the stalls made by Bartolommeo dei Polli, in company with Giacomo dei
Crocefissi and Cristoforo de' Rocchi. Except for these there are no
notices of the work which he must have done till 1502, when the abbot
and monks of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, having determined to renew the
choir of their church, confided the work to Fra Giovanni, and
necessarily recalled him. He worked with so much enthusiasm that in
three years he entirely completed them "to his great repute and with no
less satisfaction to the monks." "The whole comprised 52 stalls, with
their backs, seats and arm rests, kneelers and all things appertaining"
(it now consists of 48 stalls and 47 pictures), and the panels of the
backs were worked in tarsia with perspective views "beautiful to a
marvel," where were figured houses, views of the country, cupboards,
grilles, sacred utensils, and other fancies. In the early years of the
19th century 38 of these perspectives were moved to Siena and placed in
the Cathedral, where they now are. Another choir, smaller but not less
beautiful, was made for the church of the Olivetan monastery of S.
Benedetto fuori della Porta at Tufi, near Siena. This church is in
ruins; 31 perspectives from the choir were sent to fill the gaps in
Monte Oliveto Maggiore, the monks who returned after the revocation of
the suppression in 1813 having appealed to the Archbishop to allow them
to take them. Four of the ancient backs were found in a corner of the
sacristy, and eight carried to Siena and found superfluous were
returned, as well as one which a neighbouring villager had taken. Some
of them show the conventual buildings as they were at the beginning of
the 16th century. The frames resemble friezes, and are decorated with
flowers, fruit, birds, musical instruments, arms, and ornament. Each
back is separated from the next by a colonnette carved with delicate
arabesques. In this choir is also an Easter candlestick much like that
at S. Maria in Organo, Verona, and there are two doors which belonged
to the library. Pope Julius II. called him to Rome in 1571, and
commissioned the ornamentation of the Camera della Segnatura in the
Vatican, the designs for which are ascribed to Raffaelle, not only the
seat backs with their seats, but also the doors, all worked with
perspectives, "in which he succeeded so well that he gained great favour
with the pontiff." Then he went to Naples and did the same sort of
carving and intarsia in the sacristy of the choir of the chapel of Paolo
Tolosa, in the church of Monte Oliveto in that city, works not less
successful and lauded than those of Siena and Rome. This church is now
called that of S. Anna dei Lombardi. The tarsie in the sacristy are in a
later setting, and include nine panels of perspectives of landscapes,
buildings, &c., nine others showing cupboards with objects on the
shelves, and one with a figure of an abbot around which the following
inscription runs:--
·T·EPRE·R·P·F·DOMI·DE·LEV·GNK·ABBATIS·ET
R·P·ALOISII·DE·SALER·NO·PRIOR.
The work is exceedingly delicate, pieces of wood no thicker than a thick
pencil line being often used. In one panel is a well-executed lily, in
another a hare is a foreground figure, in another are an owl and a
bullfinch, while a hoopoe appears in another, with mountains behind
him. The objects on the shelves of the cupboards are turned at queer
angles to show his skill in perspective, but, since they lack tone, do
not appear quite accurate. Among the architectural subjects are the
choir of a church, a harbour, and a castle on a hill, seen from a
balustraded terrace, and a circular building a little like that in the
background of Raffaelle's "Sposalizio." They were well restored in 1860
by C. G. Minchiotti. In the monks' choir in the church are other
intarsie said to be by Angelo da Verona, Giovanni's brother. They are
principally arabesques, somewhat resembling the panels in the Cathedral
at Genoa, but include four figure panels of little angels and an
Annunciation in two panels, which are not without charm, though rather
overstiff.
[Illustration: Plate 32.--_Frieze from Monte Oliveto Maggiore._
_To face page 62._]
In his last years he returned to Verona, where he had made the monks'
choir in S. Maria in Organo, and the cupboards of the sacristy. These
have the reputation of being not only the finest of the period but also
the best which came from his hand. The Adige was in this church for two
months during one of the inundations, but the tarsie did not suffer so
much as might have been expected. He accepted a commission in 1523 for
some stalls for the Olivetan church at Lodi, S. Cristopher, eleven of
which are now in the suburban church of S. Bernardino in that city,
but died before they were completed. Vincenzo Sabbia writes of
these:--"In the year 1523 the reverend father Fra Filippo Villani of
Lodi, prior of the convent of S. Cristoforo in that city, agreed with
Fra Giovanni Veronese, an excellent master of perspective, to make him
35 pictures of perspective at the rate of 30 or 40 broad ducats of gold
for each--which are worth 5 lire 4 soldi each--which were to be finished
in two or three years, and 300 broad ducats of gold were counted out to
him. The said brother was not able to finish more than 23, because he
died on February 10, 1525. They were sent from Verona and taken to Lodi,
and in 1586 the new church of S. Cristoforo being finished, Don
Agostino, the prior, who had charge of the fabric, had the aforesaid 23
pictures with their ornaments set in the choir by the hand of Paolo
Sasono." He died in the 68th year of his age, and was buried in S. Maria
in Organo. He is called "prior" in a chronicle of the monastery under
date 1511, and in the list of dead. In his portrait in the sacristy, by
Caroto, he is represented with the tonsure and with the hood and cowl of
the form which was proper to monks who were constituted "in sacris."
Fra Raffaello da Brescia, whose name was Roberto Marone, was born in
1477. His father's name was Pietro Marone, and his mother was a
Venetian, named Cecilia Tiepolo. When twenty-two years old he took the
monastic habit as a lay brother in the convent of S. Nicolò di Rodengo,
near Brescia, and a little later (in 1502) was sent to Monte Oliveto
Maggiore. Fra Giovanni being then established there as "conventual
brother," took young Marone and taught him, seeing that he had both
liking and talent for the work, so that he soon became a clever workman.
Between 1504 and 1507 he worked with him at the choir of Monte Oliveto,
from 1506 to 1510 he was with him at Naples, when the famous sacristy
panels were being executed, and in 1511 and 1512 he was at S. Nicolò di
Rodengo, where he worked at the choir of that church. The lectern from
Rodengo is now in the Galleria Tosi at Brescia; the inlays are in the
lower portion, and show architectural compositions in perspective and
the usual objects, such as a censer, an open book, &c. It is signed
F.R.B. In 1513 Raffaello commenced the magnificent choir of S. Michaele
in Bosco, Bologna, and here he also made the design for the campanile,
which was built by Maestro Pedrino di Como, showing that like so many of
the intarsiatori he was no mere worker in wood. While this work was in
progress he executed a lectern for Monte Oliveto, ordered by the abbot
Barnaba Cevenini, who was a Bolognese. It is signed and dated 1520, and
shows on each side a choir book open, with notes of music and words. In
one of the lower panels a black cat symbolises fidelity.
S. Michele in Bosco was among the largest of the Olivetan convents. The
Benedictines entered into possession in 1364, but these buildings were
destroyed by the Bolognese in 1430, "so that they might not give shelter
and a base for hostilities to the soldiers of Martin V." The
re-construction began in 1437. The choir was raised on several steps,
and called "Il Paradiso," ten years later, but subsequent alterations
have left very little of the original work visible. Raffaello's stalls
were probably finished in 1521, that being the date on a panel which was
formerly in the centre of the choir. Of these splendid works only two
confessionals still remain in the church. At the time of the suppression
of the convents at the end of the 18th century the populace, drunk with
rapine and devastation, tore down these stalls, and they were sold for a
few pence to the Bolognese marine store dealers and rag merchants. Only
18 of the principal row were saved from destruction, the Marquis Antonio
Malvezzi buying them in 1812, and having them restored and placed in the
chapel of his family in S. Petronio (now the chapel of the Holy
Sacrament), where they now are. He was not able to save the hoods and
shell canopies, which were sold for firewood for 4 baiocchi each! (about
two pence.) The designs are of the usual style, cupboards and various
objects in perspective; one of the finest is the first on the left,
which includes a fine sphere and sundial, and several books written in
German letters, black and red, a chalice in a cupboard, two books, and a
cross. In the seventh is the figure of Pope Gregory in the act of
blessing, and the last on the right shows loggias and porticoes of good
style, well put in perspective. With part of the tarsie from S. Michele
pianoforte cases were made, other portions were used for the floor of
the Casino, near the theatre of the Corso, and were worn to pieces by
the feet of the dancers! In 1525 Fra Raffaello went to Rome, and no
further notices of him or of his work occur till his death there in
1537; he was buried in S. Maria in Campo Santo.
Another somewhat similar set of stalls, though rather later in date,
also at Bologna, are the upper row in the choir of S. Giovanni in Monte,
which have on their backs intarsie representing monuments, fantastic
battlemented buildings, musical instruments, and geometrical motives,
all executed with a mastery which reveals an artist old at the work.
They recall in their general effect those in S. Prospero at Reggio, in
the Emilia, which were executed by the brothers Mantelli in 1546. They
are set in a carved framing of arches divided by pilasters which
terminate above in brackets which support the cornice. The pilasters
rest on the arms which divide the seats. Champeaux says they were made
by Paolo del Sacha.
The tarsie in S. Mark's, Venice, were worked by Fra Vincenzo da Verona,
another Olivetan, under whom was Fra Pietro da Padova, Jesuit, with two
youths to assist them. The commission was given in 1523. Three rooms in
the hospital of "Messer Jesu Cristo" were assigned him as workshops, and
100 ducats for food and clothing, as stated in the registers of the
procurators of S. Mark's. On January 15, 1524, they inspected the work
done, and were not satisfied, and so suspended it, "praising,
nevertheless, the manners and the life of Fra Vincenzo." According to
Cicogna, the registers contained, under date April 7, 1526, a note of
money paid to "Fra Vincenzio, of the order of the Jesuits, for the
finishing of the works of inlay" in the choir of S. Marco. On February
25, 1537, certain moneys were given to more workmen for the construction
of the doge's seat, which is said to have been "a great thing full of
artistic pangs" (!), and rather hindered the genuflections to the
altar. This was made for Andrea Gritti, who was doge that year. This Fra
Vincenzo da Verona, or Vincenzo dalla Vacche, is mentioned by Morello in
his "Notizie" as excellent, especially in his work at S. Benedetto
Novello at Padua, four panels from which are now in the Louvre. He
became novice in 1492, "Conventuale" of Monte Oliveto in 1498, was a
priest like Fra Giovanni, and lived almost all his life in his native
city. He died in 1531. The tarsie in the presbytery at S. Marco consist
of seven great compartments, five lesser, and thirteen which are small.
The eighteen smaller compartments are panels of ornament. The others are
figure subjects, but by more than one hand. First comes a figure of S.
Mark with a lion at his feet, which is not very good (it was restored in
1848-50 by Antonio Camusso); next, a figure of Charity side by side with
one of Justice, a woman with a baby, and one holding the balances. Next
comes a figure of Strength or Courage, older and rougher in character,
then four ornamental panels, a door, and five others, also of ornament.
The next panel in the corner bears date 1535, to which year the figures
of Justice and Charity may be assigned. The other figures are Prudence
and Temperance, the latter of which resembles Strength in character. The
remaining subject, a Pietà, is like Charity and Justice, and is
masterly. Three spaces are empty. The doge's seat, until the fall of the
Republic, was on the right of the principal entrance to the choir, as
Sansovino says. It had on its back a figure of Justice, now in the Museo
Civico. He also says that Sebastiano Schiavone did these tarsie, but he
died in 1505. Various initials appear here and there through the work;
on each side of the figure of S. Mark are U.F.Q. and M.S.R. in
cartouches, Charity and Justice have N. and P. at the sides, and
Prudence has P.S.S. and S.S.C. attached to her. The panels of ornament
seem to be of the same period as the figure of Charity.
[Illustration: Plate 33.--_Panel from S. Mark's, Venice._
_To face page 68._]
Fra Damiano of Bergamo, Fra Giovanni's fellow-pupil, attained, if
possible, even greater reputation. He was considered the finest artist
in tarsia of his time, he having, "with his woods, coloured to a marvel,
raised the art to the rank of real painting." His family name was
Zambello, he is thought to have been born about 1490, and he became a
Dominican monk. An anonymous MS. of the 16th century, published by
Morelli, calls him a pupil of a Slavonian, that is, Illyrian, brother of
Venice, Fra Sebastiano da Rovigno. He passed the greater part of his
life at Bologna, in the Dominican cloister there, into which he was
admitted in 1528. In the records of the convent for that year occurs the
note, "Frater Damianus de Bergomo, homo peritissimus, singularissimus,
et unicus in l'arte della tarsia, conversus, receptatus fuit in filium
conventus." At S. Domenico the choir stalls were his first work; he did
seven, containing fourteen subjects and seven heads of saints. These
were finished in 1530, and in consequence of their success he was
commissioned to complete the choir. He carried the tinting of the wood
farther than Fra Giovanni did, using solutions of sublimate of mercury,
of arsenic, and what they called oil of sulphur. He is said to have had
Vignola's designs for the architectural parts.
Charles the Fifth was in Bologna with Clement VII., and was crowned
Emperor in S. Petronio on December 5, 1529. One day he was in S.
Domenico admiring the works of art, and, doubting that the tarsie were
made of tinted wood, as he was told, drew his rapier and cut a bit out
of one of the panels, which has always remained in the state in which he
left it in memory of his act. Desiring to see how the work was done he
determined to visit Fra Damiano's studio. Accordingly, on March 7, 1530,
he took with him Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and several princes of
his escort, and went to the convent, when, being conducted to Fra
Damiano's poor cell, he knocked at the door. The friar, having opened
and allowed the Emperor to enter, shut it quickly. "Stay," said the
Emperor, "that is the Duke of Ferrara, who follows me." "I know him,"
answered Fra Damiano, "and that is why I will never let him enter my
cell." "And why?" said Charles V.; "have you anything of his doing to
complain of then?" "Listen, your majesty," answered the lay brother. "I
had to come from Bergamo to Bologna to undertake the work of this choir.
I had with me these tools which you see, few in number, but necessary
for the work in which it is my study to worthily spend my life, and to
delight in the art. I had scarcely touched the frontiers of Ferrara when
they not only obliged me, a poor friar, to pay a heavy and unjust tax,
but the manner of doing it was most offensive. Now, while that duke
allows such roguery in his State, it is right that he should not see
this work which you see." Charles smiled, and promised to obtain from
Duke Alfonso the amplest satisfaction. Going out of the cell he told the
duke the reason of Fra Damiano's anger, and he not only promised to
repay the loss which he had suffered, but conceded a patent to him, by
which he and his pupils were for ever free from any tax or duty when
crossing the duchy of Ferrara. Then they all came laughing and joking
into the cell, and Fra Damiano, to show them that his tarsie were not
painted with a brush took a little plane and passed it over a panel with
some force, showing how the colours, after that treatment, still
retained their integrity and beauty. And then he gave the Emperor a most
beautiful piece of the Crucifixion, and another to the Duke of Ferrara,
who valued it greatly. Locatelli gives some conversations between Fra
Damiano and his assistant Zanetto, which must have preceded this visit,
which are worth recording for their racy expression, according well with
his reported action. "If it were in my power I would nail up this door
for Charles and for all the dukes of the world. This art which I
exercise is exceeding dear to me, and I hate to have to do with these
signori who manage things after their own fashion; and sad it is for
those who have to endure it. I respect His Majesty the Emperor, and hold
him to be a great man, but the fate of Rome sticks in my throat. That
other, too, who accompanies him--" "Who?" interrupted Zanetto, "the
Pope?" "Oh, rubbish; the Pope! The Duke of Ferrara. With him I have a
special account, and he must not come here." He also adds the detail
that Fra Damiano had no money with him, and had to go about begging for
wherewithal to pay the duke's dues till he blushed.
From 1530 to 1534 he worked at a great piece of panelling to be placed
in the chapel of the "arca," the tomb of S. Dominic, which is now in the
sacristy, and thought by some to be his masterpiece. There are eight
cupboards in this, and on each are eight subjects. In 1534 the Order was
so poor that such expenses were stopped. Seven years later the work was
recommenced and finished in 1550 by Fra Bernardino and Fra Antonio da
Lunigiano a few months after Fra Damiano's death, which occurred on
August 30, 1549. The choir consists of a double row of 28 stalls on each
side, making 112 in all, showing on the right subjects from the New, and
on the left from the Old Testament. Those on the right are the best, and
are probably Fra Damiano's own work. He had as assistants at one time
Zanetto da Bergamo, Francesco di Lorenzo Zambelli, and a lay brother,
Fra Bernardino, who afterwards did the sacristy door. At another time
his brother Stefano helped him, together with Zampiero da Padova, Fra
Antonio Asinelis, the brothers Capo di Ferro of Lovere, Pietro di
Maffeis, Giovanni and Alessandro Belli. The choir of S. Domenico cost
2809 scudi. Henry II. of France commissioned a little chapel from him
with an altar-piece, for his reputation had crossed the Alps, and
Cardinal Salviati and Paul III., the Farnese Pope, also wished for his
work, as did the Benedictine monks of S. Pietro in Casinense, at
Perugia. He did for them a two-leaved door, which cost 120 scudi, now
placed at the back of the choir, and opening on to a balcony, from which
one sees, in fine weather, as far as the Castle of Spoleto. There are
four subjects, two on each leaf; the Annunciation illustrated is one of
them. Sabba Castiglione uses the most enthusiastic language about him
and his work. "But, above all, those who can obtain them decorate their
mansions with the works, rather divine than human, of Fra Damiano, who
excelled not only in perspectives, like those other worthy masters, but
in landscapes, in backgrounds, and what is yet more, in figures; and who
effected in wood as much as the great Apelles did with his pencil. I
even think that the colours of these woods are more vivid, brilliant,
and beautiful than those used by painters, so that these most excellent
works may be considered as a new style of painting without colours, a
thing much to be wondered at. And what adds to the marvel is, that
though these works are executed with inlaid pieces the eye cannot even
by the greatest exertion detect the joints." He then goes on in the same
grandiloquent strain--"This good father in dyeing woods in any colour
that you may wish, and in imitation of spotted and marbled stones, as
he has been unique in our century, so I think that he will be without
equal in the future; it is certain that our Lord God has lent him grace,
as I believe, because he wished so much that things might be well ended,
to put his final work on the work of S. Domenico of Bologna. I think,
indeed I am certain, that it will be called the eighth wonder of the
world; and as the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, and the
Greeks boasted of their temples, pyramids, colossi, and sepulchres, thus
happy Bologna will be able to glory in and to boast of the choir of S.
Domenico. And because I do not wish that the love and affection that I
bear to my most excellent father should make me to be considered a
flatterer (!), a thing far from me, and especially with friends about
whom I always speak the truth, I say no more; yet all that which I could
say would be little enough on the merit of his rare and singular virtue,
and on the goodness of his religious and holy life." Fra Leandro
Alberti, in his description of Italy, speaks in something the same
manner--"Frate Damiano, lay brother of the Order of Preachers, has
become a man of as much genius as is to be found in the whole world at
present, in putting together woods with so much art that they appear
pictures made with a brush."
[Illustration: Plate 34.--_Panel from door in Choir of S. Pietro in
Casinense, Perugia._
_To face page 74._]
A few stalls made by him are now in the church of S. Bartolommeo,
Bergamo, which were brought from the Dominican church of S. Stefano,
destroyed for the fortifications in 1561. The designs were made by Trozo
da Monza, Bernardo da Trevi (? Treviglio), and Bramantino. As Locatelli
says, they preceded the famous choir at Bologna, and show the master
trying his wings. Some think that his best works are those in which he
did not employ colour, but only shading, but general opinion considers
his highest point was reached in the doors of S. Pietro in Casinense.
Another Dominican intarsiatore was Fra Antonio da Viterbo, who, in 1437,
made the doors of S. Peter's at Rome by order of Eugenius IV., which
were subsequently destroyed by Paul V. He was paid 800 ducats of gold
before the Pope died, when they were nearly finished. They were both
inlaid and carved in the most elaborate fashion, as the list of subjects
shows:--The Saviour, the Blessed Virgin, SS. Peter and Paul, and
Eugenius on his knees, the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul, S.
Plautilla, who received the borrowed veil from S. Paul; the Coronation
of the Emperor Sigismund in S. Peter's in 1433 by Eugenius, "and there
you see the Prefect of Rome holding the sword before him, their march
through Rome, the union of the Greek Church with the Latin, the entry
of the ambassador from the King of Ethiopia, and other histories of the
time." He had two assistants, Valentine and Leonardo.
[Illustration: _To face page 77._ Plate 35.--_Lunette from Stalls in
Cathedral, Genoa._]