colossal bishop sits within a square recess crowned by a broken pediment. The prelate's arms are introduced in black marble shields upon the base of the monument, which is adorned with two small seated figures in relief of Innocence symbolized by a dove, and Self-devotion by a pelican.* Debased as it is in style, ugly in combination of colour, and faulty in the relative proportion of its parts, it is, if possible, surpassed in bad taste by Prospero's monument to the Canon Cherubino Sfortiano in the same church, which consists of a huge white marble hourglass, supported on a base of red marble, flanked by figures of two Virtues, and crowned by a statuette of Christ.t We will not trespass upon the reader's patience by describing any more of Prospero's works, but to show that they have admirers, we quote the following passage from a discourse delivered before the Academy at Reggio upon the two figures of weeping women which form part of his monument to the jurisconsult Bartolomeo Prati, in the crypt of the Cathedral at Parma. "In them," said the orator, "the pathos of the Laocoon, the morbidezza' of the Venus de' Medici, and the grace of the Flora are combined,. any one of which excellences would entitle Prospero to rank with Glycon and Praxiteles."

MODENA, 1500-1600.

Antonio Begarelli, born at Modena in 1479, was the son of a baker named Giuliano, and the reputed pupil of Guido Mazzoni, whom he even surpassed in reputation as a "plasticatore" or modeller in clay. As Mazzoni went to France in 1495, and did not return until 1516, Begarelli must either have studied under him before he was sixteen years old, which is possible, or after he was thirty-seven, which is improbable. Be the fact as it may, his works show no trace of Mazzini's influence, whereas that of Corregio, with whom we know him to have been intimate, is clearly manifest. The great painter, who

* This tomb cost 1,250 golden scudi (Fontanesi, Disc. Academico sopra Clementi, Reggio, 1826).

Who was travelling with Cellini when he killed the postmaster near Siena (see Cellini's Autobiography).

See pp. 226-228.

was the younger of the two by fifteen years, is said to have learned a great deal from Begarelli,* which at least proves an intercourse between them, but the effect upon the sculptor was not to his advantage as such, since the very qualities which attract us in Corregio's works are unplastic. Great masses of painted drapery may be so lightened by magical effects of chiaroscuro as to give them a desirable lightness and flow of line, but when modelled in clay their heaviness and bulk asserts itself with crushing weight. In painting where the artist has all the resources of the pallet at his command, he can give rein to his fancy, and represent the human form draped or undraped in every possible attitude, provided that he does not sin against the law of grace, but in sculpture, where he is fettered by the material in which he works, he must submit to be controlled by it, and respect the limitations of his art. This Begarelli did not do; and although Michelangelo on seeing his groups, when he passed through Modena in 1529 on his way to Florence, is credited with having said, "Woe to the antique statues, if this clay could be turned to marble," we cannot call the man who made them a sculptor. It is only after dismissing all true ideas about sculpture from our minds that we can do justice to the facile handling, the powerful expression, and the Corregesque conception of Begarelli's pictures in clay.

The most important among them is the "Taking Down from the Cross" in the church of San Francesco at Modena, represented by the twelve life-size figures of Nicodemus and St. Joseph of Arimathea, with two assistants, engaged in detaching the body of our Lord, SS. Anthony of Padua, Jerome, Francis, and John the Baptist standing or kneeling on either side, and by a great central group of the Virgin swooning in the arms of the two Marys. Robed in fluttering and complicated draperies, they seem to have turned in haste towards her, and while one supports her head the other holds up her drooping hands as she sinks back in complete abandonment. Upon canvas the group would be counted a masterpiece, hut in clay it is a tableau vivant. In Begarelli's Pietà at San Pietro, the Madonna, supported by St. John, kneels by the dead body of our Lord, whose head rests upon the lap of Nicodemus. The draperies are well arranged, the heads expressive, and the details carefully Vasari, ed. Le Monnier, vii. 95. † Ibid. xii. 281.

с с

worked out; but the pictorial character is identical with that of the "Taking Down from the Cross" and other works by this artist at Mantua, such as the Magdalen lying at our Lord's feet, attended by SS. Peter and Paul and two unknown persons, in a corridor leading from the church of San Domenico to the Academy; a Pietà at San Agostino (1526), in which the St. Joseph is said to be a portrait of Begarelli; a statue of St. Mary Magdalen in the Belleardi chapel, Sta. Maria del Carmine (1531); a Madonna and Child with St. John in the Sacristy of the Chiesa Votiva (1528); and two groups in the Academy at Parma, of the Madonna and Saints, modelled in 1558 and 1561.

Begarelli died at Modena about 1565, after a long and successful career of unceasing activity.

387

APPENDIX.

A, p. 3.

Tempesti (Ant. Pisana) attempts to prove that the Duomo at Pisa was founded in 1005, but Tronci (Annali Pisani, pp. 37, 38), Morrona (Pisa Illustrata), and the inscription upon the Church itself, say A.D. 1063, immediately after the taking of Palermo by the Pisan fleet. Its architect was a Pisan, named Boschetto. (Vide Roncioni, part i. p. 120, in vol. vi. of Arch. St. It.)

The burial of distinguished persons in pagan sarcophagi was common during the Middle Ages; e.g. Charlemagne, who was buried in a Roman sarcophagus sculptured with a bas-relief representing the Rape of Proserpine; and the French martyr, St. Andreol, in one inscribed Tid. Jul. Valerianus. (Vide M'Farlane's Catacombs of Rome, pp. 128, 129.)

The Abbate Tosti, in his life of the Countess Matilda, thus refers to this fact (at pp. 167, 168): "Ne fu sola Beatrice che andasse cosi a sconciare le ceneri dei pagani per locarsi nel loro sepolcro, trovandosi nel anzidetto Campo Santo Pisano ed in altre chiese le urne pagane."

The following is the inscription upon the sarcophagus of the Countess Beatrice:

QUAMVIS PECCATRIX SUM DOMNA VOCATA BEATRIX,

IN TUMULO MISSA, JACEOQUE COMITISSA.

Morrona, Pisa Ill., vol. i. p. 295, nota 1.

B, p. 20.

The abbey of Tagliacozzo. According to Vasari, i. 268, Niccola was called to Viterbo in 1267 by Pope Clement IV., and having restored the church and convent of the Preaching Friars, then went to build that of Tagliacozzo for Charles of Anjou. As the battle was fought in August 1268, and the buildings at La Scorgola were, as we know by documents in the archives at Naples, commenced in 1274, Niccola may have stayed seven years at Viterbo. In 1274 he certainly went to Perugia, as we may suppose after he had designed and commenced the buildings at Tagliacozzo. There is therefore no chronological ground for doubting Vasari's state

ment. Some doubt, however, is certainly thrown on it by the fact that Niccola Pisano's name is not mentioned in the documents connected with the foundation of the buildings, published from the Neapolitan archives by Schultz, op. cit. vol. ii. The first document is a letter written by King Charles from Bari, January 1, 1274, in which he tells the magistri Jacopo and Pietro da Caul (or Saul), Simone da Arganta and Pietro da Carelli (or Garelli) that he wishes to build an abbey at Castrum Pontis, and orders them to go, with the Abbot of Casanova, to select building materials and fix upon the site there, where the battle with Corradino was fought. Four years later, February 21, 1278, the king writes from Capua to his administrator Raynaldus Villanus to say that he has appointed a Frenchman, Henri d'Assone (in Foitou), to be head-master of the building, and Giovanni da Messina to be overseer. As this was the year of Niccola Pisano's death these appointments may have been made in consequence of that event. From a third royal letter, dated December 30, 1281, at Orvieto, written to the same Villanus and an Abbot Guglielmus, we learn that the work was then nearly completed (see Schultz, op. cit. ii. 88).

C, p. 23.

Vasari (vol. i. p. 295) attributes it to a certain Fuccio, "scultore fiorentino," who, he says, built the Church of Sta. Maria sopra l'Arno, at Florence, in 1229, upon which he inscribed his name thus, "Fuccio mi feci" (sic). The inscription possibly refers to a person of that name who restored or rebuilt the church in 1300, but cannot allude to any architect, as none such is known (Vasari, vol. i. p. 296, ncta †). The only Fuccio of note in the thirteenth century was the famous robber referred to by Dante (Inf. 24) in the lines,

son Vanni Fucci

Bestia, e Pistoja mi fu degna tana.

This Vanni Fuccio despoiled the Sacristy at Pistoja of its treasures, A.D. 1293, for which he and his accomplice, Vanni Mironne, were hung, and their bodies afterwards dragged through the streets, tied to horses' tails.

D, p. 24.

Margheritone of Arezzo (b. 1236, d. 1313), architect, sculptor, and painter, is said by Vasari (Ed. Milanesi, i. p. 363) to have ameliorated his style under the influence of Arnolfo di Cambio's works, and to have sculptured the monument of Pope Gregory X. in the Cathedral at Arezzo. Previous to the year 1275 he had sculptured as well as painted "Alla Greca," and yet Vasari would have us believe that although in painting he continued to be a rude follower of the Byzantines, and looked upon Giotto as a