not been contrasted the greatness of Giotto, his disciple, his fame
would have been greater, as Dante demonstrates in his _Commedia_,
wherein, alluding in the eleventh canto of the _Purgatorio_ to this very
inscription on the tomb, he said:
Credette Cimabue nella pittura
Tener lo campo, ed hora ha Giotto il grido,
Si che la fama di colui s' oscura.
In explanation of these verses, a commentator of Dante, who wrote at the
time when Giotto was alive and ten or twelve years after the death of
Dante himself--that is, about the year of Christ 1334--says, speaking of
Cimabue, precisely these words: "Cimabue was a painter of Florence in
the time of the author, very noble beyond the knowledge of man, and
withal so arrogant and so disdainful that if there were found by anyone
any failing or defect in his work, or if he himself had seen one (even
as it comes to pass many times that the craftsman errs, through a defect
in the material whereon he works, or through some lack in the instrument
wherewith he labours), incontinently he would destroy that work, however
costly it might be. Giotto was and is the most exalted among the
painters of the same city of Florence, and his works bear testimony for
him in Rome, in Naples, in Avignon, in Florence, in Padua, and in many
parts of the world." This commentary is now in the hands of the Very
Reverend Don Vincenzio Borghini, Prior of the Innocenti, a man not only
most famous for his nobility, goodness, and learning, but also endowed
with such love and understanding for all the finer arts that he has
deserved to be elected by the Lord Duke Cosimo, most properly, as his
Lieutenant in our Academy of Design.
But to return to Cimabue: Giotto, truly, obscured his fame not otherwise
than as a great light does the splendour of one much less, for the
reason that although Cimabue was, as it were, the first cause of the
renovation of the art of painting, yet Giotto, his pupil, moved by
laudable ambition and assisted by Heaven and by nature, was he who,
rising higher with his thought, opened the gate of truth to those who
have brought her to that perfection and majesty wherein we see her in
her own century, which, being used to see every day the marvels, the
miracles, nay, the impossibilities wrought by the craftsmen in that art,
is now brought to such a pitch that nothing that men do, be it even more
Divine than human, causes it in any way to marvel. Well is it with those
whose labours deserve all praise, if, in place of being praised and
admired, they do not thereby incur blame and many times even disgrace.
The portrait of Cimabue, by the hand of Simone Sanese, is to be seen in
the Chapter-house of S. Maria Novella, made in profile in the story of
the Faith, in a figure that has the face thin, the beard small, reddish,
and pointed, with a cap according to the use of those times--that is,
wound round and round and under the throat in lovely fashion. He who is
beside him is Simone himself, the author of that work, who portrayed
himself with two mirrors in order to make his head in profile, placing
the one opposite to the other. And that soldier clad in armour who is
between them is said to be Count Guido Novello, then Lord of Poppi.
There remains for me to say of Cimabue that in the beginning of our
book, where I have put together drawings from the own hand of all those
who have made drawings from his time to ours, there are to be seen
certain small things made by his hand in the way of miniature, wherein,
although to-day perchance they appear rather rude than otherwise, it is
seen how much excellence was given by his work to draughtsmanship.
[Illustration: CIMABUE: MADONNA AND CHILD
(_Florence: Accademia 102 Panel_)]
ARNOLFO DI LAPO
LIFE OF ARNOLFO DI LAPO,
ARCHITECT OF FLORENCE
[NOTICE TO READERS IN THE LIFE OF ARNOLFO.--The said Arnolfo began,
in S. Maria Maggiore in Rome, the tomb of Pope Honorius III, of the
house of Savelli; which tomb he left imperfect, with the portrait
of the said Pope, which was afterwards placed with his design in
the principal chapel of mosaic of S. Paolo in Rome, with the
portrait of Giovanni Gaetano, Abbot of that monastery. And the
marble chapel, wherein is the Manger of Jesus Christ, was one of
the last pieces of sculpture in marble that Arnolfo ever made; and
he made it at the instance of Pandolfo Ippotecorvo, in the year
twelve (?), as an epitaph bears witness that is on the wall beside
the chapel; and likewise the chapel and tomb of Pope Boniface VIII,
in S. Pietro in Rome, whereon is carved the same name of Arnolfo,
who wrought it.]
Having discoursed, in the Preface to the Lives, of certain buildings in
a manner old but not ancient, and having been silent, for the reason
that I did not know them, about the names of the architects who had
charge of their construction, I will make mention, in the Preface to
this Life of Arnolfo, of certain other edifices built in his time or a
little before, whereof in like manner it is not known who were the
masters; and then of those that were built in the same times, whereof it
is known who were the architects, either because the manner of the
edifices themselves is recognized very well, or because we have had
information about them by means of the writings and memorials left by
them in the works that they made. Nor will this be outside our subject,
seeing that, although they are neither in a beautiful nor in a good
manner but only vast and magnificent, they are worthy none the less of
some consideration.
There were built, then, in the time of Lapo and of Arnolfo his son, many
edifices of importance both in Italy and abroad, whereof I have not been
able to find the architects, such as the Abbey of Monreale in Sicily,
the Piscopio of Naples, the Certosa of Pavia, the Duomo of Milan, S.
Pietro and S. Petronio in Bologna, and many others which are seen
throughout all Italy, built at incredible cost. Having seen all these
buildings for myself and studied them, and likewise many sculptures of
those times, particularly in Ravenna, and not having ever found, I do
not say any memorials of the masters, but even many times the date when
they were built, I cannot but marvel at the rudeness and little desire
for glory of the men of that age. But returning to our subject; after
the buildings named above, there began at last to arise men of a more
exalted spirit, who, if they did not find, sought at least to find
something of the good. The first was Buono, of whom I know neither the
country nor the surname, for the reason that in making record of himself
in some of his works he put nothing but simply his name. He, being both
sculptor and architect, first made many palaces and churches and some
sculptures in Ravenna, in the year of our salvation 1152; and having
become known by reason of these works, he was called to Naples, where he
founded (although they were finished by others, as will be told) the
Castel Capoano and the Castel dell' Uovo; and afterwards, in the time of
Domenico Morosini, Doge of Venice, he founded the Campanile of S. Marco
with much consideration and judgment, having caused the foundation of
that tower to be so well fixed with piles that it has never moved a
hair's-breadth, as many buildings constructed in that city before his
day have been seen and still are seen to have done. And from him,
perchance, the Venetians learnt to found, in the manner in which they do
it to-day, the very beautiful and very rich edifices that every day are
being built so magnificently in that most noble city. It is true,
indeed, that this tower has nothing else good in it, neither manner, nor
ornament, nor, in short, anything that might be worthy of much praise.
It was finished under Anastasius IV and Adrian IV, Pontiffs, in the year
1154. In architecture, likewise, Buono made the Church of S. Andrea in
Pistoia, and in sculpture he made an architrave of marble that is over
the door, full of figures made in the manner of the Goths, on which
architrave his name is carved, with the date when this work was made by
him, which was the year 1166. Next, being summoned to Florence, he gave
the design for enlarging, as was done, the Church of S. Maria Maggiore,
which was then without the city, and held in great veneration for the
reason that Pope Pelagius had consecrated it many years before, and
because, as to size and manner, it was a very fair body of a church.
Being then summoned by the Aretines to their city, Buono built the old
habitation of the Lords of Arezzo, namely, a palace in the manner of the
Goths, and beside it a bell-tower. This edifice, which for that manner
was good enough, was thrown to the ground, because it was opposite and
very near to the fortress of that city, in the year 1533. Afterwards,
the art making some little improvement through the works of one
Guglielmo, German (I believe) in origin, there were built certain
edifices of the greatest cost and in a slightly better manner; for this
Guglielmo, so it is said, in the year 1174, together with Bonanno, a
sculptor, founded in Pisa the Campanile of the Duomo, where there are
certain words carved that say: A.D. MCLXXIV, CAMPANILE HOC FUIT
FUNDATUM, MENSE AUG. But these two architects not having much practice
of founding in Pisa and therefore not supporting the platform with
piles, as they ought, before they had gone halfway with that building it
inclined to one side and bent over to the weakest part, in a manner that
the said campanile leans six and a half braccia[6] out of the straight,
according as the foundation sank on this side; and although in the lower
part this is not much, up above it shows clear enough to make men stand
fast in a marvel how it can be that it has not fallen down and has not
thrown out cracks. The reason is that this edifice is round both without
and within and built in the shape of a hollow well, and bound together
with the stones in a manner that it is well-nigh impossible that it
should fall; and it is assisted, above all, by the foundations, which
have an outwork three braccia wide outside the tower, made, as it is
seen, after the sinking of the campanile, in order to support it. I am
convinced that if it had been square it would not have been standing
to-day, for the reason that the corner-stones of the square sides, as is
often seen to happen, would have forced them out in a manner that it
would have fallen down. And if the Garisenda, a tower in Bologna,
although square, leans and does not fall, that comes to pass because it
is slender and does not lean so much, not being burdened by so great a
weight, by a great measure, as is this campanile, which is praised, not
because it has in it any design or beautiful manner, but simply for its
extravagance, it appearing impossible to anyone who sees it that it can
in any wise keep standing. And the same Bonanno, while the said
campanile was building, made, in the year 1180, the royal door of bronze
for the said Duomo of Pisa, wherein are seen these letters:
EGO BONANNUS PIS. MEA ARTE HANC PORTAM UNO ANNO PERFECI,
TEMPORE BENEDICTI OPERARII.
Next, from the walls that were made from ancient spoils at S. Giovanni
Laterano in Rome, under Lucius III and Urban III, Pontiffs, when the
Emperor Frederick was crowned by this Urban, it is seen that the art was
going on continually improving, because certain little temples and
chapels, built, as has been said, of spoils, have passing good design
and certain things in them worthy of consideration, and among others
this, that in order not to overburden the walls of these buildings the
vaulting was made of small tubes and with partitions of stucco,
praiseworthy enough for these times. And from the mouldings and other
parts it is seen that the craftsmen were going on striving in order to
find the good way.
Innocent III afterwards caused two palaces to be built on the Vatican
Hill, which were passing good, in so far as it has been possible to
discover; but since they were destroyed by other Popes, and in
particular by Nicholas V, who pulled down and rebuilt the greater part
of one palace, there will be nothing said of them but this, that a part
of them is to be seen in the great Round Tower and part in the old
sacristy of S. Pietro. This Innocent III, who ruled for nineteen years
and took much delight in building, made many edifices in Rome; and in
particular, with the design of Marchionne Aretino, both architect and
sculptor, the Conti Tower, so called from his own surname, seeing that
he was of that family. The same Marchionne, in the year when Innocent
III died, finished the building of the Pieve of Arezzo and likewise the
campanile, making in sculpture, for the facade of the said church, three
rows of columns one above the other, with great variety not only in the
fashion of the capitals and the bases but also in the shafts of the
columns, some among them being thick, some slender, some joined together
two by two, and others four by four. In like manner there are some
twined in the manner of vines, and some made in the shape of figures
acting as supports, with diverse carvings. He also made therein many
animals of diverse sorts that support on the middle of their backs the
weights of those columns, and all with the most strange and extravagant
inventions that can possibly be imagined, and not only wide of the good
order of the ancients but almost wide of all just and reasonable
proportion. But with all this, whosoever sets out well to consider the
whole sees that he went on striving to do well, and thought peradventure
to have found it in that method of working and in that whimsical
variety. The same man made in sculpture, on the arch that is over the
door of the said church, in barbaric manner, a God the Father with
certain angels, in half-relief and rather large; and in the arch he
carved the twelve months, placing his own name underneath in round
letters, as was the custom, and the date--namely, the year 1216. It is
said that Marchionne built in the Borgo Vecchio in Rome, for the same
Pope Innocent III, the ancient edifice of the Hospital and Church of S.
Spirito in Sassia, where there is still seen something of the old; and
the ancient church was still standing in our own day, when it was
rebuilt in modern fashion, with greater ornament and design, by Pope
Paul III of the house of Farnese.
And in S. Maria Maggiore, also in Rome, he built the marble chapel where
there is the Manger of Jesus Christ; here he portrayed from the life
Pope Honorius III, whose tomb, also, he made, with ornaments some little
better than and different enough from the manner that was then in
universal use throughout all Italy. About the same time Marchionne also
made the side door of S. Pietro in Bologna, which was truly for those
times a work of the greatest mastery, by reason of the many carvings
that are seen therein, such as lions in the round that sustain columns,
and men in the use of porters, and other animals that support weights;
and in the arch above he made the twelve months in full relief, with
various fancies, and for each month its celestial sign; which work must
have been held marvellous in those times.
[Illustration: RECLINING FEMALE FIGURE FROM A TOMB
(_After the_ School of Arnolfo di Lapo. _Florence: Collection Bardini_)]
About the same time there was founded the Order of the Friars Minor of
S. Francis, which was confirmed by the said Innocent III, Pontiff, in
the year 1206; and there came such growth, not only in Italy but in all
the other parts of the world, both to the devoutness and to the number
of the Friars, that there was scarce a city of account that did not
erect for them churches and convents of the greatest cost, each
according to its power. Wherefore, Frate Elia having erected, two years
before the death of S. Francis (while the Saint himself, as General, was
abroad preaching, and he, Prior in Assisi), a church with the title of
Our Lady, and S. Francis having died, and all Christendom flocking
together to visit the body of the Saint, who, in life and in death, had
been known as so much the friend of God, and every man making offering
to the holy place according to his power, it was ordained that the said
church begun by Frate Elia should be built much greater and more
magnificent. But there being a dearth of good architects, and the work
which was to be done having need of an excellent one, seeing that it had
to be built upon a very high hill at the foot of which there runs a
torrent called Tescio, there was brought to Assisi, after much
consideration, as the best of all that were then to be found, one
Maestro Jacopo Tedesco. He, having considered the site and grasped the
wishes of the fathers, who held thereunto a general Chapter in Assisi,
designed a very beautiful body of a church and convent, making in the
model three tiers, one to be made underground and the others for two
churches, one of which, on the lower level, should serve as a court,
with a fairly large portico round it, and the other for a church;
planning that from the first one should climb to the second by a most
convenient flight of steps, which should wind round the principal
chapel, opening out into two parts in order to lead more easily into the
second church, to which he gave the form of a [Symbol: T], making it
five times as long as it is broad and dividing one bay from another with
great piers of stone, on which he afterwards threw very bold arches,
with groined vaulting between one and another. From a model so made,
then, was built this truly very great edifice, and it was followed in
every part, save in the buttresses above that had to surround the apse
and the principal chapel, and in making the vaulting groined, because
they did not make it as has been said, but barrel-shaped, in order that
it might be stronger. Next, in front of the principal chapel of the
lower church, they placed the altar, and under that, when it was
finished, they laid, with most solemn translation, the body of S.
Francis. And because the true sepulchre which holds the body of the
glorious Saint is in the first--that is, in the lowest church--where no
one ever goes, and the doors are walled up, round the said altar there
are very large gratings of iron, with rich ornaments in marble and
mosaic, that look down therein. This building is flanked on one of the
sides by two sacristies, and by a very high campanile, namely, five
times as high as it is broad. It had on top a very high octagonal spire,
but this was removed because it threatened to fall. This whole work was
brought to a finish in the space of four years, and no more, by the
genius of Maestro Jacopo Tedesco and by the solicitude of Frate Elia,
after whose death, to the end that such a pile might never through any
lapse of time fall into ruin, there were built round the lower church
twelve very stout towers, and in each of these a spiral staircase that
climbs from the ground up to the summit. And in time, afterwards, there
were made therein many chapels and other very rich ornaments, whereof
there is no need to discourse further, since this is enough on this
subject for the present, and above all because everyone can see how much
of the useful, the ornamental, and the beautiful has been added to this
beginning of Maestro Jacopo's by many supreme Pontiffs, Cardinals,
Princes, and other people of importance throughout all Europe.
Now, to return to Maestro Jacopo; by means of this work he acquired so
great fame throughout all Italy that he was summoned by those who then
governed the city of Florence, and afterwards received with the greatest
possible friendliness; although, according to the use that the
Florentines have, and had still more in ancient times, of abbreviating
names, he was called not Jacopo but Lapo throughout all the course of
his life; for he dwelt ever with his whole family in that city. And
although he went at diverse times to erect many buildings throughout
Tuscany, such as the Palace of Poppi in the Casentino, for that Count
who had had for wife the beautiful Gualdrada, and for her dower, the
Casentino; and for the Aretines, the Vescovado,[7] and the Palazzo
Vecchio of the Lords of Pietramala; none the less his home was always in
Florence, where, having founded in the year 1218 the piers of the Ponte
alla Carraja, which was then called the Ponte Nuovo, he delivered them
finished in two years; and a little time afterwards the rest was
finished of wood, as was then the custom. And in the year 1221 he gave
the design for the Church of S. Salvadore del Vescovado, which was begun
under his direction, and that of S. Michele in Piazza Padella, where
there are certain sculptures in the manner of those times. Next, having
given the design for draining the waters of the city, having caused the
Piazza di S. Giovanni to be raised, having built, in the time of Messer
Rubaconte da Mandella, a Milanese, the bridge that retains the same
man's name, and having discovered that most useful method of paving
streets, which before were covered with bricks, he made the model of the
Palace, to-day of the Podesta, which was then built for the Anziani. And
finally, having sent the model of a tomb to Sicily, to the Abbey of
Monreale, for the Emperor Frederick and by order of Manfred, he died,
leaving Arnolfo, his son, heir no less to the talent than to the wealth
of his father.
This Arnolfo, from whose talent architecture gained no less betterment
than painting had gained from that of Cimabue, being born in the year
1232, was thirty years of age when his father died, and was held in very
great esteem, for the reason that, having not only learnt from his
father all that he knew, but having also given attention under Cimabue
to design in order to make use of it in sculpture, he was held by so
much the best architect in Tuscany, that not only did the Florentines
found the last circle of the walls of their city under his direction, in
the year 1284, and make after his design the Loggia and the piers of Or
San Michele, where the grain was sold, building them of bricks and with
a simple roof above, but by his counsel, in the same year when the
Poggio de' Magnuoli collapsed, on the brow of S. Giorgio above S. Lucia
in the Via de' Bardi, they determined by means of a public decree that
there should be no more building on the said spot, nor should any
edifice be ever made, seeing that by the sinking of the stones, which
have water trickling under them, there would be always danger in
whatsoever edifice might be made there. That this is true has been seen
in our own day from the ruin of many buildings and magnificent houses of
noblemen. In the next year, 1285, he founded the Loggia and Piazza de'
Priori, and built the principal chapel of the Badia of Florence, and the
two that are on either side of it, renovating the church and the choir,
which at first had been made much smaller by Count Ugo, founder of that
abbey; and for Cardinal Giovanni degli Orsini, Legate of the Pope in
Tuscany, he built the campanile of the said church, which, according to
the works of those times, was much praised, although it did not have its
completion of grey-stone until afterwards, in the year 1330.