Part 32 (1/2)
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.”