The Cathedral Builders Part 32

Thus we see that Arnolfo at the most only worked eleven or twelve years at a building which took more than a century to finish. How much did he accomplish? Probably not more than the foundations and the design which he left, and which may be seen to this day; for it is usually understood that the church in the fresco of the Spanish chapel represents the Duomo as Arnolfo designed it. After his death Florence fell upon warlike times, and was unable to continue the work till 1331, when the "city being in a happy and tranquil state, recommenced the building of the church of Santa Reparata, which had for a long time been in abeyance, and had made no progress, owing to the many wars and expenses which the city had undergone." The deed goes on to relate that the Arte della Lana was placed at the head of the administration, and that a tax of two denari per libbra on all moneys paid to the Commune should be appropriated for the expense, as had been decreed before. They further added another tax on the customs, so that the two amounted to 12,000 _libbre picciole_ a year. Besides this, every shop in Florence was to have a money-box where they were to place _il denaro di Dio_ (t.i.thes) on all they sold.[250] I quote this to show how cities in the good old church-building days paid their architects. It is probable that the schools of the guild had continued in this interval, though the _Magistri_ may have had to seek work elsewhere, for by July 18, 1334, we find Giotto as a _Magister_, selected as architect of the Campanile, though he seems to have had very little to do with the Duomo. His marvellous tower, in its varied colouring and artistic effect, shows the hand of a painter rather than an architect. He did not live to see his work completed, for on January 8, 1336, he died, soon after his return from Milan, where he had been sent in the services of the Visconti, and had a public funeral at the expense of the Commune in Santa Reparata. The fact that the work of his tower went on in his absence, proves that he must have had brethren in the guild capable of carrying out his plans. As the foundations were only laid in July 1334, and Giotto died in January 1336, after a long absence at Milan, one wonders how he found time to sculpture the reliefs in his Hymn of Labour. However, we must take Ghiberti's testimony for it. In his second _Commentary_, Ghiberti says[251]--"The first line of reliefs which are in the Campanile which he erected were sculptured and designed by his own hand. In my time I have seen his own sketches beautifully drawn." A contemporary anonymous commentator on Dante writes[252]--"Giotto designed and superintended the marble bell-tower of Santa Reparata in Florence, a notable tower and costly. He committed two errors--one that it had no base, and the other that it was too narrow. This caused him such grief that, they say, he fell ill and died of it." I think indeed that if Giotto had found any error he would have rectified it in the plans which he left for his successors. That it had no foothold is not true, for the solid foundation was placed so far beneath the surface that it stood firm on the solid _macigno_ (kind of granite rock) twenty _braccia_ below.

His successor was of another branch of the guild, but a Masonic _Magister_ all the same. On April 26, 1340, Andrea di Pisa was elected by vote by the Council of the _Opera_ to succeed Giotto as head architect.[253]

There must have been other _Magistri_ proposed as candidates, if the Council had to resort to black and white beans for the voting. Andrea only lived a few years; he died, or retired from office, in 1348, the year of the great plague; and Francesco Talenti became _caput Magister_ in 1350. Francesco was a brother of Fra Jacopo Talenti, _Magister lapidum et edificorum_, who was joint architect with Fra Ristoro of the convent and church of Santa Maria Novella from 1339 to 1362. Francesco, like his brother, must have been in the guild; he worked at Orvieto cathedral among numbers of Como and Lombard Masters in 1329. In April 1336 we find him called to Siena as an expert.[254]

There had been discovered some defect in the columns. Francesco's companion from Florence was Benci di Cione. His office as _capo maestro_ of the Duomo of Florence continued some years, though he did not reign alone, but was a.s.sociated with Giovanni di Lapo Ghino, who after 1360 is called joint _capo maestro_. The princ.i.p.al doc.u.ments of their administration prove that there were endless councils and arguments about the size, height, and placing of the columns, and discussions on Talenti's plan for the chapels at the east end. This seems to have been a crucial question.... Councils of four _Magistri_ in each were held for three consecutive days--July 15, 16, and 17, 1355; and their opinions given in writing. On August 5 the grand united council of twelve Masters and the whole lodge was held, when the proportions for the columns were decided, and Francesco's design for the chapel approved.

Another Council was held on June 8, 1357, with the _Operai_ and Consuls of Arts, and their ecclesiastical colleagues, when the undermentioned Masters and monks gave their counsel on the church--a proof of the close affinity of ecclesiastics with the Masonic Guild.

Frate Francischo of Carmignano " Jacopo Talenti. S. M. Novella " Franciescho Salvini. S. Croce " Tommasino. Ogni Santi " Jachopo da S. Marcho " Piero Fuci, e " Filippo sacrestano di S. Spirito " Benedetto dalle Champora Magister Neri di Fieravanti " Stefano Messi " Franciescho Salviati " Giovanni Gherardini " Giovanni di Lapo Ghini " Franciesco dal Choro " Ristori Cione " Ambrogio Lenzi, or Renzi

The report was written by Sig. Mino, notary of the guild; the spelling of the names is his own.

Several of the same monks met at the _Opera_ on July 12, 1357, to consult about the placing of the columns in the second foundation.

Also, on July 17, 1357, to choose between two designs of columns and a chapel made by Francesco Talenti and Orcagna, when each candidate elected two Masters as arbiters. Francesco Talenti chose Ambrogio Lenzi, a Lombard, and Frate Filippo Riniero of S. Croce. Andrea Orcagna chose Niccol di Beltramo, also a Lombard, and Francesco di Neri. These could not decide, and Piero di Migliore the goldsmith was taken as umpire, the parties binding themselves to abide by his decision. Giovanni di Lapo Ghino and Francesco Talenti were ordered to make new designs. At length, on July 28, Orcagna's plan was chosen.

Talenti's office was no sinecure; we often find him disputing with other Masters. Indeed, the lodge greatly lacked unity. Disintegration was beginning. On August 5, 1353, the _Provveditore_, Filippo Marsili, writes--"I must get Neri di Fioravanti and Francesco Talenti to settle that dispute within fifteen days. They must choose an arbiter each, and may elect the third arbiter by joint consent." They chose Benozzi as mutual third. Again on October 4, 1353--"The Master who executes Francesco Talenti's design for the window must be paid his demands.

When the work is done, have it valued, and the balance more or less to go to Francesco's account."

He seems also to have been an improvident sort of man. Here are two tell-tale entries in Filippo Marsili's memorandum book--"July 12, 1353. Advance him as soon as convenient the pay for four months. Take it out, by deducting half his salary weekly." Again in November the entry is--"Lend him what he wants."

In 1376 Francesco's son Simone became joint _capo maestro_ with Benci Cione, Orcagna's father, at a salary of eight gold florins a month.

Simone graduated also in the sculpture school, and executed a figure for the facade, for which he was paid thirteen florins on September 4, 1377. Zan.o.bi Bartoli, also a _Magister lapidum_ (sculptor), was at the same time paid twenty gold florins each for two marble figures, though he received only eighteen florins for his statue of the Archangel Michael in December of the same year.

Francesco's colleague, Giovanni di Lapo Ghino, is a good instance--one of many--of the hereditary nature of the guild. We first hear of Ghino at Siena in the thirteenth century. On February 7, 1332, his sons Simone and Jacopo, or Lapo di Ghino, sign a contract with Agostino and his son Giovanni of Siena, to build a chapel in the Pieve S. Maria at Arezzo--that of Bishop Tarlati, Bindo de' Vanni and his son Francesco, with two other _Magistri_, being witnesses.[255]

In 1362 a certain Ambrosius Ghino is named in a list of the lodge. He may have been a brother or nephew of Lapo. Then comes the third generation, and we find Giovanni, son of Lapo di Ghino, at Orvieto. He afterwards came to Florence, where he was elected _capo maestro_, at first in unison with Jacopo Talenti, and later by himself. In 1388 old Ghino's great-grandson, whose whole pedigree is given in the books as "Michele, Johannis, Lapi, Ghini," became in his turn _capo maestro_ of the Duomo of Florence. His descendant, Antonio Ghino, also graduated in the Florentine Lodge, but he went back to Siena, where he appears as one of the _Magistri_ employed there in 1472.

This family is only one of many hereditary Masonic brethren. The Cione family is another instance. The first Masters of the name appear in Florence on July 1355, as Ristoro and Benci Cione, two members attending the Council on Francesco Talenti's design for the chapels, but whether they were brothers or father and son I cannot tell; I presume brothers, or Benci would have been written down as Benci Ristori di Cione.[256] We have seen Benci Cione called to Siena as an arbiter. He was much occupied in Florence, where he worked at the building, or rather adaptation, of Or San Michele. He and Laurentius Filippi (Lorenzo, son of Filippo Talenti) were joint architects of the Loggia dei Lanzi, Lorenzo superintending the sculpture, and Cione the architecture. Lorenzo has set the sign of the guild on the base of his columns by surrounding them with small pillars on which lions are crouching; the proportions and ornamentation of the building are beautiful. Orcagna has always been credited as the architect of this Loggia, but he is here proved not to be the original designer, though he probably worked with his father.

Orcagna's name, Andrea di Cione, first appears in the great Council with monks and _Magistri_, held on June 18, 1357, to decide on the s.p.a.ce which should be left between the columns of the Duomo.[257]

Andrea's nickname of Orcagna, a corruption of Arcangelo (Archangel), has clung to him through centuries, and over-shadowed his real patronymic of Cione. The relation between him and Benci di Cione remains rather obscure. Orcagna has also had the credit of building the church of Or San Michele. Probably writers confuse Orcagna, or Andrea di Cione, the sculptor of the beautiful shrine in that church, which is his masterpiece, with the Benci di Cione who was architect of the building. From the close connection of the two in the guild, and from Orcagna having worked so much with Benci, I think it probable they were father and son. Milanesi is rather uncertain about the father of Orcagna, and in the genealogical table at the end of his life he writes him as Cione with a note of interrogation, and no Christian name, which may well have been Benci.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SHRINE IN OR SAN MICHELE, FLORENCE. DESIGNED BY "ORCAGNA" (ANDREA CIONE).

_See page 333._]

Orcagna first studied painting under his elder brother Nardo (short for Bernardo), who was enrolled in the "company of St. Luke." But this was only one branch of Andrea's art-education. He matriculated in the Masonic Guild (_Arte dei maestri di pietra e legname_), in the books of which it is written--"Andrea Cioni, called Archangel, a painter of the parish of S. Michele Visdomini, took his oath and promises in the said guild, Magister Neri Fioravanti being his sponsor, in 1352, sixth indication, October 29."[258]

It was Orcagna's way to emphasize his varied qualifications by signing his paintings, "Andrea di Cione, scultore," and his sculptures, "Andrea di Cione, pittore." On his masterpiece, the shrine in Or San Michele, he has inscribed, "Andreas Cionis, pictor Florentinus, oratorii arch magister ext.i.tit hujus MCCCLIX." The expression "Archmagister of the Oratory" (or shrine) explains many things. It tells us that the whole of that complicated piece of sculpture, though it may have been designed entirely by Orcagna, was not entirely executed by him, but that, like other _Magistri_, he had a band of brethren working under him; for how could he have been _chief_ Master where there were no lesser ones under his command?

It is interesting in studying the working of the Masonic Guild, of which Orcagna signs himself Archmagister, to see how they are occupied in building several grand edifices at once. The immense number of Masters congregated in the Florentine Lodge rendered this possible, and wealth was not lacking in the city to employ them.

The books at the _Opera_ reveal how the Council of Administration dominates the _laborerium_. We shall see how the busy _Provveditore_ has to change the _Magistri_ about from Santa Croce to Or San Michele; or from the Duomo to San Michele Visdomini, just as need presses. He has to order marbles for all and any of these edifices; to call councils to consider designs for all kinds of different buildings and parts of buildings, such as windows, chapels, doors, etc. Sometimes we find him commissioning a certain architect to make a plan for a chapel, or a door, or a window. When Talenti and Giovanni Ghino had both made designs for the tribune in October 1367, the usual councils were not enough to decide the momentous question which to choose. The whole city had to be called into council, together with the monks (_frati colleganti_), the _Magistri_ of the guild, etc. Hundreds and thousands of people came to the _Opera_, looked at the designs, signed their names on the list of approval, for one or the other.

After the joint reign as _capi maestri_ of Giovanni di Lapo Ghino and Francesco Talenti, came a varied line of master builders lasting for a hundred years, so that it is impossible to say that any one man was the architect of the Duomo. Between Arnolfo's first plan and the final Italian Gothic development of the fifteenth century lies the whole history of the development of art.

The next great _capo maestro_ after Talenti was Ambrogio of Lenzo or Lanzo, near Como, one of the Campione school. His name is given in a deed of February 3, 1363, as "Ambroxius filius magistri Guglielmi de Champiglione." It is remarkable that an ancestor and namesake of this "Ambroxius" was also written down as "filius Magistri Guglielmi" in 1130, two centuries earlier, when they were leading members of the Campione school at Modena, and sculptured the facades of Modena and Ferrara cathedrals; so our Ambrogio of Florence was one of the distinguished aristocracy of the lodge, his family dating from its cradle in Lombardy. From the deed which we quote we find that Ambrogio graduated under his father, and made his first contract with Barna Batis, then _Provveditore_ of the _Opera_ of the Duomo, to provide and prepare the black marble necessary to the work, for every _braccio_ of which he was to be paid six soldi eight denari. This is the original--

"_Archivio dell' Opera dell Duomo_, February 3, 1362.--Ambroxius filius magistri Guglielmi de Champiglione, comitatus Mediolani, emanc.i.p.atus a Domino magistro Guillielmo patre suo, ut continere dixit publice manu ser Joannis Arriglionis notarii de Champiglione, conduxit a Barna olim Batis provisore Operis Sancte Reparate de Florentia, locante vice et nomine operariorum ... ad faciendum et digrossandum totum marmum nigrum quod erit necessarium dicto operi, hinc ad unum annum proxime venturum, illarum mensurarum prout dicetur eidem per capomagistros dicti operis. Et dictus Barna locavit eidem die dictum marmum ad fovendum et digrossandum, et promisit pro dicto opere eidem Ambroxio de quolibet brachio dicti marmi dare eidem Ambroxio soldos s.e.x et denarios octo f.

p., etc. Que omnia, etc."

Ambrogio or Ambrose remained many years in Florence. His name often appears in council. In 1356 he was elected head architect of the Duomo, and also of the restorations at the Baptistery. On April 4, 1384, when as an old man he attended a meeting to decide whether the pilasters of the tribune were strong enough to support the dome, his name is given as Ambrogio de Renzo. A marked instance of the effect of twenty years among Florentine dialect, which has an inveterate habit of mixing up l's and r's. His son, Giovanni d'Ambrogio di Lenzo, who afterwards became _capo maestro_, was also in council, and Orcagna was chosen umpire.

But between the reign of Ambrogio and that of his son we have various changes in the directors.h.i.+p. In 1381, Giovanni, son of Stefano, called Guazetta, became _capo maestro_ together with Giovanni Fetti, who was also of the guild, and preparing first in Siena, and next at Florence, for his future work in Lucca and Bologna. Giovanni Fetti designed and made the fine "window towards the houses of the Cornacchini, under the third arch of the nave."

Guazetta's peculiar line was laying foundations and devising complicated scaffolding. He also made the presses of the sacristy. He was perhaps not enough of a builder to hold the office of chief, for in 1375 this pair resigned in favour of Francesco Salvetti and Taddeo Ristori. Salvetti, however, very soon renounced office, preferring to remain in the guild on a simple salary, rather than incur responsibilities.[259]

Then Francesco Talenti's son Simone, who had by this time become a _Magister_, was put in his place with Taddeo Ristori. Their reign lasted till 1388, when Michele, son of Giovanni, son of Lapo, son of Ghino, was elected. In his time the pilasters of the tribune were begun.

In 1404 Ambrogio's son Giovanni was elected _capo maestro_. Here is the part of the entry of the _Deliberation_, November 17, 1404--"Operaris ... elegerunt et nominaverunt et deputaverunt in caput magister dicte opere Sancte Reparata providum virum Johannem Ambroxii, etc. etc., c.u.m salario florenum otto, pro quolibet mense c.u.m auctoritate, balia et potestate usitate et consueta."--_Delib._ xlix.

28.

Another deliberation, dated June 17, 1415, states that "Johannem Ambroxii caput magister" shall give the order for the species and form of the bricks for some special part.

Giovanni, the last of the Campione school whom we can register, was deposed for old age, and Baptista Antoni elected in his stead. He was probably the son of Antonio, the Grand Master mentioned above.

Giovanni had not always time to carry out his own designs. In 1408 we find that Magister Niccolao, surnamed Pela, took the contract to carve in marble the doorway near the chapel of the crucifix, which was designed by "Johannem Ambroxii, caput magistrum." It is rich with vines and other ornaments. Niccolao did not push the work, however, and in May 1408 the _Opera_ decided that he owed the guild the sum of twenty-five florins for breaking his contract.

The number of different minds each leading the works in his own department is bewildering. The beautiful door called the Mandorla, so rich and elegant in sculpture, which is often said to have been executed by Jacopo della Quercia, was in reality the work of Nanni di Antonio di Banco. The books of the _Opera_ register, on June 28, 1418, a payment of twenty florins on account to Nanni for this doorway, and in 1421 the last payment was made on the completion of the work. Nanni was a favourite scholar of Donatello; he was a person of good birth, who matriculated in the _Arte dei Maestri di Pietra_ on February 2, 1405, and proved his members.h.i.+p by sculpturing the four patron saints of the Masonic Guild on Or San Michele.

We further find in this precious collection of doc.u.ments that Magister Jacopo di Lapo Cavacciani made a model for a shaft; that Nato di Cenni and Jacopo di Polo were, in August 1357, engaged to make the bases of the columns, and that time after time different Masters were called on to make plans for chapels, windows, doors, etc.

Now we know the state of the building as it stood in this fourteenth century, we realize that it was not left for centuries without a dome.

The old chronicler Buoninsegni, in his _Storia Florentina_, lib. iv.

p. 642, says--"A di venti di giugno 1380 si cominciarono a riempire et murare i fondamenti della cupola di S. Maria del Fiore." Up till this time the nave only seems to have been built.

On August 7 a meeting of _Magistri_ was called to consult on the foundation for the cupola, and on November 12, 1380, there is a long doc.u.ment commissioning "Bartolommeus Stefani, Johannes Mercati, and Leonardus Cecchii, Magistri Florentini," to build the pilasters to support the dome, which are to be of good stone and cement, and the builders are cautioned not to work in times of frost or snow, etc.

etc. These pilasters caused much anxiety in the guild; in 1384 constant meetings were held about them. The Masters were afraid the foundations of the one towards Via dei Servi were not firm; day after day in July 1384 they met in scores to examine and report on it. Then they called in the consuls of the _Art of Wool_, the _Operai_, and all the chief men of the city; and everybody, excepting a certain Messer Biagio Guasconi (who after all was not an architect), agreed that the foundation of the pilaster was perfectly safe. However, good Messer Biagio still held his own opinion and refused to sign approval.

From the steady way in which the work went on, it is certainly possible and probable that there would in the natural course of the work have been a dome to the cathedral even without Filippo Brunelleschi. It was in the original plan, and the foundations and pilasters were placed in readiness for it. There was much talk of the difficulty of placing the framework of the scaffolding for it, but there seems to have been no doubt that it would be accomplished. In fact numbers of the Masters sent in plans for it at different times.

The first time that Brunellesco appears in the records is at a meeting of consuls, _Opera_, and Masters, convened on November 10, 1404, to consider a certain error in measurement committed by the _capo maestro_, Giovanni di Ambrogio. The question turned on the placing of the (_sp.r.o.ne_) brackets on the facade which interfered with the windows.

It does not seem that Brunelles...o...b..longed to the brotherhood. He is merely mentioned as Filippo the goldworker, son of the notary Brunelleschi (_Filippus ser Brunelleschi aurifex_). In no place, either here or elsewhere, is he ever called _Magister_, and throughout his life his every action was a protest against what he called "the _Maestranze_" a term of contempt like "their Master-s.h.i.+ps," which Brunelleschi applied to the _Arte dei Maestri_. He had matriculated in 1398, when twenty-one years old, in the _Arte della Seta_, but as his tastes were strongly artistic, and he refused to follow his father's profession of lawyer, he enrolled himself in 1404 in the _Arte degli Orafi_ (goldsmiths), in which so many painters were already eminent.

The goldsmiths or metal-sculptors, who seem to have seceded from the Freemasons, were still in some measure colleagues of the Masonic Guild, and their members were often called to vote or advise in the councils of the _Opera_.

Thus we find Brunellesco as one of the _orafi_ called into council about the construction of the brackets. He appears to have held office as councillor in the _Opera_ for a year till 1405, when he was paid off. He was probably one of the _Operai_ on the part of the city.

When in the famous compet.i.tion of 1402 Brunellesco lost the commission for the doors of the Baptistery, he left Florence in dudgeon, and with his friend Donatello went to Rome. His studies of the methods of the ancient Romans in making their great domes, suggested to him a way of vindicating his _amour propre_ by defeating the whole guild of "Masters" on their own ground. He had made architecture a special study, and now thoroughly investigated the cla.s.sic methods. He got to the roof of the Pantheon, and made studies of the stone-work in the ribs of the cupola, investigated the foundations, the supports, etc., and came back to Florence, where he let drop mysterious hints among the influential members of his own trade company, and in the studios of one or two artists, that even if the "_maestranze_ were to call their Masters from France or Germany, and all parts of the world, none of them would be able to make a dome equal to the one he could make."

The Masters of the _laborerium_ at length heard of these a.s.sertions, and called on him to show his plans, which he declined to do.

Then the _Opera_, on August 19, 1418, announced a compet.i.tion. Any artist whatsoever who had made a model of the projected cupola was to produce it, before the end of September, the model accepted to have a prize of 200 gold florins. The date of decision was prolonged to October, and then to December, when a number of models were sent in, the compet.i.tors being Magister Giovanni di Ambrogio, C.M. of the _laborerium_, Manno di Benincasa, Matteo di Leonardo, Vito da Pisa, Lorenzo Ghiberti, all _Magistri_ of the Masonic Guild; Piero d'Antonio, nicknamed Fannulla (do nothing), Piero di Santa Maria in Monte, masters in wood. There were several models by members of the civic company, the _Arte dei Scarpellini_ (stone-cutters); and last, not least, a model in brick and mortar without scaffolding, made by Brunellesco, Donatello, and Nanni di Banco,[260] so he was obliged after all to show his design. This last won the prize, but the _Arte dei Maestri_ had not evidently faith enough in one outside their ranks to commence at once with the building. In Signor Cesare Guasti's collection of archivial doc.u.ments regarding the building of the Duomo, we find that from October to December 23, 1418, several of the Masters, including Magistro Aliosso, Mag. Andrea Berti Martignoni, Mag. Paolo Bonaiuti, Cristofero di Simoni, and Giovanni Tuccio, were receiving payment for building a model in masonry of Brunellesco's plan for the cupola. I do not find that Brunellesco himself was employed in this, the only payment to him being "50 lib. 15 soldi" for his work on the lantern of the model, between July 11 and August 12, 1419; proving that he put the finis.h.i.+ng touch, but that the Masters of the guild themselves tested his design for the great dome before finally adopting it. This brick model, which was built on the Piazza del Duomo, remained there till 1430, when the _Opera_ ordered its destruction. Guasti[261] gives in full this order, which is dated January 23, 1430, and is in the usual low Latin of contemporary doc.u.ments. When the model was finished, the _Magistri_ of the guild a.s.sembled on May 14, 1421, to hold council on it. There are entries of expenses for a breakfast to the Masters, and for torch-bearers to accompany them on their internal investigations. We find the same ceremony of refreshment to the _Magistri_ who visited the works of the real cupola in 1424, when six flasks of Trebbiano (the best Tuscan wine) with fruit and bread were provided. In 1420 Brunellesco was definitely commissioned to superintend the cupola, but even then the _Magistri_ could not admit an outsider to full Masonic privileges. He was not named _caput magister_, as one of the guild would have been, but he and Ghiberti (whose model had been next best) were named _provisori_ of the dome, while the Magister Baptista di Antonio was _caput magister_ proper of the lodge. The terms of the contract were that "the _provisori_ were to superintend the works, providing, ordering, building, and causing to build, the cupola from beginning to end, etc. etc."

At first both Ghiberti and Brunellesco drew three florins a month. The head _Magister_, Baptista, had the usual salary of the guild as head master.

The story of Brunellesco's restiveness at his old rival Ghiberti being a.s.sociated with him in carrying out a design peculiarly his own, and how he tried to throw scorn on him, by locking up his plans and feigning illness, thus leaving Ghiberti to work in the dark, is too well known to need repet.i.tion here.[262] Perkins[263] is very hard on Ghiberti's ignorance, which, he a.s.serts, was so great that he was obliged to resign because he could not do the work. But there are two sides to every question. How could a man carry out a work designed and begun by another without seeing his plans? Besides, Ghiberti's resignation, or rather relinquishment of his work at the cupola just then, was, I believe, due to the fact that he had a few months before received a commission for the second bronze gates of the Baptistery, and wanted his time free for them. This commission is dated January 2, 1425. His salary as _provisore_ of the cupola ceased for a few months from June 28, 1425. The dates speak for themselves. He still, however, held office, or returned to it with partial pay, for in 1428 we find a decree of the _Opera_ which raises the salary of Brunellesco to 100 gold florins a year, while Ghiberti only draws his usual three florins a month. But even then not an order is ever given in Brunellesco's own name; every doc.u.ment and every receipt was signed by Baptista d'Antonio, _caput magister_, and Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, _provisore_.

And now let us see who were the underlings employed by Brunellesco.