tect, sculptor, painter and poet, and goldsmith besides. Only one side of his complex personality comes properly under consideration here, yet we cannot take leave of him without at least referring to his reputed great work as an architect, the Loggia de' Lanzi, that world-renowned portico which foreshadowed a turning-point in the architectural history of the nation, the approacing transition from mixed Gothic to pure Roman forms. It announced the end of the Medieval and the beginning of the Renaissance period, and is in architecture what the contemporary writings of Petrarch and Boccaccio are in literature, evidences of the coming classical revival which in the first half of the fifteenth century embraced all forms of thought. But did Orgagna build it? that is a question, raised in our day, which turns upon the date of his death. The order for the construction of this sumptuous place of assembly for the discussion of political and commercial matters at times. when heat or rain made the uncovered platform (ringhiera) before the Palazzo Vecchio untenable, was passed by the general council in 1368, but the foundations of the Loggia, called de' Lanzi, from its location near the guard-house of the German Lands Knechts or hired soldiers, were not laid until 1376, eight years after the death of Orgagna as fixed by modern authorities. Vasari, who first ascribed the building to Orgagna, says that he died in 1389, but this must be an error, as the last certain information about him is a record of the year 1368, in which he is spoken of as dangerously ill. In another, of ten years later, he is mentioned as a deceased person. His death, in 1368, is perfectly compatible with the supposition that he left designs for the Loggia, which were carried out by the eminent architects Benci di Cione and Simone di Francesco Talenti, when they were appointed head masters of the building. Its great round arches, of which there are three in front, and one at the end, are supported upon piers with Corinthian capitals, and surmounted by a broad entablature adorned with six half-figures of the Virtues in relief, and a group of the Madonna and Child under a canopy. The Virtues were sculptured by Jacopo di Piero, one of Orgagna's scholars, perhaps after the designs of Angelo Gaddi, with the possible exception of the Fortitude and

See Appendix, letter G.

*

L

Temperance. These are attributed to Giovanni Seti, an otherwise unknown sculptor.

The subterranean church of the Certosa convent, near Florence, which if not built by Orgagna is of his time, contains some interesting monuments of its founder Niccolo Acciajuoli, Grand Seneschal of the Kingdom of Naples under Queen Joanna, and of his family. These are in all probability works of Orgagna's scholars. The recumbent statue of Niccolo, clad in armour, is placed under a rich Gothic canopy, set high up against the wall above the tombs of his father, daughter and son Lorenzo, whose funeral obsequies were celebrated at the enormous cost of 50,000 gold florins by his afflicted parents.

With Orgagna, the Pisan school, whose rise and progress we have now traced through the better part of two centuries, may be said to close. The Florentine school properly dates from Donatello and Ghiberti, and may be considered as the successor of the Pisan and Sienese schools, which died out respectively the one in the fourteenth, and the other in the fifteenth century.

CHAPTER IV.

SIENA.

THE reader's attention has been already called to the impulse given by Niccola and Giovanni Pisano to architecture and sculpture at Siena in the latter half of the thirteenth century. The presence and example of father and son did much to raise the standard of excellence in both arts, whose improved condition found ample opportunity for its display through the enlargement and embellishment of the Cathedral, the construction of the Abbey Church and Monastery of S. Galgano, and the building of walls, bridges, gates and fountains in and about the city. Many artists who as rectors represented the greater and lesser art guilds in the city government, were involved in the struggles which constantly arose between the nobles and the people, but despite these disturbing influences, and those arising from the open state of war between the Ghibellines and the Guelphs, they made notable progress.

Few of them are known to us even by name, and still fewer by their works, which were doubtless for the most part of a decorative character. Nothing is known about the personal history of Ramo or Romano di Paganello, son of Paganello di Giovanni, one of the first whose name is something more than a name to us, save that he was banished for having killed or maltreated his wife; that in 1281 he was recalled by a decree of the general council; and that he subsequently worked at the Cathedral under Giovanni Pisano. It was probably at this period (1288) that he sculptured a statue of St.

* Rumohr (It. Forsch. vol. ii. p. 143) says that Ramo's father was perhaps Rodolpho, called "Il Tedesco," one of the German artists who introduced the Gothic style into Italy in the thirteenth century.

The decree mentions Ramo as "Intalliatoribus de bonis" (meaning those who worked upon ornaments and leaves); "et sculptoribus et subtilioribus" (as expressing those excessively minute works in the "semi-tedesco" style, then in fashion) "in mundo qui inveniri possit."

66

Francis, which formerly stood over the door of the Church of San Francesco. In 1296 he went to Orvieto with Lorenzo Maitani, and there presided over the sculptors working about the Cathedral as capo loggia," an office to which none but a man of remarkable capacity would have been elected. Though we cannot suppose him to have worked upon the bas-reliefs of the façade, as they were begun somewhat after his time, he doubtless aided in carving some of the capitals of its pilasters.

One of his contemporaries, Goro di Gregorio,* military architect and sculptor, made the sarcophagus under the high altar of the Cathedral at Massa Maritima, which contains the body of St. Cerbone, Bishop of Massa. Its five bas-reliefs represent the bishop summoned to Rome by the messengers of Pope Virgilius, drinking the milk of a hind while on his journey thither, restoring the sick whom he met on his way, presented to the pope at Rome, and celebrating mass before the pope, who by placing his foot upon that of the saint, hears angelic melodies inaudible to other ears. Although technically rude, these reliefs are not devoid of expression. The statuettes above the sarcophagus are carefully draped, and the ornaments about the cornices are delicately carved. Goro sculptured a basrelief of the Baptism of our Lord for the Baptistry of Rosia, a castle near Siena, some statues for the façade of the Cathedral (1332), and the monument of the Petronio family in the subterranean chambers of the first cloister of the church of San Francesco (1332).

Ramo and Goro were artists of purely local celebrity, but such was not the case with Lorenzo di Lorenzo Maitani, who built the beautiful Gothic cathedral at Orvieto. Gifted with rare genius, and thoroughly versed in architecture, sculpture, bronze-casting and mosaic, he was eminently fitted for his work, and, thanks to the singular fortune which permitted him to watch over the building from the day when its corner-stone was laid to that which saw its last pinnacle pointed towards heaven, he carried it out with a unity of design unattainable by an artist less versatile than himself.t At the time of its foundation no fewer than forty Florentine, Pisan, and Sienese

*Not to be confounded with Niccola's pupil, Goro di Ciuccio Ciuti, a Florentine. See ch. ii. pp. 23, 24.

+ See Appendix, letter G.

architects, sculptors and painters came to reside at Orvieto, and were formed into a corporate body subject to Lorenzo Maitani, the master of masters, who with his council pronounced judgment upon the models and drawings presented to them in the "Loggia," a building set apart for their use near the Cathedral. Many of these artists were employed in procuring and working upon marbles at Rome, Siena, and Corneto, as also at Albano and Castel Gandolfo, whence the prepared material was dragged by buffaloes, or sent up the Tiber in boats, to the neighbourhood of Orvieto.* Aided by the Orvietans and the country people, who on fête days assisted in transporting building materials to the Piazza di Sta. Maria, the work was advanced so rapidly, that eight years after the laying of the corner-stone (1298) Pope Boniface VIII. celebrated mass within the walls, which had already risen to a considerable height.

The beautiful façade, rich in sculpture and mosaic work, was begun in 1321, and carried on under Maitani's direction until his death nine years later. "Artist Philosopher," says Romagnuoli, "he adorned its base with scenes from the Old and New Testament, the foundations of our faith; decorated the upper space about the round window with the symbols of the Evangelists, together with statues of the Apostles and Popes; and crowned the whole with angels placed at a dangerous and almost aerial altitude." The bas-reliefs of the base spoken of by the Sienese writer in this passage, are sculptured upon four piers placed on either side of the great portal. On the first, called the Pier of Creation, because its subjects are taken from the book. of Genesis, we see the calling into being of the sun, moon, and stars, of birds and beasts, and of man and woman, by Christ, who" in all religious art as in all sound theology is the Creator in the active and visible sense." In each act he is attended by angels, who follow him with bowed heads and folded arms, or, as in the scene where the Lord walking in the garden calls to Adam, float in the air above his head. What we find to praise in these works, is their unaffected simplicity of expression, their clearness of narration, their freshness of

Lettere Sanesi, p. 103.

+ History of Our Lord, by Mrs. Jameson and Lady Eastlake, vol. i. p. 66.