Chapter III: The Florentine Lodge (2)

Ambrogio or Ambrose remained many years in Florence. His name often appears in council. In 1356 he was elected head architect of the Duomo, and also of the restorations at the Baptistery. On April 4, 1384, when as an old man he attended a meeting to decide whether the pilasters of the tribune were strong enough to support the dome, his name is given as Ambrogio de Renzo. A marked instance of the effect of twenty years among Florentine dialect, which has an inveterate habit of mixing up l's and r's. His son, Giovanni d'Ambrogio di Lenzo, who afterwards became _capo maestro_, was also in council, and Orcagna was chosen umpire.

But between the reign of Ambrogio and that of his son we have various changes in the directorship. In 1381, Giovanni, son of Stefano, called Guazetta, became _capo maestro_ together with Giovanni Fetti, who was also of the guild, and preparing first in Siena, and next at Florence, for his future work in Lucca and Bologna. Giovanni Fetti designed and made the fine "window towards the houses of the Cornacchini, under the third arch of the nave."

Guazetta's peculiar line was laying foundations and devising complicated scaffolding. He also made the presses of the sacristy. He was perhaps not enough of a builder to hold the office of chief, for in 1375 this pair resigned in favour of Francesco Salvetti and Taddeo Ristori. Salvetti, however, very soon renounced office, preferring to remain in the guild on a simple salary, rather than incur responsibilities.[259]

Then Francesco Talenti's son Simone, who had by this time become a _Magister_, was put in his place with Taddeo Ristori. Their reign lasted till 1388, when Michele, son of Giovanni, son of Lapo, son of Ghino, was elected. In his time the pilasters of the tribune were begun.

In 1404 Ambrogio's son Giovanni was elected _capo maestro_. Here is the part of the entry of the _Deliberation_, November 17, 1404--"Operaris ... elegerunt et nominaverunt et deputaverunt in caput magister dicte opere Sancte Reparata providum virum Johannem Ambroxii, etc. etc., cum salario florenum otto, pro quolibet mense cum auctoritate, balia et potestate usitate et consueta."--_Delib._ xlix. 28.

Another deliberation, dated June 17, 1415, states that "Johannem Ambroxii caput magister" shall give the order for the species and form of the bricks for some special part.

Giovanni, the last of the Campione school whom we can register, was deposed for old age, and Baptista Antoni elected in his stead. He was probably the son of Antonio, the Grand Master mentioned above.

Giovanni had not always time to carry out his own designs. In 1408 we find that Magister Niccolao, surnamed Pela, took the contract to carve in marble the doorway near the chapel of the crucifix, which was designed by "Johannem Ambroxii, caput magistrum." It is rich with vines and other ornaments. Niccolao did not push the work, however, and in May 1408 the _Opera_ decided that he owed the guild the sum of twenty-five florins for breaking his contract.

The number of different minds each leading the works in his own department is bewildering. The beautiful door called the Mandorla, so rich and elegant in sculpture, which is often said to have been executed by Jacopo della Quercia, was in reality the work of Nanni di Antonio di Banco. The books of the _Opera_ register, on June 28, 1418, a payment of twenty florins on account to Nanni for this doorway, and in 1421 the last payment was made on the completion of the work. Nanni was a favourite scholar of Donatello; he was a person of good birth, who matriculated in the _Arte dei Maestri di Pietra_ on February 2, 1405, and proved his membership by sculpturing the four patron saints of the Masonic Guild on Or San Michele.

We further find in this precious collection of documents that Magister Jacopo di Lapo Cavacciani made a model for a shaft; that Nato di Cenni and Jacopo di Polo were, in August 1357, engaged to make the bases of the columns, and that time after time different Masters were called on to make plans for chapels, windows, doors, etc.

Now we know the state of the building as it stood in this fourteenth century, we realize that it was not left for centuries without a dome. The old chronicler Buoninsegni, in his _Storia Florentina_, lib. iv. p. 642, says--"A di venti di giugno 1380 si cominciarono a riempire et murare i fondamenti della cupola di S. Maria del Fiore." Up till this time the nave only seems to have been built.

On August 7 a meeting of _Magistri_ was called to consult on the foundation for the cupola, and on November 12, 1380, there is a long document commissioning "Bartolommeus Stefani, Johannes Mercati, and Leonardus Cecchii, Magistri Florentini," to build the pilasters to support the dome, which are to be of good stone and cement, and the builders are cautioned not to work in times of frost or snow, etc. etc. These pilasters caused much anxiety in the guild; in 1384 constant meetings were held about them. The Masters were afraid the foundations of the one towards Via dei Servi were not firm; day after day in July 1384 they met in scores to examine and report on it. Then they called in the consuls of the _Art of Wool_, the _Operai_, and all the chief men of the city; and everybody, excepting a certain Messer Biagio Guasconi (who after all was not an architect), agreed that the foundation of the pilaster was perfectly safe. However, good Messer Biagio still held his own opinion and refused to sign approval.

From the steady way in which the work went on, it is certainly possible and probable that there would in the natural course of the work have been a dome to the cathedral even without Filippo Brunelleschi. It was in the original plan, and the foundations and pilasters were placed in readiness for it. There was much talk of the difficulty of placing the framework of the scaffolding for it, but there seems to have been no doubt that it would be accomplished. In fact numbers of the Masters sent in plans for it at different times.

The first time that Brunellesco appears in the records is at a meeting of consuls, _Opera_, and Masters, convened on November 10, 1404, to consider a certain error in measurement committed by the _capo maestro_, Giovanni di Ambrogio. The question turned on the placing of the (_sprone_) brackets on the façade which interfered with the windows.

It does not seem that Brunellesco belonged to the brotherhood. He is merely mentioned as Filippo the goldworker, son of the notary Brunelleschi (_Filippus ser Brunelleschi aurifex_). In no place, either here or elsewhere, is he ever called _Magister_, and throughout his life his every action was a protest against what he called "the _Maestranze_" a term of contempt like "their Master-ships," which Brunelleschi applied to the _Arte dei Maestri_. He had matriculated in 1398, when twenty-one years old, in the _Arte della Seta_, but as his tastes were strongly artistic, and he refused to follow his father's profession of lawyer, he enrolled himself in 1404 in the _Arte degli Orafi_ (goldsmiths), in which so many painters were already eminent. The goldsmiths or metal-sculptors, who seem to have seceded from the Freemasons, were still in some measure colleagues of the Masonic Guild, and their members were often called to vote or advise in the councils of the _Opera_.

Thus we find Brunellesco as one of the _orafi_ called into council about the construction of the brackets. He appears to have held office as councillor in the _Opera_ for a year till 1405, when he was paid off. He was probably one of the _Operai_ on the part of the city.

When in the famous competition of 1402 Brunellesco lost the commission for the doors of the Baptistery, he left Florence in dudgeon, and with his friend Donatello went to Rome. His studies of the methods of the ancient Romans in making their great domes, suggested to him a way of vindicating his _amour propre_ by defeating the whole guild of "Masters" on their own ground. He had made architecture a special study, and now thoroughly investigated the classic methods. He got to the roof of the Pantheon, and made studies of the stone-work in the ribs of the cupola, investigated the foundations, the supports, etc., and came back to Florence, where he let drop mysterious hints among the influential members of his own trade company, and in the studios of one or two artists, that even if the "_maestranze_ were to call their Masters from France or Germany, and all parts of the world, none of them would be able to make a dome equal to the one he could make." The Masters of the _laborerium_ at length heard of these assertions, and called on him to show his plans, which he declined to do.

Then the _Opera_, on August 19, 1418, announced a competition. Any artist whatsoever who had made a model of the projected cupola was to produce it, before the end of September, the model accepted to have a prize of 200 gold florins. The date of decision was prolonged to October, and then to December, when a number of models were sent in, the competitors being Magister Giovanni di Ambrogio, C.M. of the _laborerium_, Manno di Benincasa, Matteo di Leonardo, Vito da Pisa, Lorenzo Ghiberti, all _Magistri_ of the Masonic Guild; Piero d'Antonio, nicknamed Fannulla (do nothing), Piero di Santa Maria in Monte, masters in wood. There were several models by members of the civic company, the _Arte dei Scarpellini_ (stone-cutters); and last, not least, a model in brick and mortar without scaffolding, made by Brunellesco, Donatello, and Nanni di Banco,[260] so he was obliged after all to show his design. This last won the prize, but the _Arte dei Maestri_ had not evidently faith enough in one outside their ranks to commence at once with the building. In Signor Cesare Guasti's collection of archivial documents regarding the building of the Duomo, we find that from October to December 23, 1418, several of the Masters, including Magistro Aliosso, Mag. Andrea Berti Martignoni, Mag. Paolo Bonaiuti, Cristofero di Simoni, and Giovanni Tuccio, were receiving payment for building a model in masonry of Brunellesco's plan for the cupola. I do not find that Brunellesco himself was employed in this, the only payment to him being "50 lib. 15 soldi" for his work on the lantern of the model, between July 11 and August 12, 1419; proving that he put the finishing touch, but that the Masters of the guild themselves tested his design for the great dome before finally adopting it. This brick model, which was built on the Piazza del Duomo, remained there till 1430, when the _Opera_ ordered its destruction. Guasti[261] gives in full this order, which is dated January 23, 1430, and is in the usual low Latin of contemporary documents. When the model was finished, the _Magistri_ of the guild assembled on May 14, 1421, to hold council on it. There are entries of expenses for a breakfast to the Masters, and for torch-bearers to accompany them on their internal investigations. We find the same ceremony of refreshment to the _Magistri_ who visited the works of the real cupola in 1424, when six flasks of Trebbiano (the best Tuscan wine) with fruit and bread were provided. In 1420 Brunellesco was definitely commissioned to superintend the cupola, but even then the _Magistri_ could not admit an outsider to full Masonic privileges. He was not named _caput magister_, as one of the guild would have been, but he and Ghiberti (whose model had been next best) were named _provisori_ of the dome, while the Magister Baptista di Antonio was _caput magister_ proper of the lodge. The terms of the contract were that "the _provisori_ were to superintend the works, providing, ordering, building, and causing to build, the cupola from beginning to end, etc. etc."

At first both Ghiberti and Brunellesco drew three florins a month. The head _Magister_, Baptista, had the usual salary of the guild as head master.

The story of Brunellesco's restiveness at his old rival Ghiberti being associated with him in carrying out a design peculiarly his own, and how he tried to throw scorn on him, by locking up his plans and feigning illness, thus leaving Ghiberti to work in the dark, is too well known to need repetition here.[262] Perkins[263] is very hard on Ghiberti's ignorance, which, he asserts, was so great that he was obliged to resign because he could not do the work. But there are two sides to every question. How could a man carry out a work designed and begun by another without seeing his plans? Besides, Ghiberti's resignation, or rather relinquishment of his work at the cupola just then, was, I believe, due to the fact that he had a few months before received a commission for the second bronze gates of the Baptistery, and wanted his time free for them. This commission is dated January 2, 1425. His salary as _provisore_ of the cupola ceased for a few months from June 28, 1425. The dates speak for themselves. He still, however, held office, or returned to it with partial pay, for in 1428 we find a decree of the _Opera_ which raises the salary of Brunellesco to 100 gold florins a year, while Ghiberti only draws his usual three florins a month. But even then not an order is ever given in Brunellesco's own name; every document and every receipt was signed by Baptista d'Antonio, _caput magister_, and Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, _provisore_.

And now let us see who were the underlings employed by Brunellesco. Finding the workmen of the Florentine Lodge were disaffected, he got ten Lombards, and shut out all the Florentines, till they humbly came back, begging to be taken on again, which he did at a lower salary than before.

The Lombard element was still strong in the guild. A certain _Maestro di legno_, named Magister Antonio of Vercelli, invented a convenient mode of drawing up weights into the cupola. The workmen had a kitchen and eating-house up in the dome, so that they did not need to descend in the middle of the day. In fact the _Opera_ made strict laws about this.

In 1436 another competition of models for the lantern was proclaimed, and again Brunellesco won the palm against Ghiberti and others. It seems that when the commission was given to Brunellesco, the Masonic Guild must have felt it _infra dig._ to make a non-member _capo maestro_ of the dome. Consequently they matriculated him into the fraternity. But with his jealousy of the _maestranze_ and determination to show that one need not be a Freemason to build a church, he ignored this membership and never paid his fees, on which the Masters of the _laborerium_ sued him for debt, and he was imprisoned. This did not suit the City Patrons of the _Opera_, who were the all-powerful _Arte della Lana_, especially as Brunellesco's _Arte della Seta_ was also on his side. A stormy meeting was held in the _Opera_ on August 20, 1434, at which the civic party was too strong for the _Maestri_. It was decreed that Brunellesco should be liberated, and one of the _Arte dei Maestri_ was imprisoned, on the plea of hindering public works![264]

After this triumph of independent architecture Brunellesco became in a manner architect in chief to the city. He built the pretty Loggie of the Foundling Hospital on Piazza della SS. Annunziata, and the Pazzi Chapel at Sta. Croce, both of which Luca della Robbia adorned with his beautiful blue and white reliefs. He erected the fine Palazzo Quaratesi on Piazza Ognissanti, and the remarkably grand church of Santo Spirito was after his death built from his designs.

Brunellesco's strike for independence appears to have given the death-blow to the great Masonic Guild which, as it became more unwieldy, had been slowly disintegrating. The local members in large cities like Siena and Florence, becoming too strong for the original Lombard element, had asserted their independence by forming other guilds of a local nature, in which even the ancient quartette of patron saints was forgotten. How long the lodge in Florence kept together after Brunellesco's defiance I do not know, though its educative influence certainly lingered on till Michael Angelo's time, he being as all-round an artist as any _Magister_ of older days who could build a church and decorate it too.

The _laborerium_ of the Florentine _Opera_ must, however, have been closed by the time of Michael Angelo; for Lorenzo de' Medici had to supplement it by giving up his garden in the Via Larga as a school of sculpture, there being then no place where the art was taught. His teaching, however, was a heritage from the ancient guild, for old Bertoldo, scholar of Donatello, was the Master there, and the works of the Masonic Brotherhood for two centuries, together with the classic treasures collected by the Medici, were his models.

FOOTNOTES:

[236] (The five preceding artists were in the Council of July 1355.)

[237] Milanesi's _Vasari, Vita Niccolò e Giovanni Pisano_, vol. i. p. 388.

[238] The Cardinal died in 1290, so he must have given the commission during his lifetime.

[239] In the register of deaths it occurs that Arnolfo's mother's name was Perfetta.

[240] Gaye, _Carteggio degli Artisti_, vol. i. pp. 445, 446.

[241] We find these same men, Alberto and Enrico his kinsman, sculpturing in San Pietro at Bologna in 1285.

[242] Baldinucci, tom. iv. p. 96.

[243] Milanesi, vol. i. p. 283.

[244] _La Metropolitana Fiorentina Illustrata_, p. 54. Firenze, Molini e Co., 1820.

[245] _La Metropolitana Fiorentina Illustrata_, p. 59. Firenze, Molini e Co.

[246] Francesco Talenti, head of the _laborerium_.

[247] Cesare Guasti, _Santa Maria del Fiore_, p. 77.

[248] Here is another office in the organization of the guild which we have not hitherto met with. The _Regolatori_ must have formed the economical council, to control expenses.

[249] Carta 12 of _Antica Necrologia di Santa Reparata_ in the Archives of the Opera del Duomo.

Q. Davanzato f Alfieri.

Q. Cambio chiavaiuolo.

Q. Magister Arnolfus de l'opera di Santa Reparata MCCCX.

[250] Guasti, _Santa Maria del Fiore_, p. 29.

[251] _Cronaca di Lorenzo Ghiberti MS._ in the Magliabecchian Library, Florence.--"Le prime storie che sono all'edificio, furono di sua mano scolpite e disegnate. Nella mia età vidi provvedimenti di sua mano, di dette istorie egregissimamente disegnati."

[252] "Compose et ordinò Giotto il campanile di marmo di Santa Reparata di Firenze, notabile campanile et di gran costo. Commisevi due errori: l'uno che non ebbe ceppo da piè, l'altro che fu stretto: posesene tanto dolore al cuore ch'egli, si dice, ne infermò et morissene."--_Commento alla Divina Commedia d'Anonimo fiorentino del secolo XIV._, vol. ii. p. 188. Bologna, 1868.

[253] "Ac etiam cum magistro Andrea, majore magistro dicte opere: facto prius et oblento partito inter eos ad fabas nigras et albas." Andrea was a scholar of Giovanni Pisano, and had worked with him at Pisa and Siena, where he is mentioned as _famulus Magistri Johannis_.

[254] "A Franciescho Talenti e al compagno da Firenze tre fiorini d'oro per lo consiglio che diederono del Duomo nuovo."--Milanesi, _Documenti per l' Arte Senese, Aprile 1336_.

[255] Milanesi, _Documenti per la Storia dell' Arte Senese_, tom. i. p. 200.

[256] Ristoro had a son, Taddeo di Ristori, who was _capo maestro_ of the Loggia dei Lanzi in 1376.

[257] This and many other deliberations at the same epoch put it beyond a doubt that Arnolfo's church was considerably changed in form, as time went on, if not rebuilt entirely.

[258] "Andreas Cionis, vocatus Arcagnolus, pictor populi Sancti Michaelis Visdominis, juravit et promisit dicte arte, pro quo fideiussit Nerius Fioravantis Magister in MCCCLII, indictione sexta, die XX ottubris" (_sic_).--Milanesi's Vasari, _Vita di Andrea Orcagna_.

[259] Extract from the books of the _Opera_, 1372, December 13--"Francischus Salvetti de sua propria et spontanea voluntæ qui erat caput magister dicti operis Sancte Reparate renuntiat et repudiat dicto officio, et quot non vult confirmus esse caput magistro in presentæ operarorum."

[260] Milanesi, _Vasari, Vita Filippo Brunelleschi_, vol. ii. p. 351, note.

[261] Cesare Guasti, _La Cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore_, pp. 34, 35.

[262] See _Sculpture, Renaissance and Modern_, pp. 63, 64, published by Messrs. Sampson Low and Marston.

[263] _Tuscan Sculptors_, Vol. I. chap. v. p. 135.

[264] Milanesi's _Vasari, Vita di Filippo Brunellesco_, vol. ii. p. 362, notes. See also Cesare Guasti, _La Cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore_, p. 54, document 116.