_Palazzo Pubblico, The Fountain, and the Duomo_
In Professor Freeman's small sketch of Perugia he says very truly that
the most striking points of the city--that is to say, of the Mediæval
and Renaissance period--are those which are gathered together in the
_Piazza di San Lorenzo_.
The whole atmosphere of the square is unique and impressive: individual
as are the piazzas of the largest and the smallest towns in Italy which
have battled for their independence throughout the course of centuries.
The buildings have been changed about, burnt, battered and rebuilt, but
the spirit of the middle ages has never really left them. Sitting on the
steps of the Duomo we seem to feel it creep up round our feet telling us
stories of a past which is immortal. It was here that the people of
Perugia fought and judged, preached and repented, loved maybe, and most
certainly hated. It was in this little pulpit above our heads that S.
Bernardino preached, and saw the books of necromancy and the false hair
of the ladies burned; here that the _Podestà_ and the people received
ambassadors with deeds of submission from terrified neighbour towns. On
the spikes of the railing round the fountain one set of nobles stuck the
heads of others whom they hated, whom they slaughtered; and down those
steps of the palazzo opposite, the great procession of the _Priori_
came on days of solemn ceremony, and up through the dark gateway of the
Canonica the Pope and all his cardinals passed in when they arrived from
Rome. Truly the spirit of the past history is not dead. It is painfully
and supremely living. The Piazza di S. Lorenzo on a December night with
windstorms hurrying the sleet across its great grim walls is more
absolutely filled with the _terribilità_ of humanity than anything we
ever realised.
One strange fact to trace in the square is the splendid preservation of
the municipal buildings as compared to the almost ruinous condition of
those of the church. The strife between the people and the papacy is
carved as it were upon the very hearts of the monuments, and whereas the
palace of the people has remained comparatively perfect--a beautiful
finished building which delights the eye--the palace of the popes has
been battered and abused almost to destruction at the hand of man, of
fires and of time. Almost the only lovely detail which still clings to
the face of the cathedral is the small pulpit whence the saint of Siena
preached to the people; and this in itself is a symbolical fact, for it
was the power of a single human _soul_ which, for an instant tamed, if
it could not quell, the passion of the Perugians. The power of the
church, as church, never really mastered them. Paul III. mastered them,
but he did so in the character of a warrior and tyrant.
As far as position goes the cathedral entirely dominates the municipal
palace. It stands so high that in any distant view of the city it seems
to soar above the other buildings. As we have seen before, the Perugians
had but little patience with architectural or æsthetic matters. "They
always preferred Mars to the Muse," says Bonazzi. Some grim and enduring
respect kept their hands off their municipal palace when once it had
been completed to their satisfaction, they
[Illustration: PIAZZA DI S. LORENZO, SEEN FROM UNDER THE ARCHES OF THE
PALAZZO PUBBLICO]
took the precaution of putting a large iron fence round their fountain,
but their cathedral suffered. They were zealous during the time of their
prosperity to have a large and splendid church, but they never found
time to finish or adorn it. They left the brickwork naked, hoping for
some chance fight to furnish them with marbles for it, and in 1385 they
were able to secure those which had been prepared for the cathedral of
Arezzo. But they did not keep them. Pellini gives a weird account of
the bringing of these marbles. "These things being accomplished," he
says, referring to a very inhuman siege and conquest over the
unfortunate Arezzo, "some outward sign of the acknowledged victory was
necessary; so many marble stones were brought back to Perugia with some
paintings upon them which had been formerly in the cathedral of the
city; and the oxen and carts which brought them hither, with all the men
who worked to bring them, were dressed out by our city with red cloth;
but of those said stones, although they were certainly put up outside
the walls of our cathedral, no sign at all remains." A little later
Pellini explains their loss, for the people of Arezzo got back their
marbles. "They started on their journey back to Arezzo," says the
faithful historian, who will acknowledge no possible conquest of his own
city, "and were put up on a part of their church where they may now be
seen, white and red in colour, and very lovely to behold."
Throughout the history of Perugia, in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, we hear of fights and skirmishes in the square, but it was
always the cathedral and not the palace which was turned into a
fortress. In 1489 one of the endless fights between the Baglioni and the
Oddi occurred, and the cathedral became a castle. Guido Baglioni arrived
in hot haste from Spello, and proceeded to turn the Oddi out of Perugia.
"Girolamo della Penna," says Villani, "deserted his brother Agamemnon
and joined the Signori Baglioni, taking with him Silvio del Abate and
others, and, together with the Baglioni, they took possession of S.
Lorenzo, placed artillery there, and fortified the church, its loggia,
and its roof in every way they knew of." The Duomo, on this occasion,
proved such an excellent stronghold, that the Oddi outside were entirely
discomfited, and had to abandon the siege and retire once more to the
country. Another remarkable instance of fighting between the two
pugnacious families is given by Fabretti, which illustrates, moreover,
the slight power possessed by the Pope at that period. "At the end of
October 1488 there was a great fight in the Piazza degli Aratri, and
then the Baglioni collected in the piazza, and an ever-increasing throng
of supporters assembled round them. And on that same day the brother of
the Pope (Innocent VIII.) arrived, and as he passed by the piazza the
people called out, '_Chiesa, chiesa_.' He was accompanied to the steps
of the Palazzo Pubblico by Guido and Grifonetto Baglioni, who hoped that
he might manage to arrange matters. But the _Priori_ looked out of the
windows above them, and seeing the Baglioni in the street below, they
began to throw down large and heavy stones in the hopes of wounding
Guido Baglioni. The hubbub continued with renewed force, and only at
dusk did stillness fall upon the city."
PALAZZO PUBBLICO.
Having glanced thus rapidly over the general historical interest of the
piazza, it may be well to describe the buildings separately, taking the
_Palazzo Pubblico_ first. Anyone who comes to Perugia, even for a single
afternoon, will naturally hurry to this point and spend an hour or two
in the Cambio and Pinacoteca; but if a little time remains he should
wander further through its public corridors and halls and archives, its
council chambers, library, and prisons. All these are gathered together
with a certain indifference to the first lines of architecture in the
shell of the massive old buildings, and by penetrating these mysterious
regions one seems better able to understand the spirit of historical
Perugia. The iron force of the
[Illustration: REMAINS OF THE FIRST PALAZZO DEI PRIORI IN THE VIA DEL
VERZARO]
people's law--that force which alone kept head above the breakers of
foreign wars and civil discord in the past--slumbers, but is not dead,
in the halls where it once reigned. A hum of modern life, a host of
modern busts and portraits now clash with, now mellow, the sombre walls
and passages. At the other end of the Corso there is a grand new
Prefettura, where the Prefect of all Umbria manages Umbrian matters,
but the pulse of the old city beats on in its old veins. The _Priori_,
with their golden chains and crimson gowns, have vanished, but the men
and women of the land are pretty much the same. They wear big collars of
foxes' fur on their long winter cloaks, just as they did in mediæval
times, and they bring their claims of business into their first house of
business, they swarm and hum within the corridors, and trample up and
down the wide stone staircase with dignified determination stamped upon
their features. In the rooms to which they go the clerks sit writing
steadily amidst their piles of archives and of blue-books. Few probably
of all these people know, and fewer care, about the Peruginos and
Bonfiglis in the rooms above; for the natural man or woman desires to
pray before his saints and not to pay to stare at them.
We hear that the present palace was finished in the middle of the
fourteenth century. Long before that date there had been a public hall
where the rulers of the city met to discuss and settle its affairs.[51]
But this building was comparatively small and cramped, and the new
meeting-house was undertaken with superb disregard to expense. A rough
calculation from the many bills shows us that upwards of 14,041 _libre_
was spent on the building of it, but it took nearly one hundred and
thirty years to build, and the fact that it was finished at different
periods--a bit being added at intervals down the Corso--may account for
the waving and irregular line of the east front, which is one of its
most marked features.
The first architects employed were natives of Perugia: Fra Bevignate and
Messers Giacomo di Servadio and Giovanello di Benvenuto. The original
plan of the building was probably a perfect square, reaching from its
present north front down to where the great door now stands. One should
examine the building from the back in order to understand it fully. At
one time we hear that Lombard workmen were called in to assist in the
"very heavy labour," which, perhaps, gives a certain Lombard look to
parts of the brickwork round the windows.
The citizens took a vast interest in the erection of their public
palace, and allowed many private houses and even churches to be pulled
down in order to make room for it. As for the decoration of the
cathedral, so also for that of the palace, a neighbouring town was
ransacked to furnish ornaments, and the unhappy Bettona was stripped of
marbles to supply the magnificent _Priori_ with their pillars and their
friezes. Different portions of the huge edifice were given to the
principal city guilds to decorate, and it was probably a spirit of
emulation in these societies which produced the costly beauties of the
separate parts. The chapel was decorated by the Merchants' Guild, and
also the principal door, which was dedicated to St Louis of Toulouse. It
is a beautiful piece of work, rich and lovely in its smallest detail,
and carved in the grey stone called _pietra serena_, which always looks
a little cold and dusty, like the fur on a grey mole's back, but which
lends itself to a certain attractive style of polished carving peculiar
to old doorways in Perugia.[52] Through it one passes into an immense
hall, from which a staircase leads into the rooms of the palace above.
In former times there were no steps, and persons of distinction and of
wealth rode up on horseback to the council chambers.
A splendid open-air staircase leads up to the north entrance of the
palace, which is, perhaps, the most impressive architectural point in
all Perugia. Some years ago this fine outer staircase was pulled down;
but it has been rebuilt with extreme care and taste, and probably
exactly on the original lines. One can fancy the great procession of the
_Podestà_ and the _Priori_ proceeding up and down these steps on days of
solemn ceremony. "Four mace-bearers went before them," we are told,
"bearing in their hands a silver staff richly covered with beautifully
wrought figures, with the griffin on the top in enamelled relief.
Without these mace-bearers it was not lawful for magistrates to go out."
Each of the ten _Priori_ wore round his neck "a heavy golden chain, the
emblem of his office; and on solemn occasions the magistrate was
preceded by six trumpeters to herald his approach with silver trumpets,
which same were about four metres in length, beautifully enamelled, and
with streamers of red satin on which the white griffin of the city was
depicted."
The principal door, from which the _Priori_ probably emerged, is guarded
by great brazen beasts: a griffin and a lion, emblems of the city and
the Guelphs. These creatures are very typical creations from the brain
of some Perugian artist, and among the most impressive objects of their
sort in Italy. They were originally made for a fountain in the square by
a certain Maestro Ugolino, who received the modest sum of ten pounds for
making them. In 1308 the fountain was destroyed, and a little later they
were hoisted up to their present position. Long chains and keys hung
from their claws in early days. "At the feet of these beasts," says
Rossi, "the bars and keys of the doors of Assisi were hung as glorious
trophies in 1321; and in 1358 the keys of the Justice Hall of Siena. The
undisciplined militia which entered Perugia on the 3rd August 1799
pulled them down secretly, ('in the silence of the night' Mariotti
says,) and thus took from the citizens of the present day the
satisfaction of restoring to their rightful owners these disgraceful
mementos of patriarchal warfare with cities, who to-day are their best
friends. The fragments which remain have not the slightest historical
interest; they are merely the bars from which the above-mentioned
articles once hung."
The door with the brazen beasts above it leads straight into the _Sala
dei Notari_--a splendid vaulted hall, its ceiling covered with frescoes,
surrounded by high wooden stalls and steps of walnut. This big hall was
given over to the lawyers of Perugia in 1583. They bought it, and their
Collegio down below, from the city for the sum of 1000 _scudi_; and they
at once decorated their fine new quarters, and settled comfortably into
them, doing all their business there till early in the century. By the
code of Napoleon they were, however, deprived of their privileges, and
during the imperial French rule the hall was used as a criminal court.
The lawyers seem to have been utterly unhinged in their arrangements.
They never returned to the pleasant haunts from which the Emperor ousted
them, and the big hall is now used for public concerts and lectures.
The room which corresponds with this one on the upper storey is now the
Public Library, with a magnificent collection of over 50,000 volumes,
some valuable manuscripts and beautiful painted missals.
Leaving the _Sala dei Notari_ one crosses the main staircase of the
palace, and passes into the living heart of the building, into a network
of separate rooms and offices which it is not necessary to describe at
length. The _Sala del Consiglio Comunitativo_, or _d'Udienza_, is
beautifully decorated with crimson damask, and delicate arabesques, and
has a fine open fire-place carved in _pietra serena_. Adone Doni's
picture of Julius III. (see page 181) is hung in this room, and from it
one can gain a pretty accurate knowledge of what the _Priori_ and the
potentates of Perugia looked like in their gala clothes. In the _Sala
degli Archivi_ there is a fresco of Parnassus by Baroccio. The colour is
very fresh still, and the nymphs seem hopelessly out of place above the
piles of dusty archives.
There is a curious history connected with the _Sala del
Malconsiglio_--that room with the exquisite fresco by Fiorenzo di
Lorenzo over its main entrance door.[53] It was here that the celebrated
debate took place concerning the English prisoners (Hawkwood's men) whom
the Perugians succeeded in capturing during the great fight down by the
Tiber. The prisoners concocted a letter as they lay in their cells, and
in the most pathetic terms they appealed to their capturers; "We too are
Christians," they urged, "but we die of thirst. Have mercy upon us, have
mercy on your poor captives, _your English vassals_." The Perugians,
moved, or more probably flattered by the cringing words, in a moment of
ill-timed leniency, let their captives free. They lived to regret the
action. A short time later Hawkwood and his men attacked them in another
battle on the bridge of S. Giovanni. The English gained an easy victory,
1500 of the Perugians fell, and the _Podestà_ and the German captain of
their troops were taken prisoners together with a host of other men.
Thus it came about that the room in which the council met to decide the
release of the English was thenceforth called the _Sala del
Malconsiglio_ in memory of the lamentable decision witnessed by its
walls.
Hawkwood's men were not confined, as it happens, in the prisons of the
Palazzo Pubblico, but no pity can be too great for those who were, for
the Perugians were by no means dainty in their treatment of prisoners in
mediæval times. The street which runs from the _Piazza_ down into the
_Via dei Priori_ is still called the _Via della Gabbia_ because of the
large iron cage which used to hang above it from the upper windows of
the palace. In this cage the Perugians were wont to imprison thieves and
other malefactors, and not even the clergy escaped the horrid
degradation. In 1442 we read of a priest, Angelo di Marino, who robbed
Roberto di Ser Francesco di Ferolo of some of his possessions: "the
missing articles," says Fabretti, "were found concealed in the campanile
and under the altars, and, together with Angelo, the brothers of the
priest were discovered to be accomplices, also a friar of S. Fiorenzo
and many other priests and excellent citizens. On the 29th the said
Angelo was put into a round cage, and with a cord he was dragged up into
the corner wall of the Palace of the Podestà and there he remained for
two days, and in the night he was put into prison and in the
[Illustration: OLDEST PART OF THE PALAZZO PUBBLICO]
loggia of that palace twelve sacks of stolen goods were stored and round
that cage there was a garland of false keys ... and on the 28th of
January the said Angelo was once again put back into the cage at midday,
and it was very cold and there was much snow, and he remained there till
the first day of February, both night and day, and that same day he was
brought out dead and laid upon his bier in the piazza, and he was buried
in the passage of S. Lorenzo which leads into the cloister."
A big "open-air" prison looked into the _Via della Gabbia_: a sort of
large cavern in the fathomless walls of the old building, and here no
doubt the wretched prisoners sat huddled in chains together, a prey to
all the pigs and passers-by. A corkscrew staircase leads up from the
lower prisons to the higher storeys of the palace, and into this, merely
in the thickness of the wall, separate cells are built, windowless,
undrained, airless places, where other unfortunate persons were put by
the "men of warlike spirit."
There were even rougher modes than these of dealing with malefactors. On
one occasion we hear of the most barbarous butchery of some gentlemen
whose offences were purely political. Some were "thrown from the windows
of the Palazzo Pubblico, and others were hanged from the _lumiere_, or
long spikes which project from its lower walls." The _lumiere_ were
intended for the heads of Perugia's enemies, and one can fancy the faces
of the butchered men looking down on the unforgiving citizens, whilst
their blood dripped into the street. All through Perugia's history we
find references to the _lumiere_: "On the 3rd of July 1541, the head of
Ciancio de Burelio was borne along by one of the twenty-five rebels of
the Pope, a student killed him: his head was put on a _lumiere_ outside
the Palace of the _Podestà_" (Fabretti, iii. 22).
There were strange ways of catching prisoners in Perugia. We find one
statute which shows us that every artizan was obliged to hang certain
hooks and gaffs to his house walls "ready to help in the capture of a
criminal, and all were expected to help in this said capture."[54]
But if there was rude cruelty shown to prisoners it is fair to say there
was also an occasional rude mercy. No doubt the latter was excited in
the Perugians by their extreme religious superstition. We hear of an old
custom of liberating prisoners "_pro amore Dei_." "Every six months, two
_buon' uomini_ (or good men) were chosen to elect certain officials who
were given full power to let out five condemned prisoners on Holy
Friday, two at Christmas, two on the feast of S. Ercolano, and two on
Corpus Domini. Also two women on every feast of the Virgin Mary. In the
choice of women, only those condemned for minor offences must be
liberated. The men let out must have suffered six months' imprisonment,
and the women one month, and neither must have been liberated in this
manner (_pro amore Dei_) on previous occasions." Also there was to be
strict silence on the nature of the offence. The _Podestà_ published
the names of the freed prisoners in three parts of the town so that the
citizens might protest if they happened to be so minded. Three days
later the prisoners were free and went to render thanks in the Church of
S. Ercolano, after which they presented themselves before the civil
authorities at the Palazzo Pubblico. These _scarcerati pro amore dei_,
as they were called, were excluded from all public offices, "it not
being decent," says the statute, "that they should be on the same level
as the rest of the Perugians."
THE FOUNTAIN.
There is one remarkable object in the Piazza of S. Lorenzo which has
little or nothing to do with individual factions or with the affairs of
Church and State, and this is the famous fountain which we are told was
ever "dear as the apple of their eye to the people of Perugia." Indeed
the citizens were in the habit of declaring that their fountain was
"unique not only in Italy but in the entire world."
This beautiful bit of early Renaissance sculpture needs but a slight
description here, for its form is familiar to most people either through
engravings or through photographs. It is, however, a rather common error
to suppose, as Vasari himself did, that the Pisani were the sole
architects of the fountain. The only certain work which they did for it
was the ornamentation of the panels and probably the statues. The whole
plan of the fountain was supplied by the Perugian architect, Fra
Bevignate, and it was he who called in other sculptors to help in the
building.[55] In 1277 he applied to Charles of Anjou for permission to
employ the Florentine, Arnolfo di Lapo, to help with the sculptures on
the second basin, and in the same year a certain Rosso designed and made
the third bronze basin with its pillar and its ornaments of Nereids and
of griffins on the top.[56]
The fountain rises from the square--a broad pile of marble now almost
black with age, upon a circle of stone steps. The second basin is
supported on a forest of slender columns which give an airiness and a
necessary lightness to the whole. The designs upon its panels, which are
infinite in their variety, were made by Niccola Pisano and carried out
by his son Giovanni. These two big marble basins are crowned by a third
in bronze with the figures of three Nereids rising from it, and bearing
on their heads the eternal griffin of Perugia, without which fascinating
beast no single house or building in the city would ever seem complete.
Niccola Pisano and his son must have studied the tastes of the Perugians
with exquisite care and tact, combining these with the more general
artistic taste of the age in which they worked. The panels on the first
large basin are a fascinating study: the months of the year, and Æsop's
fables, scenes of domestic life and Roman legend, the griffin and tales
from the Old Testament, the Umbrian saints, the sciences and arts, all
wonderfully intermingled upon the separate panels. Even the old joke
about the fishes is gracefully treated by the Florentine sculptor, for
Lake Trasimene, as a beautiful woman, clasps three large _lasche_ in her
rounded arms. S. Ercolano, too, is here in all his glory, together with
S. Louis of Toulouse and S. Costanzo.
One cannot help wondering how Perugia got her drinking water in early
days. We may imagine that it
[Illustration: THE REAPER. DETAIL IN PANEL ON THE FOUNTAIN]
was entirely through wells, and wells on the top of a hill are apt to
run dry. Thirst, therefore, was probably a far stronger factor in times
of siege than the cowardice of her inhabitants, and the city must often
have been driven to capitulate through the terrible need of water,
rather than through the fear of foreign arms. As the city grew, a sense
of inadequacy on this particular point grew too, and people began to
wonder how water could be procured from some fresh running spring upon
the neighbouring hills; yet to bring it up to such a height seemed to
the Perugians an almost insuperable difficulty. An early genius nearly
solved it for them, but like other early geniuses he failed. In 1254
Frate Plenario, an obscure preaching friar, wandering through the woods
and hills around Perugia, conceived, what in those days seemed the most
hazardous scheme, of bringing water into the piazza of the city by means
of a large aqueduct from the hill of Monte Pacciano, which lies three
miles or so to the north of the town. Plenario urged his scheme upon the
magistrates, they approved it, and after certain difficulties as to the
necessary funds they determined to embark on the adventurous
undertaking. Frate Plenario was put at the head of the works, and Messer
Bonomi chosen as architect. But the plan was large, the execution very
difficult. The arches were built too small and fragile, and carried at
too low a level. They fell to ruin in the woods, and the poor little
priest and his friend Bonomi vanished with the desolation of their
works. Their plans, however, never died, they merely remained to be
carried out by stronger if not subtler minds.
In 1274 the question of a fountain again became paramount in Perugia.
More solid channels were built across the hills and the ambitious
magistrates called in the most skilled sculptors of the day to decorate
a receptacle for the precious water when it should arrive. It came for
the first time on the 15th of February 1280, and we can fancy the joyful
pride of the citizens as they saw it running over the lovely marble and
brass basins which had been so carefully prepared for it.
The most elaborate and stringent laws were made for the guardianship of
the fountain and the use of its waters. It was enclosed, as it is
to-day, with iron railings, and was, as the ever sarcastic Bonazzi
rightly says, "the subject of most grave solicitude." We hear that there
were seven troughs which gathered the water outside the railing, but
"beasts, barrels, unwashed pots, and unclean hands were forbidden the
use of the water, and indeed this was guarded with such jealous care
that it seemed as though the people of Perugia had built their fountain
for the sake of beauty only.... Yet," adds Bonazzi, "the five hundred
florins which were annually given over to its maintenance, without
counting extra expenses and the wages of its special porters and
superior officers, would have been ill-spent indeed if beauty had been
missing in the monument."
But if it was difficult to bring the water it was equally difficult to
keep it always running. The elegant pile of marbles, the thing that the
_Podestà_, the priests and the people all combined in literally doting
on, was for ever running dry, and growing lifeless. In this nineteenth
century the Prefect of Perugia is about to send some forty miles instead
of three to fetch his people water, but the great fountain will be there
to hold it when it comes, and the first aqueduct will remain to break
with exquisite lines the little copses and the fields away to the north
of the city.
We know of few lovelier points about Perugia than the place where its
water is stored on the lower hills of Monte Pacciano--low wooded hills
where the
[Illustration: GEOMETRY. DETAIL IN A PANEL OF THE FOUNTAIN]
white heath grows in spring-time amongst the copses of crimson-stemmed
arbutus, and where one can lie for hours on the turf looking away to
Trasimene, and all the waving hills and smaller hill-set cities of the
Umbrian country. Here the Perugians catch and store their drinking water
in three great reservoirs. The first of these was built some time at the
end of the thirteenth century. The masonry is rough and massive, and the
water seems more green and more mysterious in the mediæval basin than in
those of this practical nineteenth century. We went there late one April
afternoon, and lingered long in the cool and cavernous places where the
water is gathered together. As we came home we traced the course of the
old aqueducts which have long since been abandoned. The springs to-day
are carried underground in a sort of switch-back fashion over the
sloping hillsides. But the ruins of the earlier conduit remain in their
old places. Seeing them, we thought of the times in which they had
supplied the men and horses crawling home from some hot skirmish on the
plain, and of how the water had washed the blood of nobles from the
steps of the Duomo and quenched the thirst of preaching friars and
painters. How dead, how _gone_, that passionate past, how hum-drum, and
how dreary seemed the clatter of the table d'hôte when we got back that
evening.
But in describing the water supply of the city, we have wandered rather
far afield from the subject of the piazza. A great flight of steps leads
from the back of the fountain up to the cathedral.
CATHEDRAL OF S. LORENZO.
As we have pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, the Church has
suffered terribly, both from
[Illustration: ON THE STEPS OF THE CATHEDRAL]
neglect and warfare. The outer walls look very brown and bruised and
naked too, without their marbles, but as such they form a monument of
history which few would wish to alter. The first old church was pulled
down in 1200 in order to make room for a superb new cathedral which was
to take the place of the old one down outside the city walls at Porta
S. Pietro, and the citizens met in solemn conclave to talk their
project out, they even appointed their architect, Fra Bevignate, to make
their plans for them. But the Perugians were full of wars, and other
business and buildings at that period, and they soon found that their
funds were far too low to allow of a new cathedral. They therefore let
the matter drop, and some years passed before they made another effort.
In 1345 the Bishop laid the foundation stone of S. Lorenzo. It was a
solemn occasion, and all the clergy were present at the ceremony; but
the stone, when laid, remained in solitary state for the rest of the
century, and the people of Perugia were forced to pray and sing, to
marry and baptise elsewhere, for another hundred years went by before
the building was completed. Other catastrophes awaited it when finished,
for the inexorable French Abbot Mommaggiore was at that time building
his fortress at Porta Sole, and in doing this he found it necessary to
knock down a great part of the new cathedral. Finally, in the middle of
the fifteenth century, Bishop Baglioni, whose beautiful tomb stands to
the right as one enters the cathedral, put the place in comparative
order again, and it only remained for his descendants to use it as their
fortress in the years to come!
There is a feeling of great warmth about the interior of S. Lorenzo,
which is built in the form of a Latin cross with three naves. The
ceiling is badly painted, much of the glass is poor, the twelve tall
columns covered with a sort of stucco which imitates a stone no one has
ever seen and only the artist dreamed of; but with all these faults the
church has charm, and none of that desolate chill which the outside
walls suggest. The clergy are rich at Perugia; the people have never
lost their strong religious sense, which the advance of civilisation
has turned from a wild fanaticism to a tone of more sober devotion, and
the services are always impressive in S. Lorenzo--the whole body of the
choir filled with choristers, the priests forming themselves into
splendid coloured groups around the bishop's chair, and up against the
woodwork and red damasks on the stalls.
Something of the life of the city, and much of the lives of the popes,
has crept into the inner walls of the cathedral. The chapel of S.
Bernardino stands to the right as one enters. This belonged to the
Merchants' Guild of Perugia, and by them it was magnificently decorated.
The merchants purchased their rights to the chapel in 1515, and they at
once began to adorn it with splendid woodwork. They were naturally
anxious to get a really good picture for their altar, but they took
their time to select a suitable artist. Finally, they decided on
Federigo Baroccio, of whose skill they had heard great things, and they
sent their captain to Urbino where Baroccio lived, begging him to come
and paint their altar. The subject chosen was the "Descent from the
Cross." Federigo came and finished his picture between 1567 and 1568.
Tradition says that he was suffering from the effects of poison which a
jealous person had administered to him in Rome, as he painted. Be this
as it may, his picture gave the utmost satisfaction not only to the
Merchants' Guild but also to "the whole city of Perugia," and it
scarcely looks like the work of a man who was sickening from the effects
of fatal drugs, but rather like that of one with all his health and wits
about him. The figures are full of action, and although the colour is so
warm and glowing, the atmosphere is one of storm and tempest. To the
left of the cross the Magdalen strains her white arms to the
unconscious Virgin whose figure is supported by a radiant woman in a
yellow gown. To the right S. John stretches forward to catch the body of
the falling Christ, whilst a young man, leaning backwards in a hurricane
of wind, supports Him to the left. The only quiet points in this
over-dramatic composition are the fainting figure of our Lady and that
of her dead Son. Looking at it one is reminded of Tintoretto's work in
its extravagant sense of action, but the touch of sentimentality
throughout is foreign to the Venetian painter.[57]
Baroccio was a native of Urbino, born there in 1528. He studied painting
with the Zuccheri and also with Michelangelo, Titian, and Raphael, and
he had in his day a great reputation for his treatment of sacred
subjects. It seems that he fell in love with the city of Perugia, for he
stayed on painting there long after his work was finished, and he would
often come again like the popes and other tired persons of distinction.
He adopted a child of Perugia, Felice Pelegrin, and took him back to
Urbino, where he educated him as a painter. Felice became distinguished
in his way, and his success encouraged the generous Federigo to adopt
another child, Felice's brother. But the second experiment was not so
happy. The boy grew into an astonishingly beautiful young man; women
idolised him and he was murdered by some jealous rival when still
comparatively young.
* * * * *
To the left of Baroccio's picture there is a fine glass window designed
by Arrigo Fiammingo in 1565. The window has been restored, but is
beautiful in parts, both in colour and design, and Perugia is not rich
in coloured glass. The subject represented is S. Bernardino of Siena
preaching to the people of Perugia in the church of S. Maria del Popolo.
The Saint is in the background--he, and the people and the architecture
round him, are brown and quiet in colour. The figures in the foreground
are far more brightly coloured, notably that of the old merchant in a
blue cloak. The small naked boy who is leading him is perhaps the most
charming point of the whole composition. The child's figure is like a
little S. John, but he is probably meant to represent the Spirit of the
Merchants' Guild, for he has a bundle bound about his shoulders, over
which his yellow curls fall down, and a bundle or "_pacco_" is the sign
of the Merchants' Guild.
The stalls in the chapel are very fine work of the sixteenth century. A
whole book might easily be written about the stalls of the Perugian
churches. Their wealth of beauty and of real excellency is
inexhaustible, but it would be hopeless in so short a space to attempt
any full description of the individual ones. The choir of the cathedral
is in itself a fine example and worthy of a very careful study.
Immediately opposite the chapel of S. Bernardino is that of the Virgin's
Ring. To the mere lover of art the interest of this chapel is dead
indeed. Perugino's "Sposalizio": that wonderful design which Pietro
created for his Duomo, and which Raphael a few years later copied, went,
as so many of the very best Perugian paintings went, to swell the
galleries of Napoleon. The poor picture has never travelled back across
the Alps as many of its contemporaries have done. It hangs on the walls
of the Gallery at Caen, and an inferior copy fills the frame which
first was made to hold it.
To the pious, a treasure of infinitely greater price than Perugino's
altar-piece is still shut safe and sure within the railings of the
chapel, and this is the wedding-ring of the blessed Virgin Mary. It was
brought to Perugia by a certain Winterio di Magonza, who "piously stole
it" from Chiusi in 1472. The Ring is kept in a wonderful and exquisitely
worked silver casket,[58] but so extraordinary is its value, that it can
only be seen five times a year, and during the rest of the time a
monstrous silver cloud covers the spot where it is stowed away.
We were privileged to see the Ring on one of Mary's greatest feast days
(December 8th), and to examine it closely, even to handle it. We shall
not ever forget the sight, which was impressive, and savoured almost of
a pagan rite. The Ring was exposed from 7 A.M. to 6 P.M. We went to see
it in the evening. In the square outside it was dark and pouring with
cold rain, the great church too was dark and cold, a candle or two in
the organ loft, and the organ sending a stream of mysterious music
across the aisle, for the benediction. In the chapel of the Relic there
was light--a blaze of innumerable candles, and underneath, the priests
and an immense throng of people at their prayers. A staircase hung with
crimson damask had been built for the day up the side of the wall to the
little platform where the Ring is kept. We climbed the stairs to the
platform and entered the chapel up above. There were only a few of the
privileged Perugians there: some ladies, two smiths with the bolt and
keys, the custodian, one or two members of the municipality, and the
_Ring_ which, in the light of all its candles, had an extraordinary, nay
an even uncanny effect, and seemed cut out of some large opal.[59] When
the service below was ended, the priest of the Ring arrived up the
ladder. He took the relic out of its shrine, and a strange, half
hysterical prayer went up from the tiny crowd. With the excessive
courtesy peculiar to the Perugians we were asked to come forward: "You
people of Perugia can always see your Ring, and these ladies are
strangers," said the priest, who bade us examine it closely. Then the
locking up began, and it was a mighty business. The relic is kept in a
wonderful variety of cases. It is first locked into a little leathern
case with a golden key kept by the bishop. Fifteen other different
locks, their keys kept by fifteen different persons of importance in the
city, follow. The weight of the last iron chest which covers the other
boxes is stupendous. Two locksmiths and a custodian could scarcely
manage to close it. As the locking up proceeded the candles went
gradually out in the cathedral, and only one or two small tapers
remained to light the mysterious burial. We passed from the chapel into
the rain-swept square, and some of Ciatti's strange, unlikely fables ran
in our head as we splashed through the desolate wind-swept streets. He
tells us of the marvellous properties of the Ring--how the power
possessed by it was so potent that people's ills were cured by merely
looking at it, and how when a Tuscan lady had the audacity to wear it,
her hand became withered, even as a dead leaf in autumn. And then he
gives the story of the finding of the Ring:--
"Now Judith Marchesana of Tuscany, having a great love of jewellery
(a thing not contrary to the nature of woman), despatched a certain
Raneiro of Chiusi to Rome to make diligent search for jewels in
that city. There he chanced to meet with a jeweller who had just
returned from Jerusalem, and from him he bought many gems which he
thought would be to the liking of his mistress. After abiding three
days with the jeweller he decided to return to his home, and the
Levantine, hearing of this, offered again to show him more gems
till at last Raneiro grew angered and spoke bitter words to his
host. 'Nay,' said the jeweller, 'I have treated thee in all good
faith, but now I know not whether by a spirit I am moved, or by the
love I bear to thee, but certain it is that I feel driven to give
thee this Ring;' and he drew a small hoop from out the urn where
the jewels lay. Raneiro, thinking it was an amethyst, an onyx or
white agate, which stones are of but very slight importance in the
history of gems, laughingly told his friend to keep his precious
gift--'Do not esteem my offering so vile,' said the Levantine,
'but, believe me, it is the most priceless treasure I possess; for
be it known to you that this is the wedding-ring of the blessed
Virgin Mary. Receive it therefore with all reverence, and see that
the sacred relic fall not into the hands of the profane.'"
* * * * *
There is a fine "miraculous"[60] picture on the third column to the
right as one passes up the aisle of the cathedral. A great many myths
centre around it both as a work of art and as a healing relic. Some say
that it is the earliest painting in Perugia, transferred to its present
place from the column of a Pagan temple where an early Christian
painted it, others that it is the work of Giannicola Manni. Concerning
the miracles performed by it, the strings of silver hearts and offerings
bear ample testimony. The painting is very charming, and we hear that
Perugino loved it as a boy and drew his earliest inspirations from
it(?). Our Lady stands against a crimson arras, her hands are opened out
as though to bless, her gown is of a faded pink, her mantle blue and
lined with the green of early spring. She is so calm, so young, and
smiling, that one does not wonder at the crowds of worshippers which
linger always round her shrine.
The chapel of the baptistery has some good Lombard stone work; and there
are one or two interesting things in the sacristy; splendid _intarsia_
over the presses where the priests of Perugia store their gorgeous gowns
of cloth of gold and silver, and a wonderful bit of early _gesso_ work
in the inner chapel.
* * * * *
There is a big altar-piece by Signorelli in the chapel of S. Onofrio,
which is interesting as being the only comparatively good piece of the
master's work in the whole of Perugia. The picture has suffered much
from restoration, but the restorer contented himself with mauling the
principal points; he neglected the detail, which is admirable
throughout. The garlands of pink and white convolvulus behind the chair
of our Lady are true to life; the Infant Christ carries a stem of lilies
in his baby hand, and beside the long limbed angel who plays his lute at
the Virgin's feet stands a tumbler full of the freshest jasmine, whilst
below him on the steps another glass is filled with fading violets. One
marvels that a man who could so superbly draw every line and muscle of
the human body, should care to linger over these frail details of the
flowers.
In the left transept of the cathedral three of the popes are buried, and
to anyone who has studied the history of the town and realised its
connection with the power of Rome this otherwise rather dreary and
uninteresting corner of the church will conjure up a host of half
fantastic visions.[61]
The little porphyry urn on the right wall of the transept holds all the
earthly remains of the three popes, Innocent III., Urban IV., and Martin
IV., who all died at Perugia. A delightful legend is told concerning the
death of Innocent. With his usual surprising seriousness the ingenuous
Ciatti tells us that the following remarkable vision occurred to a
certain Abbot of the Cistercian order who was living in the
neighbourhood at the time of Innocent's death:
"Now one hot summer day, overcome by heavy sleep, the Abbot
withdrew himself under the shade of certain plants and there lay
down to rest upon the soft green grass. No sooner had he closed his
eyes in sleep than the eyes of his mind were opened and he saw
Christ appearing in the east accompanied by His angelic court and
seated on a throne. Looking to the west the Abbot then perceived a
naked man, hurrying all out of breath towards the throne, and not
even the weight of his pontifical mitre impeded him in this most
rapid progress, for a fierce and terrifying dragon followed close
behind him, and he was frightened and cried out: 'Have mercy on me,
oh thou most merciful God.' Wherefore the dragon too lifted up his
voice and cried: 'Judge with justice, most high judge.' Then the
good Abbot awoke trembling with fear and much mystified by all that
he had seen, and arriving at the gates of Perugia, he heard the
heavy tolling of the bells and was met by the citizens who all were
wailing with loud voices, crying out: Pope Innocent, Pope Innocent
is dead.' Then the worthy Abbot understood that it was Pope
Innocent III. that he had seen, and he marvelled at the mercy of
Almighty God who treats the humble and the powerful with equal law
and mercy."
Innocent was, of course, a very powerful Pope, and the historians of
Perugia gloat over the fact that he did their city the honour to die in
it, devoting whole pages of their books to this important subject.
Urban IV. is another remarkable figure in the Church of Rome, and it was
during his stay at Perugia that he threw his mighty bomb which was to
explode with such disastrous results upon the land of Italy. He was
probably staying in the monastery of S. Pietro with his friend S. Thomas
Aquinas when he sent the fatal letter which summoned Charles of Anjou
down to Rome. "A terrible comet preceded Urban's death which occurred in
1264," says Mariotti. There was a report that Urban had been done to
death by eating poisoned figs, but this is unfounded. The Pope lived in
constant terror of poison, and by his incessant talk and letters on the
subject had infected the minds of those around him.
Martin IV. is the last Pope buried in the Duomo. He often came to
Perugia, and in 1285 he returned with the full intention of making a
considerable stay there. But he died on Easter morning, having eaten a
surfeit of eels; (it appears that Martin IV. was greedy of this
particular delicacy). Dante records the fact in the "Purgatorio" (canto
xxiv.), where Forese points the Pope out seated among the gluttons:
" ... e quella faccia
Di là da lui, più che l'altre trapunta,
Ebbe la Santa Chiesa in le sue braccia:
Dal Torso fu: e purga per digiuno
L'anguille di Bolsena e la vernaccia."
The following inscription is said to have been written over Martin's
tomb:
"Gaudent anguillae quod mortuus hic jacet ille,
Qui quasi morte reas excruciabat eas."
Perhaps it was with a view to expiate this very insulting epitaph that
the Perugians, in spite of the canons of S. Lorenzo, who refused to
contribute to the fund, erected a magnificent tomb for Martin later on.
They employed G. Pisano for the purpose, but only a few fragments of his
work remain. Mommaggiore pulled it down, as he pulled so many other
things, and used its priceless ornaments to adorn his own palace at
Porta Sole. The two small pulpits on either side of the high altar
screen were made, it is said, from the fragments of the tomb, and also,
perhaps, the marble _Pietà_ with the blue background which hangs on the
right as you pass back down the church.[62]
The bones of the three Popes have been terribly pulled about: buried and
then unearthed, buried again, and changed. Innocent, according to most
authorities, was buried in the cathedral. About 1376, when Martin's tomb
was destroyed by Mommaggiore, the bones of Innocent III. were taken from
their resting-place and laid along with those of the other two popes in
a sort of chest, on the top of a cupboard, in the sacristy of the new
cathedral. Thence, in 1605, the chest was removed to another chapel by
order of Bishop Comitoli. When it was opened the bodies of Martin and of
Urban were found intact, with their mitres and their chasubles; but of
the powerful Innocent III. only a few broken bones remained, wrapped up
in a little packet. It is probable that when the three Popes were
removed from their different tombs in 1376 and stuffed into the chest,
the memory of Innocent III. in connection with the temporal dominion of
the popes in Perugia which he was the first to found, induced some
persons present to violate his tomb. Be this as it may, all the bones of
the Popes now rest together in the dull little porphyry urn, crowned
with a brass tiara.[63]
In leaving the cathedral it would be well to glance at the tomb of
Bishop Giovanni Andrea Baglioni, a beautiful bit of low relief in
marble. Very lovely are the three small angels with the ribbons in their
heavy hair, guarding the Baglioni arms, very alien from the spirit of
that bloody race of men, the gentle figures of the women in the panels.
THE CANONICA.
One great building in the square remains to be described, namely, the
Canonica, or, as Bonazzi calls it, the "Vatican of Perugia." Although a
mere wreck of its former splendid self, this building is still one of
the finest relics of the mediæval times that the city boasts of. It
stands to the left of the Duomo--a great mass of bricks, with huge
cavernous rooms inside, and walls some six to eight feet thick in
places. The cloister is comparatively modern, but the beautiful open-air
staircase which leads from it down into the Piazza Morlacchi is probably
very much the same as it was in the days when the popes arrived to take
a holiday in their loved Umbrian city.
In old days the magistrates and the _Podestà_ shared the abode of the
clergy, but, as may easily be imagined,
[Illustration: IN THE CLOISTERS OF THE CANONICA (OR SEMINARY)]
this arrangement did not answer, and was, as Bonazzi tells us, the cause
of most extreme contention between the canons of the Church and the
councillors of State. The canons had a very comfortable time in the
Canonica. "Professing to follow the rule of St Augustine," says Bonazzi,
"they had much to fear from the manifold terrors of conscience." Their
cellars must have been excessively well stocked, for on one occasion
when the _Podestà's_ property was burning, the flames were quenched by
wine: "To extinguish the flames, nothing would do save the immense
cellars of the colossally rich Canonica."
Of the visits of the popes to Perugia we have dealt elsewhere (see
chapter ii.). It is enough to say that they often came to the Canonica;
three of them died there, and there were five conclaves in the
mysterious halls where the new popes were elected.
One beautiful story is told in the "Fioretti" about Gregory IX., who
doubted of the miracles of S. Francis till the saint appeared in person
and revealed the truth to him. There is little doubt that the vision
occurred to the Pope as he slept or dreamed in his grand rooms at the
back of the cathedral:--
" ...Now let it be known that to Pope Gregory IX., who was a little
doubtful concerning the wound in the side of St Francis, and
according to what he himself relates, that the saint appeared one
night, and lifting his right arm on high he showed the wound in his
side, and asked to have a little phial fetched; and the Pope had it
fetched and St Francis bade them place it under the wound in his
side; and it seemed to the Pope as though truly the phial became
filled even unto the brim with blood mixed up with water which
issued from the wound, and from that time forward all doubt forsook
him, and he, with the consent of all his cardinals, approved the
holy miracles of St Francis."
Thus the power of the Umbrian Saint penetrated this grim Umbrian
building, and, appearing to the haughty Roman Pontiff, overcame him by
the power of pure holiness, even as it had overcome so many furious
passions in a century that was evil.
[Illustration: S. FRANCIS FROM THE STATUE OF DELLA ROBBIA AT S. MARIA
DEGLI ANGELI, ASSISI]