there were made between 1491 and 1496. The floor of the hall of the
Great Council in the Palazzo Vecchio was begun in 1496, and with other
works there went on till 1503. On October 1, 1502, he engaged to do the
choir of S. Agostino Perugia from Perugino's designs at 1120 florins of
40 bolognini each, but he did not work at it much at that time, since on
June 20, 1532, he made a fresh contract with the monks to continue and
complete the choir of their church. Adamo Rossi gives other curious
details about this work drawn from Perugian records, which are worth
noting. He says that in 1501 Bacciolo d'Agnolo, not having a good design
to show, agreed with the prior Federico di Giuliano in three months'
time to submit two different seats for the choir of S. Agostino, and
confessed to having received 50 broad ducats of gold as part of the
price of the choir and the two stalls mentioned. He also agreed to
return the money if he did not undertake the choir or did not finish it
according to contract. He presented them accordingly, and in 1502 the
contract was signed at 30 florins for each upper seat. Rossi also says
that he finds trace of another Baccio d'Agnolo in the collection of
wills of Pietro Paolo di Lodovico, under date June 11, 1529, and thinks
that the work was done by him. One Baccio was elected capo-maestro of
the Duomo in 1507 together with Giuliano and Antonio da San Gallo and il
Cronaca (Simone del Pollajuolo), and continued in that office until
1529.
Rossi also gives other interesting details about the making of various
pieces of joinery in Perugia and their makers, from which I extract the
following:--"In the refectory of S. Agostino two Sienese, Giovanni and
Cristoforo de'Minelli, worked in 1477. The cupboards in the sacristy of
S. Pietro in Casinense were made by Giusto di Francesco of Incisa and
Giovanni di Filippo da Fiesole in 1472. They were bought in Florence,
and are particularly fine and large in their treatment of flowers, &c.
The work was finished with the assistance of Mariotto di Mariotto of
Pesaro, three workmen coming from places at considerable distances from
each other, proving that they wandered about the country a good deal.
The lectern in the same church, which is well inlaid and finely carved,
was made by Battista the Bolognese, Ambrose the Frenchman, and Lorenzo.
The contract was between the abbot and Fra Damiano's brother, Maestro
Stefano di Antoniuolo de' Zambelli da Bergamo, and was for the whole
choir at 30 scudi for each seat, wood being provided. The lectern itself
cost 176 florins, and was finished in 1535. In the Sala del Cambio,
besides Domenico del Tasso's seats, there is a fine door which was made
by Antonio di Benciviene da Mercatello da Massa, for which he was paid
10 florins 93 soldi 6 denari. The orator's desk, the 'ringhiera,' was
made by Antonio di Antonio Masi, the Fleming, though often ascribed to
Mercatello. It was estimated by Eusebio del Bastone as worth 68 florins.
At Assisi the choir of the upper church, which is the most important in
all Italy for the number of its stalls, the mastery of its figure
intarsia, and the elegance of its form, was made by Domenico da S.
Severino, who agreed with the superiors on July 8, 1491, to make it for
770 ducats of gold. It was not finished till 1501, but no payments are
noted in the archives after November 18, 1498. In the lower church two
Sienese worked in 1420, and a Florentine from 1448 to 1471. The choir
of the Cathedral in the same city was made by Giovanni di Piergiacomo,
also of S. Severino, and there is sometimes confusion between the two
artists. The price was 57 florins. On one of the backs is carved the
date 1520. The most ancient piece of joinery in Perugia is that executed
for the Arte della Mercanzia in the 14th century."
[Illustration: Plate 28.--_Panel in Sacristy of S. Pietro in Casinense,
Perugia._
_To face page 46._]
Rossi prints a priced list of joiners' tools, dated November 8, 1496,
which is interesting as showing the small amount of tools and furniture
required in a joiner and intarsiatore's workshop at that period. It runs
thus:--
Bernardino di Lazzaro buys from Angelo di Maestro Jacopo, called
Boldrino, joiner, the underwritten tools and apparatus at the price
at which they were valued by Master Giovanni da Siena and Ercolano
di Gabriele of Perugia.
Florins. Soldi.
Two benches, 2 0
Four planes, 1 0
Two screw profiles, one broad and one narrow, 0 40
Two rules, 0 16
Four straight edges, one large and three small, 0 28
One outliner for tarsia, 0 8
Rods for making cornices, 0 12
A cross beam, 0 6
Two compasses, one large and one small, 0 12
Two rulers, 0 5
Four one-handed little planes, 0 16
One two-handed little plane, 0 8
Two broad planes, 0 12
Two hollow moulding planes, 0 12
Three pieces of unfinished tarsia, and one
with a wire drawing iron, 1 30
Two large squares and one "grafonetto" and
one little square, 0 8
Two old irons for making cornices, 0 8
Nine files, large and small, round and
straight, 0 30
Fifteen "gulfie," large and small, 0 24
Three chisels, one glued and one all of iron
and one "a tiro colla manacha de legusa
saietta," 0 7
One small hammer, 0 16
Two arm chairs, 0 8
A big "tenevello," 0 25
A little anvil, 0 20
A pair of big pincers, 0 32
Two little axes, 0 20
A two-handed axe, 0 25
A two-handed saw with a file, 0 60
A cutting saw, 0 25
Two stools, 0 16
Nine presses (clamps), 0 60
Two cupboards, 0 90
Five pieces of panels, two on the benches
and three outside, 0 20
Three pieces of tarsia frieze and two
pictures with a box without a lid, 1 0
A bench to put the tarsia on, 0 40
The words untranslated are, I suppose, Perugian words. At all events,
they do not appear in the large Italian dictionary edited by Tommaseo
and Bellini.
This Bernardino six years earlier worked as apprentice with Maestro
Mattia da Reggio, and was paid 6 florins 22 soldi for four months. His
name appears in the list of masters of stone and wood.
[Illustration: Plate 29.--_Panel from door of Sala del Cambio, Perugia._
_To face page 48._]
Frederic of Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, built himself a splendid palace
in that city between the years of 1468 and 1480, which cost 200,000
golden scudi. At that time a sack of corn cost rather less than five
modern Italian lire in the duchy, and a hectolitre of wine only one
franc sixty centimes, and one may gain some idea of the way in which
princes of liberal tastes lavished their money over the production of
works of art by comparing these figures. Among the decorations, which
include much stone carving of the most extraordinary finish, which in
the interior of the palace appears as fresh as the day it was completed,
were some splendidly inlaid doors, eight or nine of which still remain.
The palace was constructed upon the foundations of an older palace of
1350, much enlarged, and here he lived magnificently, and collected that
fine library which was subsequently removed to Rome, of which Vespasiano
da Bisticci, the Florentine bookseller, who had a good deal to do with
it, says that it was the most perfect that he knew, for in others there
were either gaps or duplicates, from which defects it was free.
Castiglione's "Cortigiano," the ideal of a courtier in those days,
describes the Court of Urbino as it was under Guidobaldo, his son and
successor. Among the decorations of the palace which still remain is the
panelling of a small studio on the _piano nobile_, close to the tiny
chapel, which is entirely surrounded by intarsia of the finest
description, which represents in the lower part a seat something like
the misereres of choir stalls surrounding the apartment, some parts of
which are raised and some lowered. In the spaces rest some portions of
the duke's arms, a sword, a mace, &c., leaning in the corners, and on
the lower parts of the seat are musical instruments, fruits and
sweetmeats in dishes, cushions, books, &c. The upper panels show
cupboards with doors partly open, showing all sorts of things within in
the usual fashion, and there are four figure panels inserted at
intervals containing the portrait of the duke and the Christian virtues
of Faith, Hope, and Charity which he strove to exemplify in his life. At
one end of the room are two recesses divided by a projecting pier; in
the one to the left the armour of the duke is represented as hanging
piece by piece on the wall, in that on the right is shown his reading
desk, made to turn on a pivot, with books upon it and around, and on the
pier between, a landscape, seen through an arcade with a terrace in
front, upon which are a squirrel and a basket of fruit. Close to the
reading desk is a representation of an organ with a seat in front of it,
upon which is a cushion covered with brocade or cut velvet, which is
most realistic, and on the organ is the name Johan Castellano, which is
supposed to be the name of the intarsiatore, though this name does not
appear in the accounts. The custodian called him a Bergamase, I do not
know on what authority. The designs of the figures are ascribed to
Botticelli, and some of them look as if the ascription might possibly be
correct. The only names of intarsiatori found in the ducal accounts are
Beneivegni da Mercatello, who worked in the Sala del Cambio at Perugia,
and no doubt had to do with the making of the doors, which resemble that
work, and perhaps a Taddeo da Rovigno, the town from which the Olivetan
Fra Sebastian came. Pungileone, however, found a payment of seven
florins in 1473 to "Maestro Giacomo, from Florence, on account of
intarsia for the audience hall." Dennistoun says that this study
contained "arm-chairs encircling a table all mosaicked with tarsia, and
carved by Maestro Giacomo of Florence," but it is now quite bare,
though, fortunately, the tarsie are well preserved. He goes on to say
that "on each compartment of the panelling was the portrait of some
famous author and an appropriate distich," which leads one to suppose
either that his information was inaccurate or that he was referring to
the similar small study on the lower floor, in which Timoteto delle Vite
did some painting.
The duke and his son Guidobaldo were both great builders, and Urbino was
not the only town in which they raised palaces, though the others were
not of so much importance. The names by which they were denominated show
this. It is always the _corte_ at Urbino, at Pesaro it is the _palazzo_,
and at Gubbio the modest _casa_. Nevertheless, at this last place the
intarsias were of almost as great importance, though now the palace is
ruinous and the intarsias dispersed, some of them being at South
Kensington. Dennistoun quotes descriptions from Sig. Luigi Bonfatti and
Mr. F. C. Brooke, which are worth reproducing, as showing the care some
times expended on the decoration of quite small apartments. This study,
which was commissioned by Duke Guidobaldo, is only 13 by 6-1/2 feet in
plan, though it is 19 feet high. The inlaid work only went half-way up,
as at Urbino, the upper part of the walls having been covered with
tapestries. The tarsie showed "emblematic representations of music,
literature, physical science, geography, and war; bookcases, or rather
cupboards, with their contents, among which were a ship, a tambourine,
military weapons, a cage with a parrot in it, and as if for the sake of
variety only, a few volumes of books, over one of which, containing
music, with the word 'Rosabella' inscribed on its pages, was suspended
a crucifix. On the central case opposite the window, and occupying as it
were the place of honour, was the garter, with its motto, 'Honi soit q.
mal i pense,' a device which was sculptured on the exterior of the stone
architrave of the door of this apartment. It appeared again in tarsia in
the recess of the window, where might also be seen, within circles, 'G.
Ubaldo Dx. and Fe Dux.' Amongst the devices was the crane standing on
one leg, and holding, with the foot of the other, which is raised, the
stone he is to drop as a signal of alarm to his companions. Among other
feigned contents of a bookcase were an hour-glass, guitar, and pair of
compasses; in another were seen a dagger, dried fruits in a small basket
made of thin wood, and a tankard, while in a third was represented an
open book surmounted with the name of Guidobaldo, who probably made the
selection inscribed on the two pages of the volume, comprising verses
457-491 of the tenth Æneid." On the cornice was an inscription. It was
thought to be the work of Antonio Mastei of Gubbio, a famous artist in
wood, who executed the choir of S. Fortunato at Todi, and who is known
to have been much in favour with Dukes Guidobaldo and Francesco Maria
I., the latter of whom gave him an exemption from imposts.
In the 17th century tarsia was more used for domestic furniture than
for stationary decoration. The character of the design changed in
consequence, and mother-of-pearl, ivory, tortoiseshell, silver, and
other materials were used. The first Tuscan, or one of the first who did
so was Andrea Massari of Siena. A few works in tarsia were still
executed, but none of much importance. The choir of S. Sigismondo,
outside Cremona, commenced by Gabriel Capra and finished by his son
Domenico in 1605, is one of the principal, and the choir of S.
Francesco, Perugia, where Fortebraccio was buried, but this latter no
longer exists. Marquetry was produced in Florence, Venice, Milan, and
Genoa down to a still later date, but the fashion for ivory and ebony
carried all before it. The Italian work of this kind is often most
beautifully engraved, but less accurate than that produced in France.
The later Italian marquetry does not lose decorative effect though the
figure drawing becomes very conventional, and the curves of ornament are
often cut with a mechanical sweep. A good deal of it is in only two
colours, a return to the simplicity of earlier days.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] There were nineteen subjects, divided by channelled pilasters with a
carved frieze, above a bench which ran round the circular wall from one
doorpost to the other, the whole work crowned with a cornice also carved
with foliated ornament. The first subject on the right was an open
cupboard with architects' and joiners' tools. The second was the
portrait described above. The third showed a cupboard half open, worked
with a grille of pierced almond shapes and divided. "In the upper part
is a naked boy, standing with a ball in his left hand, below is a large
circle with a bridge within and without in the form of a diamond. Within
the closed part of the grille one sees a ewer above and a basin below.
The fourth is a figure of S. Ansano, half-length, below whom is the head
of a man who receives baptism with joined hands, and the saint with a
vase in his hand pours water on his head, holding in his right hand a
standard. The fifth shows a cupboard open and shelved in the
middle--above is a chalice and paten, below is a salver with fruit
within and falling from it. The sixth contains an organ case with a man
who, with raised head, enjoys the sweetness of the sounds, on the side
of the organ are the arms of the Opera and below are the arms of the
rector Arringhieri. The seventh is a cupboard half open with pierced
doors, in the upper half a censer, and an incense boat, with a label
above with these words, 'Dirigatur Domine oratio mea sicut incensum in
conspectu tuo.' Below is the holy water pot with the sprinkler within,
and with a pair of sacrament cruets. The eighth shows the figure of a
man with a glory and a diadem on his head, with face and right arm
raised to heaven, representing whom I do not understand; above him is a
garden full of different flowers and trees. The ninth is a cupboard cut
across and half open; in the upper part a label with these words 'Qui
post me venit, ante me factus est. Cujus non sum dignus calceamente
solvere;' below are different musical instruments, the words above are
set to plain song. The tenth, that is the centre one, is a half-length
of S. John Baptist with the cross in his left hand, and in the right a
label with the words, 'Ecce Agnus Dei,' while with his finger he points
to Christ in a figure which represents him. The eleventh shows another
cupboard half open and shelved, above is a label on which are some lines
of the hymn of S. John Baptist, with notes in plain song and with the
name of the author above, which was Alessandro Agricola, and below is a
flute and a violin with its bow. The twelfth is the figure of a young
man with a label below which says, 'Johannis Baptistæ discipulus.' This
is generally thought to represent S. Andrew the apostle. The thirteenth
is another open cupboard with a shelf. In the upper part is a chalice
and more fruit, and in the lower a hollow dish with a foot also full of
fruit. The fourteenth shows the half-length of a man who plays a lute,
above him appears a garden with different trees. The fifteenth is a
cupboard with open division, with a little gate and grating with almond
shaped openings, above is a candlestick with a candle half burnt, and
below is a box full of yellow tapers. The sixteenth represents S.
Catherine with her wheel, half-length, disputing with the tyrant, before
her is an open book on which are cut these words, 'Catharina
disputationis virginitatis ac martirii palmam reportat.' The seventeenth
shows a cupboard divided and half closed, with a grating like the
others, above is a missal laid down, with a chalice upright, and a paten
on the missal, and there are also a pair of spectacles and another paten
leaning against the wall, below there is a closed book which seems to be
a breviary, upon which is an open book with these words, 'Ecce mitto
angelum meum ante faciem tuam, qui preparabit viam tuam ante te. Vox
clamantis in deserto; parate viam Domini: rectas facite semitas ejus.'
The eighteenth shows a fine gate through which one sees a garden, within
which appear different trees with fruit on them, and at the bottom is a
little table upon which is an inkstand with a pen and a penknife with a
label which issues from the inkstand with these words, 'Alberto
Aringherio operaio fabre factum.' The last panel shows an open cupboard
with shelf and grating, above is a harp and below is a violin and other
musical instruments. The rector Arringhieri paid 4090 scudi for the work
as a matter of compromise on the valuing of Fra Giovanni da Verona. It
was in so dark a place that it could not be seen except with lighted
torches, and it was also damaged because it was put in a newly built
place, the walls of which were not sufficiently dry to receive such
delicate work." This account was written in 1786.
THE CLOISTERED INTARSIATORI AND THEIR PUPILS
The Order of the Olivetans took its rise from the piety and liberality
of a Sienese noble, Bernardo Tolomei, who, with two companions, Ambrogio
Piccolomini and Patricio Patrizzi, established himself as a hermit on a
barren point of land at Chiusuri, some miles from Siena, in the same
manner as did S. Benedict at Subiaco. This was in 1312, but the Papal
charter by which the Order was founded dates from 1319. It was called
"Monte Oliveto," from a vision seen by Guido Tarlati, Bishop of Arezzo,
the Papal commissary, in which the Virgin ordered that the monks should
have a white habit, and that the badge of the Order should be three
hills surmounted by a branch of olive. It was a branch of the
Benedictines, and, like them, the monks devoted their lives to useful
labours. As Michele Caffi says, "The Olivetans did not strive in
political or party struggles, but spent their simple lives in works of
charity and industry, and showing great talent for working in wood
succeeded to the heirship of the art of tarsia in coloured woods, which
they got from Tuscany."
The first master of intarsia mentioned among the Olivetan monks is a
certain lay brother, "laico Olivetano," who came from Tuscany in the
first half of the fifteenth century, and taught the art to the monks of
S. Elena, the island which lies just beyond the Public Gardens at
Venice, and was so beautiful before the iron foundry was established
upon it. His principal pupil was Fra Sebastiano of Rovigno, known as the
"Zoppo Schiavone," the lame Slavonian, who taught Fra Giovanni da Verona
and Domenico Zambello of Bergamo, Fra Damiano. Fra Giovanni, again, was
master to Vincenzo dalle Vacche and Raffaello da Brescia, and perhaps to
the oblate of S. Elena, Antonio Preposito, in 1493.
Fra Sebastiano da Rovigno was probably born in 1420. The register of
professions and deaths at Monte Oliveto Maggiore says--"In conventu
Paduæ professus est sub die 15 Augusti, an 1461, fr: Sebastianus de
Rovinio"; his death is shown by another extract--"Venetiis, obiit in
Mon. S. Helenæ, anno Domini, 1505, fr: Sebastianus de Histria,
conversus" (lay brother). He was at S. Maria in Organo, in 1464-5 and
1468-9, and at S. Elena in 1479-80-81, and again from 1484 to 1494. He
was also at Monte Oliveto 1466-7, 1474-5, and 1482-3, and at S. Michele
in Bosco, Bologna, from 1494 till shortly before his death, in all of
which places were important works in tarsia. The inscription in the
corner of the sacristy at S. Elena runs thus:--"Extremus hic mortalium
operum fr: Sebastianus de Ruigno Montis Oliveti, qui III. id: Sept: diem
obiit, 1505." Some of his work is in the stalls and sacristy cupboards
of S. Marco, signed C.S.S., or S.S.C., that is, "Converso Sebastiano
Schiavone," or "Seb: Sch: converso." His pupil Fra Giovanni da Verona
was one of the most celebrated of the carvers and intarsiatori, and left
works in many places in Italy. He was born in Verona in 1457, and no one
has been able to discover either his family name nor who his father was.
When still a boy he left his native town and went into Tuscany to Monte
Oliveto di Chiusuri of Siena, the principal monastery of the Olivetan
order. He may perhaps have gone with Liberale of Verona, who was of
about the same age, the first time he went to Monte Oliveto, in 1467, or
more probably on the second occasion, in 1474, his business being to
illuminate the choir books. In the administration books of that convent
it is recorded that in 1467 Liberale had as assistant a certain
Bernardino, and in 1474 another whose name is not mentioned. This may
have been Fra Giovanni, who might then have learnt to illuminate, which
was his first profession, and in which he succeeded excellently. He
resolved to "profess religion" about this time, and was received as
novice in the beginning of 1475. The year of noviciate being passed he
made his solemn profession on March 25, 1476, and remained for about
four years more in the monastery, during which time he finished his
studies and became priest. In 1480 he was sent for a short time to the
monastery of S. Elena, near Venice. Here he found the lay brother Fra
Sebastiano da Rovigno, whom he may perhaps have known before, since they
were both at Monte Oliveto in 1475. At all events he spoke to him about
learning his art, and finding him willing to teach him, "set about it
with so much diligence and assiduity that he was soon able to give him
valuable assistance." The work was on the cupboards of the sacristy and
on the backs of the choir stalls, which were 34 in number. On these the
principal cities of the world, as they then were, were drawn in
perspective "with great beauty and cleverness." About 1485 he went to an
abbey of Olivetan monks at Villanova, a small village in lower Lombardy,
where he illuminated 20 choral books with heads of saints and prophets,
with very beautiful borders of flowers, fruits, and animals. These were
sold by an ignorant and greedy priest for 17 zecchins, and only a few
of the miniatures have been recovered, which are now kept in the
sacristy. Of them, Vincenzo Sabbia, the Olivetan abbot, who was
"confratello di religione" and nearly contemporary, says, when
describing the abbey and its treasures in 1594, that there are there
"stupendous and wonderful choral books to the number of twenty, made
about the year 1485, and rare and wonderful miniatures are among the
letters, like lovely flowers in a delicious garden, and many most
beautiful imaginings, heads of saints and of all the ancient prophets,
and other wonderful things of like kind, made and illuminated by that
celebrated Fra Giovanni da Verona, around the text."
[Illustration: Plate 30.--_Panel from lower row of Stalls, S. Maria in
Organo, Verona._
_To face page 59._]
[Illustration: Plate 31.--_Panels from Monte Oliveto Maggiore, now in
the Cathedral, Siena._
_To face page 60._]