Florence on the festival of S. John--things truly most ingenious and
beautiful--were invented by Cecca, who was much employed in such matters
at that time, when the city was greatly given to holding festivals. In
truth, although such festivals and representations have now fallen
almost entirely out of use, they were very beautiful spectacles, and
they were celebrated not only by the Companies, or rather,
Confraternities, but also in the private houses of gentlemen, who were
wont to form certain associations and societies, and to meet together at
certain times to make merry; and among them there were ever many courtly
craftsmen, who, besides being fanciful and amusing, served to make the
preparations for such festivals. Among others, four most solemn public
spectacles took place almost every year, one for each quarter of the
city, with the exception of that of S. Giovanni, for the festival of
which a most solemn procession was held, as will be told. The quarter of
S. Maria Novella kept the feast of S. Ignazio; S. Croce, that of S.
Bartholomew, called S. Baccio; S. Spirito, that of the Holy Spirit; and
the Carmine, those of the Ascension of Our Lord and of the Assumption of
Our Lady. This festival of the Ascension--for of the others of
importance an account has been or will be given--was very beautiful,
seeing that Christ was uplifted on a cloud covered with angels from a
Mount very well made of wood, and was borne upwards to a Heaven, leaving
the Apostles on the Mount; and the whole was so well contrived that it
was a marvel, above all because the said Heaven was somewhat larger than
that of S. Felice in Piazza, although the machinery was almost the same.
And since the said Church of the Carmine, where this representation used
to take place, is no little broader and higher than that of S. Felice,
in addition to the part that supported Christ another Heaven was
sometimes erected, according as it was thought advisable, over the chief
tribune, wherein were certain great wheels made in the shape of reels,
which, from the centres to the edges, moved in most beautiful order ten
circles standing for the ten Heavens, which were all full of little
lights representing the stars, contained in little copper lamps hanging
on pivots, so that when the wheels revolved they remained upright, in
the manner of certain lanterns that are now universally used by all.
From this Heaven, which was truly a very beautiful thing, there issued
two stout ropes fastened to the staging or tramezzo[20] which is in the
said church, and over which the representation took place. To these
ropes were attached, by each end of a so-called brace-fastening, two
little bronze pulleys which supported an iron upright fixed into a level
platform, on which stood two angels fastened by their girdles. These
angels were kept upright by a counterpoise of lead which they had under
their feet, and by another that was under the platform on which they
stood; and this also served to make them balanced one with another. The
whole was covered with a quantity of cotton-wool, very well arranged in
the form of a cloud, which was full of cherubim and seraphim, and
similar kinds of angels, varied in colour and very well contrived. These
angels, when a little rope was unwound from the Heaven above, came down
the two larger ropes on to the said tramezzo, where the representation
took place, and announced to Christ that He was to ascend into Heaven,
and performed their other functions. And since the iron to which they
were bound by the girdle was fixed to the platform on which they stood,
in such a way that they could turn round and round, they could make
obeisance and turn about both when they had come forth and when they
were returning, according as was necessary; wherefore in reascending
they turned towards the Heaven, and were then drawn up again as they had
come down.
These machines and inventions are said to have been Cecca's, for,
although Filippo Brunelleschi had made similar things long before, many
additions were made to them with great judgment by Cecca; and it was
from these that the thought came to the same man to make those Clouds
which were borne in procession through the city every year on S. John's
Eve, and the other beautiful things that were made. And this was his
charge, because, as it has been said, he was a servant of the public.
Now with this occasion it will not be out of place to describe some of
the features of the said festival and procession, to the end that some
memory of them may descend to posterity, seeing that they have now for
the most part fallen into disuse. First, then, the Piazza di S. Giovanni
was all covered over with blue cloth, on which were sewn many large
lilies of yellow cloth; and in the middle, on certain circles also of
cloth, and ten braccia in diameter, were the arms of the People and
Commune of Florence, with those of the Captain of the Guelph party and
others; and all around, from the borders of the said canopy, which
covered the whole piazza, vast as it is, there hung great banners also
of cloth, painted with various devices, with the arms of magisterial
bodies and guilds, and with many lions, which form one of the emblems of
the city. This canopy, or rather, awning, made thus, was about twenty
braccia off the ground, and was supported by very strong ropes fastened
to a number of irons, which are still to be seen round the Church of S.
Giovanni, on the facade of S. Maria del Fiore, and on the houses that
surround the said piazza on every side. Between one rope and another ran
cords that likewise supported the awning, which was so well strengthened
throughout, particularly at the edges, with ropes, cords, linings,
double widths of cloth, and hems of sacking, that it is impossible to
imagine anything better. What is more, everything was arranged so well
and with such great diligence, that although the awning was often
swelled out and shaken by the wind, which is always very powerful in
that place, as everyone knows, yet it was never disturbed or damaged in
any way whatever. This awning was made of five pieces, to the end that
it might be easier to handle, but, when set into place, they were all
joined and fastened and sewn together in such a manner that it appeared
like one whole. Three pieces covered the piazza and the space that is
between S. Giovanni and S. Maria del Fiore; and in the middle piece, in
a straight line between the principal doors, were the aforesaid circles
containing the arms of the Commune. And the remaining two pieces covered
the sides--one towards the Misericordia, and the other towards the
Canon's house and the Office of Works of S. Giovanni.
The Clouds, which were made of various kinds and with diverse inventions
by the Companies, were generally fashioned in the following manner. A
square framework was made of planks, about two braccia in height, with
four stout legs at the corners, contrived after the manner of the
trestles of a table, and fastened together with cross-pieces. On this
framework two panels were laid crosswise, each one braccio wide, with a
hole in the middle half a braccio in diameter, in which was fixed a high
pole, whereon there was placed a mandorla all covered with cotton-wool,
cherubim, lights, and other ornaments, and within this, on a horizontal
bar of iron, there sat or stood, according as might be desired, a person
representing that Saint whom the particular Company principally honoured
as their peculiar patron and protector--to be exact, a Christ, or a
Madonna, or a S. John, or some other--and the draperies of this figure
covered the iron bar in such a manner that it could not be seen. Round
the same pole, lower down, below the mandorla, there radiated four or
five iron bars in the manner of the branches of a tree, and at the end
of each, attached likewise with irons, stood a little boy dressed like
an angel. These boys could move round and round at pleasure on the iron
brackets on which their feet rested, for the brackets hung on hinges.
And with similar branches there were sometimes made two or three tiers
of angels or of saints, according to the nature of the subjects to be
represented. The whole of this structure, with the pole and the iron
bars (which sometimes represented a lily, sometimes a tree, and often a
cloud or some other similar thing), was covered with cotton-wool, and,
as has been said, with cherubim, seraphim, golden stars, and other
suchlike ornaments. Within were porters or peasants, who carried it on
their shoulders, placing themselves round the wooden base that we have
called the framework, in which, below the places where the weight rested
on their shoulders, were fixed cushions of leather stuffed with down, or
cotton-wool, or some other soft and yielding material. All the
machinery, steps, and other things were covered, as has been said above,
with cotton-wool, which made a beautiful effect; and all these
contrivances were called Clouds. Behind them came troops of men on
horseback and foot-soldiers of various sorts, according to the nature of
the story to be represented, even as in our own day they go behind the
cars or other things that are used in place of the said Clouds. Of the
form of the latter I have some designs in my book of drawings, very well
done by the hand of Cecca, which are truly ingenious and full of
beautiful conceptions.
It was from the plans of the same man that those saints were made that
went or were carried in processions, either dead or tortured in various
ways, for some appeared to be transfixed by a lance or a sword, others
had a dagger in the throat, and others had other suchlike weapons in
their bodies. With regard to this, it is very well known to-day that it
is done with a sword, lance, or dagger broken in half, the pieces of
which are held firmly opposite to one another on either side by iron
rings, after taking away the proportionate amount that has to appear to
be fixed in the person of the sufferer; wherefore I will say no more
about them, save that they seem for the most part to have been invented
by Cecca.
The giants, likewise, that went about in the said festival, were made in
the following manner. Certain men who were very skilful at walking on
stilts, or, as they are called in other parts, on wooden legs, had some
made five or six braccia high, and, having dressed and decked them with
great masks and other ornaments in the way of draperies, and imitations
of armour, so that they seemed to have the members and heads of giants,
they mounted them and walked dexterously along, appearing truly to be
giants. In front of them, however, they had a man who carried a pike, on
which the giant leant with one hand, but in such a fashion that the pike
appeared to be his own weapon, whether mace, lance, or a great
bell-clapper, such as Morgante is said by the poets of romance to have
been wont to carry. And even as there were giants, so there were also
giantesses, which produced a truly beautiful and marvellous effect.
Different from these, again, were the little phantoms, for these walked
on similar stilts five or six braccia high, without anything save their
own proper form, in such a manner that they appeared to be true spirits.
They likewise had a man in front of them with a pike to assist them; but
it is stated that some actually walked very well at so great a height
without leaning on anything whatsoever, and I am sure that he who knows
what Florentine brains are will in no way marvel at this. For, not to
mention that native of Montughi (near Florence) who has surpassed all
the masters that ever lived at climbing and dancing on the rope, whoever
knew a man called Ruvidino, who died less than ten years ago, remembers
that climbing to any height on a rope or cord, leaping from the walls of
Florence to the earth, and walking on stilts much higher than those
described above, were as easy to him as it is for an ordinary man to
walk on the level. Wherefore it is no marvel if the men of those times,
who practised suchlike exercises for money or for other reasons, did
what has been related above, and even greater things.
I will not speak of certain waxen candles which used to be painted with
various fanciful devices, but so rudely that they have given their name
to vulgar painters, insomuch that bad pictures are called "candle
puppets"; for it is not worth the trouble. I will only say that at the
time of Cecca they fell for the most part into disuse, and that in their
place were made the cars that are still used to-day, in the form of
triumphal chariots. The first of these was the car[21] of the Mint,
which was brought to that perfection which is still seen every year when
it is sent out for the said festival by the Masters and Lords of the
Mint, with a S. John on the highest part and with many other angels and
saints around and below him, all represented by living persons. Not long
ago it was determined that one should be made for every borough that
gave an offering of wax, and ten were made, in order to do magnificent
honour to that festival; but the plan was carried no further, by reason
of events that supervened no long time after. That first car of the
Mint, then, was made under the direction of Cecca by Domenico, Marco,
and Giuliano del Tasso, who were among the best master-carpenters, both
in squared-work and in carving, who were then working in Florence; and
in this car, among other things, no small praise is due to the wheels
below it, which are pivoted, in order that the structure may be able to
turn sharp corners, and may be managed in such a manner as to shake it
as little as possible, particularly for the sake of those who stand
fastened upon it.
The same man made a structure for the cleaning and restoration of the
mosaics in the tribune of S. Giovanni, which could be turned, raised,
lowered, and advanced at pleasure, and that with such ease that two men
could handle it; which invention gave Cecca very great repute.
When the Florentine army was besieging Piancaldoli, Cecca ingeniously
contrived to enable the soldiers to enter it by means of mines, without
striking a blow. Afterwards, continuing to follow the same army to
certain other strongholds, his evil fortune would have it that he should
be killed while attempting to measure certain heights at a difficult
point; for when he had put his head out beyond the wall in order to let
a plumb-line down, a priest who was with the enemy (who feared the
genius of Cecca more than the might of the whole camp) discharged a
catapult at him and fixed a great dart in his head, insomuch that the
poor fellow died on the spot. The fate and the loss of Cecca caused
great grief to the whole army and to his fellow-citizens; but since
there was no remedy, they sent him back in a coffin to Florence, where
his sisters gave him honourable burial in S. Piero Scheraggio; and below
his portrait in marble there was placed the following epitaph:
FABRUM MAGISTER CICCA, NATUS OPPIDIS VEL OBSIDENDIS VEL TUENDIS,
HIC JACET. VIXIT ANN. XXXXI, MENS. IV, DIES XIV. OBIIT PRO PATRIA
TELO ICTUS. PIAE SORORES MONUMENTUM FECERUNT MCCCCXCIX.
FOOTNOTES:
[20] See note on p. 57, Vol. I.
[21] The word in the Italian text is not "carro" but "cero," which is
obviously an error.
DON BARTOLOMMEO DELLA GATTA
DON BARTOLOMMEO DELLA GATTA, ABBOT OF S. CLEMENTE
ILLUMINATOR AND PAINTER
Rarely does it happen that a man of good character and exemplary life
fails to be provided by Heaven with the best of friends and with
honourable dwellings, or to be held in veneration when alive by reason
of the goodness of his ways, and very greatly regretted when dead by all
who knew him, as was Don Bartolommeo della Gatta, Abbot of S. Clemente
in Arezzo, who was excellent in diverse pursuits and most praiseworthy
in all his actions. This man, who was a monk of the Angeli in Florence,
a seat of the Order of Camaldoli, was in his youth--perchance for the
reasons mentioned above in the Life of Don Lorenzo--a very rare
illuminator, and a very able master of design. Of this we have proof in
the books that he illuminated for the Monks of SS. Fiore e Lucilla in
the Abbey of Arezzo, particularly a missal that was presented to Pope
Sixtus, in which, on the first page of the Secret Prayers, there was a
very beautiful Passion of Christ. Those are likewise by his hand which
are in S. Martino, the Duomo of Lucca.
A little while after these works the said Abbey of S. Clemente in Arezzo
was presented to this father by Mariotto Maldoli of Arezzo, General of
the Order of Camaldoli, who belonged to the same family from which
sprang that Maldolo who gave the site and lands of Camaldoli, then
called Campo di Maldolo, to S. Romualdo, the founder of that Order. Don
Bartolommeo, in gratitude for that benefice, afterwards executed many
works for that General and for his Order. After this there came the
plague of 1468, by reason of which the Abbot, like many others, stayed
indoors without going about much, and devoted himself to painting large
figures; and seeing that he was succeeding as well as he could desire,
he began to execute certain works. The first was a S. Rocco that he
painted on a panel for the Rectors of the Confraternity of Arezzo, which
is now in the Audience Chamber where they assemble. This figure is
recommending the people of Arezzo to Our Lady, and in this picture he
portrayed the Piazza of the said city and the holy house of that
Confraternity, with certain grave-diggers who are returning from burying
the dead. He also painted another S. Rocco for the Church of S. Pietro,
likewise on a panel, wherein he portrayed the city of Arezzo exactly as
it stood at that time, when it was very different from what it is
to-day. And he made another, which was much better than the two
mentioned above, on a panel which is in the Chapel of the Lippi in the
Church of the Pieve of Arezzo; and this S. Rocco is a rare and beautiful
figure, almost the best that he ever made, and the head and hands are as
beautiful and natural as they could be. In the same city of Arezzo, in
S. Pietro, a seat of the Servite Friars, he painted an Angel Raphael on
a panel; and in the same place he made a portrait of the Blessed Jacopo
Filippo of Piacenza.
Afterwards, being summoned to Rome, he painted a scene in the Chapel of
Pope Sixtus, in company with Luca da Cortona and Pietro Perugino. On
returning to Arezzo, he painted a S. Jerome in Penitence in the Chapel
of the Gozzari in the Vescovado; and this figure, lean and shaven, with
the eyes fixed most intently on the Crucifix, and beating his breast,
shows very clearly how greatly the passions of love can disturb the
chastity even of a body so grievously wasted away. In this work he made
an enormous crag, with certain cliffs of rock, among the fissures of
which he painted some stories of that Saint, with very graceful little
figures. After this, in a chapel in S. Agostino, for the Nuns of the
Third Order, as they are called, he wrought in fresco a Coronation of
Our Lady, which is very well done and much extolled; and below this, in
another chapel, a large panel with an Assumption and certain angels
beautifully robed in delicate draperies. This panel, for a work made in
distemper, is much extolled, and in truth it was wrought with good
design and executed with extraordinary diligence. In the lunette that is
over the door of the Church of S. Donato, in the Fortress of Arezzo,
the same man painted in fresco a Madonna with the Child in her arms, S.
Donatus, and S. Giovanni Gualberto, all very beautiful figures. In the
Abbey of S. Fiore in the said city, beside the principal door of
entrance into the church, there is a chapel painted by his hand, wherein
are S. Benedict and other saints, wrought with much grace, good
handling, and sweetness.
For Gentile of Urbino, Bishop of Arezzo, who was much his friend, and
with whom he almost always lived, he painted a Dead Christ in a chapel
in the Palace of the Vescovado; and in a loggia he portrayed the Bishop
himself, his vicar, and Ser Matteo Francini, his court-notary, who is
reading a Bull to him; and there he also made his own portrait and those
of certain canons of that city. For the same Bishop he designed a loggia
which issues from the Palace and leads to the Vescovado, on the same
level with both. In the centre of this the Bishop had intended to make a
place of burial for himself in the form of a chapel, in which he wished
to be interred after his death; and he had carried it well on, when he
was overtaken by death, and it remained unfinished, for, although he
left orders that it should be completed by his successor, nothing more
was done, as generally happens with works of this sort which are left by
a man to be finished after his death. For the said Bishop the Abbot
painted a large and beautiful chapel in the Duomo Vecchio, but, as it
had only a short life, there is no need to say more about it.
Besides this, he made works in various places throughout the whole city,
such as three figures in the Carmine, and the Chapel of the Nuns of S.
Orsina. At Castiglione Aretino, for the Chapel of the High-Altar in the
Pieve of S. Giuliano, he painted a panel in distemper, containing a very
beautiful Madonna, S. Julian, and S. Michelagnolo--figures very well
wrought and executed, particularly S. Julian, who, with his eyes fixed
on the Christ lying in the arms of the Madonna, appears to be much
afflicted at having killed his father and mother. In a chapel a little
below this, likewise, is a little door painted by his hand (which
formerly belonged to an old organ), wherein there is a S. Michael, which
is held to be a marvellous thing, with a child in swaddling-clothes,
which appears alive, in the arms of a woman. For the Nuns of the Murate
at Arezzo he painted the Chapel of the High-Altar, a work which is
truly much extolled. At Monte San Savino he painted a shrine opposite to
the Palace of Cardinal di Monte, which was held very beautiful. And at
Borgo San Sepolcro, where there is now the Vescovado, he decorated a
chapel, which brought him very great praise and profit.
Don Clemente was a man of very versatile intelligence, and, besides
being a great musician, he made organs of lead with his own hand. In S.
Domenico he made one of cardboard, which has ever remained sweet and
good; and in S. Clemente there was another, also by his hand, which was
placed on high, with the keyboard below on the level of the choir--truly
with very beautiful judgment, since, the place being such that the monks
were few, he wished that the organist should sing as well as play. And
since this Abbot loved his Order, like a true minister and not a
squanderer of the things of God, he enriched that place greatly with
buildings and pictures, particularly by rebuilding the principal chapel
of his church and painting the whole of it; and in two niches, one on
either side of it, he painted a S. Rocco and a S. Bartholomew, which
were ruined together with the church.
But to return to the Abbot, who was a good and worthy churchman. He left
a disciple in painting named Maestro Lappoli, an Aretine, who was an
able and practised painter, as is shown by the works from his hand which
are in S. Agostino, in the Chapel of S. Sebastiano, where there is that
Saint wrought in relief by the same man, with figures round him, in
painting, of S. Biagio, S. Rocco, S. Anthony of Padua, and S.
Bernardino; while on the arch of the chapel is an Annunciation, and on
the vaulting are the four Evangelists, wrought in fresco with a high
finish. By the hand of the same man, in another chapel on the left hand
as one enters the said church by the side-door, is a Nativity in fresco,
with the Madonna receiving the Annunciation from the Angel, in the
figure of which Angel he portrayed Giuliano Bacci, then a young man of
very beautiful aspect. Over the said door, on the outer side, he made an
Annunciation, with S. Peter on one side and S. Paul on the other,
portraying in the face of the Madonna the mother of Messer Pietro
Aretino, a very famous poet. In S. Francesco, for the Chapel of S.
Bernardino, he painted a panel with that Saint, who appears alive, and
so beautiful that this is the best figure that he ever made. In the
Chapel of the Pietramaleschi in the Vescovado he painted a very
beautiful S. Ignazio on a panel in distemper; and in the Pieve, at the
entrance of the upper door which opens on the piazza, a S. Andrew and a
S. Sebastian. For the Company of the Trinita, by order of Buoninsegna
Buoninsegni of Arezzo, he made a work with beautiful invention, which
can be numbered among the best that he ever executed, and this was a
Crucifix over an altar, with a S. Martin on one side and a S. Rocco on
the other, and two figures kneeling at the foot, one in the form of a
poor man, lean, emaciated, and wretchedly clothed, from whom there
issued certain rays that shone straight on the wounds of the Saviour,
while the Saint gazed on him most intently; and the other in the form of
a rich man, clothed in purple and fine linen, and all ruddy and cheerful
in countenance, whose rays, as he was adoring Christ, although they were
issuing from his heart, like those of the poor man, appeared not to
shine directly on the wounds of the Crucified Christ, but to stray and
spread over certain plains and fields full of grain, green crops,
cattle, gardens, and other suchlike things, while some diverged over the
sea towards certain boats laden with merchandise; and others, finally,
shone on certain money-changers' tables. All these things were wrought
by Matteo with judgment, great mastery, and much diligence; but they
were thrown to the ground no long time after in the making of a chapel.
Beneath the pulpit of the Pieve the same man made a Christ with the
Cross for Messer Leonardo Albergotti.