CHAPTER III

THE TUSCAN LINK

I.--PISA

The very mention of Pisa brings to our minds Niccolò Pisano, whose name stands in all art histories as the fountain-head of that Tuscan development of art which led to the Renaissance. But where was Niccolò Pisano trained and qualified for this high post of honour? A great architect and sculptor does not suddenly become famous and obtain important commissions without having some undeniable credentials.

In those mediæval days, when the arts protected themselves by forming into constituted guilds, no one could call himself a Master unless he were trained and qualified in one of these guilds and had reached the higher grades. To trace Niccolò's place in the great chain of the Masonic Guild, we must go back a little, and gather together the threads of information we have been able to glean, as to the expansion of the guild itself, and here the valuable collections of archivial documents made by Sig. Milanesi from the books and archives of the Opera del Duomo at Siena, and by Sig. Cesare Guasti from those of the cathedral at Florence, will materially assist us. By studying these and putting facts and statements together the whole organization becomes clear, and our former glimpses into the threefold aspect of the lodges at Modena, Parma, and other northern cities become confirmed.

Here in Tuscany we again find the three branches. First: There is the school where novices were trained in the three sister arts--painting, sculpture, and architecture. When pupils were received from outside the guild, they had to pass a very severe novitiate before being admitted as members; but the sons and nephews of _Magistri_ were, we learn, entitled to be members by heritage without the novitiate.[156] The hereditary aspect of the lists of Masters certainly displays this right of heritage very strongly. The qualified Masters were entitled to take pupils and apprentices in their own studios. The large number of pupils who studied under Niccolò Pisano suggests his eminent position in the guild.

Second: There was the _laborerium_, or great workshop, where all the hewing of stone, carving of columns, cutting up of wood-work was done--in fact, the head-quarters of the brethren who had passed the schools, but were not yet Masters.[157] A graphic sketch from a Masonic _laborerium_ is given by Nanni di Banco, in the relief under the shrine of the _Quattro Coronati_ on Or San Michele at Florence, where the four brethren are all at work. In looking at it, one is reminded of the old story of the block of marble from which Michael Angelo's David was made, which had laid for many years in the stores of the Opera del Duomo at Florence, it having been once assigned to Agostino di Ducci, who was commissioned in 1464 to make a statue for the front of the Duomo, which was blocked out so badly that the marble was taken away from him, and he was expelled from the _laborerium_.[158]

Third: There was the _Opera_ or Office of Administration, which formed the link between the guild and its patrons. The Freemasons evidently adapted their nomenclature to the dialect of the part they were in. In Tuscany the word for this office was _Opera_ (or Works). There was the Opera di S. Jacopo at Pistoja as early as 1100; and the Opera del Duomo at Pisa, Siena, and Florence. In cities of the Lombard district, such as Modena, Parma, Padua, Milan, etc., the name is _Fabbriceria_. The members of this Ruling Council are generally four in number, and are called _Operai_ in Tuscany, and _Fabbricieri_ in Lombardy. These were elected periodically, two of them being influential citizens, who acted on the part of the patrons, and two from the Masters themselves. Where the lodge was very small there was only one _operaio_, as in Pistoja, when in 1250 Turrisianus was overseer (_superstans_) for a year. Later, when the Pistoja lodge was larger, there were two. At Milan there were more than four. Above these was the _Superiore_, a sort of president. If there were a reigning Prince, he was usually elected president. In the _Opera_, all commissions were given, and contracts signed between the city and the Masters, every contract being duly drawn up in legal manner by the notary of the _Opera_. Here orders were given for the purchase of materials, and estimates considered for the payment of either work or goods. The _Opera_ had to provide the funds for the whole expenses. Usually this was done in the first instance by appropriating to the work the receipts of one or more taxes. In course of time people left legacies, and the _Opera_ had a knack of growing very rich.

Between the _Opera_ and the _laborerium_ was a responsible officer called the _Provveditore_. Judging from the entries in his private memorandum-book, his responsibilities must have been endless, and his occupations multitudinous.

There was also a treasurer, a secretary, and two _Probiviri_, sometimes called _Buon uomini_, who acted as arbiters, for purposes of appeal and verification of accounts.

The identical form of the lodges in the different cities is a strong argument that the same ruling body governed them all. An argument equally strong is the ubiquity of the members. We find the same man employed in one lodge after another, as work required. Unfortunately no documents exist of the early Lombard times, but the archives of the _Opere_, which in most cities have been faithfully kept since the thirteenth century, would, if thoroughly examined, prove to be valuable stores from which to draw a history of the Masonic Guild.

We will now return to Pisa.

Sig. Merzario asserts that no school of art indigenous to Pisa existed there before the building of the Duomo. He might almost have said before the time of Niccolò, for so far was the half-mythical Buschetto from being a Pisan, that the world has for eight centuries been arguing where he came from! To arrive at Niccolò it is necessary to start from Buschetto. Who was Buschetto? Whence came he? Vasari, in his ignorance of monumental Latin, says, "From Dulichium," and thus the idea was promulgated that he was a Greek. But the inscription (given on next page) on Pisa cathedral says nothing of the kind. It is a flowery eloquence which Cavalier Del Borgo reads as comparing him for genius to Ulysses, Duke of Dulichium, and for skill to Dædalus.

Cicognara judges from his name that he was Italian. Most probably Buschetto was a nickname, "little bush," given him either from a shock head of hair, or derived from _Buscare_, to thrash or flog. It is quite possible, though the proofs are not very strong, that he may have been of Greek extraction, descended from some of the Byzantine members of the guild of whom we have spoken before.

BUSKET.[159] JACE ... HIC .... INGENIOR͞U DULICHIO ... PREVALUISSE DUCI[160] MENIB' JLIACIS CAUTUS DEDIT ILLE RUIN͞A HUJUS AB ARTE VIRI MENIA MIRA VIDES. CALLIDITATE SUA NOCUIT DUX INGENIOS UTILIS ISTE FUIT CALLIDITATE SUA. NIGRA DOM' LABERINTUS ERAT TUA DEDALE LAUS͞E AT SUA BUSKET͞U SPLENDIDA TEMPLA PROBANT. N̄ HABET EXPLU NIVEO[161] DE MARMORE TEMPL͞U QUOD FIT BUSKETI PRORSUS AB INGENIO. RES SIBI COMISSAS TEMPLI C͞U LEDERET HOSTIS PROVIDUS ARTE SUI FORTIOR HOSTE FUIT. MOLISET IMMENSE PELAGI QUAS TRAXIT AB IMO FAMA COLUMNARUM TOLLIT AD ASTRA VIRUM EXPLENDIS A FINE DECEM DE MENSE DIEBUS SEPTEMBRIS GAUDENS DESERIT EXILIUM.

The partisans of the Grecian theory hold much to a MS. said to be now in the archives of the Vatican,--but which Milanesi asserts cannot be found,--which says that the Pisans "_Buschetum ex Grecia favore Constantinopolitani Imperatoris obtinuerunt_." Morrona also suspects this to be apocryphal; but even if it be genuine, the Pisans may only have asked for one of the Italian architects who were working in large numbers in the East under the Emperors, and building Lombard churches on Oriental ground. It was only in 1170 that Desiderius, Abbot of Monte Cassino, begged Comnenus to send him back some architects, and the Italian sculptor Olinto was among them.

It may well be true, as Sig. Merzario says, that no school existed at Pisa before the Duomo was begun. But soon after that, we certainly find the usual organization of _laborerium_ and _Opera_.

Old authors tell us that "the most famous Masters from foreign parts vied in lending their help to the building of such an important edifice, under the direction of Buschetto."[162] Another old MS.[163] records that the "Opera of the Duomo was instituted in 1080, some years after Buschetto was engaged, and that the first _operai_ of the Council were Hildebrand, son of the Judge Uberto, son of Leo, Signoretto Alliata, and Buschetto of Dulichium who was architect. The head of these was Hildebrand, and the others were ministers and officers of the Opera, as may be found in the archives of the said Opera."[164] Here we have the full organization of the Comacine House of Works. The dignitaries of the city as President, Treasurer, and Ministers, the head architect also a member of the Council of the Opera. Another old writer calls Buschetto _capo della scuola Pisana_.

Niccolò, Giovanni, and Andrea da Pisa are fine proofs that the school at Pisa flourished and brought forth brave artists. Even as late as the sixteenth century, when Sansovino was sculpturing the casing of the Holy House at Loreto, we are told that thirty of the best carvers in stone were sent from Pisa to work under the Capo Maestro, Andrea Contucci of Monte Sansovino.[165]

Among the _Magistri_ from other parts in Buschetto's time, one of the chief was doubtless Rainaldo, who, judging from the inscription near the principal door of the façade, was not only a working sculptor in the guild, but also a full-fledged Master--

HOC OPUS EXIMIUM TAM MERUM TAM PRETIOSUM: RAINALDUS PRUDENS OPERATOR, ET IPSE MAGISTER: COSTITVIT MIRE, SOLLERTER, ET INGENIOSE.

It is much to be deplored that this inscription bears no date, so that we cannot tell whether Rainaldo were chief architect after Buschetto, or whether he were only sculptor and executed the front; Buschetto being architect, and designing the whole. Here we have several things to suggest both these artists as Italians, (1) Their names. (2) The Comacine form of their institutions, with the _Opera_ at the head. (3) The concourse of Italian _Magistri_ which followed them; but as usual, absolute proof is wanting.

Let us see if their work can throw more light on the question. Is the Pisan church Byzantine? Decidedly not. There are no domes except the central one, which is seen in most Lombard churches; no Oriental arches resting on bulging capitals; but round arches supported on the identical Romano-Lombard composite capitals one sees in every Italian church of the time. The façade too is a very wilderness of Lombard galleries in every direction. Instead of following the line of roof, they cover the whole front, one below another. If Buschetto had brought back from Byzantium an idea of more richness of ornamentation, he certainly worked it out in Italian forms, by merely multiplying his little pillared galleries till a network was formed over the whole building. This was not confined to him; it became a mark of Comacine work for the next two or three centuries, as we may see at Lucca, Ancona, Arezzo, and other places. The style is called Romanesque, and it stands between the heavier Lombard style of the earlier Comacines, and the more finished Italian Gothic of the later ones, as shown in Florence and Milan. They are all, however, only different developments of the same guild.

The richness of ornamentation suited the temper of the Pisans at that time. They were proud of many victories, and had brought back from Majorca, Palermo, and other places, various spoils, such as porphyry colonnettes, rare marble, etc. etc.[166] They desired a particularly grand and gorgeous church, and that it should be in a style hitherto unknown. The many antique capitals and columns among the spoils placed at his disposal suggested, of course, arches, so by way of being very original, Buschetto or Rainaldo, whichever of the two designed it, made his façade with four arcades, instead of one, or two, as his brethren in the north were accustomed to do. The colonnettes in these four galleries are fifty-eight in number, some of _rosso antico_, others of the black and gold-streaked Luna marble. The two large columns at the central door are also of antique Greek work; they are beautifully carved in foliage intertwined; the other four columns are fluted and wreathed with foliage. The capitals also are chiefly ancient classic work; there are Corinthian and composite ones. The remaining capitals are Comacine work, and have their usual mixture of animals and hieroglyphic figures. Here, too, are the lions of Judah in juxtaposition with the pillars, but as yet they appear above the pillar and not beneath it, as was the invariable custom a century later.

The rude figures of saints at the extremities of the roof, both of the aisles and nave, mark the beginning of that revival of the human figure in sculpture, which was the forerunner of the work of Niccolò Pisano. The tower and Baptistery are the natural results of the Duomo, the style being identical; the same round arches in the foundation, and the same circles of Lombard galleries covering the super-structures.

The Baptistery was built by Magister Diotisalvi, somewhere about 1152. We have no proofs of his origin, but his work and title prove him to have graduated in the same guild as Buschetto and Rainaldo,[167] and we find his son and grandsons in Siena and other lodges.

In the Baptistery, the old mystic octagonal form was abandoned, and the circle takes its place. Diotisalvi has here made a perfect bell in tone as well as in form. It is the most acoustic building possible, as any one may prove by singing in rotation the notes of a chord. The whole chord echoes on for several moments with exquisite effect. The Baptistery was begun in August 1152, the first stone being laid in the presence of the Consul Cocco di Tacco Grifi; and two of the _Operai_ (members of the administrative council or _Opera_) named Cinetto Cinetti, and Arrigo Cancellieri, were appointed _soprastanti_ (overseers). Here again we have a distinct connection between the _Opera del Duomo_ and the _laborerium_.

Some of the classic spoils of war were given to Diotisalvi for this building. Several of the capitals on the twenty columns supporting the foundation circle of round arches, are Corinthian; and the two pillars at the chief portal are beautiful specimens of ancient work, similar to those in the façade of the Duomo. Between the classic remains incorporated into the building, and the statues and sculptures which belong to a later century, it is difficult to distinguish which were the absolute work of Diotisalvi himself. The sculptures on the door-jambs--rather mediæval scenes relating to Christ and David--and the hieroglyphics of the months were probably his own work. The Baptism of Christ on the architrave, which has the mediæval expression of baptism by immersion, may be his; and if so, it seems to explain how the Greek element got into Niccolò di Pisa's work, for here is his antecedent of a century, showing in his work signs of the same leaning to classicism in the midst of a rude and early style. How could he help it when he was living among classic remains of sculpture?

The other three doors have also antique spiral columns of Greek marble. A fine piece of work, in Comacine style, is the frieze of interlaced foliage over the west entrance. The second order is a colonnade of fifty-eight arches with sculptured capitals. The third consists of eighteen pilasters and twenty windows. Here are seen the lion between the pillar and the arch, various animals and human heads at the spring of the arches, while above each order is a complicated cornice of pyramids, spires, and arabesques, which suggest a Southern or Eastern influence. The interior is less ornate, but of fine solid architecture. Twelve Corinthian columns and four large pilasters support the arches, forming a peristyle round the building; a similar gallery with slight columns runs above it. The columns are not all of antique marble. Three of them are of granite brought from the Isle of Elba, on May 4, 1155, and two from Sardinia, by Cinetti, one of the overseers we have mentioned.[168] The first pillar was placed on October 1, 1156. The capitals are ornate; some antique, Corinthian, others in Comacine style with animals and _intrecci_. On one of the pillars is engraved--"Deo-ti-salvi, magister hujus operis." Morrona thinks the Baptistery shows a Moorish influence. This is possible, as the whole of the three buildings show the Comacines' first great change of style, after their works in the south at Palermo, and the kingdom of Naples.

Old writers call the style Arabo-Tedesco; and this brings us to the meaning of the word _Tedesco_ in Italian architecture at this epoch.

The fallacy that the Italian Gothic came from Germany, must have got into art histories from a misconception of Vasari's term of opprobrium, "_quei Tedeschi_." He uses it when he speaks of any architecture which is not purely classic, even blaming buildings such as Arnolfo's Florentine dome, the churches of Assisi, Orvieto, Lucca, Pisa, etc.

But the writers who interpret this term as meaning the German nation, are reasoning on a fallacy. In the first place, was there any pointed Gothic in Germany before the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries? We will just run over the principal Gothic cathedrals. Bruges was begun in 1358; Cologne is modern of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; Lubeck was built in 1341; Attenburg in 1265-1379; Freiburg Dom Kirche in 1484. At Freiburg in Breisgau, the older parts are of the same style as Comacine, while the Gothic parts date from 1513; Strasburg, the Gothic parts between 1318-1439; Magdeburg, 1363.

Before these were built we have at Cologne, S. Gereon's Kirche, with circular arches, date 1227, and S. Pantaleon, 980, but there is not a sign of Gothic in either. Bonn cathedral, built in 1151-1270, is also round-arched. Coblenz is Carlovingian. Mayence, round-arched of the tenth and eleventh centuries (the Gothic side-chapels date from 1260 to 1500). Treves, with round arches, early Romanesque of the eleventh century; choir, later Romanesque of the twelfth century; some parts which are pointed were of the thirteenth century. Hildesheim, a Romanesque Basilica, built in the eleventh century. Dom Insel at Breslau, 1170, is tripartite, on the Comacine plan, and very quaint. Worms, 996-1016, Lombard style, with round arches; the parts with pointed architecture are much more modern. This list proves that the earliest churches were built by Italian Masters, or at least in the Italian style.

Indeed Hope classes most of them as Lombard. The Germans themselves expanded the Lombard style into the pointed, which also came up through Italy, its first signs being seen at Assisi, next at Pisa, and then Florence.

Milan was a later reflex of the perfected German Gothic, though chiefly executed, as we shall see later, by the hands of Comacine Masters.

As I have before remarked, climatic influences greatly determine the style of a national architecture. To the sunny south belong the flat roof; the shady colonnade; the horizontal line and frieze; the fountained court; the smaller windows; and the solid tower. To the north the pointed roof, that snow and rain shall not decay it; the solid buttress to resist the greater outward pressure of the high and aspiring sloped roof; the perpendicular tendency in design; the larger windows for a less sunny atmosphere; and the pointed spire to carry up the general lines.

On these lines of fitness the Germans and French perfected their style, and imported it into England. The differences are great, between this northern Gothic and the Italian Gothic, which is always more or less Romanesque. Now if in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries[169] the Germans had not begun to build their glorious pointed minsters, what did Vasari mean by _quei Tedeschi_? I will show from his own description. In his chapter called "_dell' Architettura_," forming the introduction to his _Lives_, after discussing the three classical orders, he says (I will translate literally)--"There is another kind of work which they call _Tedesco_ (German), in which the ornamentation and proportions are very different from the ancient or the modern. (Modern in Vasari's time would be the Renaissance style of Michael Angelo.) This is not used by good architects of these days, but is shunned by them as monstrous and barbarous. Every sign of order is forgotten, it ought rather to be called confusion and disorder. In the buildings, which are so many that they have infected the whole world, you see the portals adorned with thin columns twisted like a vine, and so slight that they could not be supposed to support the weight. And then on their façades and other places they made a cursed mass of little tabernacles (archlets) one on the other, with many pyramids and points, and such foliage (here Vasari evidently has his eye on Pisa Baptistery), that it seems impossible how they clung together; they seem made of paper, rather than of stone or marble. In these works there are many protuberances, broken lines, brackets, and _intrecci_, quite disproportionate to the building; and frequently, by piling one thing on another, they run up so high that the top of a door touches the roof. (Here Vasari is certainly thinking of the porches of San Zeno at Verona, and the cathedral of Bergamo.) This style was invented by the Goths (does he mean Longobards perhaps?), who having ruined the buildings, and murdered the architects, made the ones who remained build in this way. They arched their roofs with acute _quarti_ (vaulted roofs) and filled all Italy with this cursed style of building.... God save any country from coming to such ideas and orders of architecture, which, being utterly deformed and unlike the beauty of our buildings, do not deserve that we should speak any more of them."

Again, in the _Proemio delle Vite_, when praising the solid buildings of the Goths in Ravenna, especially the tomb of Theodoric, with its huge monolithic roof, he goes on to speak of the Dark Ages--"After which," he says, "there arose new architects, who from their barbarous nation derived the kind of buildings which we of to-day call _tedeschi_, the which seem ridiculous to us, although to them they may have appeared to be praiseworthy."

Here are tirades from the old chronicler of art, who swore by the three classic orders, and worshipped Michael Angelo and the Renaissance style! Certainly the flat pilaster, triangular pediments, and straight unadorned lines of that art were as far removed as the poles from the florid but meaningful sculpture-architecture of the Comacines in Romanesque times, or its rich Norman and Gothic developments.

However, we gather plainly from this, that when Vasari calls a master _Tedesco_, he means merely Lombard. The reason is easy to see. Lombardy and North Italy, down to Lucca, were from about 1170 under the rule of the German Emperors, consequently the Comacines were no longer Lombards, nor French as in the Carlovingian times, but Germans.

This is curiously emphasized by an episode in the building of the cathedral at Pisa. When the Pisans wanted to endow the building fund of the church, they wished to buy some land on the Serchio, near Lucca, to help to form a revenue. They had, however, to send Gualando Orlandi and Aldebrando de' Visconti as ambassadors to Germany to obtain permission from the Emperor Henry IV., that the lands close by Lucca might be ceded to Pisa.[170]

The tower of Pisa is too well known to need any description here. The joint masters were Bonanno of Pisa, and a very confusing _Tedesco_. In some authors he is called Giovanni d'Innspruck, in others Guglielmo from Germany. On inquiry as to how Innspruck comes into the question, we find the following perplexing passage in Morrona. After quoting the inscription on the tower, "A.D. MCLXXIV campanile hoc fuit fundatum mense Agusti," he continues--"We find from ancient documents belonging to the _Opera_, that the building was begun on the vigil of San Lorenzo, and the two above-mentioned architects (Bonanno and Guglielmo) are precisely indicated, excepting only that instead of _Guglielmo Tedesco_, it is written _Giovanni Onnipotente of Germany_--a misinterpretation of the word Oenipons or Oenipontanus, which signifies native of Innspruck."[171] The italics are my own, and emphasize what Sig. Morrona styles a precise indication! The passage is an astounding bit of unreason, but as neither Giovanni nor Guglielmo is a German form of name, I do not think this theory need trouble us. Whether the builder were German or Italian, whether named John or William, he only carried out the general design of the two buildings, and made a veil of Lombard archlets all over his leaning tower.

We shall find both Bonanno and Guglielmo working at Orvieto some time later. The tower was finished much later, when Andrea di Pisa was Grand Master of the Pisan Lodge; the upper circle of arches belongs to his part of the work.

At Pisa then we have an artistic sphere which might well have produced Niccolò di Pisa, even without the influences of the south. We will, as far as the few inscriptions and documents allow, see who were the members of this Masonic lodge, which had painters before even the rise of the Siena school, and whose building was the earliest model for the Romanesque style.

Bonanno, who assisted in the building of the tower, was more famous in the guild for his metal working than for architecture and marble sculpture. The fame of the bronze doors of the Duomo which he cast is now only traditionary, as they were destroyed by the fire on October 25, 1596. The antique inscription has been preserved, and proves that in 1180 Bonanno cast the doors, which had taken him a year to model, and that a certain "Benedict" was _operarius_ at the time.[172]

Bonanno's successor as a master in bronze was a certain Bartolommeo di Pisa, who was, like Bonanno, sculptor, architect, and metal-worker. He was much patronized by the Emperor Frederic, for whom he built the palace at Foggia, and made a tomb. He seems to have been a famous bell-caster; there are inscriptions quoted by Morrona,[173] which have been found on bells in the leaning tower of Pisa, the bells of the churches of St. Francis at Assisi, S. Francesco at Siena, S. Paolo a Ripa d'Arno, and S. Cosimo at Pisa, S. Michele at Lucca, etc. Sometimes his name stands alone; sometimes one of his sons, Lotteringo or Andreotti, is associated with him. Later we find the sons' names alone in independent works, and then with the distinctive title of _Magister_.

Through this group of Pisan Masters a special connection was established with the south, a link which might account for Pietro, the father of Niccolò, being called Pietro da Apulia, for there certainly was an offshoot of the Pisan lodge in that part. Bonanno of Pisa cast the famous bronze doors of Monreale; Bartolommeo was at Foggia; and his son, Magister Lotoringus, passed most of his life at Cefalù, where his name appears on a bell dated A.D. 1263. The Emperor Frederic, his father's patron, nationalized him in Cefalù, and after ten years of residence, in 1242 he gave him permission to take a wife from Castro-Vetere in Calabria.

Other metal-workers and bell-casters at Pisa were a Nanni, a Pardo Nardi, and others whose names appear inscribed in the twelfth century. I do not know whether the Angelo Rossi, whose name with the date 1173 is on a sculptured bell once in the church of S. Giovanni in Pisa (now at Villa di Pugnano), was a fellow-pupil or scholar of Bonanno's. His work is less artistic and masterly.

And now for the sculptors of the lodge. A famous master of the twelfth century was Biduinus, who sculptured the façade of the ancient church of S. Cassiano, near Pisa, the building of which was undoubtedly the work of the Pisan Lodge. It is a round-arched church of the usual large smooth square-cut blocks of stone, and is externally adorned by pilasters with capitals of varied form and sculpture. Biduinus' façade has five round arches with a simple double-light window above. The capitals and architraves are all carved with the mystic beasts and hippogriffs belonging to the religion of the day. The architraves show the resurrection of Lazarus, and Christ's entry into Jerusalem. On one of the doors is the inscription in Gothic letters--"_Hoc opus quod cernis. Biduinus docte peregit_"; the other bears the date 1180. The whole style of the church is similar to the Pistoja buildings of that epoch, and recalls the school of Gruamonte. It is certain that Biduinus as well as Gruamont worked in Lucca, for the relief of the architrave of S. Salvatore at Lucca is signed "BIDUVINO ME FECIT HOC OPUS."

The next great names are Niccolò and Giovanni Pisani, the glory not only of their own lodge, but of the universal Guild. Until the time when his famous pulpit was sculptured, Niccolò seems to have worked little in Pisa, though he endowed it with one of his most original designs--the bell-tower of S. Niccolò. From the evidence of southern influence in his style, it is probable that his father Pietro was one of the artists whom Frederic called to South Italy, and that Niccolò passed his novitiate with him there. In any case, by the time he wrote _Magister_ before his name he had already attained a high rank as sculptor and architect, and was chosen for most important works out of Pisa, such as the Arca di S. Domenico at Bologna, and the building of the church and convent near it. Niccolò Pisano's work in Florence was almost exclusively architectural; he also designed the cathedral churches of Arezzo and Cortona. His pupil, Fra Guglielmo, a relative of the Doge dell' Agnello of Pisa who was Niccolò's assistant in the Arca di S. Domenico at Bologna in 1272, worked in 1293 at the reliefs in the façade of Orvieto, and in 1304 put the Romanesque front to S. Michele in Borgo, in Pisa. The Virgin and Child over the door of the latter is a copy of Niccolò's famous statue. Some authors give him the credit of being the _Tedesco_ who Vasari says sculptured the fine pulpit in S. Gio. Fuorcivitas at Pistoja, and who assisted Bonanno in the tower of Pisa.

A sculptor named Bonaiuto must, I think, have belonged to Niccolò's school. Two interesting sculptured doorways by him still exist in what was once the Palazzo Sclafani at Palermo (now the barracks of S. Trinità). The doorway is carved in _tufo_, and above it is a kind of gable supported by two small pilasters, enclosing the arms of the family, a pair of cranes; surmounting the gable is a carved eagle, with a hare in its claws, standing on a kind of capital, which is unmistakably Comacine; beneath this is a bracket inscribed, "_Bonaiuto me fe-cit de Pisa_." Sig. Centofanti, in a private letter to Professor Clemente Lupi, who wrote to ask for information about Bonaiuto, says that a register of expenses of the Opera del Duomo of Pisa contains several mentions of the name. In one dated 1315 _Bonaiutus magister lapidum_ is noted as working at the Duomo, and receiving two soldi a day, his companions receiving four or five, and the _capo maestro_ eight. Here it would seem he is still in the lower ranks of the brotherhood. In 1318 he is noted as Boniautus Michaelis, and receives four soldi a day. In 1344 he has become full _capo maestro_ of the Duomo, and is paid nine soldi a day.[174]

From his school also sprang Arnolfo, the first of a long line of sculptor-builders of the Florentine Lodge. From it, too, through his son Giovanni, came the best builders of the Siena cathedral, and their followers who worked at Orvieto.

Thus Niccolò and Giovanni are proved to be links in the old chain that came from classic Rome through the Lombard Comacines to the Renaissance. All the famous names that ever were, may be traced in this universal Guild from father to son, from master to pupil. After Giovanni Pisano went to Siena, Andrea di Pisa, his scholar, carried on his school in Pisa. In 1299 we first hear of Andrea, the son of a notary at Pontedera, as _famulus magistri Johannes_.[175] His first authentic works were the bronze doors of the Florentine Baptistery, proving that he had been trained in the many-branched fraternity at Pisa, where metal-working ranked so high. As instances of his sculptures in marble, we may take many of the statues which were on the Duomo at Florence, and the second line of reliefs on Giotto's campanile. But like all the _Magistri_, he was, above all, an architect, and in that branch we find him as Grand Master at Orvieto in 1347. His son Nino succeeded him in the onerous office. His other son Tommaso was also in the guild, but did not rise to eminence in it. He designed a palace, and painted two caskets for the Doge dell' Agnello of Pisa.

Nino's sculptures show a greater fidelity to nature than those of his artistic ancestors. A Madonna and two angels over the door of the canonry of the Duomo at Florence are very charming, as are his statues in the church of the "Spina" at Pisa. We next find Nino's son Andrea receiving payment for a sepulchre for the Doge dell' Agnello, which Nino did not live long enough to finish.

One among Andrea's pupils who were not his relatives rose to special and wide-spread eminence in the guild, _i.e._ Magister Giovanni Balducci di Pisa, whose artistic career was mostly in Milan, where the Visconti patronized him. He sculptured several tombs, among them the beautiful Arca of St. Peter Martyr in S. Eustorgio in 1336. The figures of the Christian Virtues are very sweet and naturalistic. On a sculptured pulpit at S. Casciano near Florence, of the same shape and style as that by Guido di Como at Pistoja, but infinitely more advanced in art, he has signed, "Hoc opus fecit Johs Balducci Magister de Pisis." The only architectural work that is mentioned as signed by him is the door of S. Maria in Brera at Milan.

II.--LUCCA AND PISTOJA

THE BUONI FAMILY AT PISTOJA

------+------+-----------------------------+----------------------------_ 1. | 1152 | Magister Buono | Employed at Ravenna and | | | at Naples, where he built | | | Castel dell' Uovo and Castel | | | Capuano. At Arezzo the | | | palace of the Signory. | | | 2 & 3.| 1168 | "M. Johannes and Guitto" | Made the Ciborium at | | (Guido) | Corneto. | | | 4. | 1196 | Magister Buono, called | Built the churches of S. | | Gruamont | Andrea and S. Gio. | | | Evangelista at Pistoja. This | | | man is said by Vasari to be | | | identical with the first | | | Buono. | | | 5. | | M. Adeodatus, his brother | Worked with him at Pistoja. | | | 6. | 1206 | "Magister Bonus," or Buono | Designed Fiesole cathedral. | | | 7. | 1264 | M. Giovanni Buono (Zambono) | Worked at S. Anthony, Padua; | | | in 1265 built the cathedral | | | of S. Jacopo, in Pistoja. | | | 8. | | M. Andrea Buono, his | These brothers worked | | brother | together at the pulpit at | | | Corneto Tarquinia, and | | | probably built the church. | | | Niccolao di Rannuccio | | | sculptured the door, inlaid | | | in Cosmati style. | | | 9. | 1285 | M. Alberto di Guido Buono } | | | } | Sculptured at S. Pietro, 10. | " | M. Albertino di Enrico } | Bologna. | | Buono } | ------+------+-----------------------------+-----------------------------

The family were leading members of the guild up to the fifteenth century, when Bartolommeo Buono and his sons won fame in Venice.

We have seen the long connection of the Comacines with Lucca, during Lombard times, when they helped to build S. Frediano and other churches there. Sig. Ridolfi, author of _L' Arte in Lucca_, proves that not only the chief churches, but the cathedral itself, were the work of the Lombard "Maestri Casari" who had established their schools there, since they restored S. Frediano for the Lombard Faulone in 686, and built the Basilica of S. Martino for Bishop Frediano in 588.

By the tenth century the church of S. Martino was very dilapidated, which much grieved the mind of Bishop Anselmo, who sought to gather together funds for its restoration. Two wealthy Lucchesi, Lambertus and Blancarius, both dignitaries of the cathedral, gave large donations towards it. Not long after this, Bishop Anselmo was elevated to the Papal See as Pope Alexander II., and immediately began the long-desired work of rebuilding his ex-cathedral.

He being a Milanese, and the Comacines his countrymen, besides their having a long connection with Lucca, it is natural to suppose he chose them as his architects. Every sign of the work confirms this, although no names have come down to us. As was frequently the case, the church was left without a façade for over a century, and at the end of the twelfth century the Lucchesi wished to put this finishing touch.

There was in Lucca at the time a certain Magister Guido da Como, who had in 1187 built the church of S. Maria Corteorlandini. It was built for the feudal Lords Rolandinga, whose palace was called Corte Rolandinga, on the occasion of one of their family joining in the crusades.[176] There is mention of a Comacine sculptor named Guido before this date, at Corneto-Tarquinia, where in the church of S. Maria di Castello is a fine Ciborium, signed "Johannes et Guitto hoc opus fecerunt, MCLXVIII." This, being only nineteen years previous, may have been an earlier work of this same Guido. This _Magister_ evidently had a son who followed his father's art, and was named after himself Guido, though called Guidetto, or young Guido, to distinguish him from his father. To these two men were confided the commission for the front of the Duomo. Probably the elder did not live to complete it, for although the commission was given to Maestro Guido Marmolario (_sic_), the inscription on the façade runs--"Mille C.C.|IIII.| condi|dit|ele|cti tam pul|chras. dextra|Guidecti."[177] Among the sculptures is one figure with a very young face, supposed to be a portrait of Guidetto. This façade is a perfect specimen of pure Comacine-Romanesque, and shows that the Saracen influence under which the Masters had been placed in the south, when employed by the Lombard Dukes of Beneventum, had not led them to change entirely their old style, but only to develop it into a species of Oriental richness which (so far we may agree with old Vasari) sometimes errs against truth and good taste. It shows also the close connection between the Pisan and Lucchese Lodges.

The row of archlets which used to form a cornice under the roof now, as at Pisa, run wild over the whole façade. The outlines which used to follow honestly the shape of nave and aisles, now, for the sake of heaping on more ornament, stretch up far beyond the roof-line, forming a mask.

A still more glaring instance of the same fault is seen in Guidetto's other church, S. Michele, at Lucca, where the two upper galleries are the frontage of a mere useless wall in the air.

As an architect, young Guido left something to be desired; as a sculptor he was marvellous. Variety seems to have been his aim. In both S. Martino and S. Michele, among all the hundreds of colonnettes, you can scarcely find a duplicate. They are plain, fluted, foliaged, clustered, inlaid; black, white, red, green, yellow or parti-coloured, in endless variety. As for capitals, you get every imaginable shape and style, symbol and ornamentation. He outdoes his prototype Rainaldus of Pisa, and no clearer proof of a guild, rather than a single mind, can be furnished, than by this infinite variety of detail, which plainly speaks of the imaginings of many minds.

The Comacines here are still in the transition stage, though near its end, for the sign of the lion of Judah holds its place above the pillar, under the spring of the arch. In the Italian Gothic, their next development, it is always beneath the column.

One of the lion-capped columns is entirely covered with sculptures representing the genealogical tree of the Virgin. The statue above the door, of St. Martin dividing his cloak with the beggar, is sufficiently well modelled as to suggest its belonging to a later century.

Signor Ridolfi, who has studied much in the archives of Lucca for his learned work _L' Arte in Lucca_, thinks that, in 1204, Guidetto the younger was only just beginning his career. His father must have died about this time, for the son loses his diminutive, and becomes in his turn Guido _Magistro_. In 1211 he was called to Prato to work at the Duomo there (then known as S. Stefano). The contract, which still exists, does not specify what part of the church he was to build. It is drawn up by the Notary Hildebrand, and binds "Guido, Maestro marmoraio" of S. Martino of Lucca, to go to Prato on fair terms, and there to remain working, and _commanding others to work_, at the church of S. Stefano. After this he was recalled to Lucca, to put the above-mentioned façade to S. Michele, which Teutprand had built in the eighth century, and which had been rebuilt, when in 1027 Beraldo de' Rolandinghi had left a large legacy for the purpose. This façade, which, as I have said, is precisely similar in style to that of the Duomo, was finished in 1246.[178] Guido was then called to Pisa, to sculpture the altar and font in the Baptistery there. Not much remains of the altar--which appears to have been the usual edifice on four columns--except some very ancient sculpture, and two small columns with extremely rude statues on them. The inscription, however, is preserved, and runs--"A.D. MCCXLVI, sub Jacobi Rectore loci--Guido Bigarelli da Como fecit hoc opus."[179] This valuable discovery was made by the German Schmarzow. Here we have the family name of this busy sculptor, and of his father Guido of Como. It is one of the first instances, for surnames only became fixed about this time.

Guido or Guidetto's last work appears to have been the pulpit in San Bartolommeo in Pantano, at Pistoja, executed in 1250. This is particularly interesting, as being the immediate precursor of Niccolò Pisano's pulpit at Pisa in 1260. It has been thought that Guido, either from death or other cause, left the work imperfect, and his pupil Turrisianus finished it. The inscription as quoted by Cav. Tolomei is--"Sculptor laudator qui doctus in arte probatur|Guido de Como quem cunctis carmine promo| Anno domini 1250|Est operi sanus superestans Turrisianus |Namque fide prova vigil K Deus indi corona."[180]

Tolomei is puzzled by the cypher K, and Ciampi, the collector of inscriptions, has, in reporting this one, left out the last line altogether. He interprets it as implying that Guido having left the work unfinished, Turrisianus finished it. Whilst I was studying lately some old documents in the archives of S. Jacopo at Pistoja, Signor Guido Macciò of that city, who kindly assisted me to read the crabbed old characters, threw a new light on that inscription. He says Tolomei has misread it; that the cypher is not a K but H C, which was plainly legible in a rubbing he took of it, and that _superstans_ merely means overseer; in fact, the Latin form of _operaio_. The same term _superstans_ was used for the head of the _laborerium_ in Rome up to the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, and survived in the later lodges as _soprastante_. Signor Macciò interprets the inscription thus--"The famous sculptor Guido of Como has proved himself learned in art, and his name should be sung in verse, A.D. 1250. Turrisianus (Torrigiani) acted as overseer to this fine work, and may God crown him for superintending the work so well." I leave more learned classics to say which interpretation is the true one. But as in most of the inscriptions, documents, etc. of the guild, the name of the head of the lodge, and often those of the councillors are put in, I incline to think Signor Macciò may be right, and the inscription is another proof of a Masonic lodge in which Torrigiani was, at the time, the head of the administration.

Guido's pulpit is of white marble, and in the ancient square form, with eight panels in bas-relief. It rests on three columns; the first stands on a lion with a dragon at its feet, the second on a lioness suckling a cub, the third on a human figure. In this pulpit, and the older one at Groppoli, we have a perceptible link, connecting Niccolò Pisano with the Comacine Guild, which we shall trace more closely when speaking of Romanesque sculpture.

There were at that epoch three lodges in the immediate neighbourhood. One in connection with the Opera del Duomo at Pisa, one at Pistoja in the Opera di S. Jacopo, and a third one at Lucca, where Guido and Guidetto were chief sculptors. Besides this there was another in Apulia, where it is thought Niccolò's father Pietro worked. Niccolò's work, and that of Guido the younger, are so very much alike as to warrant the suspicion that they were both pupils of one master, but that Niccolò had in him these greater qualities which go to form an epoch-making artist.

Little has hitherto come to light respecting the Masonic lodges of Lucca and Pisa. The _laborerium_ at Pistoja is rather more clearly defined, and furnishes some definite names. It existed from the twelfth century, but I do not think the archives were kept quite so early as that. There is the name RODOLFIN'S OP, anni 1167, carved on the architrave of the principal entrance of the Lombard church of S. Bartolommeo in Pantano; but as critics cannot tell whether it means "Rodolfinus opus" or "Rodolfinus operaius" or head of the Opera, it is not a very decisive bit of history. The reading "Rodolfinus Operaius for the year 1167" would, like "Turrisianus, overseer in 1250," be quite intelligible in its connection with the guild.

The façade of S. Bartolommeo is a masterpiece of Lombard work. It has the usual three round-arched doors, whose pilasters and architraves are rich with interlaced scrolls and foliage, and whose richly-carved arches rest on lions more or less fiercely dominating other animals, as emblems that divine strength is able to overcome sin. Whether all the animal sculptures on this church are due to the twelfth-century builder, or whether some are remains of Gundoaldo's[181] first edifice in 767, I cannot say. The architraves are certainly of the later date.

The head, or _capo-maestro_ of the _laborerium_ of Pistoja in the twelfth century, was evidently one of the Buono family, whose race and school became as famous as the Antelami and Campionesi, all three being branches of the original Lombard Guild. Like the Antelami and the Campionesi, the school founded by the Buoni furnished several shining lights among the Lombard _Magistri_. The name is first met with in the poem of which we have spoken,[182] on the Ten Years' War between Milan and the people of Como. Among the brave citizens who threw down their tools to take arms, and distinguished themselves in wielding them, was a certain Giovanni Buono from Vesonzo (now Bissone) in Vall' Intelvi, who took part in the siege of the fortress of S. Martino on Lake Lugano. The war took place in the tenth century; the poem was written a little later than 1100. Sig. Merzario[183] opines that the Maestro Buono of whom Vasari speaks as the "first architect who showed a more elevated spirit, and aimed after better things, but of whose country and family he knows nothing,"[184] was one of this line of sculptor-architects originally from Vesonzo (Bissone) in Inteluum (Val d'Intelvi). The name Giovanni occurs constantly in the lists.

Certainly the head of the line, as far as regards art, was the Magister Giovanni Buoni here mentioned by Vasari, who goes on to say that this Buono in 1152 had been employed on buildings in Ravenna, after which he was called to Naples, where he built the Castel dell' Uovo and Castel Capuano; and that in the time of Doge Domenico Morosini, _i.e._ 1154, he founded the Campanile of S. Marco at Venice, which Vasari asserts was so well built that up to his time it had never moved a hair (_non ha mai mosso un pelo_).

Vasari says that Giovanni Buono was in 1166 at Pistoja, where he built the church of S. Andrea. Both Milanesi, Vasari's annotator, and Merzario[185] complain that Vasari was very confused in these statements. The tower of S. Marco was, Cicognara says, by a later Bartolommeo Buono from Bergamo, who also built the Procuratie Vecchie in the sixteenth century. It is curious how Vasari, living in the same century, could have made such a statement; he must have known whether the tower were being built then, or had been standing for several centuries. The fact was that one Buono built the older tower in Venice to which Vasari refers, and the sixteenth-century Bartolommeo Buono was its restorer. The style is certainly antique.

Vasari's annotators agree that this Buono worked at Arezzo, where he built the bell-tower, and the ancient palace of the Signoria of Arezzo (_cio è un palazzo della maniera de' Goti_), _i.e._ with large hewn stones; after which he came to Pistoja, where he built S. Andrea and other churches.

But even here some confusion exists. It is difficult to decide whether the builder of S. Andrea at Pistoja, and the cathedral of Lucca was indeed named Buono or Gruamonte. There is an inscription on the sculpture of the architrave of the façade which has been a great bone of contention. It proves, however, beyond a doubt that the usual organization, with the _Opera_ as the administrative branch, existed in Pistoja in 1196. It runs--"Fecit hoc opus Gruamons magister bon(us) et Adot ... (Adeodatus) frater ejus. Tunc erāt operarii Villanus et Pathus filius Tignosi A.D. MCIXVI."[186] This work was done by Gruamons, Master Buono, and Adeodatus his brother; Villanus and Pathus, son of Tignosi, being then _operai_ (_i.e._ on the administrative council).

In that word _bonus_ lies the difficulty. Some say it is merely placed in encomium: Gruamons the good master; but it does not seem to me probable that a man would habitually sign his name with a boastful adjective; and habitual it was, because on the white stripes of the architrave of the church of S. Giovanni Evangelista Fuorcivitas he has again signed himself "Gruamons magister bonus fêc hoc opus." Knowing the Italian love of nicknames from the earliest ages, I take it that the architect was really, as Vasari says, Master Bonus or Buono, and that either from a long neck and a stoop, or from his clever use of a crane, he was nicknamed Gruamons, "the crane man,"[187] _grue_ being Italian for both bird and machine. That the Gruamons who carved the Magi on the architrave of S. Andrea was one of the very early Masters, is evident from the mediæval grossness of his work in carving the human figure; that he may very likely be Comacine is suggested by the style and mastery of his _ornamento_ and the life in the figures of his animals. The capitals supporting this architrave are evidently by one of his subordinates; they are very rough, but full of meaning, explaining the mystery of the Annunciation and Conception; below them the signature _Magister enricus mi fecit_. These early sculptures are especially interesting, for they are the first efforts of the Comacines to show Bible events and truths by actual representation instead of by symbols, and so form the link with the development under Niccolò Pisano. Hence the greater want of practice in the human figures, compared to the animals and scrolls, with which the guild had been familiar for ages.

It is interesting to compare Gruamons' work with that of the later sculptor of the façade of S. Bartolommeo, and note the rapid progress that art was making towards more perfect and natural form in sculpture. There are only twenty-two years between them, but the sculptor of S. Bartolommeo is far in advance of Gruamons in his representation of the human figure. It is said that Gruamons has left his sign in a portrait of himself on the doorway of S. Andrea, where a curiously negro-like head stands out from the middle of a column. It seems, however, to have acquired its blackness by being used through several centuries as a torch extinguisher at funerals.

Another of Gruamons' churches in Pistoja is that of S. Giovanni Evangelista Fuorcivitas, which is extremely interesting as showing a perfect specimen of the practicable Lombard gallery or outer ambulatory, which in two orders here surrounds the church. The building is entirely encrusted with black and white marble, mostly in alternate lines, but in some places inlaid in chequers. This fashion, which began in this very city of Pistoja, has an historical significance, and was introduced as a symbol of the peace between the factions of Bianchi and Neri, which so long harassed Pistoja. It was taken up afterwards by Siena and Orvieto, and in Florence and Prato, when their respective civic feuds were healed.

Gruamons, or Magister Buono, may have been the chief master of the _laborerium_ at Pistoja with its accompanying _Opera di S. Jacopo_, which began to keep its registers in 1145. At any rate his family name was kept up in that lodge for more than a century. The Buoni followed the usual custom, and sought commissions in other towns. In 1206 we find one of them restoring and almost rebuilding the cathedral at Fiesole, which had been built in 1028, in the time of Bishop Jacopo Bavaro, but was menacing ruin two centuries later. On the sixth column of the nave, on the right, is inscribed--

"MCCVI. Indict VIII Bonus Magister Restaurus. Operarius Ecclesiæ Fesulanæ Fecit Ædificare IIII columnas I. Allex P.P."

Here even at this early date we have the _Opera_ or administration under the direction of the dignitaries of the cathedral. The tower was built by a Maestro Michele in 1213. An inscription on the left of the apse tells us that the building of the tower cost seventy _mancussi_, a gold coin in use in the Middle Ages.[188] It is supposed that Maestro Buono copied his church from S. Miniato near Florence. The plan is nearly identical, and both have the same peculiarity of the omission of the narthex, or portico, which till this time had been an indispensable part of the ecclesiastic Basilica. It is true the Fiesole church is built of stone, and is simple in ornament, while S. Miniato is of marble and rich in decorations, but in plan and form the two are identical. In each case the same use has been made of the older buildings on the site by leaving them as crypts.

The first San Miniato church was built under Charlemagne, by Bishop Hildebrand in 774; the second was endowed by the Emperor Henry the Saint, and Saint Cunegonda his wife; both times the patrons were accustomed to employ the Comacine Masters. In San Miniato we see one of their masterpieces.

In the thirteenth century another distinguished scion of the Buono race came down to join the lodge at Pistoja. We have seen Giovanni Buono, or Zambono as he writes himself, at work at S. Antonio at Padua in 1264, together with Egidio, son of Magister Graci; Nicola, son of Giovanni; Ubertino, son of Lanfranco, etc. In 1265 Magister Bonus or Buono was _capo-maestro_ and architect of the Duomo at Pistoja, and in 1266 he erected the tribune of S. Maria Nuova there, on the cornice of which he has carved--"A.D. MCCLXVI tempore Parisii Pagni[189] et Simones, Magister Bonus fecit hoc opus," _i.e._ A.D. 1266, in the time when Paris Pagni and Simones were _operai_, Magister Bonus executed this work.

In 1270 Buono was commissioned to make the façade of the church of S. Salvatore in the same energetic little town. The inscription on the pretty little façade is--

"Anno milleno bis centum septuageno Hoc perfecit opus qui fertur nomine Bonus Præstabant operi Jacobus, Scorcione vocatus Et Benvenuti Joannes, quos Deus omnes Salvator lenis millis velit augere penis. Amen."

Here we get the names of two _operai_ instead of one. It is evident that the lodge has increased since Gruamons was head of the _laborerium_, and Turrisianus head of the _Opera_. According to custom, one was an eminent Pistojese, and the other a _Magister_. We find Johannes Benvenuti working with Giovanni in several other cities.

The question we have now to answer is whether this Giovanni Buono, who was in Pistoja from 1265 to 1270, was the same man who worked at Padua in 1264, and was afterwards head of the lodge at Parma in 1280? An indication, if not a lateral proof, is found in studying who were his companions. At Pistoja in 1264, Nicola, son of Giovanni, was his assistant, and in 1270 Johannes Benvenuti was with him. At Parma in 1280 we find that Guido, Nicola, Bernardino, and Benvenuto were in the _laborerium_ when he was chief architect. Here we have at least two of his companions, not including Guido, with him in the works of all three cities, which would go far to prove his identity.

The Buono family form a curious connection between Corneto Tarquinia and Pistoja. We have already spoken of the Ciborium at Corneto, sculptured by Johannes and Guitto (Guido) in 1168. The pulpit in the same church, and another at Alba Fucense, are both signed by Giovanni Buono and Andrea his brother, but date a century later than the Ciborium, _i.e._ precisely the time of our Giovanni Buono of Pistoja. The façade of the same church at Corneto Tarquinia is full of Comacine sculptures; and on the double-arched windows with the tesselated columns is an epigraph saying that the "inlaid work in porphyry, serpentine, and _giallo antico_" was done by Nicolao, son of Ranuccio. Now this must have been the Nicolao who worked under this same Giovanni Buono in 1280 at Parma, with a certain Guido and Johannes Benvenuti. Guido was evidently a kinsman of Giovanni Buono, for we find that in 1285 Albertus, son of Guido Buono, and Albertinus, son of Enrico Buono, were employed together in the sculptures at S. Pietro at Bologna.

In any case we have a long connection of the Buono family with the Opera di S. Jacopo at Pistoja, and shall find them still engaged in other important works at Pisa and Lucca, besides being chief architects at Parma and Padua, etc. Two centuries later their descendants were building fine Gothic works in Venice.

The Baptistery of Pistoja has been attributed to Andrea Pisano, but a document in the archives of the Opera di S. Jacopo not only shows who was the real architect, or rather head-master, but proves that it was done by a Magister Cellini of the Masonic Guild from the lodge at Siena, who became Grand Master of the lodge at Pistoja. It runs--"Et per Magistrum Cellinum qui est caput magistrorum edificantium Ecclesiam rotundam S. Joannis Baptistæ."[190] There also exists in the archives the contract made between the _Opera_ (administrative council) and Magister Cellini on July 22, 1339, for the completion and ornamentation of the building which he had so far constructed. There is no mention of Andrea Pisano in either deed.

The Pistojan Baptistery is not a very pleasing building. There is something inharmonious in its proportions. It is of the usual octagonal form, but too high for its width; the horizontal lines of white and black marble still further detract from its beauty, and cut up the ornamentation.

On the whole the architect who wants to study Comacine churches cannot do so better than at Pistoja, where there is so much of the old work left. Besides the edifices we have already mentioned, are other two very interesting churches, S. Piero Maggiore and S. Paolo, although nothing but the outer shell of either is now remaining.[191] The architrave of S. Piero Maggiore has a very mediæval relief on it, representing Christ giving a huge key to St. Peter, while the Apostles and the Virgin stand in a row beside them. The capital of one pilaster has a man-faced lion, whose tail forms an interlaced knot. The other has upstanding volutes of a heavy kind of foliage. Lions lie beneath the spring of the arch, and winged griffins and other mystic animals are on brackets along the façade. I think the capitals and mystic beasts must have belonged to the first Longobardic church built by Ratpert, son of Guinichisius, in 748, as well as the lower part of the façade, which is certainly of the most ancient _opus gallicum_, of large smooth stones closely fitted. The architrave and the upper part, which consists of an arcade patched on in white and black marble, belong to Giovanni Buono's restoration in 1263. In old times a curious ceremony used to take place in this church, which belonged to the Convent of Benedictine nuns. When a new bishop took possession of the see, he was espoused (spiritually of course) to the abbess of this Order, with solemn rites and ceremonies.

S. Paolo was a priory church. This, too, had been built in 748 by the first Comacines under the Longobards, and evidences still remain that it was originally turned from east to west, the façade being then where the choir is now. It was rebuilt when S. Atto was bishop of the city in 1133, and besides a very pretty frontal, has a good specimen of the upper external gallery surrounding the church.

I will end my chapter on Pistoja with a mention of an interesting old MS. from the archives of the Opera di S. Jacopo, which, with Signor Macciò's aid, we found to be the marriage contract of a certain Maestro Jacopo Lapi. The bridegroom is named as Jacobus Dominus Lapus, fili Turdi, di Inghilberti, who wishes to contract marriage with Marchesana filia Sannutini, and to "live with her according to Longobardic law." The deed then goes on to specify the lands and possessions he bestows on his bride as a _morgincap_. This might be interesting in art history, if it could be proved whether the Jacopo Lapi were that pupil of Niccolò Pisano's who worked with him and Arnolfo at Siena in 1266.

In that case it gives the Jacopo Lapi's family an added interest as of Longobardic origin through his grandfather, Inghilbert. We further learn by the document that his great-grandmother's name was Molto-cara (very dear). This, taken together with the name Tordo (thrush) given to her son, proves how the nickname outweighed the family or baptismal name in mediæval times.

FOOTNOTES:

[156] Thomas Hope, _Historical Essay on Architecture_, chap. xxi.

[157] In the older papers and deeds of Lombard times these were classically called _colligantes_ or _fratres_; in the later ones they were Italianized as _fratelli_ or brethren.

[158] See _Tuscan Studies_, by Leader Scott, pp. 18, 19.

[159] Some very early Latin authors write the name Bruschettus.

[160] These two lines, which are partly effaced, have been said to read originally thus--"Busketus iacet hic qui motibus ingeniorum Dulichio fertur prevaluisse Duci."

[161] Dædalus was called by the ancients the Father of architecture and statuary. He was also the inventor of many mechanical appliances. In short a good prototype of a Comacine Magister.

[162] "Concorsero da straniere parti Maestri piú accreditati a prestare la loro opera in si importante Edifizio, sotto la direzione di Buschetto."

[163] Book signed with the number 38, entitled _Santuario Pisano_, in the archives of the Riformazione, Firenze.

[164] "Ildebrando del Giudice, Uberto Leone, Signoretto Alliata e Buschetto da Dulichio che fu Architetto; il capo di detti fu Ildebrando e gli altri furono Ministri e Uffiziali dell' Opera, come si trova nell' Archivio di detta Opera."

[165] Baldinucci, Dec. 4, sec. 6, p. 292.

[166] Among these were the two porphyry columns now at the door of the Baptistery in Florence. They were taken by the Pisans 1107 from the Saracens in Majorca, and as they were especially valuable, being miraculous, the Florentines claimed them as the spoils of war in 1117. They were said to guard people against treachery.

[167] There was a Diotisalvi, a Judge at Pisa in the year 1224, and a Diotisalvi, son of Bentivenga, is mentioned in a deed executed in 1250, in the Port of Pisa. These may have been some of the architect's distant descendants, but we have no clue as to his ancestors. The name would seem to have been a nickname, and not his baptismal one, for in another round church which he built in Pisa, the Knights Templars' church of S. Sepolcro, it is engraved, "Hugius operis Fabricator D͞STESALVET nominatur." The author of _Lettere Senesi_ derives the name from the motto of the Petroni family in Siena.

[168] Morrona, _Pisa Illustrata_, vol. i. p. 383.

[169] Vasari, edited by Milanesi, vol. i. p. 137.

[170] Morrona, _Pisa Illustrata_, vol. i. pp. 142, 143.

[171] Morrona, _Pisa Illustrata_, vol. i. p. 407. "Si trova in antiche scritture dell' Opera, che fu la vigilia di S. Lorenzo il giorno, in cui fu dato principio alla fabbrica; e son precisamente indicati i due citati Architetti, se non che in vece di Guglielmo Tedesco, si dice Giovanni Onnipotente di Germania per la mala interpetrazione della parola Oenipons, o Oenipontanus, che significa nativo d'Innspruck."

[172] Morrona, _Pisa Illustrata nelle arti_, vol. i. p. 170.

[173] _Ibid._ vol. ii. pp. 106-211.

[174] From "_Una scultura di Bonaiuto Pisano_," in _Archivio storico Siciliano_, Nuova Serie, Anno IX., pp. 438-443, 1884.

[175] Ciampi, _Archivio del Duomo di Pisa_.

[176] The inscription, still preserved in the passage leading to the sacristy of the church, runs thus--

† ANNO DN͞I MO. CO. OCTUAG͞O SEPTIMO. SEPULCRŪ. TEPLŪ. ET. CRUC̄E. X͞PI. SARA. CENI. CEPERUNT. PERFIDI. SUB. SALADINO. MILITE.... ANNO. PROXIMO. SEQUENTI. DIE.... KL̄. AGOSTO. HEC. HECCLĀ. DE NOVO REFŪ DARI. CEPIT.... SOLO. QUAE LAUDAT. DM̄. X BEATE. MARIE. VIT̄V. BLASI͞U CONDOR D͞IU. CERBONIU ET ALEXIUM. GUIDUS. MAISER, EDIFICAVIT. O....

[177] Ridolfi, _Guida di Lucca_, p. 10.

[178] Merzario, _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. I. chap. vi. p. 193.

[179] _S. Martin von Lucca, und die Anfänge der Toscanischen Sculptur im Mittelalter_, von August Schmarsow, pp. 56, 57. Breslau, 1890.

[180] Cav. F. Tolomei, _Guida di Pistoja_, p. 74. Pistoja, 1821.

[181] Doctor to King Desiderius.

[182] Reproduced in Muratori's _Rerum Italicum_, verse 636 _et seq._--

"Inteluum scandunt et amicos insimul addunt ... veniunt properantes Artificesque, boni nimium satis ingeniosi; Strenuus inter quosque rogatus adesse Joannes Quinque Bonus de Vesonzo cognomine dictus."

[183] Merzario, _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. I. chap. iv. pp. 161, 162.

[184] Vasari, _Life of Arnolfo di Lapo_.

[185] _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. I. chap. iv. p. 162.

[186] Milanesi, quoting other experts, says that when IX. is placed between hundreds and units it signifies 90, consequently the date is 1196.

[187] One only has to glance at the names of the well-known artists to see how common this use of nicknames was. We have Masaccio (the bad Thomas); Cronaca, whose real name was Pollajuolo; Domenico Bigordi, called Ghirlandajo; the iron-worker Niccolò Grossi, called Caparra; Antonio Allegri, called Correggio; Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino; Alessandro Buonvicino, called Moretto da Brescia (the dark man from Brescia); Pietro Vanucci, Perugino; Andrea Vanucchi, del Sarto; Michelangelo Amerighi, nicknamed Caravaggio; Domenico Zampieri, styled Domenichino; and hundreds of others. No doubt the Buschetto architect of Pisa was only another instance; probably he had a shock head of hair and was nicknamed "the little bush."

[188] Marchese Ricci, _Dell' Architettura in Italia_, Vol. I. cap. ii. p. 485, note 40.

[189] The name of this councillor of the _Opera_ still exists in Lucca, where are more than one family of Pagni.

[190] Tolomei, _Guida di Pistoja per gli amanti delle belle arti_, 1821.--Pistoja, p. 38 (note).

[191] S. Paolo was destroyed by fire in 1896, only the outer walls having escaped.