Part 2 (2/2)
Bernardino di Lazzaro buys froelo di Maestro Jacopo, called Boldrino, joiner, the underwritten tools and apparatus at the price at which they were valued by Master Giovanni da Siena and Ercolano di Gabriele of Perugia
Florins Soldi
Two benches, 2 0 Four planes, 1 0 Two screw profiles, one broad and one narrow, 0 40 Two rules, 0 16 Four straight edges, one large and three s cornices, 0 12 A cross beae and one small, 0 12 Two rulers, 0 5 Four one-handed little planes, 0 16 One two-handed little plane, 0 8 Two broad planes, 0 12 Two hollowplanes, 0 12 Three pieces of unfinished tarsia, and one with a wire drawing iron, 1 30 Two large squares and one ”grafonetto” and one little square, 0 8 Two old irons for e and se and slued and one all of iron and one ”a tiro colla usa saietta,” 0 7 One s ”tenevello,” 0 25 A little anvil, 0 20 A pair of big pincers, 0 32 Two little axes, 0 20 A two-handed axe, 0 25 A two-handed saith a file, 0 60 A cutting saw, 0 25 Two stools, 0 16 Nine presses (clamps), 0 60 Two cupboards, 0 90 Five pieces of panels, two on the benches and three outside, 0 20 Three pieces of tarsia frieze and two pictures with a box without a lid, 1 0 A bench to put the tarsia on, 0 40
The words untranslated are, I suppose, Perugian words At all events, they do not appear in the large Italian dictionary edited by Tommaseo and Bellini
This Bernardino six years earlier worked as apprentice with Maestro Mattia da Reggio, and was paid 6 florins 22 soldi for four months His name appears in the list of masters of stone and wood
[Illustration: Plate 29--_Panel froe 48_]
Frederic of Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, built himself a splendid palace in that city between the years of 1468 and 1480, which cost 200,000 golden scudi At that time a sack of corn cost rather less than five modern Italian lire in the duchy, and a hectolitre of wine only one franc sixty centiain some idea of the way in which princes of liberal tastes lavished theirthese figures A of the most extraordinary finish, which in the interior of the palace appears as fresh as the day it was coht or nine of which still remain
The palace was constructed upon the foundations of an older palace of 1350, nificently, and collected that fine library which was subsequently removed to Rome, of which Vespasiano da Bisticci, the Florentine bookseller, who had a good deal to do with it, says that it was the aps or duplicates, froiano,” the ideal of a courtier in those days, describes the Court of Urbino as it was under Guidobaldo, his son and successor A the decorations of the palace which still re of a small studio on the _piano nobile_, close to the tiny chapel, which is entirely surrounded by intarsia of the finest description, which represents in the lower part a seat so the apartment, some parts of which are raised and some lowered In the spaces rest so in the corners, and on the lower parts of the seat are musical instruments, fruits and sweetmeats in dishes, cushi+ons, books, &c The upper panels show cupboards with doors partly open, showing all sorts of things within in the usual fashi+on, and there are four figure panels inserted at intervals containing the portrait of the duke and the Christian virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity which he strove to exemplify in his life At one end of the roo pier; in the one to the left the ar piece by piece on the wall, in that on the right is shown his reading desk, made to turn on a pivot, with books upon it and around, and on the pier between, a landscape, seen through an arcade with a terrace in front, upon which are a squirrel and a basket of fruit Close to the reading desk is a representation of an organ with a seat in front of it, upon which is a cushi+on covered with brocade or cut velvet, which is an is the name Johan Castellano, which is supposed to be the nah this name does not appear in the accounts The custodian called hins of the figures are ascribed to Botticelli, and soht possibly be correct The only nani da Mercatello, orked in the Sala del Ca of the doors, which reseno, the town froileone, however, found a payment of seven florins in 1473 to ”Maestro Giacomo, from Florence, on account of intarsia for the audience hall” Dennistoun says that this study contained ”ar a table all mosaicked with tarsia, and carved by Maestro Giacoh, fortunately, the tarsie are well preserved He goes on to say that ”on each co was the portrait of some famous author and an appropriate distich,” which leads one to suppose either that his infor to the similar small study on the lower floor, in which Ti
The duke and his son Guidobaldo were both great builders, and Urbino was not the only town in which they raised palaces, though the others were not of so much importance The names by which they were denominated show this It is always the _corte_ at Urbino, at Pesaro it is the _palazzo_, and at Gubbio the modest _casa_ Nevertheless, at this last place the intarsias were of alh now the palace is ruinous and the intarsias dispersed, soton Dennistoun quotes descriptions froi Bonfatti and Mr F C Brooke, which are worth reproducing, as showing the care some times expended on the decoration of quite small apartments This study, which was commissioned by Duke Guidobaldo, is only 13 by 6-1/2 feet in plan, though it is 19 feet high The inlaid work only went half-way up, as at Urbino, the upper part of the walls having been covered with tapestries The tarsie showed ”emblematic representations of raphy, and war; bookcases, or rather cupboards, with their contents, a which were a shi+p, a tae with a parrot in it, and as if for the sake of variety only, a few volu es, was suspended a crucifix On the central case opposite the , and occupying as it were the place of honour, was the garter, with its motto, 'Honi soit q
mal i pense,' a device which was sculptured on the exterior of the stone architrave of the door of this apartain in tarsia in the recess of the here ht also be seen, within circles, 'G
Ubaldo Dx and Fe Dux' A, and holding, with the foot of the other, which is raised, the stone he is to drop as a signal of alarned contents of a bookcase were an hour-glass, guitar, and pair of coer, dried fruits in a small basket made of thin wood, and a tankard, while in a third was represented an open book surmounted with the name of Guidobaldo, who probably es of the volu verses 457-491 of the tenth aeneid” On the cornice was an inscription It was thought to be the work of Antonio Mastei of Gubbio, a famous artist in wood, who executed the choir of S Fortunato at Todi, and who is known to have been much in favour with Dukes Guidobaldo and Francesco Maria I, the latter of whoave him an exemption from imposts
In the 17th century tarsia was more used for domestic furniture than for stationary decoration The character of the design changed in consequence, and mother-of-pearl, ivory, tortoiseshell, silver, and other materials were used The first Tuscan, or one of the first who did so was Andrea Massari of Siena A feorks in tarsia were still executed, but none of ismondo, outside Cremona, commenced by Gabriel Capra and finished by his son Domenico in 1605, is one of the principal, and the choir of S
Francesco, Perugia, where Fortebraccio was buried, but this latter no longer exists Marquetry was produced in Florence, Venice, Milan, and Genoa down to a still later date, but the fashi+on for ivory and ebony carried all before it The Italian work of this kind is often raved, but less accurate than that produced in France
The later Italian ure drawing becomes very conventional, and the curves of ornaood deal of it is in only two colours, a return to the simplicity of earlier days
FOOTNOTES:
[2] There were nineteen subjects, divided by channelled pilasters with a carved frieze, above a bench which ran round the circular wall from one doorpost to the other, the whole work croith a cornice also carved with foliated ornaht was an open cupboard with architects' and joiners' tools The second was the portrait described above The third showed a cupboard half open, worked with a grille of pierced almond shapes and divided ”In the upper part is a naked boy, standing with a ball in his left hand, below is a large circle with a bridge within and without in the forrille one sees a ewer above and a basin below
The fourth is a figure of S Ansano, half-length, belohom is the head of a man who receives baptism with joined hands, and the saint with a vase in his hand pours water on his head, holding in his right hand a standard The fifth shows a cupboard open and shelved in the middle--above is a chalice and paten, below is a salver with fruit within and falling froan case with a man ith raised head, enjoys the sweetness of the sounds, on the side of the organ are the arhieri The seventh is a cupboard half open with pierced doors, in the upper half a censer, and an incense boat, with a label above with these words, 'Dirigatur Domine oratio mea sicut incensum in conspectu tuo' Below is the holy water pot with the sprinkler within, and with a pair of sacralory and a diadeht ar whoarden full of different flowers and trees The ninth is a cupboard cut across and half open; in the upper part a label with these words 'Qui post nus calceamente solvere;' below are differentThe tenth, that is the centre one, is a half-length of S John Baptist with the cross in his left hand, and in the right a label with the words, 'Ecce Agnus Dei,' while with his finger he points to Christ in a figure which represents him The eleventh shows another cupboard half open and shelved, above is a label on which are some lines of the hy and with the naricola, and below is a flute and a violin with its bow The twelfth is the figure of a young man with a label belohich says, 'Johannis Baptistae discipulus' This is generally thought to represent S Andrew the apostle The thirteenth is another open cupboard with a shelf In the upper part is a chalice and more fruit, and in the lower a hollow dish with a foot also full of fruit The fourteenth shows the half-length of a arden with different trees The fifteenth is a cupboard with open division, with a little gate and grating with als, above is a candlestick with a candle half burnt, and below is a box full of yellow tapers The sixteenth represents S
Catherine with her wheel, half-length, disputing with the tyrant, before her is an open book on which are cut these words, 'Catharina disputationis virginitatis ac martirii palmam reportat' The seventeenth shows a cupboard divided and half closed, with a grating like the others, above is a ht, and a paten on the missal, and there are also a pair of spectacles and another paten leaning against the wall, below there is a closed book which seems to be a breviary, upon which is an open book with these words, 'Ecce elum meum ante faciem tuam, qui preparabit viam tuam ante te Vox clamantis in deserto; parate viahteenth shows a fine gate through which one sees a garden, within which appear different trees with fruit on them, and at the bottom is a little table upon which is an inkstand with a pen and a penknife with a label which issues froherio operaio fabre facturating, above is a harp and below is a violin and other hieri paid 4090 scudi for the work as aof Fra Giovanni da Verona It was in so dark a place that it could not be seen except with lighted torches, and it was also daed because it was put in a newly built place, the walls of which were not sufficiently dry to receive such delicate work” This account ritten in 1786
THE CLOISTERED INTARSIATORI AND THEIR PUPILS
The Order of the Olivetans took its rise from the piety and liberality of a Sienese noble, Bernardo Toloio Piccolomini and Patricio Patrizzi, established himself as a hermit on a barren point of land at Chiusuri, some miles from Siena, in the same manner as did S Benedict at Subiaco This was in 1312, but the Papal charter by which the Order was founded dates from 1319 It was called ”Monte Oliveto,” from a vision seen by Guido Tarlati, Bishop of Arezzo, the Papal coin ordered that the e of the Order should be three hills surmounted by a branch of olive It was a branch of the Benedictines, and, like them, the monks devoted their lives to useful labours As Michele Caffi says, ”The Olivetans did not strive in political or party struggles, but spent their sireat talent for working in wood succeeded to the heirshi+p of the art of tarsia in coloured woods, which they got fro the Olivetan monks is a certain lay brother, ”laico Olivetano,” who came froht the art to the monks of S Elena, the island which lies just beyond the Public Gardens at Venice, and was so beautiful before the iron foundry was established upon it His principal pupil was Fra Sebastiano of Rovigno, known as the ”Zoppo Schiavone,” the laht Fra Giovanni da Verona and Doain, was master to Vincenzo dalle Vacche and Raffaello da Brescia, and perhaps to the oblate of S Elena, Antonio Preposito, in 1493
Fra Sebastiano da Rovigno was probably born in 1420 The register of professions and deaths at Monte Oliveto Maggiore says--”In conventu Paduae professus est sub die 15 Augusti, an 1461, fr: Sebastianus de Rovinio”; his death is shown by another extract--”Venetiis, obiit in Mon S Helenae, anno Domini, 1505, fr: Sebastianus de Histria, conversus” (lay brother) He was at S Maria in Organo, in 1464-5 and 1468-9, and at S Elena in 1479-80-81, and again from 1484 to 1494 He was also at Monte Oliveto 1466-7, 1474-5, and 1482-3, and at S Michele in Bosco, Bologna, from 1494 till shortly before his death, in all of which places were important works in tarsia The inscription in the corner of the sacristy at S Elena runs thus:--”Extreno Montis Oliveti, qui III id: Sept: diem obiit, 1505” Some of his work is in the stalls and sacristy cupboards of S Marco, signed CSS, or SSC, that is, ”Converso Sebastiano Schiavone,” or ”Seb: Sch: converso” His pupil Fra Giovanni da Verona was one of the most celebrated of the carvers and intarsiatori, and left works in many places in Italy He was born in Verona in 1457, and no one has been able to discover either his family name nor who his father was
When still a boy he left his native town and went into Tuscany to Monte Oliveto di Chiusuri of Siena, the principal one with Liberale of Verona, as of about the sae, the first time he went to Monte Oliveto, in 1467, or more probably on the second occasion, in 1474, his business being to illuminate the choir books In the administration books of that convent it is recorded that in 1467 Liberale had as assistant a certain Bernardino, and in 1474 another whose naht then have learnt to illuminate, which was his first profession, and in which he succeeded excellently He resolved to ”profess religion” about this ti of 1475 The year of noviciate being passed he made his solemn profession on March 25, 1476, and re which time he finished his studies and became priest In 1480 he was sent for a short time to the monastery of S Elena, near Venice Here he found the lay brother Fra Sebastiano da Rovigno, whom he may perhaps have known before, since they were both at Monte Oliveto in 1475 At all events he spoke to hi to teach hience and assiduity that he was soon able to give him valuable assistance” The as on the cupboards of the sacristy and on the backs of the choir stalls, which were 34 in number On these the principal cities of the world, as they then were, were drawn in perspective ”with great beauty and cleverness” About 1485 he went to an abbey of Olivetan e in lower Lombardy, where he illuminated 20 choral books with heads of saints and prophets, with very beautiful borders of flowers, fruits, and anireedy priest for 17 zecchins, and only a few of the miniatures have been recovered, which are now kept in the sacristy Of them, Vincenzo Sabbia, the Olivetan abbot, as ”confratello di religione” and nearly conte the abbey and its treasures in 1594, that there are there ”stupendous and wonderful choral books to the number of twenty, made about the year 1485, and rare and wonderfulthe letters, like lovely flowers in a delicious garden, and s, heads of saints and of all the ancient prophets, and other wonderful things of like kind, made and illuminated by that celebrated Fra Giovanni da Verona, around the text”
[Illustration: Plate 30--_Panel froano, Verona_
_To face page 59_]