THE HEAVENLY CHOIR OF PERUGIA
[Illustration: POTS AT WINDOW.]
We had greatly desired to see the façade of the Oratory built in
honour of San Bernardino of Siena, and we went in search of it. Going
past the cloisters of the cathedral, we traversed the street beyond
them: on one side is a fragment of an old palace, on the other a
quaint series of ancient arches, one within the other, full of
striking effects of light and shade.
A street descends steeply from this portal. We noted here, and in many
of the old house-fronts, carved brackets, for holding flower-pots,
built out from the walls, their grey stone making a pleasant contrast
to the brilliant red and orange of the flowers blossoming in pots
placed within these hoary receptacles. We sometimes saw metal rings
instead of stone brackets fastened into the wall, so as to hold a
flower-pot.
A wealthy Englishman, staying in our hotel, became so enamoured of the
quaint effect created by these stone brackets, that he told us he was
resolved to transport some of them to the front wall of his
newly-built London dwelling. He went to the owner of a house
possessing several of the brackets, and offered him a round sum for a
couple of them. The owner professed himself delighted with the offer;
he would most willingly gratify the English Signor's fancy.
[Illustration: VIA SANT' AGATA.]
"The Signore Inglese must, however, understand," he said, with a
twinkle in his heavy-lidded dark eyes, "that these articles are not
individual,--they are the same as the nose on the face, fixtures. To
possess the brackets, the Signore Inglese must purchase the entire
front of the Palazzo, it is built all in one piece." This was too much
for even an English collector; he was obliged to quit Perugia without
acquiring even one of the much-desired brackets.
As we went along, we saw, outside the door of an old grey house, a
pretty, ragged, fair-haired child, jumping and dancing on her little
bare feet, chattering, as it seemed, to the doorpost. She was trying
to reach the knocker, and was talking merrily to the flies on the
wall, by way of amusement while she waited.
Near the Church of S. Agata we inquired for the house of Perugino, but
this Via de' Priori so winds and twists that we were told we were too
far north, so we turned at a sharp angle, and after a little came to a
silent open space in front of a church, the Chiesa Nuova.
Down an arched passage close by, and up a side street on the right, we
reached Via Deliziosa; in this Perugino's house is marked by a tablet.
There is nothing special in the appearance of the dwelling; the hilly
street in which it stands is grass-grown, and weirdly silent.
We went back again to seek for San Bernardino, and descended into a
very old quarter of the city, the projecting claw which on this side
overlooks the deep valley below Porta Susanna, and forms one point of
the Cupa. We had to pass by the last remaining fortress of the nobles,
the tall brick Torre degli Scalzi; behind this are remains of the
Etruscan wall.
Close by we saw another church, Madonna di Luce, a good example of
Renaissance work, gay with a scarlet and gold curtain, in readiness
for to-morrow's festa; then, by a quaint little street with flights of
brick steps leading down into most picturesque side-turnings, we came
in sight of a small house, its grey stone balcony screened from the
sunshine by a vine-wreathed pergola.
[Illustration: MADONNA DI LUCE.]
In a few minutes we reached the convent of San Francesco, beside which
is the matchless façade of the chapel or oratory of San Bernardino
of Siena.
[Illustration: FAÇADE OF SAN BERNARDINO.]
The detail of this façade is even more beautiful than we had expected;
the colour of its rosy marbles and terra-cotta adds warmth to the
exquisite sculptures. These seemed to us finer, both in design and
execution, than any Della Robbia work we had seen. We were glad to
find this opinion endorsed by Mr. Perkins in his Tuscan Sculptors. The
façade is the work of Agostino Ducci or Gucci, of Florence.
[Illustration: ANGEL, SAN BERNARDINO.]
A circular arch, almost as wide as the façade, surmounts two
square-headed entrance doors; these are surrounded by delicately
carved ornament in low relief. Above the door is a frieze, on which
are represented events in the life of San Bernardino; over it, in the
centre of the tympanum, which is deeply recessed within the arch, is a
Vesica, formed by tongues of flame containing a figure of the saint,
said to be the best existing likeness of him. Four flying angels
placed diagonally on either side of the Vesica seem to float as they
offer their musical sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Six of them
are playing various instruments; the expression in each countenance
is varied. Some of the faces are very lovely, especially the two
praying with uplifted heads; the others seem to be chanting hymns of
praise to the music of their respective instruments. The disposition
of the angels' robes is perfect; its studied grace reminded us of Lord
Leighton's drapery, the whole effect being as artistic as it is
original.
[Illustration: HEADS OF CHERUBIM, SAN BERNARDINO.]
[Illustration: ANGELS, SAN BERNARDINO.]
Filling up the rest of the tympanum, so as to make a background to the
angels, there are the quaintest heads of cherubs cradled in lovely
wings, carved in full relief. Some of these heads are missing, but
those which remain are exquisite studies of baby faces, each with its
own special expression, some roguish, others sweet and loving; one of
them seems to suppress a sob. There is infinite variety among them;
and all are so very human that they are doubtless transcripts from
fifteenth-century Perugian babies.
Winged creatures are carved in the spandrels of the arch; and slightly
below on either side is an angel within an arched niche, over which is
a pediment, the mouldings and soffits showing delicately sculptured
ornament; they are repeated below, and there are still other angels of
the Heavenly Choir, playing musical instruments; these are on the
broad pilasters that support the arch; some are in pairs, with very
beautiful faces. The arrangement of their draperies is especially
remarkable.
[Illustration: ANGEL PLAYING, SAN BERNARDINO.]
In all these figures and faces, besides the beauty of expression,
there is a marvellous mingling of quaintness and grace; they are so
life-like that one almost listens for the sound of their instruments,
in meet accompaniment to their chants, or to the hymns of the
cherubs, who above and beside them are singing a chorus of praise. The
Oratory is surmounted by a pediment, and in its tympanum we again find
angels and cherubs. On the fringe of the pediment are the carved
words--
AUGUSTA PERUSIA MCCCCLXI.
The illustrations help the reader's appreciation of this gem of
Perugia; mere words can only sketch, without giving an adequate idea
of its beauty.
The authorities of the city were eager to show their appreciation of
the wonderful reformation effected in its morals by the preaching of
San Bernardino; only a few years after his death, the building of this
beautiful memorial was begun, and seems to have been completed about
1462.
Bernardino's father was governor of Massa; in the year 1380, when
Saint Catherine died in Siena, the future preacher was born in the
little town. Early left an orphan, he was tenderly reared by three
aunts, all excellent women. He, unlike his great prototype, seems not
to have shared the fashionable vices of other youths of the period; he
was from an early age bent on following, so far as he could, the
example left him two hundred years earlier by Saint Francis of Assisi.
He spent some time in that convent of Fiesole which educated Fra
Angelico and others, ardent to revive in their generation the work of
St. Francis, which had suffered eclipse. Various reasons have been
given for this, chief among them being the pagan tendency of the
Renaissance teaching, and also the frequent visitations of plague,
which seem almost to have emptied the convents, sweeping off the monks
and nuns who gave up their lives to tend the sick in hospitals. In
most of the Italian states and cities the descendants of devout
Christians had become fierce and brutal, as unrestrained in appetite
as they were murderous and lawless in deeds. Some of these have
already been narrated. Princes and nobles strove to surpass the
citizens in evil-doing by the hideous tragedies they enacted. This had
been especially the case for many years in Perugia, whose inhabitants
had come to be designated by the epithet "ferocious": they were so
given up to every sort of crime.
Bernardino was deeply stirred by the evil report that reached him from
all parts of the country; he had already been received into the Minor
Conventual Order of San Francis, and had signalised his courage by
nursing and ministering to the plague-stricken inmates of the hospital
in Siena. This had injured his health, but he gladly obeyed the
commission given by his superior, to journey through a certain part of
Italy, preaching as he went.
Already the evangelising movement was in the air: in France, a
Spaniard, San Vincent Ferrier, had reaped a bountiful harvest of
souls. Bernardino determined by God's help to evangelise his country,
and to rescue souls from evil by the winning power of love. He decided
to begin his crusade in Umbria, in the powerful city of Perugia, so
notorious for the crimes of its bloodstained nobles and the frivolity
and vanity of their women.
Bernardino lodged in a convent outside the city gate, and went every
morning to preach in the Piazza Pubblico. Crowds had flocked to hear
his first sermon, but he had a consciousness that this was mere
excitement, and that the souls of his listeners were yet to be won.
One day he told his congregation that he proposed before long to show
them the Evil One. This announcement sent the multitude crazy with
excitement; the throngs of his listeners were doubled. But for some
days after Bernardino preached only in an ordinary fashion.
Still the people believed he would keep faith with them, and each day
brought a larger crowd of expectant listeners. At last, one morning,
Bernardino said, "I am now going to fulfil my promise; I will show you
not one devil only, for there are several here." Then, raising his
voice, "Look at one another, you will each see Satan in your
neighbour's face; every one of you does that Evil One's bidding." He
then pointed out seriously, and with much pathos, the sins that
reigned among them, and implored his hearers to renounce their evil
practices. The effect of his words was wonder-striking. Families who
had lived in hatred of their fellow-citizens for more than a
generation, hurried forward, and, clasping the hands of their
once-detested foes, begged forgiveness for wrongs committed; in more
than one instance, with halters round their necks, they besought
pardon for the evil they had wrought. Bernardino saw that the devotion
of the city was roused, and, turning to the women, he commanded them
to cause two huge fires to be lighted on the Piazza.
"Set a pattern to your men," he exclaimed; "prove the reality of your
penitence; cast into the flames the gauds by which Satan tempts you to
ensnare mankind to their ruin; bring hither your cosmetics, your
perfumes, your false tresses, and the garlands with which you deck
them, your sumptuous robes, all the vanities you possess, and cast
them into the flames."
Sobbing and weeping, the women rushed off to obey him; they soon
returned laden with the vanities denounced by the preacher, and, like
the Florentines many years later, they cast their prized adornments
into the huge fires.
An old chronicler relates that one noble dame cherished a long false
tress of singular beauty, which had always commanded admiration; she
felt that this would prove a worthy offering. Taking it from its
casket, she was about to hurry with it to the Piazza; she again
looked at it.
No, she could not make the sacrifice, the tress was too lustrous, too
lovely; more than all, it became her so rarely. Her heart failed her.
She put it back in the casket, with a smile of contempt at her own
superstition; she was closing the lid, when suddenly the beauteous
tress sprang up and struck her violently on the cheekbone. She cried
out with pain and terror; then, forcing the temptation into the casket
and closing the lid, she fled back to the Piazza, and flung the
treasured lock into the flames.
For a while after this famous preaching, peace and devotion returned
to the hill-city; then came sad outbreaks and dissensions, and
Bernardino, hearing the disturbing news, returned to Perugia. He
exhorted his former penitents to seek after the grace and the love
which had once been granted them, and at the close of the year 1425 he
once more left them in peace one with another; while he went to
preach elsewhere in Umbria, and finally to Gubbio, to Viterbo, and to
Orvieto.
Two years later, when preaching in Siena, he held up the conversion of
the people of Perugia as an example to be followed by the Sienese.