The Cathedral Builders Part 35

9. "We also determine and ordain that Maestro Simone da a.r.s.enigo, as being chief architect of the said fabric, shall order and provide for all the works done in the said church, and that he shall show diligence, etc. etc...."

Here we have the exact organization we have seen at Siena, Parma, Florence, etc.; and as there the Lombard Masters are the founders of it, we find the same filing of doc.u.ments, the same a.s.signing of different parts of the building to different Masters, and the same calling of councils in the guild to consider and value the work. The registers of administration are kept in precisely the same way. The _spenditore_ keeps his books just as the Florentine _Provveditore_ does. Here are a few translations from the bad Latin of his entries--

"1387. _January 15._--For two lbs. of _morsecate_ for Maestro Andrea degli Organi, four lire." (Andrea degli Organi of Modena was the Ducal architect, the father of Filippo da Modena, a first-rate architect.)

"_January 19._--For a Master and forty-seven workmen to place the foundations of the pilasters."

"_March 19._--To Simone da a.r.s.enigo, chief architect, for eighteen days in which he was engaged in work himself." (This entry would seem to prove that when a Master did manual work with his men, he was paid as they were in addition to his salary as architect.)

"_April 2._--To Maestro Marco da Frisone" (Magistro Marcho de Frixono), "who was in the service of the Fabbrica, and began to work on March 5, and finished on April 2, for his pay 12 lire 13 denari."

"_April 13._--To Maestro Andrea da Modena, architect to the Duke, for his pay for the days he gave to the church in Milan, with the permission of the Vicario Sig. Giovanni de Capelli, and the _XII di provisione_" (one of the city councils, which acted as the president of the lodge, as the Arte della Lana did in Florence), "and also of the deputies of the Fabbrica, L. 19. 4."

"_May 2._--Lent to Maestro Marco da Frisono, 22 lire."

"_August 12._--For 84 workmen, 13 lire 13. 6. To 4 master builders, _i.e._ Giovanni da a.r.s.enigo, 5 lire 10; to Giovannino da a.r.s.enigo, his son, 5. 10; to Giovanni da Azzo, 5. 9; and Giovanni da Trnzano, 5.

9;--18 lire in all."

In August we get entries of expenses for rope to draw water from the well, and rope for raising scaffolding, for nails, baskets, plumb-lines, water-levels, red paint to mark the planks, and other things. On October 9, 1387, we find the _spenditore_ paying a messenger to go to Crema with letters from the lodge to Maestro Guglielmo di Marco, to call him to Milan to give advice on business connected with the buildings.

On October 15 Guglielmo di Marco is paid 16 lire for his journey and eight days' employment in examining and judging the work of the church.

On October 18, 1387, we have payment to Maestro Simone da a.r.s.enigo and ten companions (eleven in all), master builders. To Maestro Zeno da Campione and twenty-one companions (twenty-two including himself), master sculptors of "living stone" (_pietra viva_). The word which I translate companions is _sotiis_ (_Mag. Symoni de Ursanigo et sotiis, etc._), which would imply that they were all members (_soci_) of one society, and is thus valuable as a confirmation of the brotherhood in this guild.

In October 1387, Andrea da Modena, the Duke's architect, is again engaged, but only as adviser; for which he receives _in dono fiorini venti_; and Leonardo Zepo and Simone da Cavagnera are deputed to take note of his suggestions.

"1387. _November 19._--For the payment of two large sheets of parchment consigned to Simone da a.r.s.enigo." (These must have been to draw the plans.)

"1388. _April 19._--Paid Maestro Marco da Frixone and _soci_ for plaster to make models of the four _piloni_."

In another entry, noting the payment of 81 lire as salary, Marco da Frixone is named as Marco da Campione _detto_ di Frisone.

Merzario is of opinion that such names as Marc the Frisian, who was one of the Campione school; Jacopo Tedesco, whom all old writers agree was Italian; Guglielmo d'Innspruck, also a Campionese, have been the cause of much misunderstanding, and have sent authors off on false scents. It was the custom, in the books of the Comacines, to name people from their _provenienza_, i.e. the last place they came from.

Thus at Siena you will find Niccol da Pisa, while at Pisa he is Niccol di Apulia. Lorenzo Maitani was Lorenzo da Siena to the Orvieto people, and Lorenzo d'Orvieto to the Florentines. Marco il Frisone, born at Campione, is therefore a link between the German guilds and the Italian; he must have worked at Friesland, and probably brought back ideas of a more pointed Gothic from there.

These registers are ample proof that the builders just called in for the building of Milan cathedral were of the Lombard Guild, and chiefly of the Campione branch. It is not till 1389 that we find a single German name, and then a certain "Anichino (Annex) di Germania" is paid 16 soldi for having made a model of a _tiburio_ (cupola) in lead, and Giacobino da Bruge, who falls ill while working at the church, has a slight subsidy given by the guild _per amor di Dio_. They are not mentioned again, and neither of them seem to be Masters.

That Simone da a.r.s.enigo was chief architect at this time, not a doubt can exist. It is especially emphasized in a deed executed in December 1387. In it the Administration, "in consideration of their long and continued experience of the pure and admirable goodwill, and the _opera multifaria_ which the worthy man, Magister Simone da a.r.s.enigo, most worthy chief architect and master, has achieved in this church, by constant diligence, and wis.h.i.+ng to remunerate him better (pro aliquali remuneratione bene meritorem), decide that whereas his salary hitherto has been ten imperial soldi a day, it shall now be raised to ten gold florins a month."

It is plain, however, that he worked in concert with the guild. Just as at Florence and Siena, great councils of the Masters, both architects and sculptors, were held to consider whether the foundations were strong before continuing the building, so in Milan a great meeting was called on Friday, March 20, 1388, in which all the _Magistri_ were cited before their patrons, the Imperial Vicar-General, and the Council of XII. (In Florence the Arte della Lana took the post of President of the Works.) All the _Magistri_ were charged to give their opinion on the building in its present state, and to suggest any improvements they could.

First uprose Master Marco da Campione (Surrexit primus Magister Marchus de Campilione, Inzignerius), and said there was an error in the wall on the side of Via Compedo, the wall being, in one part, "half a quarter" wider than the measure given. He suggested undoing that part to the foundation.

Then the chief architect, Simone da a.r.s.enigo, rose, and proposed to cut the stones down to the ground, but not to remove them.

Maestri Giacomo and Zeno agreed with Maestro Marco, as did Maestro Guarnerio da Sirtori and Ambrogio Pongione.

Then uprose Maestro Bonino da Campione (whom we saw last at work on the Scaligers' tombs at Verona), and said that he not only agreed with the others, but found an error in the _piloni_ in the body of the church, towards the door of the facade.

Gasparolo da Birago, worker in iron, Magistri Ambrogio da Melzo, Pietro da Desio, Filippo Orino, Ridolfo di Cinisello, and Antonio da Trnzano, all voted with him.

The words "according to the measure given" (_justa mensuram super hoc datam_), prove that however many architects superintended special parts, there was one supreme Master who made the design.

This was first, as we have said, Simone da a.r.s.enigo, and after him Marco the Frisian of Campione, whose salary is paid on March 31, 1389, naming him as "Mag. Marcho de Campilione dicto de Frixono inzegnerio fabricae." His name often appears as chief architect till July 10, 1390, when "he died at the Ave Maria in the morning, and was buried with honours the same evening in the church of S. Thecla."[266]

One of Marco's contemporaries in the _laborerium_ was Jacopo da Campione, whose name appears with that of Nicola del Bonaventura, and Matteo da Campione, and others, at a general meeting held on January 6, 1390. Historical authorities say Jacopo da Campione was of the Buono family, and some a.s.sign as his father Giovanni Buono. He, too, had a cognomen of f.u.xina or Fusina, but whether a family name or a place name I cannot tell. His name first appears in the books of the guild with Zambono, or Giovanni Buono, supposed to be his father, with Magistri Zeno, Andriolo, Lazaro, Rolando, Fontana, Cressino (all from Campione), and with Alberto, Airolo, and Giovanni da Bissone, and Anselmo da Como. These must have been the Masters who responded to the invitation for architects sent out by the Milanese.

On April 15, 1389, Jacopo da Campione was elected chief architect in connection with his friend Marco da Campione.

A compet.i.tion for designs for the great window of the choir was announced in 1390, and Jacopo da Campione and Niccola del Bonaventura each sent a design, from which the archbishop was to choose. He preferred that of Bonaventura, but the Master fell into disgrace, and his window was never executed. We find that the Administration, on July 31, 1390, "deliberated" to discharge Master Bonaventura, give him the salary due to him, and remove him entirely from the lodge.

Jacopo da Campione remained in office till the end of 1395, when he and Marco da Carona retired for rest and change to Lake Lugano. They were not allowed to be away long, for they were recalled on January 9, 1396.

During that year new honours were preparing for Jacopo. Gian Galeazzo Visconti was intending to rebuild the Certosa at Pavia, and set his eyes on Jacopo da Campione as the best architect he could find for it.

The Masters of the Milan Lodge dared not dispute the will of the all-powerful Duke, and held a meeting on March 4, 1397, at which it was decided "that Jacopo di Campione, chief architect of the building, _qui acceptatus est super laboreria Cartuxiae_, should still retain his position in the works of the Duomo, because the entire absence of the Master who began the building (_qui principiavit ipsam fabricam_) would cause grave peril and injury to the work. They proposed, however, that Maestro Jacopo might, in cases of necessity, a.s.sist in the building of the Certosa, as he had done before."

This doc.u.ment sets the question beyond a doubt that the architect who had most to do with the building of Milan cathedral was this Jacopo of Campione, who had worked with the first architect, Simone, and shared, on his death, the post of chief, with Marco, his fellow-countryman. He died on October 30, 1398.

During the time he was head of the _laborerium_ several Germans worked under him; Milan being so near the German frontier was always a favourite object of German travel. Moreover, I fancy there must during these centuries have been a fraternal intercourse between the Italian Masonic Guilds and those of Germany. We have so many Italians who worked in Germany, and coming back were dubbed with the name of the last place they came from, that it is equally likely that some Germans crossed the border with those fellow-guildsmen on their return, and worked at Milan. This intercourse between the two nations would account for the more German style of Milan cathedral as compared with other Italian churches.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SMALL CLOISTER OF THE CERTOSA OF PAVIA.

_See page 358._]

I have before remarked that the lines of architecture gradually take a more upward tendency the further north we go. The slight point of the arch, as seen in Siena and Orvieto and Florence, is much sharpened in Milan; the rows of little round archlets which covered a Romanesque building with rich horizontal lines, have here become elongated and pointed, all the lines tending upwards, till they become almost monotonous; yet Milan is but the natural northern development of the southern Italian Gothic. It was always the tendency of the guild to seek greater richness of ornamentation in multiplying forms already customary to them. As the Romanesque facade was merely a multiplication of the Lombard single gallery, so the Gothic of Milan is but a multiplication and elongation of the turrets and pinnacles of Siena and Orvieto, and of the pointed gables over elongated arches, with almost an abuse of the perpendicular shaft. Of course I do not speak of the facade in these remarks, that being a discord by the later Renaissance architects. The changes may well have been induced by the strong German influence in the guild.

There were also French artists, such as Jean Mignot de Paris, and Jean de Campanias of Normandy.[267] We hear of a Niccol Bonaventura from Paris, but his name is too Italian for his nationality to be mistaken.

He probably had been employed in France, and brought back the French sculptor-architects with him. All these names, with the Germans mentioned below, are to be found in the report of a meeting of _Magistri_ in 1391. They are qualified as _Magistri di pietra viva_ (sculptors). The German names are, Ulrich de Frissengen di Nein, Aulx di Marchestein, and Johannes Annex di "Friurgo" (Freiburg?). This last has been confused by writers with Giovanni de Fernach, who was a Campionese. Giovanni da Campione worked for many years in Germany, and when he returned was as usual dubbed a German, being called John from Fernach. He brought a hundred stone-cutters to the service of the Duomo of Milan in February 1391. The Administrators approved of him, and considering that he knew Germany and its language, and was a judge of good work, they sent him to Cologne to try and procure some good architects. He went, but finding no one of great talent, he returned unsuccessful, and was obliged to refund to the guild half the cost of his journey. As a compensation, the Administration commissioned him to prepare a design for the southern sacristy. He appears to have shut himself up to prepare this great plan in secret, for on November 1, 1391, the Deputies of the Administration order the _Provveditore_ to send "Giovannolo and Beltramolo" to get the Archbishop's order to command Giovanni de Fernach to explain his intention about the work on which he was engaged; because, "if his plan was not approved, they would not wish it proceeded with."

Then Fernach began to say that Johannes di Firimburg was right, and that the proportions of the church, with which his sacristy had to harmonize, were wrong. On this the President, the Archbishop, and the Deputies sent to Piacenza for an expert, named Gabriele Stornaloco, a great geometrician, to settle the vexed question. He came, made his calculations, and decided that the German critics were in the wrong.

Not satisfied with this, they next prayed the Duke to send his sculptor, Bernardo da Venezia, to give his opinion. He came to Milan in November 1391, made his computations, and also decided that the Germans had made a mistake. Then Fernach's plan for the sacristy was handed over to the chief architect, Jacopo da Campione, to modify its proportions; and Fernach's name appears no more in the books of the _spenditore_.

Another German in the _laborerium_ was an architect, Magister Enrico or Ulrico di Ensingen, near Ulm. He came in July 1391, but only remained a few months, and then disappeared. Another Enrico or Ulrico (the _spenditore's_ orthography is diverse and mixed) da Gamodia or Gmunden, then appears. This is the Heinrich of Gmunden, whom the guide-books generally name as the architect of the Duomo. We will now see precisely how much was due to him. His name appears at a meeting on May 1, 1392, in which Jacopo da Campione, as usual, holds the first place. Enrico da Gamodia, as he is written in the books, was but lately _returned_ (_ritornato_) from Germany, and had offered himself to design and work in the building of the Duomo. He allowed himself to raise doubts and express censure of the solidity and strength of the work already done. Public discussions were raised as to the validity of his objections. A great meeting was called, in which his name appears at the bottom of a long list of Masters, all Italian. To the questions as to the solidity and beauty of the building, and whether it should be continued on the same plan or not, all the other Masters agreed that the design could not be improved. Heinrich of Gmunden alone answered stubbornly, _non a.s.sensit_.

The guild soon after decided on cutting off useless expenses, and among others the salary of Magister Heinrich, who was "dismissed," and "sent about his business" (licentietur ad eundum pro factis suis). The German appealed to the Duke of Milan, who begged the Deputati to reconsider their decision. They, however, held firm, and calling Heinrich before them on the 7th of the following July, told him that he had not served the cause well (in designamentis et aliis necessariis pro Fabrica male serviverit). They gave him six florins for his journey and dismissed him. "Yet," as Merzario says,[268] "to this man who came to Milan at the end of 1391, and left in the middle of 1392, is given by many people the credit of having designed the Duomo of Milan, which was begun in 1386, and also of the Certosa of Pavia begun in 1396."

Nor did Ulrich da Ulm, whom we have mentioned, achieve much more than his compatriot. He came in 1391, and only stayed a few months. In 1394, however, he again offered his services, and was reinstalled on a profitable contract. But he too had the national spirit of criticism, and vaunted his own plans of improving the church, while he detailed his opinion of the flaws in the existing plans, and doubts on the stability of the building. Of course a meeting of the lodge was called, and as before the majority went against Ulrich's new improvements. However, they sent to Pavia to ask the Duke to let his architect, Nicola de Lelli, come to Milan and arbitrate. He replied that they had better send a deputation with all the plans to Pavia, as he could not spare the architect. So the _capo maestro_, Jacopo da Campione, and Giovannino de' Gra.s.si accompanied Ulrich to Pavia, to confer with the Duke and his architects, with the result that the present work was p.r.o.nounced good, and Ulrich's designs and innovations rejected. The _spenditore_ records that Ulrich's salary was paid: he too was sent off (ad eundum pro factis suis).

During the three following years no German names are met with in the books. Then came the death of Jacopo da Campione in 1398, and the _laborerium_ seems to have had no capable Master to replace him. And now we shall see how this Masonic Guild was ramified throughout Europe.

The Deputies sent to Giovanni Alcherio, a Milanese living in Paris, to see if some architect could be spared from the works at Notre Dame. He proposed Jean Campanias from Normandy and Jean Mignot of Paris, mentioned above, who were accepted, and came to Milan in 1399, with a painter named Jacopo Cova. Mignot was made architect of the two sacristies. He coveted the supreme post of chief architect of the whole building, but he met with serious rivals in Marco da Carona and Antonio da Padern, two young _Magistri_ who were fast rising in the guild to fill the place of Jacopo and Marco da Campione and Simone da a.r.s.enigo.

There was schism in the guild. Mignot found fault with everything in the Duomo, the size, the proportions, the _piloni_, the capitals, the windows, the tracery, and all the ornamentation. Marco and Antonio declared that Mignot's sacristy was of a false rule of measurement, and the arch of his window wrong in its lines. There were meetings in the lodge, and endless disputes, till Mignot also disappeared from the scene.

The Campione school of Masters still held its own: we now find that Matteo da Campione was sent for from Monza. Zeno da Campione, brother of the late Jacopo, also came with two hundred and fifty stone-cutters under him to carve the capitals, pinnacles, etc. etc. There was Lorenzo degli Spazi di Laino in Val d'Intelvi, also of the same school, who brought one hundred and eighty-eight stone-carvers to the _laborerium_, and who won fame for the fine sculpture they produced.

Can one wonder at the wealth of sculpture in and on the cathedral, when only two _Magistri_ can furnish more than four hundred workmen between them? When one looks at the lavish marble work on the roof, the plurality of artists is well accounted for.

Giovannino dei Gra.s.si, or Gracii, seems to have succeeded Jacopo as _capo maestro_, and his designs and Jacopo's were kept with reverence in the rooms of the Administration.

In 1400 Jacopo da Tradate is the "supreme sculptor" to the fabric. He did the statue of Martin V. in commemoration of that Pope's visit to Milan in 1418, after the Council of Constance, when he consecrated the princ.i.p.al altar. Jacobino da Tradate also sculptured the mausoleum of Pietro, son of Guido Torello, Marquis of Guastalla, in S. Eustorgio at Milan. His son, Samuele, was a friend of Andrea Mantegna's, and once visited him on the Lago di Garda. He too was a sculptor, and made his father's tomb in the cloister of S. Agnese, which he inscribed--"Jacobino de Tradate patri suaviss:--Qui tamquam Praxiteles vivos in marmore fingebat vultus--Samuel observantis. V. F."