siena), with Magistro Johantonio Amadeo (Omodeo) and Johanjacobo Dolzebono (Gian Giacomo Dolcebono), elected as a supreme council of three, and giving their advice on the erection of the cupola at Milan, with the exact plan and measurements which would harmonize with the building as it then stood.

He did not remain to see the plans carried out, but was on his recall to Siena remunerated with one hundred florins by the Fabbrica (_Opera_) of Milan.

On October 24 of the same year, Giovanni della Rovere, the Prefect of Rome, wrote to the Signoria of Siena praying for the service of their architect, and on November 4, 1490, Virginio Orsino, Duke of Bracciano, begged him to go and build a fortress at Campagnano.

Next Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, wanted him at the Castle of Capua, where he went between February and May 1491, and in August of the same year the Anziani, Lords of Lucca, pet.i.tioned for him. And so he is called from end to end of Italy, and wherever he goes he is received with honour as a grand architect.[232]

At Orvieto we find the same preponderance of Lombards as in Siena.

The register of the _Opera_ there for August 30, 1293, gives the salaries of the _Magistri_ in the Loggia (lodge) of the Fabbrica. Here we find many of our Sienese friends; Magistro Orlando and Guido da Como receive six soldi a day; Magistro Martino da Como seven. We find also Pietro Lombardo, Giacomo and Benedetto da Como, sculptors; Martino, Guido, and Aroldo as successive chief architects in the Fabbrica or _Opera_.

In 1305 the _camarlengo_ had to write to Lombardy for more builders and sculptors, for, says Della Valle, "la fama di volo ne spargesse il grido fin oltre ai confini d'Italia," and in December four _Magistri_ arrived--"Mag. Franciscus Lombardus, Mag. Marchettus Lombardus, Mag.

Benedictus Lombardus, and Johannes de Mediolano (Milan)." I do not know which of these sculptured the door of which we give an ill.u.s.tration, but the artist has set the sign of his fraternity on it in the lions beneath the pillars. (One is now missing.)

The Lodge of Orvieto, sometimes spelt _Loya_ or _Loja_, is described as a large, s.p.a.cious, and airy building, in which the sculpturing of stones and marbles was done, and where the stores and the schools were.[233]

The use of the word "Lodge" for this complicated organization seems a sign of Freemasonry, and suggests that the Comacines followed the ancient rules of Vitruvius, and kept up the organization of the Roman _Collegium_.

We have, I think, proved this to be true, and shown that the same organization held good up to the fifteenth century, if not longer.

Signor Milanesi's interesting collection of Sienese doc.u.ments, if studied closely, contains endless indications of the existence of the guild. We find several cases of arbitration, such as when Doctor Filippo Francesconi, and Maestro Lorenzo di Pietro, called Vecchietta, were chosen on September 20, 1471, as arbiters between Maestro Urbano di Pietro of Cortona, sculptor, and Bastiano di Francesco, stone-cutter, his workman, who lodged a complaint against his master on account of unpaid wages and loss of tools. This same Urbano appears to have been frequently in need of arbiters, for on Jan. 27, 1471-72, Bertino di Gherardo was called on to settle a cause between Madonna Caterina, wife of Silvio Piccolomini, and the sculptor Urbano, and decided that the lady must pay the artist 100 lire within the term of four years, the payments to be made quarterly. It was at the lady's option to pay in kind, such as corn or wine, if it suited her better.[234] Then there are frequent meetings of councils for appraising the work of other Masters, and we find the _Operaio_, or Head of Administration, fixing the salaries of underlings. Precisely the same meetings, arbitrations, appraisings, went on in Florence.

Indeed, in the fifteenth century the two lodges of Siena and Florence were so closely intermingled, the Masters appearing now in one city and then in the other, that there can be no doubt a fraternity existed between them. We even find Donatello, who came from Florence to make the bronze doors, sleeping in a feather bed supplied by the _camarlengo_ of the _Opera_ at Siena.[235]

Donatello was more or less in Siena between 1457 and 1461. He was engaged to sculpture the altar of the Madonna of the Duomo there on October 17, 1457. His accounts are much mixed up with those of Urbano di Pietro of Cortona, of whom we have spoken. It seems Urbano bought the metal to cast a half figure of Judith, and one of St. John, both modelled by Donatello. The money, however, was advanced to Urbano by the banker Dalgano di Giacomo b.i.+.c.hi. The books of the _camarlengo_ of the _Opera_ have several entries for expenses of modelling wax, and metal for casting, etc., used by Donatello in the figures on the altar of the Madonna delle Grazie; his a.s.sistants and pupils on this occasion were Francesco di Andrea di Ambrogio, of Lombard origin, and Bartolommeo di Giovanni di Ser Vincenzo.

FOOTNOTES:

[210] All the Masters marked * were receiving pay at the Duomo of Siena in 1318.

[211] All the Masters marked gave their opinion, on oath, of the works at the Duomo of Siena in councils in 1333.

[212] Merzario, _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. I. chap. vii. p. 210, quoted from an ancient MS. cited by Cicognara.

[213] Pope Alexander had a long reign from 1159 to 1181, but there were four antipopes to hara.s.s him during its duration.

[214] Reproduced in Milanesi's _Doc.u.menti per l' Arte Senese_, vol. i.

pp. 128, 129.

[215] Milanesi, _Doc.u.menti per la Storia dell' Arte Senese_, p. 130.

[216] These Four Holy Martyrs are the "Santi Quattro Incoronati," the patron saints of the guild. We find from the _Breve_ that at the feast of the dead, on November 2, all the Masters and officers of the guild had to meet in their chapel to hear ma.s.s. Each Master was to bring a wax taper not weighing less than half-a-pound, and was to make an offering for the maintenance of the chapel, etc., of whatever he could afford. The Rector (Grand Master) was obliged by oath to enforce the strict observance of the day, and to fine any Magister who, being in Siena, should absent himself from the meeting, fifteen soldi, besides the offering he ought to have made. They had another greater feast of the Four Martyrs in June, the grand _fete_ of the guild.

[217] In Florence and Venice the _riveditori_ are called _probi viri_, sometimes they are _Buonuomini_.

[218] Milanesi, _Op. cit._ pp. 153, 154.

[219] Milanesi, _Op. cit._ vol. i. p. 157.

[220] "De immunitate magistri Johannis quondam magistri Nichole.

"Item statuerunt et ordinaverunt, quod magister Johannes filius quondam magistri Nicchole, qui fuit de civitate Pisana, pro cive et tanquam civis senensis habeatur et defendatur. Et toto tempore vite sue sit immunis ab omnibus et singulis honeribus comunis Senensis: seu datiis et collectis et exactionibus et factionibus et exercitiis faciendis et aliis quibusc.u.mque."--Milanesi, _Op. cit._ vol. i. p.

163.

[221] Milanesi, _Op. cit._ p. 162.

[222] _Ibid._ p. 173, note.

[223] Milanesi, _Op. cit._ p. 103, note. Magister Michele, the lawyer's son, was in 1360 Master builder of the chapel towards the Piazza del Campo, and in 1370 was _camarlengo_ of the _Opera_.

[224] Fergusson, _Handbook of Architecture_, p. 770.

[225] Milanesi, _Op. cit._ p. 228, gives the original Latin report of the deliberation.

[226] Milanesi, _Op. cit._ vol. i. p. 242.

[227] Milanesi, _Doc.u.menti per la Storia dell' Arte Senese_, vol. ii.

p. 166.

[228] He was also _capo maestro_ of the works of the cathedral at Spello, near Orvieto.

[229] Merzario, _Op. cit._ Vol. I. chap. vii. p. 231.

[230] Doc.u.ment quoted by Merzario, _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. I. chap.

vii. p. 216. Milanesi, _Op. cit._ vol. iii. p. 282.