The Cathedral Builders Part 4

It is apparent that what are called Lombard buildings could not have been the work of the Longobards themselves. Symonds realized this difficulty, but had not solved the question as to _who_ built the Lombard churches, when he wrote[22]--"The question of the genesis of the Lombard style, is one of the most difficult in Italian art history. I would not willingly be understood to speak of Lombard architecture in any sense different from that in which it is usual to speak of Norman. To suppose that either the Lombards or the Normans had a style of their own, prior to their occupation of districts from the monuments of which they learned rudely to use the decayed Roman manner, would be incorrect. Yet it seems impossible to deny that both Normans and Lombards, in adapting antecedent models, added something of their own, specific to themselves as northerners. The Lombard, like the Norman, or the Rhenish Romanesque, is the first stage in the progressive mediaeval architecture of its own district."

It appears possible, however, that the Longobards had very little to do with the architecture of their era except as patrons. Was there ever a stone Lombard building known out of Italy before Alboin and his hordes crossed the Alps? or even in Italy during the reigns of Alboin and Cleoph, their first kings?

But there were older buildings of precisely the same style, in Italy and in Como itself, dating from the time when the Bishops ruled, long before the Longobards came. There were the churches of S. Abbondio and S. Fedele. The latter was built in Abbondio's own time, about 440-489, and first dedicated to S. Euphemia. It was rebuilt later by the Comacines under the Longobards, but its form was not changed. The former, said to have been built by the Bishop Amantius, was first dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, whose relics he placed here. These two are certainly the oldest churches existing in Como.

Amantius the Byzantine ordained S. Abbondio, who was a Macedonian, as his successor, and he too became eminent in his time, and is still venerated as a patron Saint in all the Milanese district. Pope Leo sent him to Constantinople as his Legate, to interview the Patriarch Anastasius, and also deputed him to form the Council with Eusebius, at Milan. The Greek touch in the Lombard ornamentation may be accounted for by Greek sculptors a.s.sisting the Italian builders in the time of these Eastern bishops.

But, to return to the Longobards:--it was only when the civilization of Italy began to tell on them, and Christianity refined their minds, that they commenced to patronize the Arts, and revived the fading traditions of the builders' guild into practice, for the glorification of their religious zeal. "Little by little," says Muratori, "the barbarous Longobards became more polished (_andavano disrugginendo_) by taking the customs and rites of the Italians. Many of them were converted from Arianism to Catholicism, and they vied with the Italians in piety and liberality towards the Church of G.o.d, building both Hospices and Monasteries."[23]

The Comacine Masters were undoubtedly the only architects employed by them, so we are sure that in the Lombard churches of this era, we see the Comacine work of the first or Roman-Lombard style.

Autharis and Theodolinda were the first orthodox Christians: indeed Theodolinda, who was baptized by Gregory the Great, and formed a special friendship with him, became a shining light in the Church. To them is probably due the honour of inaugurating the Renaissance of Comacine art. Autharis, though an Arian, first employed the Masters of the guild to build a church and monastery at Farfa on the banks of the Adda, not far from Monza. They have long been ruined, but ancient writers quote them as fine and rich works of architecture. Next, Theodolinda and her second husband, Agilulf, the succeeding king, built the cathedral at Monza, which they resolved should be worthy of the new creed. This cathedral was the prototype of all the Lombard churches.

Before proceeding further it may be well to define precisely the difference between Eastern and Western forms in these centuries, while they were as yet distinct.

As we have said, the Basilica was the type of Roman or Western architecture, a type which pa.s.sed afterwards to the East, where the cupola was added to it.

The Comacine Guild, being a survival of the Roman _Collegium_, had of course Roman traditions, and took naturally this Roman type of the Basilica,[24] which form they adapted to the uses of the Christian Church, while its ornamentation was suited to the taste of the Longobards.

The Basilica, as Vitruvius explains it, was a room where the ruler and his delegates administered justice. But when, after the persecutions, Christians were allowed their churches, the Basilicae so well supplied the needs of Christian worship, that either the ancient ones were used as churches, or new buildings were erected in the same form; so that by the fourth century the word Basilica was understood to mean a church remarkable for its size, and of a set form and grandeur, with a raised tribune. The Basilicae of Constantine were all dedicated to Saints--St. Peter, St. Paul, Beato Marcellino. The Sessorian Basilica was begun in 330, to hold the relics of the Cross, discovered by the Empress Helena. From the time of the edict of Theodosius, however, Christian architecture took a new and independent character; and this was when the Basilica became amplified and beautified.

The Oriental churches, on the other hand, were derived from the antique synagogue, in which concentric forms, either circular or polygonal, predominated. In their later development four equal arms were added, and here we get the Greek Cross, in the centre of which arose the dome.

In the Romanesque, or Comacine style of the ninth to the fourteenth centuries, the form becomes more complicated. We have, 1. the sanctuary or presbytery; 2. the apse for the choir; 3. the transepts; 4. the normal square or centre; 5. the elongated nave; 6. the aisles; 7. the atrium or portico.

In Theodolinda's time, however, church architecture in Lombardy was wholly and purely Roman, with the influences of mediaeval Christianity.

Ricci tells us that the construction of the first churches followed a symbolical expression. "Hermeneutic symbolism required that the apse or choir should face the east, so that the faithful while praying had that part before them."

A very usual form was the tri-apsidal church, of which many specimens still exist. S. Pietro a Grado, near Pisa, is a beautiful specimen of this.

Around the apse of a Lombard church was a portico where the penitents and catechumens might stand, who were not yet admitted to the altar.

On high were _loggie_ (galleries) "for the virgins and women." The tribune was elevated and often ornamented with a railing, the crypt or confessional being beneath it. The crypt signified a memory of the early Christians, when subterranean catacombs formed the church of the faithful. The altar was generally the tomb of a martyr, in fulfilment of the text--"I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of G.o.d, and for the testimony which they held" (Rev. vi.

9).

Where the original form of the Lombard church has not been altered, as in the first Monza church, all these parts may be still seen.

We are expressly told by Ricci,[25] that for the building of her church at Monza, Queen Theodolinda availed herself of those _Magistri Comacini_, who, as Rotharis describes them in his laws 143 and 144, were qualified architects and builders.

It seems that even though all Italy was subjugated by the Longobards, the _Magistri Comacini_ retained their freedom and privileges. They became Longobard citizens, but were not serfs; they retained their power of making free contracts, and receiving a fair price for their work, and were even ent.i.tled to hold and dispose of landed property.[26]

Therefore it was by a free contract, and not in any spirit of servitude, that the Comacines undertook the building of Theodolinda's church.

It is difficult to imagine what the church was in Theodolinda's time, as its form was altered in the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. Ricci says that the antique Monza Basilica terminated at what is now the first octagon column, on which rest the remains of the primitive facade. Four columns supported the arched tribune, and the high altar was raised above the level of the church. In front was the _atrium_, supported by porticoes, and he thinks that the sculptures in the present facade are the old ones.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANCIENT SCULPTURE IN MONZA CATHEDRAL.

_See page 39._]

Cattaneo, the Italian authority on Lombard architecture, does not believe in the present existence of even this much of Theodolinda's church, and in disclaiming the facade, disclaims also the sculpture on it, especially the one over the door, where Agilulf and Theodolinda offer the diadem of the cross to St. John the Baptist, and are shown as wearing crowns, which the early Lombard kings did not do.[27]

The figures have, it is true, the entire style of the twelfth century, when later Comacines restored the church. Cattaneo thinks that the only sculpture which can safely be dated from Theodolinda's own time, is a stone which might have been an altar frontal, on which is a rude relief of a wheel circle, emblem of Eternity, flanked by two crosses with the letters _alpha_ and _omega_ hanging to the arms of them. It is a significant fact that the Alpha is in the precise form of the Freemason symbol of the compa.s.ses, and in the wheel-like circle one sees the beginning of that symbol of Eternity, the unbroken line with neither end nor beginning, which the Comacines in after centuries developed into such wonderful _intrecci_ (interlaced work). The sculpture is extremely rude; by way of enriching the relief, the artist has covered the crosses and circles with drill-holes. Now this is a most interesting link, connecting the debased Roman art with this beginning of the Christian art in the West (the early Ravenna sculptors do not count, being imported from the East). On examining any of the late Roman cameos, or _intagli_, or even their stone sculpture, after the fall of cla.s.sical art in Hadrian's time, one may perceive the way in which the drill is constantly made use of instead of the chisel.

So these Comacine artists began with the only style of art they had been educated up to, and though retaining old traditions they had fallen out of practice, during a century or two, while invaders ravaged their country, and had to begin again with low art, little skill, and unused imagination. But with the new impulse given to art, their skill increased, they gained a wider range of imagination, greater breadth of design, going on century by century, as we shall trace, from the first solid, heavy, little structures, to the airy lightness of the florid Romanesque--the marriage of East and West.

Another _chiesa graziosissima_, said to have been founded by Theodolinda, was that of Santa Maria del Tiglio, near Gravedona, on the left bank of Lake Como, which Muratori says was already ancient in 823, when the old chronicler Aimoninus describes it (_Aimoninus de Gestis Francorum_, iv. 3). It has been much altered since that time, but as Prof. Merzario writes--"When one reflects that it was the work of a thousand years ago, and when one considers the lightness of design, the elegance of the arches, windows, columns, and colonnettes, one must perforce confess that even at that epoch Art was blossoming in the territory of Como, under the hands of the _Maestri Comacini_."

Theodolinda also founded the monastery of Monte Barro, near Galbiate; the church of S. Salvatore in Barzano, a little mountain church at Besano above Viggiu; that of S. Martino at Varenna; and the church, baptistery, and castle of Perleda above it; in which latter it is said she died. Queen Theodolinda was accustomed to spend the hot months of summer on the banks of the lake, and a part of the road near Perleda Castle is still called _Via Regina_ (the Queen's road), in memory of her. King Cunibert, too, loved the banks of Como.

There is always some pretty, graceful reason in Theodolinda's church-building, very different to the reasons of many of the kings.

Theirs were too often sin-offerings, built in remorse, but hers were generally thank-offerings, built in love. For instance, the church at Lomella, which she erected in memory of having first met her second husband Agilulf there.

Theodolinda also built a church to S. Julia at Bonate, near Val San Martino, in the diocese of Bergamo; but in these days not much sign is left of it. The author of the _Antichita Long. Mil._ (Dissertation I., p. 120) says that Mario Lupo has published the plan and section of the church in his _Codice diplomatico_ (_T. I._, p. 204), together with another, still more magnificent, of almost the same date. It is dedicated to S. Tommaso, and stands near the river Brembo, at Lemine in the same diocese. "This church," says the monk who wrote the _Antichita_, etc., "still exists (in 1792), and is of circular form, with inferior and superior _porticati_ in the interior, recalling the design of the ancient church of S. Vitale at Ravenna." Lupo describes it even in its ruin as an "admirable temple, whose equal, whether for size, solidity, or elegance, can scarcely be found in Lombardy. Its perimeter," he says, "may be traced among the thorns and briars of the surrounding woods, and its form and size may thus be perceived. The ruins confirm the a.s.sertion of the splendour of buildings in Queen Theodolinda's time, and show that in the beginning of the seventh century architecture was not so rude as has been supposed, and that besides solidity of structure, it preserved a just proportion and harmony of parts, excepting perhaps in the extreme lightness and inequality of the columns."

We read much in ancient authors of Queen Theodolinda's palace, with its paintings on the walls, representing Alboin and his wild hordes of Longobards, with their many-coloured garments, loose hosen, and long beards. We can believe that these paintings were as rude and mediaeval as their sculpture, whether they were done by savage Longobards or decayed Romano-Comacine artists. They prove, however, that painting was one of the branches of art in the guild.

King Agilulf also employed the architects; but it was in a more military style of architecture--to build castles and bridges. The castle of Branigola dates from his reign, as does the fine bridge over the Brembo, and another over the Breggia, between Cern.o.bbio and Borgovico, near Como. He is also accredited with the building of the Palazzo della Torre at Turin, with its two octangular towers, and mixed brick and stone solid architecture. In all these works the builders, as in modern times, seem to have sometimes lost their lives.

So much so that King Rotharis, A.D. 636, made, as we have seen, special laws on the subject.

Gundeberg, the daughter of Theodolinda, had a similar fate to her mother in being the wife of two successive kings (Ariold and Rotharis). She also imitated her in church-building. The church of S.

Giovanni in Borgo at Pavia, was erected by her.[28] It is said that after S. Michele this was the finest building of the age. It had a nave and two aisles, with a gallery over the arches. The apse had the external colonnade, and practicable gallery, and the octagonal dome.

The facade, as usual, was divided into three parts, and was rich in symbolical friezes. Half-way up the facade was an ambulatory, on six double arches and small columns, which communicated with the internal galleries for the women. This was reached by two spiral stairways cut in the pilasters of the facade. (In reading this we seem to be reading over again the description of Hexham in England.) The lower half of the facade was of sandstone, the upper half of brick adorned "a cacabus,"

_i.e._ inlaid with various convex plates in different-coloured smalto.[29] It is a great pity that this interesting church was destroyed in 1811, and its symbolic reliefs and carved stones ruthlessly used in the foundation of modern buildings. Some were, however, saved by a n.o.bleman of Pavia, Don Galeazzo Vitali, and are preserved in his villa between Lodi and Pavia. Here, on May 13, 1828, the Signori Sacchi[30] went to see them, and found many valuable specimens of Comacine symbolical art. Here are square slabs which may have been parts of friezes or _plutei_ (panels of marble), covered with interlaced work, formed of entwining vines, or even serpents; sometimes a simple cord in mystic and continuous knots, precisely similar to the ones recently discovered in S. Agnese and S. Clemente at Rome. There were several capitals of columns and pilasters with significant grotesques, such as a man between two lions; a maze of vines with a satyr in them, possibly an emblem of Christianity which constrains and civilizes even the wildest natures; two armed warriors on horseback meeting in battle, figuring the Church militant. (There is a similar capital in S. Stefano at Pavia.) In one, two hippogriffs meet at the angles; in another, two dragons with tails intertwined are biting a man between them placed at the angle. (The same emblem of the strife with sin is represented in S. Pietro of the "golden roof.") One is a curious symbol which would seem to be a remnant of paganism, and represents the fish G.o.ddess of Eastern religions. A woman, with only a fig-leaf for dress, has a double tail instead of legs. She holds the two ends of this dual tail, while serpents coiling into it suck her b.r.e.a.s.t.s--a very mystic conception of Eve. There is a very remarkable round ma.s.s of stone, with a toothed circle carved on each side, and in the circles a cross. It is said by Muratori that this stone was placed high up over the altar so that all worshippers should behold the cross.

A singular ancient Pavian custom was connected with this church. Once a year a kind of fair was held there, at which nothing was sold but rings, and no one was allowed to buy them except children and unmarried women. It is thought that the custom was begun by Gundeberg herself in commemoration of the gift of three rings, one with a pearl, and two with jacinth stones, from Gregory the Great.[31] His letter of congratulation to Theodolinda on the baptism of her little son Adaloald is still existing. He says "he sends some gifts for her boy, and three rings for her young daughter Gundeberg." Possibly the gift of the Pope was placed in the treasury of the church, and commemorated at first by the sale of blessed amulets in the form of rings, but which afterwards degenerated into a fair. The custom lasted till 1669.

Industries of all kinds seem to have flourished under the Longobards; and the Popes of Rome and other sovereigns made frequent use of Lombard artificers. A letter from Gregory to Arichi, Duke of Lombardy, dated 596, asks him to send workmen and oxen to Brescia, to cut down and cart to Rome some trees for beams in the church of SS. Peter and Paul, promising him in return a _dono che non sara indegno di voi_ (a gift not unworthy of you).[32]

In A.D. 600, Caca.n.u.s, King of the Avari (Huns), sent to Agilulf for marine architects and workmen to build the boats with which Caca.n.u.s took a certain island in Thrace.[33]

As for the Comacine Masters at home, they had plenty of church-building.

The seventh and eighth centuries were times of great devotion to the Church, and consequently a great church-building era. King Luitprand realized this so strongly that he added to the laws of Rotharis, a clause permitting his subjects to make legacies to the Church _pro remedio animae suae_; a law, by the way, which was not always healthy in its action; for it permitted the evil-disposed to indulge in crimes during their lifetime, and then, by defrauding their natural heirs of their inheritance, to secure, as they believed, their souls against eternal punishment, by leaving funds for building a church or a monastery.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COMACINE CAPITAL IN SAN ZENO, VERONA. DRAGONS, INTERLACED.

_See page 43._]

The will of Eriprand, Duke of Cremona, dated 685, is still extant, with a legacy to the churches of S. Maria Maggiore, and S. Michele in Borgo, of that city. Pope Sergius I. restored the Basilica of Ostia, and founded S. Maria in Via Lata, giving them rich gifts, and Pope John II. repaired and endowed S. Maria in Trastevere.[34]

Bertharis and G.o.debert, sons of Aribert, were in 661 dethroned by Grimoald, Duke of Beneventum; but Bertharis being re-established in 671, recalled his wife Rodelinda and son Cunibert from Beneventum, where they had been taken as hostages, and in sign of grat.i.tude for their release, founded the church of S. Agatha al Monte at Pavia,[35]

while his wife Rodelinda founded that of S. Maria _fuori le mura_ in the same city. Bertharis dedicated his church to S. Agatha because on the eve of S. Agatha's day he was miraculously saved from being a.s.sa.s.sinated by Grimoald, his deposer. On the facade of the church is inscribed, "Pertharitus Longobardorum Rex Templum hoc S. Agathae Virg.

et Mart. dicavit anno Christi DCXXVII."

The church had the usual "three naves," and the facade faced the west.

It has since been turned round. As in the Middle Ages it menaced ruin, the central nave had to be supported by large external b.u.t.tresses and internal arches, one of which may be seen above the present doorway; it once formed the entrance to the choir. When the nave was restored some of the old Lombard capitals were discovered under the brickwork.

They show the same style as those at S. Michele, and S. Pietro in Ciel d'oro at Pavia, and have all the marks of Comacine work. One has two lions very well carved. They meet at the corner, where one head serves for both. On another is a human figure, his hands holding two dragons which he has conquered, but whose tails still coil round him.

A fine mediaeval allegory of man's struggle with sin.

Rodelinda's round church, S. Maria foris portam (now no more), became better known as S. Maria _delle pertiche_ (of the poles), because a royal cemetery was there in which many Lombard kings and n.o.bles were buried, and according to the usage of the nation the graves were marked by wooden poles, on the top of each of which was perched a wooden dove (emblem of the soul), looking towards the place where the person had died or been killed.[36]

We may account for its circular shape by the fact that it was more a ceremonial church, than one for ordinary worship. In it Hildebrand was crowned, or rather received the regal wand of office. It had an interior ambulatory, an arched colonnade all round it under the roof in true Lombard style. This colonnade was much used in circular churches to a.s.sist the want of s.p.a.ce on great occasions.[37] Some of the columns were fluted, and appear to have been adapted from an earlier Roman edifice. Two of them, shortened and with the fluting planed down, now adorn the gate of Pavia towards Milan. The foundation of this church has been attributed by Cattaneo to Ratchis. This cannot be, for in 736, ten years before Ratchis was king, Luitprand became very ill, and the Longobards met in the church of S. Maria delle pertiche, and proclaimed Hildebrand as his successor.