Part 11 (1/2)
Merzario says[83]--
”In this darkness which extended over all Italy, only one small lamp remained alight, making a bright spark in the vast Italian necropolis.
It was from the _Magistri Comacini_. Their respective names are unknown, their individual works unspecialized, but the breath of their spirit might be felt all through those centuries, and their name collectively is legion. We may safely say that of all the works of art between A.D. 800 and 1000, the greater and better part are due to that brotherhood--always faithful and often secret--of the _Magistri Comacini_. The authority and judgment of learned men justify the a.s.sertion.”
Here Prof. Merzario quotes several of these _uomini dottissimi_.
First, Quatremal de Quincy, in his _Dictionary of Architecture_, who, under the heading ”Comacine,” remarks that ”to these men, who were both designers and executors, architects, sculptors, and mosaicists, may be attributed the renaissance of art, and its propagation in the southern countries, where it marched with Christianity. Certain it is that we owe it to them, that the heritage of antique ages was not entirely lost, and it is only by their tradition and imitation that the art of building was kept alive, producing works which we still admire, and which become surprising when we think of the utter ignorance of all science in those dark ages.” Our English writer, Hope, taking their later appellative of Lombards, credits Lombardy with being the cradle of the a.s.sociations of Freemasons, ”who were,”
he says, ”the first after Roman times to enrich architecture with a complete and well-ordinated system, which dominated wherever the Latin Church extended its influence from the sh.o.r.es of the Baltic to those of the Mediterranean.”[84] We will omit the witnesses, Kugler of Germany and Ramee of France, and take the Italian great authority, Pietro Selvatico.[85] He notes that art in Europe, from the seventh to the thirteenth century, consisted of a combination of Byzantine and Roman elements, but in the ninth century a third element mingled, which had in itself so much that was original, as to const.i.tute an independent style. ”This,” he goes on to say, ”was the Lombard or Comacine architecture, as it is called, which is distinguished by its low-pitched roofs, its circular arches, rounded on columns, which a.s.similate to the Greek and Roman styles. This gained a certain systematic unity after the first half of the ninth century.” Prof.
Selvatico seems to have ignored all the Comacine architecture under the Longobards, who were certainly the nurses of the guild, and takes it up just when it was freeing itself from the bonds of superst.i.tious tradition, _i.e._ the transition between Roman-Lombard and Romanesque.
[Ill.u.s.tration: COMACINE CAPITAL IN SAN ZENO, VERONA, EMBLEMATIZING MAN CLINGING TO CHRIST (THE PALM).
_page 111._]
No doubt the genealogy of the style was this. First, the Comacines continued Roman traditions as the Romans continued Etruscan ones; next, they orientalized their style by their connection with the East through Aquileia, and the influx of Greek exiles into the guild. Later came a different influence through the Saracens into the South, and the Italian-Gothic was born.
The Comacine art of the interregnum after Charlemagne may be judged by the church of S. Zeno at Verona. This had been rebuilt in 810 by King Pepin, whose palace was in Verona. His church fell a prey to the devastation dealt by the Huns in 924, and Bishop Rothair restored it in the tenth century, the Emperor Otho the First furnis.h.i.+ng the funds.
There was a third restoration in 1139, when the present front and portico were added. The general form of Otho's church still remains, and shows the usual ”three naves” (emblematical of the Trinity), and the circular arches supported by alternate columns and pilasters. The roof, as in all the older Lombard churches, was of wood, and not vaulted. It is not recorded whence Otho obtained his architects, but though no names are written, the Comacine mark is there. Later restorations have wiped out most of the old signs, but they have left us some capitals on the columns and the reliefs on the arches leading into the crypt under the tribune. Two of the columns are here ill.u.s.trated. In one may be seen human figures clinging to palm-branches, by which the Magister who carved it symbolized man clinging to Christ. The other is a veritable Comacine knot, formed of mystic winged creatures, with their serpent tails entwined. On the arches of the crypt are a wealth of mediaeval imaginings, mystic beasts, Christian symbols, scriptural characters and ancient myths, all mingled together as only a Freemason of the Middle Ages could mingle them. Otho's architects were certainly _Magistri_ of our guild, and probably our friend from Pontida, who called on S. Zeno to save him from the brigands, was one of them.
It is undeniable that later Comacines put the elegant facade to the church in 1139, when Magistri Nicolaus and Guglielmus carved the wonderful porch with its columns resting on lions, and its very mediaeval reliefs, in which we see Theodoric, King of the Goths, going straight to the devil in the guise of a wild huntsman. On the architraves are allegorical reliefs of the twelve months. But this front is not of the era we are now discussing, and we shall mention it again.
A work which is indubitably of the ninth century, and has all the marks of the time, is the atrium of S. Ambrogio at Milan, which was a commission to Magister Adam of the Comacines, by Anspert of Bissone, who was Archbishop of Milan from 868 to 881. The atrium of a church was anciently used for the catechumens, as they were not admitted into the body of the church till they were baptized. The atrium of S.
Ambrogio is a square s.p.a.ce surrounded by a portico composed of columns supporting round arches. The proportions are so fine and majestic that it is looked on as the best mediaeval edifice existing in Lombard style. The capitals are composed of foliage, strange ornaments, and groups of grotesque animals and monsters rudely sculptured; and yet with the imperfect chiselling there is such a freedom of design and wealth of imagination as you find in no Byzantine work, however precise its execution. We give an ill.u.s.tration of one of its capitals.
The Comacine _intreccio_ is there, but floriated and luxurious. The significance of these sculptures, though unintelligible to us, is believed to be the occult and conventional art language of the Comacines or Freemasons. On the doorway, among the foliage and symbolic animals, one may still read the name of ”Adam Magister.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: CAPITAL IN THE ATRIUM OF S. AMBROGIO, MILAN. BY MAGISTER ADAM.
_page 112._]
Another very important church of the ninth century is the cathedral of Grado, near Venice, which had been first built between 571-586, seemingly by Byzantine artists, though they also used old cla.s.sical capitals from former buildings. The plan of this Basilica in its older form shows very clearly the leaning to one side which we have said was a symbol of Christ's head being turned in pain on the Cross. Here not only the left aisle reaches higher up than the right, but the wall of the facade slopes considerably. In the ninth century Fortunato, Patriarch of Grado, who lived about 828, sent for _artefici Franchi_[86] to restore the Baptistery of S. Giovanni on the island which was the metropolis of maritime Venice. Now what were these _artefici Franchi_? It is clear they could not have been French, for Charlemagne himself had to get builders from Lombardy, his own country not having as yet enough skill in masonry. It is natural to suppose they were the guild from Cisalpine Gaul, which though composed of Italians had been styled ”Lombards” while under the Lombard kings, and may have been ”Franchi” while the Carlovingian kings ruled. They were known as ”Tedeschi” when later they were under the protection of the German emperors, a term which puzzled old Vasari greatly. It is still a question whether the real interpretation would not be the literal one, Free-masons, who may well have been recalled from France where they were at work.
The wording of a phrase in the will of the Patriarch Fortunato, where he says ”_feci venire magistros de Francia_,” shows plainly that he referred to architects belonging to a guild in which the higher orders were called _Magistri_.
Having begun to work at Grado, the Lombards were evidently employed in other Venetian churches. Their style is said to be very evident in the Duomo of Murano, but how much they did, and whether they worked with Eastern or other architects, will, I suppose, never be precisely known.
A curious little church of this epoch is existing in almost its original form at a village called Abadia, near Sesto Calende on Lake Maggiore. It has a crypt and a portico, three naves and three apses.[87] The crypt is supported on round arches and small thin columns, the roof is of wood. The portico has three arcades resting on columns and pilasters with capitals of Lombard-Byzantine style.
We find the guild at work not only in the north, but in the south of Italy at this epoch. One of the famous buildings in South Italy with which the Comacine Masters were connected, is the celebrated monastery of Monte Ca.s.sino with its church. This monastery had been built in the first instance by a Brescian named Petronax, who made a pilgrimage to Rome to see Pope Gregory II. The Pope urged Petronax to go to Monte Ca.s.sino where St. Benedict was buried. He went and there was inspired to found a monastery.
By the beginning of the eleventh century this had been much ruined by the Saracens and others, and Desiderius its abbot, in 1066, decided to restore it. He was of the race of the Lombard Dukes of Beneventum, was a friend of Pope Gregory VII., and became his successor on the papal throne under the name of Victor III. Desiring that his church should be a very ”majestic temple,” he sent to call artificers from Amalfi and from Lombardy.[88] Among the Italians was a certain Andrea, from Serra di Falco, near Como, a fine worker in metal, who, with his disciples, made the bronze doors.
Some interesting baptisteries were erected in the tenth century by the Comacines. The baptistery at this time seems to have had a set form--the octagon; and a mystical significance, that figure being highly symbolical of the Trinity, being formed by a conjunction of three triangles. In the earlier days of the Romano-Lombard style, the baptistery generally had only a small arcade, or row of brackets supporting arches round the outer wall beneath the roof, and a practicable gallery round the interior. Of this shape was the Florentine Baptistery, that of Como and many others.
When the later Comacines worked in more florid Romanesque style, the Baptisteries were often covered with little galleries or rows of colonnettes like those of Pisa, Parma, Lucca, etc.
A fine specimen of Lombard work of about 1000 A.D., or a little later, which shows the approach towards a more Gothic style, may be seen in the cloister of Voltorre, a little walled town on Lake Varese. The cloister of Voltorre is thus described--”The beauty of this eleventh-century Lombard building is singular. The four sides are formed of porticoes which sustain the upper storey. The porticoes facing the open court are formed on one side of small graceful arches in brick, with friezes and reliefs sustained by elegant colonnettes, some round and some octangular, with capitals of various forms. On two other sides the colonnettes are smaller and shorter, but still graceful; they terminate in varied and bizarre capitals surmounted by a kind of bracket on which the large stones of the upper building rest. Among the sculptures of the little columns on the left as one enters the court, is incised in mediaeval characters and abbreviations the following--'_Lanfrancus magister filius Dom. Ersatii de Livurno_.'” Livurno most probably stands for Ligurno, a place a few miles from Voltorre. So our master Lanfranco Ersatti, having graduated in the Comacine Guild, set himself to embellish his native place. In 1099 Magister Lanfranco designed the Duomo of Modena, which, as will be seen hereafter, was the work of centuries, he being followed by a long series of architects.
Then came more troublous times for the Comacines in their own country.