great works, he was summoned in the year 1267, by Pope Clement IV, to
Viterbo, where, besides many other works, he restored the Church and
Convent of the Preaching Friars. From Viterbo he went to Naples to King
Charles I, who, having routed and slain Conradin on the plain of
Tagliacozzo, caused to be made on that spot a very rich church and
abbey, burying therein the infinite number of bodies slain on that day,
and ordaining afterwards that there should be prayers offered by many
monks, day and night, for their souls; in which building King Charles
was so well pleased with the work of Niccola that he honoured and
rewarded him very greatly. Returning from Naples to Tuscany, Niccola
stayed in Orvieto for the building of S. Maria, and working there in
company with some Germans, he made in marble, for the facade of that
church, certain figures in the round, and in particular two scenes of
the Universal Judgment containing Paradise and Hell; and even as he
strove, in the Paradise, to give the greatest beauty that he knew to the
souls of the blessed, restored to their bodies, so too in the Hell he
made the strangest forms of devils that can possibly be seen, most
intent on tormenting the souls of the damned; and in this work he
surpassed not merely the Germans who were working there but even his own
self, to his own great credit. And for the reason that he made therein a
great number of figures and endured much fatigue, it has been nothing
but praised up to our own times by those who have had no more judgment
than this much in sculpture.
Niccola had, among others, a son called Giovanni, who, because he ever
followed his father and applied himself under his teaching to sculpture
and to architecture, in a few years became not only equal to his father
but in some ways superior; wherefore Niccola, being now old, retired to
Pisa, and living there quietly left the management of everything to his
son. Pope Urban IV having died at that time in Perugia, a summons was
sent to Giovanni, who, having gone there, made a tomb of marble for that
Pontiff, which, together with that of Pope Martin IV, was afterwards
thrown to the ground when the people of Perugia enlarged their
Vescovado, in a manner that there are seen only a few relics of it
scattered throughout the church. And the people of Perugia, at the same
time, having brought a very great body of water through leaden pipes
from the hill of Pacciano, two miles distant from the city, by means of
the genius and industry of a friar of the Silvestrines, it was given to
Giovanni Pisano to make all the ornaments of the fountain, both in
bronze and in marble; wherefore he put his hand thereto and made three
tiers of basins, two of marble and one of bronze. The first is placed
above twelve rows of steps, each with twelve sides; the other on some
columns that stand on the lowest level of the first basin--that is, in
the middle; and the third, which is of bronze, rests on three figures,
and has in the middle certain griffins, also of bronze, that pour water
on every side; and because it appeared to Giovanni that he had done very
well in this work, he put on it his name. About the year 1560, the
arches and the conduits of this fountain (which cost 160,000 ducats of
gold) having become in great part spoilt and ruined, Vincenzio Danti, a
sculptor of Perugia, without rebuilding the arches, which would have
been a thing of the greatest cost, very ingeniously reconducted the
water to the fountain in the way that it was before, with no small
credit to himself.
This work finished, Giovanni, desiring to see again his old and ailing
father, departed from Perugia in order to return to Pisa; but, passing
through Florence, he was forced to stay, to the end that he might apply
himself, together with others, to the work of the Mills on the Arno,
which were being made at S. Gregorio near the Piazza de' Mozzi. But
finally, having had news that his father Niccola was dead, he went to
Pisa, where, by reason of his worth, he was received by the whole city
with great honour, every man rejoicing that after the loss of Niccola
there still remained Giovanni, as heir both of his talents and of his
wealth. And the occasion having come of making proof of him, their
opinion was in no way disappointed, because, there being certain things
to do in the small but most ornate Church of S. Maria della Spina, they
were given to Giovanni to do, and he, putting his hand thereunto, with
the help of some of his boys brought many ornaments in that oratory to
that perfection that is seen to-day; which work, in so far as we can
judge, must have been held miraculous in those times, and all the more
that he made in one figure the portrait of Niccola from nature, as best
he knew.
Seeing this, the Pisans, who long before had had the idea and the wish
to make a place of burial for all the inhabitants of the city, both
noble and plebeian, either in order not to fill the Duomo with graves or
for some other reason, caused Giovanni to make the edifice of the Campo
Santo, which is on the Piazza del Duomo, towards the walls; wherefore
he, with good design and with much judgment, made it in that manner and
with those ornaments of marble and of that size which are to be seen;
and because there was no consideration of expense, the roof was made of
lead. And outside the principal door there are seen these words carved
in marble:
A.D. MCCLXXVIII. TEMPORE DOMINI FREDERIGI ARCHIEPISCOPI PISANI, ET
DOMINI TARLATI POTESTATIS, OPERARIO ORLANDO SARDELLA, JOHANNE
MAGISTRO AEDIFICANTE.
This work finished, in the same year, 1283, Giovanni went to Naples,
where, for King Charles, he made the Castel Nuovo of Naples; and in
order to have room and to make it stronger, he was forced to pull down
many houses and churches, and in particular a convent of Friars of S.
Francis, which was afterwards rebuilt no little larger and more
magnificent than it was before, far from the castle and under the title
of S. Maria della Nuova. These buildings being begun and considerably
advanced, Giovanni departed from Naples, in order to return to Tuscany;
but arriving at Siena, without being allowed to go on farther he was
caused to make the model of the facade of the Duomo of that city, and
afterwards the said facade was made very rich and magnificent from this
model. Next, in the year 1286, when the Vescovado of Arezzo was
building with the design of Margaritone, architect of Arezzo, Giovanni
was brought from Siena to Arezzo by Guglielmino Ubertini, Bishop of that
city, where he made in marble the panel of the high-altar, all filled
with carvings of figures, of foliage, and other ornaments, distributing
throughout the whole work certain things in delicate mosaic, and enamels
laid on plates of silver, let into the marble with much diligence. In
the middle is a Madonna with the Child in her arms, and on one side S.
Gregory the Pope, whose face is the portrait from life of Pope Honorius
IV; and on the other side is S. Donatus, Bishop and Protector of that
city, whose body, with those of S. Antilla and of other Saints, is laid
under that same altar. And because the said altar stands out by itself,
round it and on the sides there are small scenes in low-relief from the
life of S. Donatus, and the crown of the whole work are certain
tabernacles full of marble figures in the round, wrought with much
subtlety. On the breast of the said Madonna is a bezel-shaped setting of
gold, wherein, so it is said, were jewels of much value, which have been
carried away in the wars, so it is thought, by soldiers, who have no
respect, very often, even for the most holy Sacrament, together with
some little figures in the round that were on the top of and around that
work; on which the Aretines spent altogether, according to what is found
in certain records, 30,000 florins of gold. Nor does this seem anything
great, seeing that at that time it was something as precious and rare as
it could well be; wherefore Frederick Barbarossa, returning from Rome,
where he had been crowned, and passing through Arezzo, many years after
it had been made, praised it, nay, admired it infinitely; and in truth
with great reason, seeing that, besides everything else, the joinings of
this work, made of innumerable pieces, are cemented and put together so
well that the whole work is easily judged, by anyone who has not much
practice in the matters of the art, to be all of one piece. In the same
church Giovanni made the Chapel of the Ubertini, a most noble family,
and lords of castles, as they still are to-day and were formerly even
more; with many ornaments of marble, which to-day have been covered over
with other ornaments of grey-stone, many and fine, which were set up in
that place with the design of Giorgio Vasari in the year 1535, for
the supporting of an organ of extraordinary excellence and beauty that
stands thereon.
[Illustration: _Lombardi_
A SYBIL
(_Detail, after_ Giovanni Pisano, _from the facade of the Duomo,
Siena_)]
Giovanni Pisano likewise made the design of the Church of S. Maria de'
Servi, which to-day has been destroyed, together with many palaces of
the most noble families of the city, for the reasons mentioned above. I
will not forbear to say that Giovanni made use, in working on the said
marble altar, of certain Germans who had apprenticed themselves to him
rather for learning than for gain; and under his teaching they became
such that, having gone after this work to Rome, they served Boniface
VIII in many works of sculpture for S. Pietro, and in architecture when
he made Civita Castellana. Besides this, they were sent by the same man
to S. Maria in Orvieto, where, for its facade, they made many figures in
marble which were passing good for those times. But among others who
assisted Giovanni in the work of the Vescovado in Arezzo, Agostino and
Agnolo, sculptors and architects of Siena, surpassed in time all the
others, as will be told in the proper place. But returning to Giovanni;
having departed from Orvieto, he came to Florence, in order to see the
fabric of S. Maria del Fiore that Arnolfo was making, and likewise to
see Giotto, of whom he had heard great things spoken abroad; and no
sooner had he arrived in Florence than he was charged by the Wardens of
the said fabric of S. Maria del Fiore to make the Madonna which is over
that door of the church that leads to the Canon's house, between two
little angels; which work was then much praised. Next, he made the
little baptismal font of S. Giovanni, wherein are certain scenes in
half-relief from the life of that Saint. Having then gone to Bologna, he
directed the building of the principal chapel of the Church of S.
Domenico, wherein he was charged by Bishop Teodorigo Borgognoni of
Lucca, a friar of that Order, to make an altar of marble; and in the
same place he afterwards made, in the year 1298, the marble panel
wherein are the Madonna and eight other figures, reasonably good.
In the year 1300, Niccola da Prato, Cardinal Legate of the Pope, being
in Florence in order to accommodate the dissensions of the Florentines,
caused him to make a convent for nuns in Prato, which is called S.
Niccola from his name, and to restore in the same territory the Convent
of S. Domenico, and so too that of Pistoia; in both the one and the
other of which there are still seen the arms of the said Cardinal. And
because the people of Pistoia held in veneration the name of Niccola,
father of Giovanni, by reason of that which he had wrought in that city
with his talent, they caused Giovanni himself to make a pulpit of marble
for the Church of S. Andrea, like to the one which he had made in the
Duomo of Siena; and this he did in order to compete with one which had
been made a little before in the Church of S. Giovanni Evangelista by a
German, who was therefore much praised. Giovanni, then, delivered his
finished in four years, having divided this work into five scenes from
the life of Jesus Christ, and having made therein, besides this, a
Universal Judgment, with the greatest diligence that he knew, in order
to equal or perchance to surpass the one of Orvieto, then so greatly
renowned. And round the said pulpit, on the architrave, over some
columns that support it, thinking (as was the truth, according to the
knowledge of that age) that he had done a great and beautiful work, he
carved these verses:
HOC OPUS SCULPSIT JOANNES, QUI RES NON EGIT INANES,
NICOLI NATUS ...... MELIORA BEATUS,
QUEM GENUIT PISA, DOCTUM SUPER OMNIA VISA.
At the same time Giovanni made the holy-water font, in marble, of the
Church of S. Giovanni Evangelista in the same city, with three figures
that support it--Temperance, Prudence, and Justice; which work, by
reason of its having then been held very beautiful, was placed in the
centre of that church as something remarkable. And before he departed
from Pistoia, although the work had not up to then been begun, he made
the model of the Campanile of S. Jacopo, the principal church of that
city; on which campanile, which is on the square of the said S. Jacopo
and beside the church, there is this date: A.D. 1301.
[Illustration: _Alinari_
THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS
(_Detail, after_ Giovanni Pisano, _from the Pulpit of the Church of S.
Andrea, Pistoia_)]
Afterwards, Pope Benedict IX having died in Perugia, a summons was sent
to Giovanni, who, having gone to Perugia, made a tomb of marble for that
Pontiff in the old Church of S. Domenico, belonging to the Preaching
Friars; the Pope, portrayed from nature and robed in his pontifical
habits, is lying at full length on the bier, with two angels, one on
either side, that are holding up a curtain, and above there is a Madonna
with two saints in relief, one on either side of her; and many other
ornaments are carved round that tomb. In like manner, in the new church
of the said Preaching Friars he made the tomb of Messer Niccolo
Guidalotti of Perugia, Bishop of Recanati, who was founder of the
Sapienza Nuova of Perugia. In this new church, which had been founded
before this by others, he executed the central nave, which was founded
by him with much better method than the remainder of the church had
been; for on one side it leans and threatens to fall down, by reason of
having been badly founded. And in truth, he who puts his hand to
building and to doing anything of importance should ever take counsel,
not from him who knows little but from the best, in order not to have to
repent after the act, with loss and shame, that where he most needed
good counsel he took the bad.
Giovanni, having dispatched his business in Perugia, wished to go to
Rome, in order to learn from those few ancient things that were to be
seen there, even as his father had done; but being hindered by good
reasons, this his desire did not take effect, and the rather as he heard
that the Court had just gone to Avignon. Returning, then, to Pisa, Nello
di Giovanni Falconi, Warden, caused him to make the great pulpit of the
Duomo, which is on the right hand going towards the high-altar, attached
to the choir; and having made a beginning with this and with many
figures in the round, three braccia high, that were to serve for it,
little by little he brought them to that form that is seen to-day,
placing the pulpit partly on the said figures and partly on some columns
sustained by lions; and on the sides he made some scenes from the life
of Christ. It is a pity, truly, that so great cost, so great diligence,
and so great labour should not have been accompanied by good design and
should be wanting in perfection and in excellence of invention, grace,
and manner, such as any work of our own times would show, even if made
with much less cost and labour. None the less, it must have caused no
small marvel to the men of those times, used to seeing only the rudest
works. This work was finished in the year 1320, as appears in certain
verses that are round the said pulpit, which run thus:
LAUDO DEUM VERUM, PER QUEM SUNT OPTIMA RERUM,
QUI DEDIT HAS PURAS HOMINEM FORMARE FIGURAS;
HOC OPUS HIS ANNIS DOMINI SCULPSERE JOHANNIS
ARTE MANUS SOLE QUONDAM, NATIQUE NICOLE,
CURSIS VENTENIS TERCENTUM MILLEQUE PLENIS;
with other thirteen verses, which are not written, in order not to weary
the reader, and because these are enough not only to bear witness that
the said pulpit is by the hand of Giovanni, but also that the men of
these times were in all things made thus. A Madonna of marble, also,
that is seen between S. John the Baptist and another Saint, over the
principal door of the Duomo, is by the hand of Giovanni; and he who is
at the feet of the Madonna, on his knees, is said to be Piero
Gambacorti, Warden of Works. However this may be, on the base whereon
stands the image of Our Lady there are carved these words:
SUB PETRI CURA HAEC PIA FUIT SCULPTA FIGURA,
NICOLI NATO SCULPTORE JOHANNE VOCATO.
In like manner, over the side door that is opposite the campanile, there
is a Madonna of marble by the hand of Giovanni, having on one side a
woman kneeling with two babies, representing Pisa, and on the other the
Emperor Henry. On the base whereon stands the Madonna are these words:
AVE GRATIA PLENA, DOMINUS TECUM;
and beside them:
NOBILIS ARTE MANUS SCULPSIT JOHANNES PISANUS
SCULPSIT SUB BURGUNDIO TADI BENIGNO....
And round the base of Pisa:
VIRGINIS ANCILLA SUM PISA QUIETA SUB ILLA.
And round the base of Henry:
IMPERAT HENRICUS QUI CHRISTO FERTUR AMICUS.
[Illustration: _Alinari_
MADONNA AND CHILD
(_After_ Giovanni Pisano. _Padua: Arena Chapel_)]
In the old Pieve of the territory of Prato, under the altar of the
principal chapel, there had been kept for many years the Girdle of Our
Lady, which Michele da Prato, returning from the Holy Land, had brought
to his country in the year 1141 and consigned to Uberto, Provost of that
church, who placed it where it has been said, and where it had been ever
held in great veneration; and in the year 1312 an attempt was made to
steal it by a man of Prato, a fellow of the basest sort, and as it were,
another Ser Ciappelletto; but having been discovered, he was put to
death for sacrilege by the hand of justice. Moved by this, the people of
Prato determined to make a strong and suitable resting-place, in order
to hold the said Girdle more securely; wherefore, having summoned
Giovanni, who was now old, they made with his counsel, in the greater
church, the chapel wherein there is now preserved the said Girdle of Our
Lady. And next, with the same man's design, they made the said church
much larger than it was before, and encrusted it without with white and
black marbles, and likewise the campanile, as may be seen. Finally,
being now very old, Giovanni died in the year 1320, after having made,
besides those that have been mentioned, many other works in sculpture
and in architecture. And in truth there is much owed to him and to his
father Niccola, seeing that, in times void of all goodness of design,
they gave in so great darkness no small light to the matters of these
arts, wherein they were, for that age, truly excellent. Giovanni was
buried in the Campo Santo, with great honour, in the same grave wherein
had been laid Niccola, his father. There were as disciples of Giovanni
many who flourished after him, but in particular Lino, sculptor and
architect of Siena, who made in the Duomo of Pisa the chapel all adorned
with marble wherein is the body of S. Ranieri, and likewise the
baptismal font that is in the said Duomo, with his name.
Nor let anyone marvel that Niccola and Giovanni did so many works,
because, not to mention that they lived very long, being the first
masters that were in Europe at that time, there was nothing done of any
importance in which they did not have a hand, as can be seen in many
inscriptions besides those that have been mentioned. And seeing that,
while touching on these two sculptors and architects, there has been
something said of matters in Pisa, I will not forbear to say that on the
top of the steps in front of the new hospital, round the base that
supports a lion and the vase that rests on the porphyry column, are
these words:
THIS IS THE MEASURE WHICH THE EMPEROR CAESAR GAVE TO PISA,
WHEREWITH THERE WAS MEASURED THE TRIBUTE THAT WAS PAID TO HIM;
WHICH HAS BEEN SET UP OVER THIS COLUMN AND LION, IN THE TIME OF
GIOVANNI ROSSO, WARDEN OF THE WORKS OF S. MARIA MAGGIORE IN PISA,
A.D. MCCCXIII., IN THE SECOND INDICTION, IN MARCH.
ANDREA TAFI
LIFE OF ANDREA TAFI,
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Even as the works of Cimabue awakened no small marvel (he having given
better design and form to the art of painting) in the men of those
times, used to seeing nothing save works done after the Greek manner,
even so the works in mosaic of Andrea Tafi, who lived in the same times,
were admired, and he thereby held excellent, nay, divine; these people
not thinking, being unused to see anything else, that better work could
be done in such an art. But not being in truth the most able man in the
world, and having considered that mosaic, by reason of its long life,
was held in estimation more than all the other forms of painting, he
went from Florence to Venice, where some Greek painters were working in
S. Marco in mosaic; and becoming intimate with them, with entreaties,
with money, and with promises he contrived in such a manner that he
brought to Florence Maestro Apollonio, a Greek painter, who taught him
to fuse the glass for mosaic and to make the cement for putting it
together; and in his company he wrought the upper part of the tribune of
S. Giovanni, where there are the Powers, the Thrones, and the Dominions;
in which place Andrea, when more practised, afterwards made, as will be
said below, the Christ that is over the side of the principal chapel.
But having made mention of S. Giovanni, I will not pass by in silence
that this ancient temple is all wrought, both without and within, with
marbles of the Corinthian Order, and that it is not only designed and
executed perfectly in all its parts and with all its proportions, but
also very well adorned with doors and with windows, and enriched with
two columns of granite on each wall-face, each eleven braccia high, in
order to make the three spaces over which are the architraves, that rest
on the said columns in order to support the whole mass of the double
vaulted roof, which has been praised by modern architects as something
remarkable, and deservedly, for the reason that it showed the good which
that art already had in itself to Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, to
Donatello, and to the other masters of those times, who learnt the art
by means of this work and of the Church of S. Apostolo in Florence, a
work so good in manner that it casts back to the true ancient goodness,
having all the columns in sections, as it has been said above, measured
and put together with so great diligence that much can be learnt by
studying it in all its parts. But to be silent about many things that
could be said about the good architecture of this church, I will say
only that there was a great departure from this example and from this
good method of working when the facade of S. Miniato sul Monte without
Florence was rebuilt in marble, in honour of the conversion of the
Blessed S. Giovanni Gualberto, citizen of Florence and founder of the
Order of the Monks of Vallombrosa; because that and many other works
that were made later were in no way similar in beauty to those
mentioned. The same, in like manner, came to pass in the works of
sculpture, for all those that were made in Italy by the masters of that
age, as has been said in the Preface to the Lives, were very rude, as
can be seen in many places, and in particular in S. Bartolommeo at
Pistoia, a church of the Canons Regular, where, in a pulpit very rudely
made by Guido da Como, there is the beginning of the life of Jesus
Christ, with these words carved thereon by the craftsman himself in the
year 1199:
SCULPTOR LAUDATUR, QUOD DOCTUS IN ARTE PROBATUR,
GUIDO DE COMO ME CUNCTIS CARMINE PROMO.
But to return to the Church of S. Giovanni; forbearing to relate its
origin, by reason of its having been described by Giovanni Villani and
by other writers, and having already said that from this church there
came the good architecture that is to-day in use, I will add that the
tribune was made later, so far as it is known, and that at the time when
Alesso Baldovinetti, succeeding Lippo, a painter of Florence, restored
those mosaics, it was seen that it had been in the past painted with
designs in red, and all worked on stucco.