The Cathedral Builders Part 33

Finding the workmen of the Florentine Lodge were disaffected, he got ten Lombards, and shut out all the Florentines, till they humbly came back, begging to be taken on again, which he did at a lower salary than before.

The Lombard element was still strong in the guild. A certain _Maestro di legno_, named Magister Antonio of Vercelli, invented a convenient mode of drawing up weights into the cupola. The workmen had a kitchen and eating-house up in the dome, so that they did not need to descend in the middle of the day. In fact the _Opera_ made strict laws about this.

In 1436 another compet.i.tion of models for the lantern was proclaimed, and again Brunellesco won the palm against Ghiberti and others. It seems that when the commission was given to Brunellesco, the Masonic Guild must have felt it _infra dig._ to make a non-member _capo maestro_ of the dome. Consequently they matriculated him into the fraternity. But with his jealousy of the _maestranze_ and determination to show that one need not be a Freemason to build a church, he ignored this membership and never paid his fees, on which the Masters of the _laborerium_ sued him for debt, and he was imprisoned. This did not suit the City Patrons of the _Opera_, who were the all-powerful _Arte della Lana_, especially as Brunellesco's _Arte della Seta_ was also on his side. A stormy meeting was held in the _Opera_ on August 20, 1434, at which the civic party was too strong for the _Maestri_. It was decreed that Brunellesco should be liberated, and one of the _Arte dei Maestri_ was imprisoned, on the plea of hindering public works![264]

After this triumph of independent architecture Brunelles...o...b..came in a manner architect in chief to the city. He built the pretty Loggie of the Foundling Hospital on Piazza della SS. Annunziata, and the Pazzi Chapel at Sta. Croce, both of which Luca della Robbia adorned with his beautiful blue and white reliefs. He erected the fine Palazzo Quaratesi on Piazza Ognissanti, and the remarkably grand church of Santo Spirito was after his death built from his designs.

Brunellesco's strike for independence appears to have given the death-blow to the great Masonic Guild which, as it became more unwieldy, had been slowly disintegrating. The local members in large cities like Siena and Florence, becoming too strong for the original Lombard element, had a.s.serted their independence by forming other guilds of a local nature, in which even the ancient quartette of patron saints was forgotten. How long the lodge in Florence kept together after Brunellesco's defiance I do not know, though its educative influence certainly lingered on till Michael Angelo's time, he being as all-round an artist as any _Magister_ of older days who could build a church and decorate it too.

The _laborerium_ of the Florentine _Opera_ must, however, have been closed by the time of Michael Angelo; for Lorenzo de' Medici had to supplement it by giving up his garden in the Via Larga as a school of sculpture, there being then no place where the art was taught. His teaching, however, was a heritage from the ancient guild, for old Bertoldo, scholar of Donatello, was the Master there, and the works of the Masonic Brotherhood for two centuries, together with the cla.s.sic treasures collected by the Medici, were his models.

FOOTNOTES:

[236] (The five preceding artists were in the Council of July 1355.)

[237] Milanesi's _Vasari, Vita Niccol e Giovanni Pisano_, vol. i. p.

388.

[238] The Cardinal died in 1290, so he must have given the commission during his lifetime.

[239] In the register of deaths it occurs that Arnolfo's mother's name was Perfetta.

[240] Gaye, _Carteggio degli Artisti_, vol. i. pp. 445, 446.

[241] We find these same men, Alberto and Enrico his kinsman, sculpturing in San Pietro at Bologna in 1285.

[242] Baldinucci, tom. iv. p. 96.

[243] Milanesi, vol. i. p. 283.

[244] _La Metropolitana Fiorentina Ill.u.s.trata_, p. 54. Firenze, Molini e Co., 1820.

[245] _La Metropolitana Fiorentina Ill.u.s.trata_, p. 59. Firenze, Molini e Co.

[246] Francesco Talenti, head of the _laborerium_.

[247] Cesare Guasti, _Santa Maria del Fiore_, p. 77.

[248] Here is another office in the organization of the guild which we have not hitherto met with. The _Regolatori_ must have formed the economical council, to control expenses.

[249] Carta 12 of _Antica Necrologia di Santa Reparata_ in the Archives of the Opera del Duomo.

Q. Davanzato f Alfieri.

Q. Cambio chiavaiuolo.

Q. Magister Arnolfus de l'opera di Santa Reparata MCCCX.

[250] Guasti, _Santa Maria del Fiore_, p. 29.

[251] _Cronaca di Lorenzo Ghiberti MS._ in the Magliabecchian Library, Florence.--"Le prime storie che sono all'edificio, furono di sua mano scolpite e disegnate. Nella mia eta vidi provvedimenti di sua mano, di dette istorie egregissimamente disegnati."

[252] "Compose et ordin Giotto il campanile di marmo di Santa Reparata di Firenze, notabile campanile et di gran costo. Commisevi due errori: l'uno che non ebbe ceppo da pie, l'altro che fu stretto: posesene tanto dolore al cuore ch'egli, si dice, ne inferm et morissene."--_Commento alla Divina Commedia d'Anonimo fiorentino del secolo XIV._, vol. ii. p. 188. Bologna, 1868.

[253] "Ac etiam c.u.m magistro Andrea, majore magistro dicte opere: facto prius et oblento part.i.to inter eos ad fabas nigras et albas."

Andrea was a scholar of Giovanni Pisano, and had worked with him at Pisa and Siena, where he is mentioned as _famulus Magistri Johannis_.

[254] "A Franciescho Talenti e al compagno da Firenze tre fiorini d'oro per lo consiglio che diederono del Duomo nuovo."--Milanesi, _Doc.u.menti per l' Arte Senese, Aprile 1336_.

[255] Milanesi, _Doc.u.menti per la Storia dell' Arte Senese_, tom. i.

p. 200.

[256] Ristoro had a son, Taddeo di Ristori, who was _capo maestro_ of the Loggia dei Lanzi in 1376.

[257] This and many other deliberations at the same epoch put it beyond a doubt that Arnolfo's church was considerably changed in form, as time went on, if not rebuilt entirely.

[258] "Andreas Cionis, vocatus Arcagnolus, pictor populi Sancti Michaelis Visdominis, juravit et promisit dicte arte, pro quo fideiussit Nerius Fioravantis Magister in MCCCLII, indictione s.e.xta, die XX ottubris" (_sic_).--Milanesi's Vasari, _Vita di Andrea Orcagna_.

[259] Extract from the books of the _Opera_, 1372, December 13--"Francischus Salvetti de sua propria et spontanea voluntae qui erat caput magister dicti operis Sancte Reparate renuntiat et repudiat dicto officio, et quot non vult confirmus esse caput magistro in presentae operarorum."

[260] Milanesi, _Vasari, Vita Filippo Brunelleschi_, vol. ii. p. 351, note.

[261] Cesare Guasti, _La Cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore_, pp. 34, 35.

[262] See _Sculpture, Renaissance and Modern_, pp. 63, 64, published by Messrs. Sampson Low and Marston.

[263] _Tuscan Sculptors_, Vol. I. chap. v. p. 135.

[264] Milanesi's _Vasari, Vita di Filippo Brunellesco_, vol. ii. p.

362, notes. See also Cesare Guasti, _La Cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore_, p. 54, doc.u.ment 116.

CHAPTER IV

THE MILAN LODGE

THE MILAN LODGE

----+--------+------------------------------+------------------------------ 1. 1387 Magister Simone da a.r.s.enigo First _capo maestro_ of Milan cathedral.

2. " *M. Guarnerio da Sirtori. a.s.sisted him.

3. " *M. Marco da Frixone di Engaged March 5, 1387; C.M.

Campione 1389; D. 1390.

4. " *M. Jacopo Fusina da C.M. with Marco in 1389. Head Campione of the works at Certosa, 1397.

Designed the Certosa.

5. " *M. Zeno da Campione (his Brought 21 sculptors on Oct.

brother) 18, 1387. By 1399 he had 250 under him.