The Cathedral Builders Part 22

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 Turrisia.n.u.s 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 a.s.sistant, 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 ident.i.ty.

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 facade 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 doc.u.ment 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 Baptistae."[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 sh.e.l.l of either is now remaining.[191] The architrave of S. Piero Maggiore has a very mediaeval 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 facade. 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 facade, which is certainly of the most ancient _opus gallic.u.m_, 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 facade 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 Macci's aid, we found to be the marriage contract of a certain Maestro Jacopo Lapi. The bridegroom is named as Jacobus Dominus Lapus, fili t.u.r.di, 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 Niccol 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 doc.u.ment 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 mediaeval times.

FOOTNOTES:

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

[157] In the older papers and deeds of Lombard times these were cla.s.sically 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] Daedalus 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 piu accreditati a prestare la loro opera in si importante Edifizio, sotto la direzione di Buschetto."

[163] Book signed with the number 38, ent.i.tled _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 D?STESALVET nominatur." The author of _Lettere Senesi_ derives the name from the motto of the Petroni family in Siena.

[168] Morrona, _Pisa Ill.u.s.trata_, vol. i. p. 383.

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

[170] Morrona, _Pisa Ill.u.s.trata_, vol. i. pp. 142, 143.

[171] Morrona, _Pisa Ill.u.s.trata_, 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 Oeniponta.n.u.s, che significa nativo d'Innspruck."

[172] Morrona, _Pisa Ill.u.s.trata 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 pa.s.sage leading to the sacristy of the church, runs thus--

ANNO DN?I MO. CO. OCTUAG?O SEPTIMO. SEPULCRU.

TEPLU. ET. CRUCE. X?PI. SARA.

CENI. CEPERUNT. PERFIDI. SUB. SALADINO.

MILITE.... ANNO. PROXIMO. SEQUENTI. DIE....

KL. AGOSTO. HEC. HECCLA. DE NOVO REFU DARI. CEPIT.... SOLO. QUAE LAUDAT. DM. X BEATE. MARIE. VITV. BLASI?U CONDOR D?IU. 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 Anfange 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 Italic.u.m_, 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 Niccol Grossi, called Caparra; Antonio Allegri, called Correggio; Frances...o...b..rbieri, 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."