Tuscan Sculpture of the Fifteenth Century Part 8

BY MINO DA FIESOLE

We have seen from the examples in our collection that the art of sculpture may be applied in many forms to the decoration of churches, without and within. Statues like those in the niches on the church of Or San Michele, sculptured altars like that by Donatello in the church at Padua, organ galleries like that by Luca della Robbia in the Florence cathedral, monumental tombs like those of Ilaria del Carretto and the Cardinal of Portugal, medallions and lunettes on walls and ceilings, are among the treasures enriching the churches of Italy.

Sculpture may also be used to ornament almost every article of church furnishing: pulpits, fonts, and basins for holy water, wardrobes and cabinets, chests and chairs, as well as a mult.i.tude of those smaller objects wrought in metal which belong to the goldsmith's art. Upon all such things as these the Italian artists of the fifteenth century spent much careful and loving labor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SHRINE (MINO DA FIESOLE) _Church of Santa Croce, Florence_]

Our ill.u.s.tration shows a kind of church furniture common in this period. It is a sculptured cabinet to contain articles used in the altar services, such as the sacramental wafers or the holy oil. A receptacle for objects so sacred is called a shrine. The architectural framework is in the form styled a tabernacle, such as we have seen in the niches on the outside of Or San Michele.[58]

The artist was Mino da Fiesole, whose decorative works were very popular, both for the delicacy of their finish and the quality of sentiment they expressed. His idea here was to make the design suggest a sacred story, the story of Christ's resurrection. The opening into the cabinet is the entrance of the tomb, and without, the angels await the coming of the risen Lord.

Our thoughts turn to the Sunday morning in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea, when the faithful women came to the rock-hewn tomb. The stone had been rolled away, and angels greeted them with the glad tidings, "He is risen."[59] The angels of our picture press forward eagerly to peer into the shadowy depths of the interior. There are two who are close to the door, while two more, with long torches, stand on the step below. Above the door hovers a dove, the emblem of the Holy Spirit.

Various features of the tabernacle ill.u.s.trate characteristic qualities of the Italian art of this period. The arched top is to be noticed as much more common in Italy than the Gothic or pointed roof. The winged cherub heads were a favorite decorative design. We have seen one example of their use in the frame of the medallion on the Portuguese cardinal's tomb. The decorated side pillars with Ionic capitals we have seen in the altarpiece of the Annunciation by Andrea della Robbia.

The shrine of our ill.u.s.tration was originally made for the nuns of the convent of the Murate. It is mentioned by Vasari as a work which the artist "conducted to perfection with all the diligence of which he was capable." That its first purpose was to hold the sacramental wafers we may be sure from the Latin inscription, "This is the living bread which came down from heaven." The words are those used by our Lord himself in one of the discourses recorded by St. John.[60]

In 1815 the shrine was removed to its present place in the church of S. Croce, Florence, where it is in the chapel of the Medici, also called the chapel of the Novitiate.

[Footnote 58: Chapter II.]

[Footnote 59: St. Mark, chapter xvi., verses 4-6.]

[Footnote 60: St. John, chapter vi., verse 51.]

XVI

IL MARZOCCO (THE HERALDIC LION OF FLORENCE)

BY DONATELLO

In the history of the several cities of Italy every town has chosen some design to be inscribed upon a shield as a coat of arms. Florence has the lily, as a reminder of the far-away days when the valley of the Arno was filled with the red blossoms of the amaryllis. It was for this that the name _Firenze_ was given to the city, the "City of Flowers." The lily is drawn in three petals somewhat like those of the fleur-de-lis of France; but the Florentine flower is broader than its French counterpart, and has besides two slender flower-stalks separating the larger petals. When represented in color it is always red.

The tutelary genius of Florence is the lion. He stands for the n.o.ble and heroic qualities in the Florentine citizen. Courage and patriotism have many a time been magnificently ill.u.s.trated in the history of the city's struggles against tyranny. Like the king of beasts, the loyal Florentine prefers death to the loss of liberty.

The choice of the lion as a civic emblem explains the fact that a preserve of lions was once kept in Florence at the public expense.

This was given up centuries ago, but the Via de' Leoni, or street of the lions, remains to remind us of the old custom. There was still another way in which Florence kept the emblem continually before the minds of her people. This was in the stone lion called the _Marzocco_, set up in the piazza, or square, of the Signoria.

For many years the civic life of Florence centred in the Piazza della Signoria, where stands the old gray stone palace called the Palazzo Vecchio. Of some of the important events which took place here in the fifteenth century we may read in George Eliot's "Romola." It was here the Florentines gathered on all occasions of public interest, whether connected with the political or the religious affairs of their city.

In front of the Palazzo Vecchio is a stone platform called the _ringhiera_, and it was on this that the Marzocco was set up as a stimulus to patriotism. The lion sits on his haunches in an att.i.tude of grave dignity. In this position he is much more alert than a crouching lion, and less aggressive than the rampant lion. His duty is to guard the honor of the city, and his pose is much like that of the watchdog. With his right paw he supports a shield on which the Florentine lily is engraved. We are reminded of our own national eagle holding the shield of the stars and stripes.

In such a figure we do not look for a close resemblance to nature. The subjects of heraldic art are treated in a decorative way with a certain stiffness of form. The device of the lily is not an actual picture of the flower, but a kind of floral diagram, or what we call a conventionalized form. So, too, the lion is of a formal or emblematic type. Yet there is a certain expressiveness in the face of the old fellow which makes us like him. Like the winged lion of St. Mark's in Venice, he has made many friends.

Il Marzocco is carved out of soft gray stone which the Italians call _pietra serena_. It is believed to have been made by Donatello, and it stands on a beautiful carved pedestal. Like the same sculptor's statue of St. George it was deemed too precious to leave exposed in the open air, and was therefore removed to a museum. A bronze copy now stands in its place on the platform of the old palace.