diff options
Diffstat (limited to '16477.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 16477.txt | 15395 |
1 files changed, 15395 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/16477.txt b/16477.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8af4327 --- /dev/null +++ b/16477.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15395 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa +by Edward Hutton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa + With Sixteen Illustrations In Colour By William Parkinson + And Sixteen Other Illustrations, Second Edition + +Author: Edward Hutton + +Release Date: August 8, 2005 [EBook #16477] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLORENCE *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +FLORENCE + +AND NORTHERN TUSCANY + +WITH GENOA + + +BY EDWARD HUTTON + + * * * * * + + O rosa delle rose, O rosa bella, + Per te non dormo ne notte ne giorno, + E sempre penso alla tua faccia bella, + Alle grazie che hai, faccio ritorno. + Faccio ritorno alle grazie che hai: + Ch'io ti lasci, amor mio, non creder mai. + +WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY WILLIAM PARKINSON AND SIXTEEN +OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS + +SECOND EDITION + +LONDON, 1907, 1908 + + * * * * * + +TO MY FRIEND WILLIAM HEYWOOD + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR + + FREDERIC UVEDALE: A ROMANCE + STUDIES IN THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS + ITALY AND THE ITALIANS + THE CITIES OF UMBRIA + THE CITIES OF SPAIN + SIGISMONDO MALATESTA + COUNTRY WALKS ROUND FLORENCE. (_In the Press_). + ROME. (_In preparation_) + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: FROM THE UFFIZI] + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. GENOA + II. ON THE WAY + III. PORTO VENERE + IV. SARZANA AND LUNA + V. CARRARA, MASSA DUCALE, PIETRA-SANTA, VIAREGGIO + VI. PISA + VII. LIVORNO + VIII. TO SAN MINIATO AL TEDESCO + IX. EMPOLI, MONTELUPO, LASTRA, SIGNA + X. FLORENCE + XI. PIAZZA DELLA SIGNORIA AND PALAZZO VECCHIO + XII. THE BAPTISTERY--THE DUOMO--THE CAMPANILE--THE OPERA DEL DUOMO + XIII. OR SAN MICHELE + XIV. PALAZZO RICCARDI, AND THE RISE OF THE MEDICI + XV. SAN MARCO AND SAVONAROLA + XVI. SANTA MARIA NOVELLA + XVII. SANTA CROCE + XVIII. SAN LORENZO + XIX. CHURCHES NORTH OF ARNO + XX. OLTR'ARNO + XXI. THE BARGELLO + XXII. THE ACCADEMIA + XXIII. THE UFFIZI + XXIV. THE PITTI GALLERY + XXV. FIESOLE AND SETTIGNANO + XXVI. VALLOMBROSA AND THE CASENTINO + XXVII. PRATO + XXVIII. PISTOJA + XXIX. LUCCA + XXX. OVER THE GARFAGNANA + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +IN COLOUR + + VIEW FROM THE UFFIZI + ON THE ROAD + BADIA A SETTIMO + PONTE VECCHIO + LOGGIA DE' LANZI + PIAZZA DEL DUOMO + OR SAN MICHELE + THE FLOWER MARKET, FLORENCE + CHIOSTRO DI S. MARCO + S. MARIA NOVELLA + OGNISSANTI + VIA GUICCIARDINI + PONTE VECCHIO + THE BOBOLI GARDENS + COSTA DI S. GIORGIO + OUTSIDE THE GATE + + +IN MONOTONE + + PORTO VENERE + PISA + WAX MODEL FOR THE PERSEUS IN THE BARGELLO, BENVENUTO CELLINI + THE MADONNA DELLA CINTOLA, BY NANNI DI BANCO, DUOMO, FLORENCE + SINGING BOYS FROM THE CANTORIA OF LUCA DELLA ROBBIA, OPERA DEL DUOMO, + FLORENCE + THE CRUCIFIXION, BY FRA ANGELICO, S. MARCO, FLORENCE + ST. JOHN THE DIVINE, BY DONATELLO, DUOMO, FLORENCE + THE LADY WITH THE NOSEGAY (VANNA TORNABUONI), IN THE BARGELLO, BY ANDREA + VERROCCHIO + "LA NOTTE," FROM TOMB OF GIULIANO DE' MEDICI, BY MICHELANGELO + THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS, BY DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO, ACCADEMIA + THE THREE GRACES, FROM THE PRIMAVERA, BY SANDRO BOTTICELLI, ACCADEMIA + THE BIRTH OF VENUS, BY SANDRO BOTTICELLI, UFFIZI GALLERY + THE ANNUNCIATION, BY ANDREA VERROCCHIO, UFFIZI GALLERY + PIETA, BY FRA BARTOLOMMEO, PITTI GALLERY + THE TOMB OF ILARIA DEL CARETTO, BY JACOPO DELLA QUERCIA, DUOMO, LUCCA + THE TOMB OF THE MARTYR S. ROMANO IN S. ROMANO, LUCCA, BY MATTEO CIVITALI + +[Illustration: A MAP OF THE CITIES OF NORTHERN TUSCANY] + + * * * * * + + + + +I. GENOA + +I + + +The traveller who on his way to Italy passes along the Riviera di +Ponente, through Marseilles, Nice, and Mentone to Ventimiglia, or +crossing the Alps touches Italian soil, though scarcely Italy indeed, at +Turin, on coming to Genoa finds himself really at last in the South, the +true South, of which Genoa la Superba is the gate, her narrow streets, +the various life of her port, her picturesque colour and dirt, her +immense palaces of precious marbles, her oranges and pomegranates and +lemons, her armsful of children, and above all the sun, which lends an +eternal gladness to all these characteristic or delightful things, +telling him at once that the North is far behind, that even Cisalpine +Gaul is crossed and done with, and that here at last by the waves of +that old and great sea is the true Italy, that beloved and ancient land +to which we owe almost everything that is precious and valuable in our +lives, and in which still, if we be young, we may find all our dreams. +What to us are the weary miles of Eastern France if we come by road, the +dreadful tunnels full of despair and filth if we come by rail, now that +we have at last returned to her, or best of all, perhaps, found her for +the first time in the spring at twenty-one or so, like a fair woman +forlorn upon the mountains, the Ariadne of our race who placed in our +hand the golden thread that led us out of the cavern of the savage to +the sunlight and to her. But though, indeed, I think all this may be +clearer to those who come to her in their first youth by the long white +roads with a song on their lips and a dream in their hearts--for the +song is drowned by the iron wheels that doubtless have their own music, +and the dream is apt to escape in the horror of the night imprisoned +with your fellows; still, as we are so quick to assure ourselves, there +are other ways of coming to Italy than on foot: in a motor-car, for +instance, our own modern way, ah! so much better than the train, and +truly almost as good as walking. For there is the start in the early +morning, the sweet fresh air of the fields and the hills, the long halt +at midday at the old inn, or best of all by the roadside, the afternoon +full of serenity, that gradually passes into excitement and eager +expectancy as you approach some unknown town; and every night you sleep +in a new place, and every morning the joy of the wanderer is yours. You +never "find yourself" in any city, having won to it through many +adventures, nor ever are you too far away from the place you lay at on +the night before. And so, as you pass on and on and on, till the road +which at first had entranced you, wearies you, terrifies you, +relentlessly opening before you in a monstrous white vista, and you who +began by thinking little of distance find, as I have done, that only the +roads are endless, even for you too the endless way must stop when it +comes to the sea; and there you have won at last to Italy, at Genoa. + +If you come by Ventimiglia, starting early, all the afternoon that white +vision will rise before you like some heavenly city, very pure and full +of light, beckoning you even from a long way off across innumerable and +lovely bays, splendid upon the sea. While if you come from Turin, it is +only at sunset you will see her, suddenly in a cleft of the mountains, +the sun just gilding the Pharos before night comes over the sea, +opening like some great flower full of coolness and fragrance. + +It was by sea that John Evelyn came to Genoa after many adventures; and +though we must be content to forego much of the surprise and romance of +an advent such as that, yet for us too there remain many wonderful +things which we may share with him. The waking at dawn, for instance, +for the first time in the South, with the noise in our ears of the bells +of the mules carrying merchandise to and from the ships in the _Porto_; +the sudden delight that we had not felt or realised, weary as we were on +the night before, at finding ourselves really at last in the way of such +things, the shouting of the muleteers, the songs of the sailors getting +their ships in gear for the seas, the blaze of sunlight, the pleasant +heat, the sense of everlasting summer. These things, and so much more +than these, abide for ever; the splendour of that ancient sea, the +gesture of the everlasting mountains, the calmness, joy, and serenity of +the soft sky. + +Something like this is what I always feel on coming to that proud city +of palaces, a sort of assurance, a spirit of delight. And in spite of +all Tennyson may have thought to say, for me it is not the North but the +South that is bright "and true and tender." For in the North the sky is +seldom seen and is full of clouds, while here it stretches up to God. +And then, the South has been true to all her ancient faiths and works, +to the Catholic religion, for instance, and to agriculture, the old +labour of the corn and the wine and the oil, while we are gone after +Luther and what he leads to, and, forsaking the fields, have taken to +minding machines. + +And so, in some dim way I cannot explain, to come to Italy is like +coming home, as though after a long journey one were to come suddenly +upon one's mistress at a corner of the lane in a shady place. + +It is perhaps with some such joy in the heart as this that the fortunate +traveller will come to Genoa the Proud, by the sea, lying on the bosom +of the mountains, whiter than the foam of her waves, the beautiful gate +of Italy. + +II + +The history of Genoa, its proud and adventurous story, is almost wholly +a tale of the sea, full of mystery, cruelty, and beauty, a legend of sea +power, a romance of ships. It is a narrative in which sailors, half +merchants, half pirates, adventurers every one, put out from the city +and return laden with all sorts of spoil,--gold from Africa, slaves from +Tunis or Morocco, the booty of the Crusades; with here the vessel of the +Holy Grail bought at a great price, there the stolen dust of a great +Saint. + +This spirit of adventure, which established the power of Genoa in the +East, which crushed Pisa and almost overcame Venice, was held in check +and controlled by the spirit of gain, the dream of the merchant, so that +Columbus, the very genius of adventure almost without an after-thought, +though a Genoese, was not encouraged, was indeed laughed at; and Genoa, +splendid in adventure but working only for gain, unable on this account +to establish any permanent colony, losing gradually all her possessions, +threw to the Spaniard the dominion of the New World, just because she +was not worthy of it. Men have called her Genoa the Proud, and indeed +who, looking on her from the sea or the sea-shore, will ever question +her title?--but the truth is, that she was not proud enough. She trusted +in riches; for her, glory was of no account if gold were not added to +it. If she entered the first Crusade as a Christian, it was really her +one disinterested action; and all the world acknowledged her valour and +her contrivance which won Jerusalem. But in the second Crusade, as in +the next, she no longer thought of glory or of the Tomb of Jesus, she +was intent on money; and since in that stony place but little booty +could be hoped for, she set herself to spoil the Christian, to provide +him at a price with ships, with provender, with the means of realising +his dream, a dream at which she could afford to laugh, secure as she was +in the possession of this world's goods. Then, when in the thirteenth +century those vast multitudes of soldiers, monks, dreamers, beggars, +and adventurers came to her, the port for Palestine, clamouring for +transports, she was sceptical and even scornful of them, but willing to +give them what they demanded, not for the love of God but for a price. +Even that beautiful and mysterious army of children which came to her +from France and Germany in 1212 seeking Jesus, she could hold in +contempt till, weary at last of feeding them, she found the galleys they +demanded, and in the loneliness of the sea betrayed them and sold them +for gold as slaves to the Arabs, so that of the seven thousand boys and +girls led by a lad of thirteen who came at the bidding of a voice to +Genoa, not one ever returned, nor do we hear anything further concerning +them but the rumour of their fate. + +Thus Genoa appears to us of old and now, too, as a city of merchants. +She crushed Pisa lest Pisa should become richer than herself; she went +out against the Moors for Castile because of a whisper of the booty; she +sought to overthrow Venice because she competed with her trade in the +East; and to-day if she could she would fill up the harbour of Savona +with stones, as she did in the sixteenth century, because Savona takes +part of her trade from her. What Philip of Spain did for God's sake, +what Visconti did for power, what Cesare Borgia did for glory, Genoa has +done for gold. She is a merchant adventurer. Her true work was the Bank +of St. George. One of the most glorious and splendid cities of Italy, +she is, almost alone in that home of humanism, without a school of art +or a poet or even a philosopher. Her heroes are the great admirals, and +adventurers--Spinola, Doria, Grimaldi, Fieschi, men whose names linger +in many a ruined castle along the coast who of old met piracy with +piracy. Even to-day a Grimaldi spoils Europe at Monaco, as his ancestors +did of old. + +One saint certainly of her own stock she may claim, St. Catherine +Adorni, born in 1447. But the Renaissance passed her by, giving her, it +is true, by the hands of an alien, the streets of splendid palaces we +know, but neither churches nor pictures; such paintings as she possesses +being the sixteenth century work of foreigners, Rubens, Vandyck, +Ribera, Sanchez Coello, and maybe Velasquez. + +Yet barren though she is in art, at least Genoa has ever been fulfilled +with life. If her aim was riches she attained it, and produced much that +was worth having by the way. Without the appeal of Florence or Siena or +Venice or Rome, she is to-day, when they are passed away into dreams or +have become little more than museums, what she has ever been, a city of +business, the greatest port in the Mediterranean, a city full of various +life,--here a touch of the East, there a whisper of the West, a busy, +brutal, picturesque city, beauty growing up as it does in London, +suddenly for a moment out of the life of the place, not made or +contrived as in Paris or Florence, but naturally, a living thing, shy +and evanescent. Here poverty and riches jostle one another side by side +as they do in life, and are antagonistic and hate one another. Yet +Genoa, alone of all the cities of Italy proper is living to-day, living +the life of to-day, and with all her glorious past she is as much a city +of the twentieth century as of any other period of history. For, while +others have gone after dreams and attained them and passed away, she has +clung to life, and the god of this world was ever hers. She has made to +herself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, and they have remained +faithful to her. Her ports grow and multiply, her trade increases, still +she heaps up riches, and if she cannot tell who shall gather them, at +least she is true to herself and is not dependent on the stranger or the +tourist. The artist, it is said, is something of a daughter of joy, and +in thinking of Florence or Venice, which live on the pleasure of the +stranger, we may find the truth of a saying so obvious. Well, Genoa was +never an artist. She was a leader, a merchant, with fleets, with +argosies, with far-flung companies of adventure. Through her gates +passed the silks and porcelains of the East, the gold of Africa, the +slaves and fair women, the booty and loot of life, the trade of the +world. This is her secret. She is living among the dead, who may or may +not awaken. + +If you are surprised in her streets by the greatness of old things, it +is only to find yourself face to face with the new. People, tourists do +not linger in her ways--they pass on to Pisa. Genoa has too little to +show them, and too much. She is not a museum, she is a city, a city of +life and death and the business of the world. You will never love her as +you will love Pisa or Siena or Rome or Florence, or almost any other +city of Italy. We do not love the living as we love the dead. They press +upon us and contend with us, and are beautiful and again ugly and +mediocre and heroic, all between two heart beats; but the dead ask only +our love. Genoa has never asked it, and never will. She is one of us, +her future is hidden from her, and into her mystery none has dared to +look. She is like a symphony of modern music, full of immense gradual +crescendos, gradual diminuendos, unknown to the old masters. Only Rome, +and that but seldom, breathes with her life. But through the music of +her life, so modern, so full of a sort of whining and despair in which +no great resolution or heroic notes ever come, there winds an old-world +melody, softly, softly, full of the sun, full of the sea, that is always +the same, mysterious, ambiguous, full of promises, at her feet. + +III + +The gate of Italy, I said in speaking of her, and indeed it is one of +the derivations of her name Genoa,--Janua the gate, founded, as the +fourteenth-century inscription in the Duomo asserts, by Janus, a Trojan +prince skilled in astrology, who, while seeking a healthy and safe place +for his dwelling, sailed by chance into this bay, where was a little +city founded by Janus, King of Italy, a great-grandson of Noah, and +finding the place such as he wished, he gave it his name and his power. +Now, whether the great-grandson of Noah was truly the original founder +of the city, or Janus the Trojan, or another, it is certainly older than +the Christian religion, so that some have thought that Janus, that old +god who once presided at the beginning of all noble things, was the +divine originator of this city also. And remembering the sun that +continually makes Genoa to seem all of precious stone, of moonstone or +alabaster, it seems indeed likely enough, for Janus was worshipped of +old as the sun, he opened the year too, and the first month bears his +name; and while on earth he was the guardian deity of gates, in heaven +he was porter, and his sign was a ship; therefore he may well have taken +to himself the city of ships, the gateway of Italy, Genoa. + +And through that gate what beautiful, terrible, and mysterious things +have passed into oblivion; Saints who have perhaps seen the very face of +Jesus; legions strong in the everlasting name of Caesar, that have lost +themselves in the fastnesses of the North; sailors mad with the song of +the sirens. On her quays burned the futile enthusiasm of the Middle Age, +that coveted the Holy City and was overwhelmed in the desert. Through +her streets surged Crusade after Crusade, companies of adventure, lonely +hermits drunken with silence, immense armies of dreamers, the chivalry +of Europe, a host of little children. On her ramparts Columbus dreamed, +and in her seas he fought with the Tunisian galleys before he set sail +westward for El Dorado. And here Andrea Doria beat the Turks and +blockaded his own city and set her free; and S. Catherine Adorni, weary +of the ways of the world, watched the galleons come out of the west, and +prayed to God, and saw the wind over the sea. O beautiful and mysterious +armies, O little children from afar, and thou whose adventurous name +married our world, what cities have you taken, what new love have you +found, what seas have your ships furrowed; whither have you fled away +when Genoa was so fair? + + * * * * * + +It was about the year 50 when St. Nazarus and St. Celsus, fleeing from +the terror of Nero, landed not far away to the east at Albaro, bringing +with them the new religion. A lane leading down to the sea still bears +the name of one of them, and, strangely as we may think, a ruined church +marks the spot crowning the rock above the place, where a Temple of +Venus once stood. Yet perhaps the earliest remnant of old Genoa is to be +found in the Church of S. Sisto in the Via di Pre, standing as it does +on the very stones of a church raised to the Pope and martyr of that +name in 260. In the journey which Pope Sixtus made to Genoa he is said +to have been accompanied by St. Laurence, and it is probable that a +church was built not much later to him also on the site of the Duomo. +However this may be, Genoa appears to have been passionately Christian, +for the first authority we hear of is that of the Bishops, to whom she +seems to have submitted herself enthusiastically, installing them in the +old castello in that the most ancient part of the city around Piazza +Sarzano and S. Maria di Castello. This castello, destroyed in the +quarrels of Guelph and Ghibelline, as some have thought, may be found in +the hall-mark of the silver vessels made here under the Republic. Very +few are the remnants that have come down to us from the time of the +Bishops. An inscription, however, on a house in Via S. Luca close to S. +Siro remains, telling how in the year 580 S. Siro destroyed the serpent +Basilisk. In the church itself a seventeenth-century fresco commemorates +this monstrous deed. + +Of the Lombard dominion something more is left to us; the story at least +of the passing of the dust of St. Augustine. It seems that at the +beginning of the sixth century these sacred ashes had been brought from +Africa to Cagliari to save them from the Vandals. For more than two +hundred years they remained at Cagliari, when, the Saracens taking the +place, Luitprand, the Lombard king, remembering S. Ambrogio and Milan, +ransomed them for a great price and had them brought in 725 to Genoa, +where they were shown to the people for many days. Luitprand himself +came to Genoa to meet them and placed them in a silver urn, discovered +at Pavia in 1695, and carried them in state across the Apennines. Some +of the beautiful Lombard towers, such as S. Stefano and S. Agostino, +where the ashes are said to have been exposed, remind us perhaps more +nearly of the Lombard dominion. Then came Charlemagne and his knights +and the great quarrel. But though Genoa now belonged to the Holy Roman +Empire, she was not strong enough to defend herself from the raids of +the Saracens, who in the earlier part of the tenth century burnt the +city and led half the population into captivity. + +Perhaps it is to Otho that Genoa owes her first impulse towards +greatness: he gave her a sort of freedom at any rate. And immediately +after his day the Genoese began to make way against the Saracens on the +seas. You may see a relic of some passing victory in the carved Turk's +head on a house at the corner of Via di Pre and Vico dei Macellai. Nor +was this all, for about this time Genoa seized Corsica, that fatal +island which not only never gave her peace, but bred the immortal +soldier who was finally to crush her and to end her life as a free +power. + +There follow the Crusades. These splendid follies have much to do with +the wealth and greatness of Genoa. It was from her port that Godfrey de +Bouillon set sail in the _Pomella_ as a pilgrim in 1095. He appears to +have been insulted at the very gate of Jerusalem, or, as some say, at +the door of the Holy Sepulchre. At any rate he returned to Europe, where +Urban II, urged by Peter the Hermit, was already half inclined to +proclaim the First Crusade. Godfrey's story seems to have decided him; +and, indeed, so moving was his tale, that the crowd who heard him cried +out urging the Pope to act, _Dieu le veult_, the famous and fatal cry +that was to lead uncounted thousands to death, and almost to widow +Europe. In Genoa the war was preached furiously and with success by the +Bishops of Gratz and Arles in S. Siro. An army of enthusiasts, monks, +beggars, soldiers, adventurers, and thieves, moved partly by the love of +Christ, partly by love of gain, gathered in Genoa. With them was +Godfrey. They sailed in 1097: they besieged Antioch and took it. Content +it might seem with this success, or fearful in that stony place of +venturing too far from the sea, the Genoese returned, not empty. For on +the way back, storm-bound perhaps in Myra, they sacked a Greek +monastery there, carrying off for their city the dust of St. John +Baptist, which to-day is still in their keeping. + +Was it the hope of loot that caused Genoa in 1099 to send even a larger +company to Judaea under the great Guglielmo Embriaco, whose tower to-day +is all that is left of what must once have been a city of towers? Who +knows? He landed with his Genoese at Joppa, burnt his ships as Caesar +did, though doubtless he thought not of it, and marching on Jerusalem +found the Christians still unsuccessful and the Tomb of Christ, as now, +ringed by pagan spears. But the Genoese were not to be denied. If the +valour of Europe was of no avail, the contrivance of the sea, the +cunning of Genoa must bring down Saladin. So they set to work and made a +tower of scaffolding with ropes, with timbers, with spars saved from +their ships. When this was ready, slowly, not without difficulty, surely +not without joy, they hauled and heaved and drove it over the burning +dust, the immense wilderness of stones and refuse that surrounded +Jerusalem. Then they swarmed up with songs, with shouting, and leapt on +to the walls, and over the ramparts into the Holy City, covered with +blood, filled with the fury of battle, wounded, dying, mad with hatred, +to the Tomb of Jesus, the empty sepulchre of God. + +Then eight days after came that strange election, when we offered the +throne of Palestine to Godfrey of Bouillon; but he refused to wear a +crown of gold where his Saviour had worn one of thorns, so we proclaimed +him Defender of the Holy Sepulchre. + +But the Genoese under Embriaco as before returned home, again not +without spoil. And their captain for his portion claimed the _Catino_, +the famous vessel, fashioned as was thought of a single emerald, truly, +as was believed, the vessel of the Holy Grail, the cup of the Last +Supper, the basin of the Precious Blood. To-day, if you are fortunate, +as you look at it in the Treasury of S. Lorenzo, they tell you it is +only green glass, and was broken by the French who carried it to Paris. +But, indeed, what crime would be too great in order to possess oneself +of such a thing? It was an emerald once, and into it the Prince of Life +had dipped His fingers; Nicodemus had held it in his trembling hands to +catch the very life of God; who knows what saint or angry angel in the +heathen days of Napoleon, foreseeing the future, snatched it away into +heaven, giving us in exchange what we deserved. Surely it was an emerald +once? Is it possible that a Genoese gave up all his spoil for a green +glass, a cracked pipkin, a heathen wash pot, empty, valueless, a +fraud?--I'll not believe it. + +Embriaco, however, returned once more to Palestine with his men, +fighting under Godfrey at Cesarea; and again he came home in triumph, +his galleys low with spoil. And indeed, though we hear no more of +Embriaco, by the end of the first Crusade, Genoa had won possessions in +the East,--streets in Jaffa, streets in Jerusalem, whole quarters in +Antioch, Cesarea, Tyre, and Acre, not to speak of an inscription in the +Church of the Holy Sepulchre, "Prepotens Genuensium Presidium," which +Godfrey had carved there, while the Pope gave them their cross of St. +George as arms, which, as some say, we got from them. + +Strangely as we may think, in the second Crusade, and even in the third, +so disastrous for the Christian arms, Genoa bore no part; no part, that +is, in the fighting, though in the matter of commissariat and shipping +she was not slow to come forward and make a fortune. And indeed, she had +enough to do at home; for Pisa, no less slow to join the Crusades, +became her enemy, jealous of her growing power and of her possession of +Corsica, so that in 1120 war broke out between them, which scarcely +ceased till Pisa was finally beaten on the sea, and the chains of Porto +Pisano were hanging on the Palazzo di S. Giorgio. + +Soon, however, Genoa was engaged in a more profitable business, an +affair after her own heart, in which valour was not its own reward,--I +mean, in the expedition in 1147 against the Moors in Spain. Certainly +the Pope, Eugenius III it was, urged them to it, but so they had been +urged to fight against Saladin without arousing enthusiasm. Yet in this +new cause all Genoa was at fever heat. Wherefore? Well, Granada was a +great and wealthy city, whereas Jerusalem was a ruined village. So they +sent thirty thousand men with sixty galleys and one hundred and sixty +transports to Almeria, which after some hard fighting, for your Moor was +never a coward, they took, with a huge booty. In the next year they took +Tortosa, and returned home laden with spoil, silver lamps for the shrine +of St. John Baptist, for instance, and women and slaves. + +Still, Genoa had no peace, for we find her making a stout and successful +defence shortly after against Frederic I, the whole city, men, women, +and children, on his approach from Lombardy, building a great wall about +the city in fifty-three days, of which feat Porta S. Andrea remains the +monument. Then followed that pestilence of Guelph and Ghibelline; out of +which rose the names of the great families, robbers, oppressors, +tyrants,--Avvocato, Spinola, Doria, the Ghibellines, with the Guelphs, +Castelli, Fieschi, Grimaldi. Nor was Genoa free of them till the great +Admiral Andrea Doria crushed them for ever. Yet peace of a sort there +was, now and again, in 1189 for instance, when Saladin won back +Jerusalem, and the Guelph nobles volunteered in a body to serve against +him, leaving Genoa to the Ghibellines, who established the foreign +Podesta for the first time to rule the city. But this gave them no +peace, for still the nobles fought together, and if one family became +too powerful, confusion became worse confounded, for Guelph and +Ghibelline joined together to bring it low. Thus in the thirteenth +century you find Ghibelline Doria linked with the Guelph Grimaldi and +Fieschi to break Ghibelline Spinola. The aspect of the city at that time +was certainly very different from the city of to-day, which is mainly of +the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries where it is not quite modern. +Then each family had its tower, from which it fought or out of which it +issued, making the streets a shambles as it followed the enemy home or +sought him out. The ordinary citizen must have had an anxious time of +it with these bands of idle cut-throats at large. But by the close of +the twelfth century the towers, at any rate, had been destroyed by order +of the Consuls, the only one left being that which we see to-day, Torre +degli Embriachi, left as a monument to a cunning valour. The thirteenth +century saw the domination of the Spinola family, or rather of one +branch of it, the Luccoli Spinola, which as opposed to the old S. Luca +branch seems to have lived nearer the country and the woods, and was +apparently most disastrous for the internal peace of the city; and +indeed, until the Luccoli were beaten and exiled, as happened in the +beginning of the fourteenth century, there could be no peace; truly the +only peace Genoa knew in those days was that of a foreign war, when the +great lords went out against Pisa or Venice. + +The Venetian war, unlike that against Pisa, ended disastrously. Its +origin was a question of trade in the East, where the Comneni had given +certain rights to Genoa which on their fall the Venetians refused to +respect. The quarrel came to a head in that cause of so many quarrels, +the island of Crete, for the Marquis of Monferrat had sold it to the +Venetians while he offered it to the Genoese, he himself having received +it as spoil in the fourth Crusade. In this quarrel with Venice, Genoa +certainly at first had the best of it. In 1261, or thereabout, she +founded two colonies at Pera and Caffa, on the Bosphorus and in the +Euxine, thus adding to her empire, which was rather a matter of business +than of dominion. This is illustrated very effectually by the history of +the Bank of St. George, which from this time till its dissolution at the +end of the eighteenth century was, as it were, the heart of Genoa. It +was Guglielmo Boccanegra, the grandfather of a more famous son, who +built the palace which, as we now see it on the quay, is so sad and +ruinous a monument to the independent greatness of the city. And since +its stones were, as it is said, brought from Constantinople, where +Michael Paleologus had given the Genoese the Venetian fortress of +Pancratone, it is really a monument of the hatred of Genoa for Venice +that we see there, the principal door being adorned with three lions' +heads, part of the spoil of that Venetian fortress. This palace, on the +death of Boccanegra, Captain of the People, was used by the city as an +office for the registration of the _compere_ or public loans, which +dated from 1147 and the Moorish expedition. From the time of the +foundation of the Bank the shares were, like our consols, to be bought +and sold and were guaranteed by the city herself, though it was not till +1407 that the loans were consolidated and the Palazzo delle Compere, as +it was called, became the Banco di S. Giorgio. Indeed, though its real +power may be doubted, it administered, in name at any rate, the colonies +of Genoa after the fall of Constantinople. + +Of the building itself I speak elsewhere; it is rather to its place in +the story of Genoa that I have wished here to draw attention. + +And it was now, indeed, that Genoa reached, perhaps, the zenith of her +power. For in 1284 comes the great victory of Meloria, which laid Pisa +low. Enraged partly at the success of Genoa in the East, partly at her +growing power and general wealth, Pisa, with that extraordinary flaming +and ruthless energy so characteristic of her, determined to dispose of +Genoa once and for all. Nor were the Genoese unwilling to meet her. +Indeed, they urged her to it. The two fleets, bearing some sixty +thousand men, that of Pisa commanded by a Venetian, Andrea Morosini, +that of Genoa by Oberto Doria, met at Meloria, not far from Bocca +d'Arno, when the Pisans were utterly defeated, partly owing to the +treachery of the immortal Count Ugolino, who sailed away without +striking a blow.[1] Yet in spite of her defeat Pisa carried on the war +for four years, when she sued for peace, which, however, she could not +keep, so that in 1290 we find Corrado Doria sailing into the Porto +Pisano, breaking the chain which guarded it, and carrying it back to +Genoa, where part of it hung as a trophy till our own time on the facade +of the Palazzo di S. Giorgio. + +Nor were the Genoese content, for soon after this victory we find them, +led by Lamba Doria, utterly beating the Venetians at Curzola, in the +Adriatic, where they took a famous prisoner, Messer Marco Polo, just +returned from Asia. They brought him back to Genoa, where he remained in +prison for nearly two years, and wrote his masterpiece. Whether it was +the influence of so illustrious a captive, or merely the natural +expression of their own splendid and adventurous spirit, about this time +the Doria fitted out two galleys to explore the western seas, and to try +to reach India by way of the sunset. Tedisio Doria and the brothers +Vivaldi with some Franciscans set out on this adventure, and never +returned. + +With the fourteenth century Genoa for a time threw off the yoke of her +great nobles, Spinola, Doria, Grimaldi, Fieschi. The wave of revolt that +passed over Europe at this time certainly left Genoa freer than she had +ever been. The people had claimed to name their own "Abbate," in +opposition to the Captain of the People. They chose by acclamation +Simone Boccanegra, who, however, seeing that he was to have no power, +refused the office. "If he will not be Abbate," cried a voice in the +crowd, "let him be Doge"; and seeing the enthusiasm of the people, this +great man allowed himself to be borne to S. Siro, where he was crowned +first Doge of Genoa for life. The nobles seem to have been afraid to +interfere, so great was the eagerness of the people. And it was about +this time that the Grimaldi, driven out of Genoa, seized Monaco, which +by the sufferance of Europe they hold to-day. It is true, that for a +time in 1344 the nobles gathered an army and returned to Genoa, +Boccanegra resigning and exiling himself in Pisa; but twelve years later +he was back again, ruling with temperance and wisdom that great city, +which was now queen of the Mediterranean sea. + +To follow the fortunes of the Republic one would need to write a book. +It must be sufficient to say here that by the middle of the century war +broke out with Venice, and was at first disastrous for Genoa. Then once +more a Doria, Pagano it was, led her to victory at Sapienza, off the +coast of Greece, where thirty-one Genoese galleys fought thirty-six of +Venice and took them captive. But the nobles were never quiet, always +they plotted the death of the Doge Giovanni da Morta, or Boccanegra. It +was with the latter they were successful in 1363, when they poisoned him +at a banquet in honour of the King of Cyprus--for they had possessed +themselves of a city in that island. Thus the nobles came back into +Genoa, Adorni, Fregosi, Guarchi, Montaldi, this time; lesser men, but +not less disastrous for the liberty of Genoa than the older families. So +they fought among themselves for mastery, till the Adorni, fearing to be +beaten, sold the city to Charles VI of France, who made them his +representative and gave them the government. And all this time the war +with Venice continued. At first it promised success,--at Pola, for +instance, where Luciano Doria was victorious, but at last beaten at +Chioggia, and not knowing where to turn to make terms, the supremacy of +the seas passed from Genoa to Venice, peace coming at last in 1381. + +Then the Genoese turned their attention to the affairs of their city. In +the first year of the fifteenth century they rose to throw off the +French yoke. But France was not so easily disposed of. She sent Marshal +Boucicault to rule in Genoa; and he built the Castelletto, which was +destroyed only a few years ago in our father's time. In 1409, however, +Boucicault thought to gain Milan, for Gian Galeazzo Visconti was dead. +In his absence the Genoese rose and threw out the French, preferring +their own tyrants. These, Adorni, Montaldi, Fregosi, fought together +till Tommaso Fregosi, fearing that the others might prove too strong for +him, sold the city to Filippo Maria Visconti, tyrant of Milan. So the +Visconti came to rule in Genoa. + +This period, full of the confusion of the petty wars of Italy, while +Sforza was plotting for his dukedom and Malatesta was building his Rocca +in Rimini; while the Pope was a fugitive, and the kingdom of Naples in a +state of anarchy, is famous, so far as Genoa is concerned, for her +victory at sea over King Alfonso of Aragon, pretender against Rene of +Anjou to the throne of Naples. The Visconti sided with the House of +Anjou, and Genoa, in their power for the moment, fought with them; so +that Biagio Assereto, in command of the Genoese fleet, not only defeated +the Aragonese, but took Alfonso prisoner, together with the King of +Navarre and many nobles. That victory, strangely enough, made an end of +the rule of the Visconti in Genoa. For, seeing his policy led that way, +Filippo Maria Visconti ordered the Genoese to send their illustrious +prisoners to Milan, where he made much of them, fearing now rather the +French than the Spaniards, since the Genoese had disposed of the latter +and so made the French all-powerful. This spoliation, however, enraged +the Genoese, who joined the league of Florence and Venice, deserting +Milan. At the word of Francesco Spinola they rose, in 1436, killed the +Milanese governor outside the Church of S. Siro, and once more declared +a Republic. To little purpose, as it proved, for the feuds betwixt the +great families continued, so that by 1458 we find Pietro Fregosi, +fearing the growing power of the Adorni, and hard pressed by King +Alfonso, who never forgave an injury, handing over Genoa to Charles VIII +of France. + +Meantime, in 1453, Constantinople had fallen before Mahomet, and the +colony of Galata was thus lost to Genoa. And though in this sorry +business the Genoese seem to be less blameworthy than the rest of +Christendom--for they with but four galleys defeated the whole Turkish +fleet--Genoa suffered in the loss of Galata more than the rest, a fact +certainly not lost upon Venice and Naples, who refused to move against +the Turk, though the honour of Europe was pledged in that cause. But all +Italy was in a state of confusion. Sforza, that fox who had possessed +himself of the March of Ancona, and had never fought in any cause but +his own, on the death of Visconti had with almost incredible guile +seized Milan. He it was who helped the Genoese to throw out the French, +only to take Genoa for himself. A man of splendid force and confidence, +he ruled wisely, and alone of her rulers up to this time seems to have +been regretted when, in 1466, he died, and was succeeded in the Duchy +of Milan by his son Galeazzo. This man was a tyrant, and ruled like a +barbarian, till his assassination in 1476. There followed a brief space +of liberty in Genoa, liberty endangered every moment by the quarrels of +the nobles, who at last proposed to divide the city among them, and +would have thus destroyed their fatherland, had not Il Moro, Ludovico +Sforza of Milan, intervened and possessed himself of Genoa, which he +held till 1499, when Louis XII of France defeated him, Genoa placing +herself under his protection. + +Meanwhile Columbus, that mystical dreamer who might have restored to +Genoa all and more than all she had lost in colonial dominion, was born +and grew up in those narrow streets, and played on the lofty ramparts +and learned the ways of ships. Genoa in her proud confusion heard him +not, so he passed to Salamanca and the Dominicans, and set sail from +Cadiz. Yet he never forgot Genoa, and indeed it is characteristic of +those great men who are without honour in their own country, that they +are ever mindful of her who has rejected them. The beautiful letter +written to the Bank of St. George in 1498 from Seville, as he was about +to set out on what proved to be his last voyage, is witness to this. + +"Although my body," he writes, "is here, my heart is always with you. +God has been more bountiful to me than to any one since David's time. +The success of my enterprise is already clear, and would be still more +clear if the Government did not cover it with a veil. I sail again for +the Indies in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, and I return at once; +but as I know I am but mortal, I charge my son Don Diego to pay you +yearly and for ever the tenth part of all my revenue, in order to +lighten the toll on wine and corn. If this tenth part is large you are +welcome to it; if small, believe in my good wish. May the Most Holy +Trinity guard your noble persons and increase the lustre of your +distinguished office." + +Such were the last words of Columbus to his native city. You may see his +birthplace, the very house in which he was born, on your left in the +Borgo dei Lanajoli, as you go down from the Porta S. Andrea. + +It was in 1499 that Louis of France got possession of Genoa. He held the +city, cowed as it was, till 1507, when, goaded into rebellion by +insufferable wrongs, the people rose and threw out his Frenchmen with +their own nobles, choosing as their Doge Paolo da Novi, a dyer of silk, +one of themselves. Not for long, however, was Paolo to rule in Genoa, +for Louis retook the city, and Paolo, who had fled to Pisa, was captured +as he sailed for Rome, and put to death. + +It was now that it came into the mind of Louis, who had learned nothing +from experience, to build another fort like to the Castelletto, to wit +the Briglia, to bridle the city. This he did, yet there lay the bridle +on which he was to be ridden back to France. For the Genoese never +forgave him his threat, which stood before them day by day, so that at +the first opportunity, Julius II, Pope and warrior, helping them, they +rose again, and again the French departed. And in 1515 Louis died, and +Francis I ruled in his stead. Then, the nobles of Genoa quarrelling as +ever among themselves, Fregoso agreed with the French king, who made him +governor of the city. The Adorni, angry at this, made overtures to the +Emperor, Charles V it was, who sent General Pescara and twenty thousand +men to take the city. There followed that most bloody sack, to the cry +of Spain and Adorni, which lives in history and in the hearts of the +Genoese to this day. This happened in 1522, and thereafter Antoniotto +Adorni became Doge as a reward for his treachery. + +But already the deliverer was at hand, scarcely to be distinguished at +first from an enemy. Five years were the length of Adorni's rule, and +all that time the French attacked and strove for the city, and in their +ranks fought he who was the deliverer, Andrea Doria, Lord Admiral of +Genoa, the saviour of his country. + +Then in 1527 the French got possession of Genoa. Now Filippino Doria, +nephew to the Admiral, had won a victory in the Gulf of Palermo over +the Spanish fleet. But Francis, that brilliant fool, thought nothing of +this service, though he claimed the prisoners for himself, for he liked +the ransom well. Then the Admiral, touched in his pride, threw over the +French cause and joined the Emperor. In 1528 a common action between the +fleet under Doria and the populace within the city once more threw out +the French, and Doria entered Genoa amid the acclamation of the +multitude, knight of the Golden Fleece and Prince of Melfi. + +This extraordinary and heroic sailor, born at Oneglia in 1466 or 1468 of +one of the princely houses of Genoa, before 1503 had served under many +Italian lords. It was in 1513 that he first had the command of the fleet +of Genoa, while three years later he defeated the Turks at Pianosa. He +helped Francis into Genoa and he threw him out; while he lived he ruled +the city he had twice subdued, and his glory was hers. Yet truly it +might seem that all Doria did was but to transfer Genoa from the +Spaniard to the Frenchman and back again. In reality, he won her for +himself. He drove the French not only out of Genoa, but out of her +dominion. He filled up the port of Savona with stones, because she had +under French influence sought to rival Genoa. With him Genoa ruled the +sea, and with his death her greatness departed. And he was as liberal as +he was powerful. Charles V knew him, and let him alone. He himself as +Lord of Genoa gave her back her liberties, set up the Senate again, +opened the Golden Book, Il Libro d'Oro, and wrote in it the names of +those who should rule; then he set up a parliament, the Grand Council of +Four Hundred, and the old quarrels were forgotten, and there was peace. + +But who could rule the Genoese, greedy as their sea, treacherous as +their winds, proud as their sun, deep as their sky, cruel as their +rocks! If the Admiral had brought the Adorni and the Fregosi low, there +yet remained the Fieschi, old as the Doria, Guelph too, while they had +been Ghibelline. + +It is true that the old quarrels were done with, yet strangely enough it +was on the Pope's behalf that the Fieschi plotted against the Doria. +Now, Pope Paul III had been Doria's friend. In 1535 he had for a +remembrance of his love given the Admiral that great sword which still +hangs in S. Matteo. But now, when Andrea's brother, Abbate di San +Fruttuoso came to die, and it was known that he had left the Admiral +much property close to Naples, the Pope, swearing that the estates of an +ecclesiastic necessarily returned to the Church, claimed Andrea's +inheritance. But the Admiral thought differently. Ordering Giannettino, +his nephew, to take the fleet to Civitavecchia, he seized the Pope's +galleys and had them brought to Genoa. Now, when the Genoese saw this +strange capture convoyed into Genoa--so the tale goes--they were afraid, +and crowded round the old Admiral, demanding wherefore he made war on +the Church, and some shouted sacrilege and others profanation, while +others again besought him with tears what it meant. And he answered, so +that all might hear, that it meant that his galleys were stronger than +those of His Holiness. + +Then the Pope, knowing his man, gave way, but forgot it not. So that he +called Gian Luigi Fieschi to him, the head of that family, a Guelph of a +Guelph stock, and put it into his mind to rise against the Admiral, and +to hold Genoa himself under the protection of Francis I. The blow fell +on 1st January 1547. Now, on the day before, the Admiral was unwell and +lay a bed, so that Fieschi waited on him in the most friendly way, and, +as it is said, kissed many times the two lads, grand-nephews of the +Admiral, who played about the room. Not many hours later, the Fieschi +were in the streets rousing the city. Giannettino, nephew to the +Admiral, hearing the tumult, ran to the Porta S. Tommaso to hold it and +enter the city, but that gate was already lost, and he himself soon +dead. Truly, all seemed lost when Fieschi, going to seize the galleys, +slipped from a plank into the water, and his armour drowned him. Then +the House of Doria rallied, and their cry rang through the city; little +by little they thrust back their enemies, they hemmed them in, they +trod them under foot; before dawn all that were left of the Fieschi were +flying to Montobbio, their castle in the mountains. Thus the Admiral +gave peace to Genoa, nor was he content with the exile or death of his +foes, for he destroyed also all their palaces, villas, and castles, +spoiling thus half the city, and making way for the palaces which have +named Genoa the City of Palaces, and which we know to-day. For thirteen +years longer Andrea Doria reigned in Genoa, dying at last in 1560. And +at his death all that might make Genoa so proud departed with him. In +1565 she lost Chios, the last of her possessions in the East, and before +long she lay once more in the hands of foreigners, not to regain her +liberty till in 1860 Italy rose up out of chaos and her sea bore the +Thousand of Garibaldi to Sicily, to Marsala, to free the Kingdom. + +IV + +As you stand under those strange arcades that run under the houses +facing the port, all that most ancient story of Genoa seems actual, +possible; it is as though in some extraordinarily vivid dream you had +gone back to less uniform days, when the beauty and the ugliness of the +world struggled for mastery, before the overwhelming victory of the +machine had enthroned ugliness and threatened the dominion of the soul +of man. In that shadowy place, where little shops like caverns open on +either side, with here a woman grinding coffee, there a shoe-maker at +his last, yonder a smith making copper pipkins, a sailor buying ropes, +an old woman cheapening apples, everything seems to have stood still +from century to century. There you will surely see the _mantilla_ worn +as in Spain, while the smell of ships, whose masts every now and then +you may see, a whole forest of them, in the harbour, the bells of the +mules, the splendour of the most ancient sun, remind you only of old +things, the long ways of the great sea, the roads and the deserts and +the mountains, the joy that cometh with the morning, so that there at +any rate Genoa is as she ever was, a city of noisy shadowy ways, cool +in the heat, full of life, movement, merchandise, and women. + +And as it happens, this shadowy arcade, so close to the hotels (under +which, indeed, you must make your way to reach one of the oldest of +these hostelries, the Hotel de la Ville), is a place to which the +traveller returns again and again, weary of the garish modernity that +has spoiled so much of the city, far at least from the tram lines that +have made of so many Italian cities a pandemonium. It is from this +characteristic pathway between the little shops that one should set out +to explore Genoa. + +Passing along this passage eastward, you soon come to the Bank of St. +George, that black Dogana, built with Venetian stones from +Constantinople, a monument of hatred and perhaps of love,--hatred of the +Venetians, of the Pisans too, for here till our own time hung the iron +chains of Porto Pisano that Corrado Doria took in 1290; and of love, +since it was to preserve Genoa and her dominion that the Banca was +founded. Over the door you may still see remnants of the device the +Guelph Fieschi Pope, Innocent VII, gave to his native city when he came +to see her, the griffin of Genoa strangling the imperial eagle and the +fox of Pisa; while under is the motto, _Griphus ut has agit, sic hostes +Genua frangit_. + +It was Guglielmo Boccanegra who built the place, as the inscription +reminds you,--it was his palace. But only the facade landward remains +from his time, with the lions' heads, the great hall and the facade +seaward dating from 1571, eleven years after Doria's death. In the tower +is the old bell which used to summon the Grand Council; it is of +seventeenth-century work, and was presented to the Bank by the Republic +of Holland.[2] + +Within, the palace is a ruin, only the Hall of Grand Council being in +any way worth a visit. Here you may see statues of the chief benefactors +of the city from the middle of the fourteenth century to the middle of +the seventeenth. And by a curious device worthy of this city of +merchants, each citizen got a statue according to his gifts. Those who +save 100,000 lire were carved sitting there, while those who gave but +half this were carved standing; less rich and less liberal benefactors +got a bust or a mere commemorative stone, each according to his +liberality, and this (strangely we may think), in a city so religious +that it is dedicated to Madonna, might seem to leave nothing for the +widow with her mite who gave more than they all. + +One comes out of that dirty and ruined place, that was once so splendid, +with a regret that modern Italy, which is so eager to build grandiose +banks and every sort of public building, is yet so regardless of old +things that one might fancy her history only began in 1860. Mr. Le +Mesurier, in the interesting book already referred to, has suggested +that this old palace, so full of memories of Genoa's greatness, should +be used by the municipality as a museum for Genoese antiquities. I +should like to raise my voice with his in this cause so worthy of the +city we have loved. Is it still true of her, that though she is proud +she is not proud enough? Is it to be said of her who sped Garibaldi on +his first adventure, that all her old glory is forgotten, that she is +content with mere wealth, a thing after all that she is compelled to +share with the latest American encampment, in which competition she +cannot hope to excel? But she who holds in her hands the dust of St. +John Baptist, who has seen the cup of the Holy Grail, whose sons stormed +Jerusalem and wept beside the Tomb of Jesus, through whose streets the +bitter ashes of Augustine have passed, and in whose heart Columbus was +conceived, and a great Admiral and a great Saint, is worthy of +remembrance. Let her gather the beautiful or curious remnants of her +great days about her now in the day of small things, that out of past +splendour new glory may rise, for she also has ancestors, and, like the +sun, which shall rise to-morrow, has known splendour of old. + +As you leave the Banca di S. Giorgio, if you continue on your way you +will come on to the great ramparts, where you may see the sea, and so +you will leave Genoa behind you; but if, returning a little on your way, +you turn into the Piazza Banchi, you will be really in the heart of the +old city, in front of the sixteenth-century Exchange, Loggia dei Banchi, +where Luca Pinelli was crucified for opposing a Fregoso Doge who wished +to sell Livorno to Florence. Passing thence into the street of the +jewellers, Strada degli Orefici, where every sort of silver filigree +work may be found, with coral and amber, you come to Madonna of the +Street Corner, a Virgin and Child, with S. Lo, the patron of all sorts +of smiths, a seventeenth-century work of Piola. These narrow shadowy +ways full of men and women and joyful with children are the delight of +Genoa. There is but little to see, you may think,--little enough but +just life. For Genoa is not a museum: she lives, and the laughter of her +children is the greatest of all the joyful poems of Italy, maybe the +only one that is immortal. + +With this thought in your heart (as it is sure to be everywhere in +Italy) you return (as one continually does) to the Arcades, and turning +to the left you follow them till you come to Via S. Lorenzo, in which is +the Duomo all of white and black marble, a jewel with mystery in its +heart, hidden away among the houses of life. + +It was built on the site of a church which commemorated the passing of +S. Lorenzo through Genoa. Much of the present church is work of the +twelfth century, such as the side doors and the walls, but the facade +was built early in the fourteenth century, while the tower and the choir +were not finished till 1617. The dome was made by Galeazzo Alessi, the +Perugian who built so much in Genoa, as we shall see later. Possibly the +bas-reliefs strewn on the north wall are work of the Roman period, but +they are not of much interest save to an archeologist. + +Within, the church is dark, and this I think is a disappointment, nor is +it very rich or lovely. Some work of Matteo Civitali is still to be seen +in a side chapel on the left, but the only remarkable thing in the +church itself is the chapel of St. John Baptist, into which no woman +may enter, because of the dancing of Salome, daughter of Herodias. There +in a marble urn the ashes of the Messenger have lain for eight +centuries, not without worship, for here have knelt Pope Alexander III, +our own Richard Cordelion, Federigo Barbarossa, Henry IV after Canossa, +Innocent IV, fugitive before Federigo II, Henry VII of Germany, St. +Catherine of Siena, and often too, St. Catherine Adorni, Louis XII of +France, Don John of Austria after Lepanto, and maybe, who knows, +Velasquez of Spain, Vandyck from England, and behind them, all the +misery of Genoa through the centuries, an immense and pitiful company of +men and women crying in the silence to him who had cried in the +wilderness. + +Other curious, strange, and wonderful things, too, S. Lorenzo holds for +us in her treasury: a piece of the True Cross set in a cruciform casket +of gold crusted with precious stones, stolen, as most relics have been, +this one from the Venetians in the fourth Crusade, when the Emperor +Baldwin, whom Venice had crowned, sent it as gift to Pope Innocent III +by a Venetian galley, which, caught in a storm, took shelter in Modone +in Hellas, where two Genoese galleys found her and, having looted her, +sent the relic to S. Lorenzo in Genoa magnanimously, as Giustiniani +says. Here also beside this wonder you may see the cup of the Holy +Grail, stolen by the French, who, forced to return it, sent this broken +green glass in place of the perfect emerald they carried away; or maybe, +who knows, it was but glass in the beginning. Yet, indeed, the Genoese +paid a great price for it, thinking it truly the emerald of the Precious +Blood, but they may have deceived themselves in the joy that followed +the winning of the Holy City: though that is not like Genoa. However +this may be, and with relics you are as like to be right as wrong +whatever your opinion, there is but little else worth seeing in S. +Lorenzo. + +As you follow the Via S. Lorenzo upwards, you come presently on your +left to the Piazza Umberto Primo, in which is the Palazzo Ducale, the +ancient palace of the Doges, rebuilt finally in 1777; and at last, +still ascending, you find yourself in the great shapeless Piazza +Deferrari, with its statue to Garibaldi, while at the top of the Via S. +Lorenzo on your right is the Church of S. Ambrogio, built by +Pallavicini, with three pictures, a Guido Reni, the Assumption of the +Virgin, and two Rubens, the Circumcision and S. Ignatius healing a +madman. Not far away (for you turn into Piazza Deferrari and take the +second street to the left, Strada S. Matteo) is the great Doria Church +of S. Matteo, in black and white marble, a sort of mausoleum of the +Doria family. Now, the family of Doria, one of the most ancient in +Genoa, the Spinola clan alone being older, emerges really about 1100, +and takes its rise, we are told, from Arduin, a knight of Narbonne, who, +resting in Genoa on his way to Jerusalem, married Oria, a daughter of +the Genoese house of della Volta. However this may be, in 1125 a certain +Martino Doria founded the Church of S. Matteo, which has since remained +the burial-place and monument of his race. Martino Doria is said to have +become a monk, and to have died in the monastery of S. Fruttuoso at +Portofino, where, too, lie many of the Doria family; but certainly as +early as 1298 S. Matteo became the monument of the Doria greatness, for +Lamba Doria, the victor of Curzola, where he beat the Venetian fleet, +was laid here, as you may see from the inscription on the old +sarcophagus at the foot of the facade of the church to the right. The +facade itself is covered with inscriptions in honour of various members +of the family: first, to Lamba, with an account of the battle. It reads +as follows: "To the glory of God and the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the +year 1298, on Sunday 7 September, this angel was taken in Venetian +waters in the city of Curzola, and in that place was the battle of 76 +Genoese galleys with 86 Venetian galleys, of which 84 were taken by the +noble Lord Lamba Doria, then Captain and Admiral of the Commune and of +the People of Genoa, with the men on them, of which he brought back to +Genoa alive as prisoners 7400, along with 18 galleys, and the other 66 +he caused to be burnt in the said Venetian waters,--he died at Savona +in 1323."[3] It was in this engagement that Marco Polo was taken +prisoner and brought to Genoa. + +The second inscription on this facade refers to the battle of Sapienza, +when in 1354 Pagano Doria beat the Venetians off the coast of Greece. It +reads as follows:[4] "In honour of God and the Blessed Mary. In the +fourth day of November 1354, the noble Lord Pagano Doria with 31 Genoese +galleys, at the Island of Sapienza, fought and took 36 Venetian galleys +and four ships, and led to Genoa 1400 men alive as captives with their +captain." + +The third inscription deals again with a defeat of the Venetian fleet, +by Luciano Doria in 1379. It reads as follows:[5] "To the glory of God +and the Blessed Mary. In the year 1379, on the 5th day of May, in the +Gulf of the Venetians near Pola, there was a battle of 22 Genoese +galleys with 22 galleys of the Venetians, in which were 4075 men-at-arms +and many other men from Pola; of which galleys 16 were taken with all +that was in them by the noble Lord Luciano Doria, Captain General of the +Commune of Genoa, who in the said battle while fighting valiantly met +his death. The sixteen galleys of the Venetians were conducted into +Genoa with 2407 captive men." + +The fourth inscription refers to the earlier victory of Oberto Doria +over the Pisans. It is as follows:[6] "In the name of the Holy Trinity, +in the year of Our Lord 1284, on the 6th day of August, the high and +mighty Lord Oberto Doria, at that time Captain and Admiral of the +Commune and of the Genoese people, triumphed in the Pisan waters over +the Pisans, taking from them 33 galleys with 7 sunk and all the rest put +to flight, and with many dead men left in the waters; and he returned to +Genoa with a great multitude of captives, so that 7272 were placed in +the prisons. There was taken Andrea Morosini of Venice, then Podesta +and Captain General in war of the Commune of Pisa, with the standard of +the Commune, captured by the galleys of Doria and brought to this church +with the seal of the Commune, and there was also taken Loto, the son of +Count Ugolino, and a great part of the Pisan nobility." + +The fifth inscription refers to the victory of Filippino Doria, nephew +to the great Admiral over the Spanish galleys in the Gulf of Salerno, +which led Andrea, to the consternation of Genoa, to attack the Pope's +galleys at Civitavecchia. + +Within, the church was altered in 1530 by Montorsoli, the Florentine who +was brought from Florence by the Admiral. And there above the high altar +hangs his sword, given him by Pope Paul III, his friend and enemy. +There, too, in the left aisle is the Doria chapel, with a picture of +Andrea and his wife kneeling before our Lord. In the crypt, which was +decorated in stucco by Montorsoli, you may see his tomb. + + Questo e quel Doria, che fa dai Pirati + Sicuro il vostro mar per tutti i lati. + +The beautiful cloister contains the statues of Andrea and Giovandrea, +broken by the people in 1797. Close by is the Doria Palace, given by the +Republic to Andrea when he refused the office of Doge. It is decorated +with the privileged black and white marble, and bears the inscription, +_Senat. Cons. Andreae de Oria Patriae Liberatori Munus Publicium_. + +If you return from S. Matteo to the Piazza Deferrari and then follow the +Via Carlo Felice (and without some sort of guidance such as this you are +like to be lost in the maze of the city) on your way to the beautiful +Piazza Fontane Marose, you pass on your left the Palazzo Pallavicini, +empty now of all its treasures. + +On your right as you enter this square of palaces is the Palazzo della +Casa, once the Palazzo Spinola, decorated with the black and white +marble, built in the early part of the fifteenth century, in the place +where the old tower of that great family once stood. It is the palace of +the oldest Genoese family, and the statues in the facade represent the +most famous members of the clan, as Oberto, the son of the founder of +this branch of the race, the Luccoli Spinola, Conrado, who ruled the +city in 1206, and Opizino, who married his daughter to Theodore +Paleologus, Emperor of Constantinople, and lived like a king and was +banished in 1309. The palace itself is said to have been built with the +remains of the Fieschi palace which the Senate destroyed in 1336. Beyond +it rise the Palazzo Negrone and the Palazzo Pallavicini, while opposite +the Negrone Palace the Via Nuova, now called Via Garibaldi (for the +Italians have a bad habit of renaming their old streets), opens, a vista +of palaces, where all the greatness and splendour of Genoa rise up +before you in houses of marble, and courtyards musical with fountains, +walls splendid with frescoes, and rooms full of pictures. + +Before passing into this street of palaces, however, the traveller +should follow the difficult Salita di S. Caterina, which climbs between +Palazzo della Casa and Palazzo Negrone towards the Acqua Sola, that +lovely garden, passing on his way the old Palazzo Spinola, where many an +old and precious canvas still hangs on the walls, and the spoiled +frescoes of the beautiful portico are fading in the sun. + +It is perhaps in the Via Garibaldi, Via Cairoli, and Via Balbi, avenues +of palaces narrow because of the summer sun, bordered on either side by +triumphant slums, that the real Genoa splendid and living may best be +surprised. Here, amid all the grave and yet homely magnificence of the +princes of the State, life, with a brilliance and a misery all its own, +ebbs and flows, and is not to be denied. Between two palaces of marble, +silent, and full maybe of the masterpieces of dead painters, you may +catch sight of the city of the people, a "truogolo" perhaps with a great +fountain in the midst, where the girls and women are washing clothes, +and the children, whole companies of them, play about the doorways, +while above, the houses, and indeed the court itself, are bright with +coloured cloths and linen drying in the wind and the sun. It is a city +like London that you discover, living fiercely and with all its might, +but without the brutality of our more terrible life, where as here +wealth rises up in the midst of poverty, only here wealth is noble and +without the blatancy and self-satisfaction you find in our squares, and +poverty has not lost all its joyfulness, its air of simplicity and +romance, as it has with us. + +It is these palaces, so noble and, as one might think, so deserted, that +Galeazzo Alessi built in the sixteenth century for the nobles of Genoa. +And it is his work, whole streets of it, that has named the city the +City of Palaces, as we say, and has given her something of that proud +look which clings to her in her title, La Superba. Yet not altogether +from the magnificence of her old streets has this name come to her, but +in part from the character of her people, and in great measure, too, +from her brave position there between the mountains and the sea, a city +of precious stone in an amphitheatre of noble hills. Nothing that Genoa +could build, steal, or win could even be so splendid as that birthright +of hers, her place among the mountains on the shores of the great sea. + +As one enters Via Garibaldi from Piazza Marose down the vistaed street +where a precious strip of the blue sky seems more lovely for the shadowy +way, the first house on the right is Palazzo Cambiaso, built by Alessi, +while on the left, No. 2, is Palazzo Gambaro, which belonged to the +Cambiaso family. No. 3 on the right is Palazzo Parodi, another of +Alessi's works, built in 1567 for Franco Lercaro; No. 4 is Palazzo +Carega; No. 5, Palazzo Spinola, again by Alessi; while Palazzo Giorgio +Doria, No. 6, was also built by him. Here, beside frescoes by the +Genoese Luca Cambiaso, you may find a Vandyck, a portrait of a lady and +a Sussanah by Veronese. In the Palazzo Adorno too, No. 10, the work of +Alessi, you may find several fine pictures, among them three trionfi in +the manner of Botticelli, and a Rubens; while in Palazzo Serra, No. 12, +but you may not enter, there is a fine hall. The Palazzo Municipale, +built by Rocco Lurago at the end of the sixteenth century, has five +frescoes of the life of the Doge Grimaldi, and Paganini's violin, a +Guarnerius, on which Senor Sarasate played not long ago. + +It is, however, in Palazzo Rosso, No. 18, possibly a work of Alessi's, +that you may see what these Genoese palaces really are, for the Marchesa +Maria Brignole-Sale, to whom it belonged, presented it to the city in +1874. It is into a vestibule, desolate enough certainly, that you pass +out of the life of the street, and, ascending the great bare staircase, +come at last on the third storey into the picture gallery. There is +after all, but little to see; for, splendid though some of the pictures +may once have been, they are now for the most part ruined. There +remains, however, a Moretto, the portrait of a Physician, and the +portrait of the Marchese Antonio Giulio Brignole-Sale on horseback, the +beautiful work of Vandyck. Looking at this picture and its fellow, the +portrait of the Marchesa, it is with sorrow we remember the fate that +has befallen so many of Vandyck's masterpieces painted in this city. For +either they have been carried away, like the magnificent group of the +Lommellini family to Edinburgh, the Marchesa Brignole with her child to +England, or they have been repainted and spoiled. + +It was in 1621, on the 3rd October, that Vandyck, mounted on "the best +horse in Rubens' stables," set out from Antwerp for Italy. After staying +a short while in Brussels, he journeyed without further delay across +France to Genoa. With him came Rubens' friend, Cavaliere Giambattista +Nani. He reached Genoa on 20th November, where his friends of the de +Wael family greeted him. + +The city of Genoa, herself without a school of painting, had welcomed +Rubens not long before very gladly, nor had Vandyck any cause to +complain of her ingratitude. He appears to have set himself to paint in +the style of Rubens, choosing similar subjects, at any rate, and thus to +have won for himself, with such work as the Young Bacchantes, now in +Lord Belper's collection, or the Drunken Silenus, now in Brussels, a +reputation but little inferior to his master's. Certainly at this time +his work is very Flemish in character, and apparently it was not till +he had been to Venice, Mantua, and Rome that the influence of Italy and +the Italian masters may be really found in his work. A disciple of +Titian almost from his youth, it is the work of that master which +gradually emancipates him from Flemish barbarism, from a too serious +occupation with detail, the over-emphasis of northern work, the mere +boisterousness, without any real distinction, that too often spoils +Rubens for us, and yet is so easily excused and forgotten in the mere +joy of life everywhere to be found in it. Well, with this shy and +refined mind Italy is able to accomplish her mission; she humanises him, +gives him the Latin sensibility and clarity of mind, the Latin +refinement too, so that we are ready to forget he was Rubens' +country-man, and think of him often enough as an Englishman, endowed as +he was with much of the delicate and lovely genius of so many of our +artists, full of a passionate yet shy strength, that some may think is +the result of continual communion with Latin things, with Italy and +Italian work, Italian verse, Italian painting, on the part of a race not +Latin, but without the immobility, the want of versatility, common to +the Germans, which has robbed them of any great painter since the early +Renaissance, and in politics has left them to be the last people of +Europe to win emancipation. + +Much of this enlightening effect that Italy has upon the northerner may +be found in the work of Vandyck on his return to Genoa, really a new +thing in the world, as new as the poetry of Spenser had been, at any +rate, and with much of his gravity and sweet melancholy or pensiveness, +in those magnificent portraits of the Genoese nobility which time and +fools have so sadly misused. And as though to confirm us in this thought +of him, we may see, as it were, the story of his development during this +journey to the south in the sketch-book in the possession of the Duke of +Devonshire. Here, amid any number of sketches, thoughts as it were that +Titian has suggested, or Giorgione evoked, we see the very dawn of all +that we have come to consider as especially his own. We may understand +how the pride and boisterous magnificence of Rubens came to seem a +little insistent a little stupid too, beside Leonardo's Virgin and Child +with St. Anne now in the Louvre, which he notes in Milan, or that Last +Supper which is now but a shadow on the wall of S. Maria delle Grazie. +And above all, we may see how the true splendour of Titian exposes the +ostentation of Rubens, as the sun will make even the greatest fire look +dingy and boastful. Gradually Vandyck, shy and of a quiet, serene +spirit, becomes aware of this, and, led by the immeasurable glory of the +Venetians, slowly escapes from that "Flemish manner" to be master of +himself; so that, after he has painted in the manner of Titian at +Palermo, he returns to Genoa to begin that wonderful series of +masterpieces we all know, in which he has immortalised the tragedy of a +king, the sorrowful beauty, frail and lovely as a violet, of Henrietta +Maria, and the fate of the Princes of England. And though many of the +pictures he painted in Genoa are dispersed, and many spoiled, some few +remain to tell us of his passing. One, a Christ and the Pharisees, is in +the Palazzo Bianco, not far from Palazzo Rosso, on the opposite side of +the Via Garibaldi. But here there is a fine Rubens too; a Gerard David, +very like the altar-piece at Rouen; a good Ruysdael, with some +characteristic Spanish pictures by Zurbaran, Ribera, and Murillo; and +while the Italian pictures are negligible, though some paintings and +drawings of the Genoese school may interest us in passing, it is +characteristic of Genoa that our interest in this collection should be +with the foreign work there. + +As you leave Via Garibaldi and pass down Via Cairoli, on your left you +pass Via S. Siro. Turning down this little way, you come almost +immediately to the Church of S. Siro. The present building dates from +the seventeenth century, but the old church, then called Dei Dodici +Apostoli, was the Cathedral of Genoa. It was close by that the blessed +Sirus "drew out the dreadful serpent named Basilisk in the year 550." +What this serpent may really have been no one knows, but Carlone has +painted the scene in fresco in S. Siro. + +Returning to Via Cairoli, at the bottom, in Piazza Zecca on your left, +is one of the Balbi palaces; while in Piazza Annunziata, a little +farther on, you come to the beautiful Church of Santissima Annunziata +del Vastato, built by Della Porta in 1587. + +Crossing this Piazza, you enter perhaps the most splendid street in +Genoa, Via Balbi, which climbs up at last to the Piazza Acquaverde, the +Statue of Columbus, and the Railway. The first palace on your right is +Palazzo Durazzo-Pallavicini, with a fine picture gallery. Here you may +see two fine Rubens, a portrait of Philip IV of Spain, and a Silenus +with Bacchantes, a great picture of James I of England with his family, +painted by some "imitator" of Vandyck, though who it was in Genoa that +knew both Vandyck and England is not yet clear; a Ribera, a Reni, a +Tintoretto, a Domenichino, and above all else Vandyck's Boy in White +Satin, in the midst of these ruined pictures which certainly once would +have given us joy. The Boy in White Satin is perhaps the loveliest +picture Vandyck left behind him; though it is but partly his after all, +the fruit, the parrot, and the monkey being the work of Snyders. + +On the other side of the Via Balbi, almost opposite the Palazzo +Durazzo-Pallavicini, is the Palazzo Balbi, which possesses the loveliest +cortile in Genoa, with an orange garden, and in the Great Hall a fine +gallery of pictures. Here is the Vandyck portrait of Philip II of Spain, +which Velasquez not only used as a model, or at least remembered when he +painted his equestrian Olivarez in the Prado, but which he changed, for +originally it was a portrait of Francesco Maria Balbi, till, as is said, +Velasquez came and painted there the face of Philip II. Certainly +Velasquez may have sketched the picture and used it later, but it seems +unlikely that he would have painted the face of Philip II, whom he had +never seen, though the Genoese at that time might well have asked him to +do so.[7] + +As you continue on your way up Via Balbi, you have on your right the +Palazzo dell' Universita, with its magnificent staircase built in 1623 +by Bartolommeo Bianco. Some statues by Giovanni da Bologna make it worth +a visit, while of old the tomb of Simone Boccanegra, the great Doge, +made such a visit pious and necessary. + +Opposite the University is the Palazzo Reale, which once belonged to the +Durazzo family. A crucifixion by Vandyck is perhaps not too spoiled to +be still called his work. + +So at last you will come to the Piazza Acquaverde and the Statue of +Columbus, which is altogether dwarfed by the Railway Station. Not far +away to the left, behind this last, you will find the great Palazzo +Doria. It is almost nothing now, but in John Evelyn's day, when +accompanied by that "most courteous marchand called Tornson," he went to +see "the rarities," it was still full of its old splendour. "One of the +greatest palaces here for circuit," he writes, "is that of the Prince +d'Orias, which reaches from the sea to the summit of the mountaines. The +house is most magnificently built without, nor less gloriously furnished +within, having whole tables and bedsteads of massy silver, many of them +sett with achates, onyxes, cornelians, lazulis, pearls, turquizes, and +other precious stones. The pictures and statues are innumerable. To this +palace belong three gardens, the first whereof is beautified with a +terrace supported by pillars of marble; there is a fountaine of eagles, +and one of Neptune, with other sea-gods, all of the purest white marble: +they stand in a most ample basine of the same stone. At the side of this +garden is such an aviary as S^r. Fra. Bacon describes in his _Sermones +Fidelium_ or Essays, wherein grow trees of more than two foote diameter, +besides cypresse, myrtils, lentiscs, and other rare shrubs, which serve +to nestle and pearch all sorts of birds, who have an ayre and place +enough under their ayrie canopy, supported with huge iron worke +stupendious for its fabrick and the charge. The other two gardens are +full of orange trees, citrons, and pomegranates; fountaines, grotts, and +statues; one of the latter is a colossal Jupiter, under which is a +sepulchre of a beloved dog, for the care of which one of this family +receiv'd of the K. of Spayne 500 crownes a yeare during the life of the +faithful animal. The reservoir of water here is a most admirable piece +of art; and so is the grotto over against it." + +Close by Palazzo Doria is the Church of S. Giovanni di Pre, with its +English tomb and Lombard tower, and memories of the two Urban popes +Urban V and Urban VI, the first of whom stayed here on his way back to +Rome from the Babylonian captivity, while the other murdered eight of +his Cardinals close by, and threw their bodies into the sea. This is the +quarter of booty, the booty of the Crusaders, and it is in such a place +and in the older part of the town near Piazza Sarzano and in the narrow +ways behind the Exchange that, as I think, Genoa seems most herself, the +port of the Mediterranean, the gate of Italy. Yet what I prefer in Genoa +are her triumphant slums, then the palaces and villas with their +bigness, so impressive for us who came from the North, which seem to be +a remnant of Roman greatness, a vision as it were of solidity and +grandeur. Something of this, it is true, haunts almost every Italian +city; only nowhere but in Genoa can you see so many palaces together, +whole streets of them, huge, overwhelming, and yet beautiful houses, +that often seem deserted, as though they belonged to a greater and more +splendid age than ours. + +It is altogether another aspect of these splendid buildings that you see +from the ramparts towards Nervi, from the height of the Via Corsica or +from the hills. From there, with the whole strength and glory of the sea +before you, these palaces, which in the midst of the city are so +indestructible and immortal, seem flowerlike, full of delicate hues, +fragile and almost as though about to fade; you think of hyacinths, of +the blossom of the magnolia, of the fleeting lilac, and the lily that +towers in the moonlight to fall at dawn. Returning to the city in the +twilight with all this passing and fragile glory in your eyes, it is +again another emotion that you receive when, on entering the city, you +find yourself caught in the immense crowd of working people flocking +homewards or to Piazza Deferrari, to the cafes, through the narrow +streets, amid swarms of children, laughing, running, gesticulating or +fighting with one another. From the roofs where they seem to live, from +the high narrow windows, the warren of houses that would be hovels in +the North, but here in the sun are picturesque, women look down lazily +and cry out, with a shrillness peculiar to Genoa, to their friends in +the street. It is a bath of multitude that you are compelled to take, +full of a sort of pungent, invigorating, tonic strength, life crowding +upon you and thrusting itself under your notice without ceremony or +announcement. If on the 2nd November you chance to be in Genoa, you will +find the same insatiable multitude eagerly flocking to the cemetery, +that strange and impossible museum of modern sculpture, where the dead +are multiplied by an endless apparition of crude marble shapes, the +visions of the vulgar hacked out in dazzling, stainless white stone. +What would we not give for such a "document" from the thirteenth century +as this cemetery has come to be of our own time. It is the crude +representation of modern Italian life that you see, realistic, unique, +and precious, but for the most part base and horrible beyond words. All +the disastrous, sensual, covetous meanness, the mere baseness of the +modern world, is expressed there with a naivete that is, by some +miraculous transfiguration, humorous with all the grim humour of that +thief death, who has gathered these poor souls with the rest because +someone loved them and they were of no account. The husk of the +immortality of the poet and the hero has been thrust upon the mean and +disgusting clay of the stockbroker; the grocer, horribly wrapped in +everlasting marble, has put on ignominy for evermore; while the +plebeian, bewildered by the tyranny of life, crouches over his dead +wife, for ever afraid lest death tap him too on the shoulder. How the +wind whistles among these immortal jests, where the pure stone of the +Carrara hills has been fashioned to the ugliness of the middle classes. +This is the supreme monument not of Genoa only, but of our time. In that +grotesque marble we see our likeness. For there is gathered in +indestructible stone all the fear, ostentation, and vulgar pride of our +brothers. Ah, poor souls! that for a little minute have come into the +world, and are eager not altogether to be forgotten; they too, like the +ancients, have desired immortality, and, seeing the hills, have sought +to establish their mediocrity among them. Therefore, with an obscene and +vulgar gesture, they have set up their own image as well as they could, +and, in a frenzied prayer to an unknown God, seem to ask, now that +everything has fallen away and we can no longer believe in the body, +that they may not be too disgusted with their own clay. Thus in frenzy, +fear, and vanity they have carved the likeness of that which was once +among the gods. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Cf. P. Villari: Primi due Secoli della Storia di Firenze (2^o +Edizione), vol. i. p. 246. + +[2] See Le Mesurier, _Genoa: Five Lectures_, Genoa, A. Donath, 1889, a +useful and informing book, to which I am indebted for more than one +curious fact. + +[3] See Le Mesurier, _op. cit._ p. 82. Le Mesurier thinks that "this +angel" refers to "the central figure in a bas-relief" above the +inscription and below the right-hand window of the church. + +[4] See Le Mesurier, _op. cit._ p. 98. + +[5] See Le Mesurier, _op. cit._ p. 107. + +[6] See Le Mesurier, _op. cit._ p. 78. + +[7] See Justi, _Velasquez and his Times_ (English translation), 1880, +page 315, and Le Mesurier, _op. cit._, page 163. + + + + +II. ON THE WAY + + +It was already summer when, one morning, soon after sunrise, I set out +from Genoa for Tuscany. The road to Spezia along the Riviera di Levante, +among the orange groves and the olives, between the mountains and the +sea, is one of the most beautiful in Europe. Forgotten, or for the most +part unused, by the traveller who is the slave of the railway, it has +not the reputation of its only rivals, the Corniche road from Nice to +Mentone, the lovely highway from Castellamare to Sorrento, or the road +between Vietri and Amalfi, where the strange fantastic peaks lead you at +last to the solitary and beautiful desert of Paestum, where Greece seems +to await you entrenched in silence among the wild-flowers. And there, +too, on the road to Tuscany, after the pleasant weariness of the way, +which is so much longer than those others, some fragment of antiquity is +to be the reward of your journey, though nothing so fine as the deserted +holiness of Paestum, only the dust of the white temple of Aphrodite +crowning the western horn of Spezia, where it rises splendid out of the +sea in the sun of Porto Venere. + +This forgotten way among the olive gardens on the lower slopes of the +mountains over the sea, seems to me more joyful than any other road in +the world. It leads to Italy. Within the gate where all the world is a +garden, the way climbs among the olives and oranges, fresh with the +fragrance of the sea, the perfume of the blossoms, to the land of +heart's desire, where Pisa lies in the plain under the sorrowful gesture +of mountains like a beautiful mutilated statue, where Arno, parted from +Tiber, is lost in the sea, dowered with the glory of Florence, the +tribute of the hills, the spoil of many streams, the golden kiss of the +sun; while Tuscany, splendid with light and joy, stands neither for God +nor for His enemies, but for man, to whom she has given everything +really without an afterthought, the songs that shall not be forgotten; +the pictures full of youth; and above all Beauty, that on a night in +spring came to her from Greece as it is said among the vineyards, before +the vines had budded. For even as Love came to us from heaven, and was +born in a stable among the careful oxen, where a few poor shepherds +found a Mother with her Child, so Beauty was born in a vineyard in the +earliest dawn, when some young men came upon the hard white precious +body of a goddess, and drew her from the earth, and began to worship +her. Then in their hearts Beauty stirred, as Love did in the hearts of +the shepherds and the kings. Nor was that vision, so full of wisdom (a +vision of birth or resurrection, was it?) less fruitful than that other +so full of Love, when Mary, coming in the twilight of dawn, saw the +angel and heard his voice, and after weeping in the garden, heard Love +Himself call her by name. Well, if the resurrection of God was revealed +in Palestine, it was here among the Tuscan hills that man rose from the +dead and first saw the beauty of the flowers and the mystery of the +hills. Here, too, is holy land if you but knew it, full of old forgotten +gods, out-fashioned deities beside whose shrines, though they be hushed, +you may still hear the prayers of worshippers, the tears of desire, the +laughter of the beloved. For the old gods are not dead. Though they be +forgotten and the voice of Jesus full of sorrowful promises has beguiled +the world, still every morning is Aphrodite new born in the spume of the +sea, and in many an isle forsaken you may catch the notes of Apollo's +lyre, while Dionysus, in the mysterious heat of midday when the +husbandman is sleeping, still steals among the grapes, and Demeter even +yet in the sunset seeks Persephone among the sheaves of corn. If Jesus +wanders in the ways of the city to comfort those who have forgotten the +sun, in the woods the gods are still upon their holy thrones, and their +love constraineth us. Immortal and beloved, how should they pass away, +for, beside their secret places, of old we have hushed our voices, and +children have played with them no less than with Jesus of Nazareth. The +gods pass, only their gifts remain, the sun and the hills and the sea, +but in us they are immortal, not one have we suffered to creep away into +oblivion. + +Thus I, thinking of the way, came to Nervi. Now the way from Genoa out +of the Pisan gate to Nervi is none of the pleasantest, being suburb all +the way; but those eight _chilometri_ over and done with, there is +nothing but delight between you and Spezia. Nervi itself, that +surprising place where beauty is all gathered into a nosegay of sea and +seashore, will not keep you long, for the sun is high, and the road is +calling, and the heat to come; moreover, the beautiful headland of +Portofino seems to shut out all Italy from your sight. Once there, you +tell yourself, what may not be seen, the Carrara hills, Spezia perhaps, +even Pisa maybe, miles and miles away, where Arno winds through the +marshes behind the Pineta to the sea. Now, whether or not in your heart +of hearts you hope for Pisa, a white peak of Carrara you certainly hope +to see, and that ... why, that is Tuscany. So you set out, leaving Genoa +and her suburb at last behind you, and, climbing among olive groves, +orange gardens, and flaming oleanders, with here a magnolia heavy with +blossom, there a pomegranate mysterious with fruit and flowers, after +another five miles you come to Recco, a modest, sleepy village, where it +is good to eat and rest. In the afternoon you may very pleasantly take +boat for Camogli, that ancient seafaring place, full of the debris of +the sea, old masts and ropes, here a rusty anchor, there a golden net, +with sailors lying asleep on the parapet of the harbour, and the whole +place full of the soft sea wind, languorous and yet virile withal, the +shady narrow ways, the low archways, the crooked steps pleasant with the +song of the sea, the rhythm of the waters. + +In the cool of the afternoon you leave Camogli and climb by the byways +to Ruta, whence you may see all the Gulf of Genoa, with the proud city +herself in the lap of the mountains, and there, yes, far away, you may +see the stainless peaks of Tuscany, whiter than snow, shining in the +quiet afternoon; and nearer, but still far away, the crest of the horn +of Spezia, with the ruined church of Porto Venere--a church or a temple, +is it?--on the headland beside the island of Palmaria. Beside you are +the sea and the hills, two everlasting things, with here an old villa, +beautiful with many autumns, in a grove of cypress, ilex, and myrtle, +those three holy trees that mark death, mystery, and love; while far +down on the seashore where the foam is whitest, stands a little ruined +chapel in which the gulls cry all day long. But your heart turns ever +toward Italy yonder--towards the hills of marble. Will one ever reach +them, those far-away pure peaks immaculate in silence, like a thought of +God in the loneliness of the mountains? Far away below you lies Rapallo +in the crook of the bay among the oleanders and vines. It is there you +must sleep, far away still from those visionary peaks, which yet will in +some strange way give you a sense of security, as though a legion of +bright angels, ghosts in the pale night (for they fade away in the +twilight), invisible to other men, were on guard to keep you from all +harm. Somehow it is always into a dreamless sleep one falls in Rapallo, +that beautiful and guarded place behind Portofino, where the sea is like +a lake, so still it is, and all the flowers of the world seem to have +run for shelter. It is as though one had seen the Holy City, and though +it was still far off, it was enough, one was content. + +[Illustration: ON THE ROAD] + +Rapallo itself, as you find on your first morning, is beautiful, chiefly +by reason of its sea-girt tower. The old castle is a prison, and the +town itself, full of modern hotels, is yet brisk with trade in oil and +lace; but it is not these things that will hold you there, but that +sea-tower and the joy of the woods and gardens. And then there are some +surprising things not far away. Portofino, for instance, with its great +pine and the ilex woods, its terraced walk and the sea, not the lake of +Rapallo, but the sea itself, full of strength and wisdom. Then there +is San Fruttuoso, with its convent among the palm trees by the seashore, +whither the Doria are still brought by sea for burial. Here they lie, +generation on generation, of the race which loved the sea; almost +coffined in the deep, for the waves break upon the floor of the crypt +that holds them. They could not lie more fitly than on the shore of this +sea they won and held for Genoa. San Fruttuoso is difficult to reach +save by sea. In the summer the path from Portofino is pleasant enough, +but at any other time it is almost impassable. And indeed the voyage by +boat from Rapallo to Portofino, and thence to San Fruttuoso, should be +chosen, for the beauty of the coast, which, as I think, can nowhere be +seen so well and so easily as here. Then, in returning to Portofino, the +road along the coast should be followed through Cervara, where Guido, +the friend of Petrarch and founder of the convent, lies buried, where +Francis I, prisoner of Charles V, was wind-bound, to S. Margherita, the +sister-town of Rapallo, and thence through S. Michele di Pagana, where +you may see a spoiled Vandyck, to Rapallo. Who may speak of all the +splendid valleys and gardens that lie along this shore, for they are +gardens within a garden, and where all the world is so fair it is not of +any private pleasaunce that one thinks, but of the hills and the +wild-flowers and the sea, the garden of God. + +And if the road, so far, from Genoa beggars description, so that I have +thought to leave it almost without a word, what can I hope to say of the +way from Rapallo to Chiavari? Starting early, perhaps in the company of +a peasant who is returning to his farm among the olives, you climb, in +the genial heat, among the lower slopes between the great hills and the +sea, along terraces of olives, through a whole long day of sunshine, +with the song of the cicale ever in your ears, the mysterious +long-drawn-out melody of the _rispetti_ of the peasant girls reaching +you ever. And then from the stillness among the olives, where the shade +is delicate and fragile, of silver and gold, and the streams creep +softly down to the sea, the evening will come as you pass along the +winding ways of Chiavari, for in the golden weather one is minded to go +softly. So in the twilight pursuing your way you follow the beautiful +road to Sestri-Levante, where again you are within sound of the sea that +breaks on the one side on a rocky and lofty shore, and on the other +creeps softly into a flat beach, the town itself rising on the +promontory between these two bays. There, under the headland among the +woods, you may find a chapel of black and white marble, surely the haunt +of Stella Maris, who has usurped the place of Aphrodite. + +Many days might be spent among the woods of Sestri, but the road calls +from the mountains, and it is ever of Tuscany that you think as you set +out at last, leaving the sea behind you for the hills, climbing into the +Passo di Bracco, that, as it seems, alone divides you from the land you +seek. It is a far journey from Sestri to Spezia, but with a good horse, +in spite of the hill, you may cover it in a single long day from sunrise +to sunset. The climb begins almost at once, and continues really for +some eighteen miles, till Baracchino and the Osteria Baracca are +reached, in a desolate region of mountains that stretch away for ever, +billow on billow. Then you descend only to mount again through the +woods, till evening finds you at La Foce, the last height before Spezia; +and suddenly at a turning of the way the sunset flames before you, +staining all the sea with colour, and there lies Tuscany, those fragile, +stainless peaks of Carrara faintly glowing in the evening sun purple and +blue and gold, with here a flush as of dawn, there the heart of the +sunset. And all before you lies the sea, with Spezia and the great ships +in its arms; while yonder, like a jewel on the cusp of a horn, Porto +Venere shines; and farther still, Lerici in the shadow of the hills +washed by the sea, stained by the blood of the sunset, its great castle +seeming like some splendid ship in the midst of the waters. From the +bleak height of La Foce, whence all the woods seem to have run down to +the shore, slowly one by one the lights of the city appear like great +golden night flowers; soon they are answered from the bay, where the +ships lie solemnly, sleepily at anchor, and at last the great light of +the Pharos throws its warning over sea and seashore; and gathering in +the distance on the far horizon, the night splendid with blue and gold, +overwhelms the world, bringing coolness and as it were a sort of +reconciliation. So it is quite dark when, weary, at last you find +yourself in Spezia at the foot of the Tuscan hills. + +Spezia is a modern city which has obliterated the more ancient +fortresses, whose ruins still guard the two promontories of her gulf. +The chief naval station in Italy, she has crowned all the heights and +islands with forts, and in many a little creek hidden away, you +continually come upon warships, naval schools, hospitals, and such, +while in her streets the sailors and soldiers mingle together, giving +the town a curiously modern character, for indeed there is little else +to call your attention. The beautiful bay which lies between Porto +Venere and Lerici behind the line of islands, that are really +fortifications, is, in spite of every violation, a spectacle of +extraordinary beauty, and in the old days--not so long ago, after +all--when the woods came down to the sea, and Spezia was a tiny village, +less even than Lerici is to-day, it must have been one of the loveliest +and quietest places in the world. Shut out from Italy by the range of +hills that runs in a semicircle from horn to horn of her bay, in those +days there were just sun and woods and sea, with a few half pagan +peasants and fishermen to break the immense silence. And, as it seems to +me, by reason of some magic which still haunts this mysterious seashore, +it is ever that world half pagan that you seek, leaving Spezia very +gladly every morning for San Terenzo and Lerici for Porto Venere and the +enchanted coast. + +Leaving Spezia very early in the morning, there is nothing more +delightful than the voyage across the land-locked bay, past the +beautiful headlands and secret coves, to San Terenzo and Lerici. If you +leave the steamer at San Terenzo, you may walk along a sort of seawall, +built out of the cliff and boulders of the shore, round more than one +little promontory, to Lerici, whose castle seems to guard the Tuscan +sea. Walking thus along the shore, you pass the Villa Magni, Shelley's +house, standing, not as it used to do, up out of the sea, for the road +has been built really in the waves; but in many ways the same still, for +instance with the broad balcony on the first storey, which pleased +Shelley so much; and though a second storey has been added since, and +even the name of the house changed, a piece of vandalism common enough +in Italy to-day, where, since they do not even spare their own +traditions and ancient landmarks, it would be folly to expect them to +preserve ours, still you may visit the rooms in which he lived with +Mary, and where he told Claire of the death of Allegra. + +The house stands facing the sea in the deepest part of the bay, nearer +to San Terenzo than to Lerici. Both Trelawney and Williams had been +searching all the spring for a summer villa for the Shelleys, who, a +little weary perhaps of Byron's world, had determined to leave Pisa and +to spend the summer on the Gulf of Spezia. Byron was about to establish +himself just beyond Livorno, on the slopes of Montenero, in a huge and +rambling old villa with eighteenth century frescoes on the walls, and a +tangled park and garden running down to the dusty Livorno highway. The +place to-day is a little dilapidated, and its statues broken, but in the +summer months it becomes the paradise of a school of girls, a fact which +I think might have pleased Byron. + +However, the Shelleys were thinking of no such faded splendour as Villa +Dupoy for their summer retreat. "Shelley had no pride or vanity to +provide for," says Trelawney, "yet we had the greatest difficulty in +finding any house in which the humblest civilised family could exist. + +"On the shores of this superb bay, only surpassed in its natural beauty +and capability by that of Naples, so effectually had tyranny paralysed +the energies and enterprise of man, that the only indication of human +habitation was a few most miserable fishing villages scattered along the +margin of the bay. Near its centre, between the villages of San Terenzo +and Lerici, we came upon a lonely and abandoned building called the +Villa Magni, though it looked more like a boat or bathing house than a +place to live in. It consisted of a terrace or ground-floor unpaved, and +used for storing boat-gear and fishing-tackle, and of a single storey +over it, divided into a hall or saloon and four small rooms which had +once been white-washed; there was one chimney for cooking. This place we +thought the Shelleys might put up with for the summer. The only good +thing about it was a verandah facing the sea, and almost over it. So we +sought the owner and made arrangements, dependent on Shelley's approval, +for taking it for six months." + +Shelley at once decided to accept the offer of this house, though it was +unfurnished. Mary and Claire presently set out for Spezia, Shelley +remaining in Pisa to manage the removal of the furniture. He reached +Lerici on 28th April, writing, immediately on his arrival, to Mary in +Spezia. + +_April 28, 1822_. + +"DEAREST MARY,--I am this moment arrived at Lerici, where I am +necessarily detained waiting the furniture, which left Pisa last night +at midnight; and as the sea has been calm and the wind fair, may expect +them every moment.... Now to business--Is the Magni House taken? if not +pray occupy yourself instantly in finishing the affair, even if you are +obliged to go to Sarzana, and send a messenger to me to tell me of your +success. I, of course, cannot leave Lerici, to which place the boats +(for we were obliged to take two) are directed. But _you_ can come over +in the same boat that brings this letter, and return in the evening. + +"I ought to say that I do not think there is accommodation for you all +at this inn; and that even if there were, you would be better off at +Spezia; but if the Magni House is taken, then there is no possible +reason why you should not take a row over in the boat that will bring +this, but don't keep the men long. I am anxious to hear from you on +every account.--Ever yours, S." + +Shelley's fears as to the accommodation of Lerici were by no means +without foundation. Within the last two years a decent inn has been open +there in the summer, but before that the primitive and not very clean +hostelry in which, as I suppose, Shelley lodged, was all that awaited +the traveller.[8] It was not for long, however, that Shelley was left in +doubt about the house. Villa Magni became his, and, after much trouble +with the furniture, for the officials put the customs duty at L300 +sterling, they were allowed to bring it ashore, the harbour-master +agreeing to consider Villa Magni "as a sort of depot, until further +leave came from the Genoese Government." + +It was here that, very soon after they had taken possession of the +house, Claire learned from Shelley's lips of the death of her child, and +on 21st May set out for Florence. A few evenings later, Shelley, walking +with Williams on the terrace, and observing the effect of the moonshine +on the water, grasped Williams, as he says, "violently by the arm and +stared steadfastly on the white surf that broke upon the beach at our +feet. Observing him sensibly affected, I demanded of him if he were in +pain; but he only answered by saying, 'There it is again--there!' He +recovered after some time, and declared that he saw, as plainly as he +then saw me, a naked child (Allegra) rise from the sea and clap its +hands as in joy, smiling at him." Was this a premonition of his own +death, a hint, as it were, that in such a place one like Shelley might +well hope for from the gods? Certainly that shore was pagan enough. +Sometimes on moonlight nights, in the hot weather, the half savage +natives of San Terenzo would dance among the waves, singing in chorus; +while Mrs. Shelley tells us that the beauty of the woods made her "weep +and shudder." So strong and vehement was her dread that she preferred to +go out in the boat which she feared, rather than to walk among the paths +and alleys of the trees hung with vines, or in the mysterious silence of +the olives. + +Thus began that happy last summer of Shelley's life. Day by day, he, +with Trelawney and Williams, watched for that fatal plaything, the +little boat _Ariel_, which Trelawney had drawn in her actual dimensions +for him on the sands of Arno, while he, with a map of the Mediterranean +spread before him, sitting in this imaginary ship, had already made +wonderful voyages. And one day as he paced the terrace with Williams, +they saw her round the headland of Porto Venere. Twenty-eight feet long +by eight she was: built in Genoa from an English model that Williams, +who had been a sailor, had brought with him. Without a deck, +schooner-rigged, it took, says Trelawney, "two tons of iron ballast to +bring her down to her bearings, and then she was very crank in a breeze, +though not deficient in beam." Truly Shelley was no seaman. "You will do +no good with Shelley," Trelawney told Williams, "until you heave his +books and papers overboard, shear the wisps of hair that hang over his +eyes, and plunge his arms up to the elbows in a tar bucket." But he +said, "I can read and steer at the same time." Read and steer! But +indeed it was on this very bay, and almost certainly in the _Ariel_, +that he wrote those perfect lines: "She left me at the silent time." + +It was here too, in Lerici, that Shelley wrote "The Triumph of Life," +that splendid fragment in _terza rima_, which is like a pageant suddenly +broken by the advent of Death: that ends with the immortal question-- + + "Then, what is life? I cried," + +which was for ever to remain unanswered, for he had gone, as he said, +"to solve the great mystery." Well, the story is an old one, I shall not +tell it again; only here in the bay of Lerici, with his words in my +ears, his house before me, and the very terrace where he worked, the +ghost of that sorrowful and splendid spirit seems to wander even yet. +What was it that haunted this shore, full of foreboding, prophesying +death? + +It was to meet Leigh Hunt that Shelley set out on 1st July with Williams +in the _Ariel_ for Leghorn. For weeks the sky had been cloudless, full +of the mysterious light, which is, as it seems to me, the most beautiful +and the most splendid thing in the world. In all the churches and by the +roadsides they were praying for rain. Shelley had been in Pisa with Hunt +showing him that most lovely of all cathedrals, and, listening to the +organ there, he had been led to agree that a truly divine religion might +even yet be established if Love were really made the principle of it +instead of Faith. On the afternoon following that serene day at Pisa, he +set sail for Lerici from Leghorn with Williams and the boy Charles +Vivian. Trelawney was on the _Bolivar_, Byron's yacht, at the time, and +saw them start. His Genoese mate, watching too, turned to him and said, +"They should have sailed this morning at three or four instead of now; +they are standing too much inshore; the current will set them there." +Trelawney answered, "They will soon have the land-breeze." "Maybe," +continued the mate, "she will soon have too much breeze; that gaff +topsail is foolish in a boat with no deck and no sailor on board." Then, +pointing to the south-west,--"Look at those black lines and the dirty +rags hanging on them out of the sky--they are a warning; look at the +smoke on the water; the devil is brewing mischief." Then the mist which +had hung all day in the offing swallowed the _Ariel_ for ever. + +It was not until many days after this, Trelawney tells us, "that my +worst fears were confirmed. Two bodies were found on the shore--one near +Viareggio, which I went and examined. The face and hands and parts of +the body not protected by the dress were fleshless. The tall, slight +figure, the jacket, the volume of Aeschylus in one pocket, and Keats' +poems[9] in the other, doubled back, as if the reader, in the act of +reading, had hastily thrust it away, were all too familiar to me to +leave a doubt in my mind that this mutilated corpse was any other than +Shelley's." + +A certain light has been thrown on the manner in which Shelley and his +friend met their death in a letter which Mr. Eyre wrote to the _Times_ +in 1875.[10] Trelawney had always believed that the Livorno sailors knew +more than they cared to tell of that tragedy. For one thing, he had seen +an English oar in one of their boats just after the storm; for another +the laws were such in Tuscany, that had a fishing-boat gone to the +rescue of the _Ariel_ and brought off the poet and his companions, she +would with her crew have been sent into quarantine for fear of cholera. +It is not, however, to the Duchy of Tuscany that Shelley owes his death, +but to the cupidity of the Tuscan sailors, one of them having confessed +to the crime of running down the boat, seeing her in danger, in the hope +of finding gold on "the milord Inglese." There seems but little reason +for doubting this story, which Vincent Eyre communicated to the _Times_ +in 1875: Trelawney eagerly accepts it, and though Dr. Garnett and +Professor Dowden politely forbear to accuse the Italians, such crimes +appear to have been sufficiently common in those days to confirm us, +however reluctantly, in this explanation. Thus died perhaps the greatest +lyric poet that even England had ever borne, an exile, and yet not an +exile, for he died in Italy, the fatherland of us all. Ah! "'tis Death +is dead, not he," for in the west wind you may hear his song, and in the +tender night his rare mysterious music; when the skylark sings it is as +it were his melody, and in the clouds you may find something of the +refreshment of his spirit. + + "Nothing of him that doth fade + But doth suffer a sea-change + Into something rich and strange." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] For the identity of this inn see Leigh Hunt, _Autobiography_. +Constable, 1903, vol. ii. p. 123. + +[9] The Keats was doubled open at the "Lamia." + +[10] _Trelawney Records_. Pickering, 1878, pp. 197-200, accepts this +story, as clearing up what for fifty years had been a mystery to him. + + + + +III. PORTO VENERE + + +It is perhaps a more joyful day that may be spent at Porto Venere, the +little harbour on the northern shores of the gulf. Starting early you +come, still before the sea is altogether subject to the sun, to a little +bay of blue clear still water flanked by gardens of vines, of agaves and +olives. Here, in silence save for the lapping of the water, the early +song of the cicale, the far-away notes of a reed blown by a boy in the +shadow by the sea, you land, and, following the path by the hillside, +come suddenly on the little port with its few fishing-boats and litter +of ropes and nets, above which rises the little town, house piled on +house, from the ruined church rising high, sheer out of the sea to the +church of marble that crowns the hill. Before you stands the gate of +Porto Venere, a little Eastern in its dilapidation, its colour of faded +gold, its tower, and broken battlement. Passing under the ancient arch +past a shrine of Madonna, you enter the long shadowy street, where red +and green vegetables and fruits, purple grapes, and honey-coloured +_nespoli_ and yellow oranges are piled in the cool doorways, and the old +women sit knitting behind their stalls. Climbing thus between the houses +under that vivid strip of soft blue sky, the dazzling rosy beauty of the +ruined ramparts suddenly bursts upon you, and beyond and above them the +golden ruined church, and farther still, the glistening shining +splendour of the sea and the sun that has suddenly blotted out the soft +sky. A flight of broken steps leads to a ruined wall, along which you +pass to the old church, or temple is it, you ask yourself, so fair it +looks, and without the humility of a Christian building. To your +right, across a tossing strip of blue water, full of green and gold, +rises the island of Palmaria, and beyond that two other smaller islands, +Tisso and Tissetto, while to your left lies the whole splendid coast +shouting with waves, laughing in the sunshine and the wind of early +morning, and all before you spreads the sea. As I stood leaning on the +ruined wall looking on all this miracle of joy, a little child, who had +hidden among the wind-blown cornflowers and golden broom on the slope of +the cliffs, slowly crept towards me with many hesitations and shy +peerings; then, no longer afraid, almost naked as he was, he ran to me +and took my hand. + +[Illustration: PORTO VENERE. + +_Alinari_] + +"Will the Signore see the church?" said he, pulling me that way. + +The Signore was willing. Thus it was, hand in hand with Eros, that I +mounted the broken steps of the tower of Venus, his mother. + +How may I describe the wonder of that place? For at last, he before, I +following, though he still held my hand, we came out of the stairway on +to a platform on the top of the tower surrounded by a broken battlement. +It was as though I had suddenly entered the last hiding-place of +Aphrodite herself. On the floor sat an old and lame man sharpening a +scythe, and beside him a little child lay among the broken corn that was +strewn over the whole platform. Where the battlements had once frowned, +now stood sheaves of smiling corn, golden and nodding in the wind and +the sun. Suddenly the lad who had led me hither seized the flail and +began to beat the corn and stalks strewn over the floor, while the old +man, quavering a little, sang a long-drawn-out gay melody, and the +little girl beat her tiny hands in time to the work and the music. Then, +unheard, into this miracle came a young woman,--ah, was it not +Persephone,--slim as an osier in the shadow, walking like a bright +peacock straight above herself, climbing the steps, and her hands were +on her hips and on her black head was a sheaf of corn. Then she breathed +deep, gazed over the blue sea, and set her burden down with its fellows +on the parapet, smiling and beating her hands at the little girl. + +Porto Venere rises out of the sea like Tintagel--but a classic sea, a +sea covered with broken blossoms. It was evening when I returned again +to the Temple of Venus The moon was like a sickle of silver, far away +the waves fawned along the shore as though to call the nymphs from the +woods; the sun was set; out of the east night was coming. In the great +caves, full of coolness and mystery, the Tritons seemed to be playing +with sea monsters, while from far away I thought I heard the lamentable +voice of Ariadne weeping for Theseus. Ah no, they are not dead, the +beautiful, fair gods. Here, in the temple of Aphrodite, on the threshold +of Italy, I will lift up my heart. Though the songs we made are dead and +the dances forgotten, though the statues are broken, the temples +destroyed, still in my heart there is a song and in my blood a murmur as +of dancing, and I will carve new statues and rebuild the temples every +day. For I have loved you, O Gods, in the forests and on the mountains +and by the seashore. I, too, am fashioned out of the red earth, and all +the sea is in my heart, and my lover is the wind. As the rivers sing of +the sea, so will I sing till I find you. As the mountains wait for the +sun, so will I wait in the night of the city. + +For my joy, and my lord the sun, I give you thanks, that he is splendid +and strong and beautiful beyond beauty. For the sea and all mysterious +things I give you thanks, that I have understood and am reconciled with +them. For the earth when the sun is set, for the earth when the sun is +risen, for the valleys and the hills, for the flowers and the trees, I +give you thanks, that I am one with them always and out of them was I +made. For the wind of morning, for the wind of evening, for the tender +night, for the growing day, take, then, my thanks, O Gods, for the +cypress, for the ilex, for the olive on the road to Italy in the sunset +and the summer. + + + + +IV. SARZANA AND LUNA + + +It was very early in the morning when I came into Tuscany. Leaving +Spezia overnight, I had slept at Lerici, and, waking in the earliest +still dawn, I had set out over the hills, hoping to cross the Macra +before breakfast. + +In this tremulous and joyful hour, full of the profound gravity of youth +hesitating on the threshold of life, the day rose out of the sea; so, a +lily opening in a garden while we sleep transfigures it with its joy. + +As I climbed the winding hill among the olives, while still a cool +twilight hung about the streets of Lerici, the sun stood up over the +sea, awakening it to the whole long day of love to come. Far away in the +early light, over a sea mysterious of blue and silver and full of +ecstasy, the coast curved with infinite beauty into the golden crest of +Porto Venere. Spezia, like a broken flower, seemed deserted on the +seashore, and Lerici itself, far below me, waking at morning, watched +the sleeping ships, the deep breathing of the sea, the shy and yet proud +gesture of the day. + +Then as I crossed the ridge of the hill and began to follow the road +downward towards Tuscany between the still olives, where as yet the +world had not seen the sun, suddenly all that beautiful world, about to +be so splendid, was hidden from me, and instead I saw the delta of a +great river, the uplifted peaks of the marble mountains, and there was +Tuscany. + +Past Arcola, that triumphal arch of the middle age, built on high like a +city on an aqueduct, I went into the plain; then far away in the +growing day I saw the ancient strongholds of the hills, the fortresses +of the Malaspina, the castles of the Lunigiana, the eyries of the eagles +of old time. There they lay before me on the hills like _le grandi +ombre_ of which Dante speaks, Castelnuovo di Magra, Fosdinovo of the +Malaspina, Niccola over the woods. Then at a turning of the way at the +foot of the hills I had traversed, under that long and lofty bridge that +has known so well the hasty footstep of the fugitive, flowed Magra. + + ... Macra, che, per cammin corto + Lo genovese parte dal Toscano. + +Thus with Dante's verses in my mouth I came into Tuscany. + +Now the way from Macra to Sarzana lies straight across that great delta +which hides behind the eastern horn of the Gulf of Spezia. At the Macra +bridge you meet the old road from Genoa to Pisa, and entering Tuscany +thus, Sarzana is the first Tuscan city you will see. Luna Nova the +Romans called the place, for it was built to replace the older city +close to the sea, the ruins of which you may still find beside the road +on the way southward, but of Roman days there is nothing left in the new +city. + +It was a fortress of Castruccio Castracani, the birthplace of a great +Pope. Of Castruccio, that intolerant great man, I shall speak later, in +Lucca, for that was the rose in his shield. Here I wish only to remind +the reader who wanders among the ruins of his great castle, that +Castracani took Sarzana by force and held it against any; and perhaps to +recall the words of Machiavelli, where he tells us that the capture of +Sarzana was a feat of daring done to impress the Lucchesi with the +splendour of their liberated tyrant. For when the citizens had freed him +from the prison of Uguccione della Faggiuola, who had seized the +government of Lucca, Castruccio, finding himself accompanied by a great +number of his friends, which encouraged him, and by the whole body of +the people, which flattered his ambition, caused himself to be chosen +Captain-General of all their forces for a twelvemonth; and resolving to +perform some eminent action that might justify their choice, he +undertook the reduction of several places which had revolted following +the example of Uguccione. Having for this purpose entered into strict +alliance with the city of Pisa, she sent him supplies, and he marched +with them to besiege Sarzana; but the place being very strong, before he +could carry it, he was obliged to build a fortress as near it as he +could. This new fort in two months' time rendered him master of the +whole country, and is the same fort that at this day is called +Sarzanella, repaired since and much enlarged by the Florentines. +Supported by the credit of so glorious an exploit, he reduced Massa, +Carrara, and Lavenza very easily: he seized likewise upon the whole +country of Lunigiana ... so that, full of glory, he returned to Lucca, +where the people thronged to meet him, and received him with all +possible demonstrations of joy. + +It is, however, rather as the home of Nicholas V, I think, that Sarzana +appeals to us to-day, than as the stronghold of Castruccio. The tyrant +held so many places, as we shall see, his prowess is everywhere, but +Tommaso Parentucelli is like to be forgotten, for his glory is not +written in sword-cuts or in any violated city, but in the forgotten +pages of the humanists, the beautiful life of Vespasiano da Bisticci. +And was not Nicholas V. the first of the Renaissance Popes, the +librarian of Cosimo de' Medici, the tutor of the sons of Rinaldo degli +Albizzi and of Palla Strozzi? Certainly his great glory was the care he +had of learning and the arts: he made Rome once more the capital of the +world, he began the Vatican, and the basilica of S. Pietro, yet he was +not content till he should have transformed the whole city into order +and beauty. In him the enthusiasm and impulse of the Renaissance are +simple and full of freshness. Finding Rome still the city of the +Emperors and their superstition, he made it the city of man. He was the +friend of Alberti, the Patron of all men of learning and poets. "Greece +has not fallen," said Filelfo, in remembering him, "but seems to have +migrated to Italy, which of old was called Magna Graecia." Yet Tommaso +Parentucelli[11] was sprung of poor parent and even though they may have +been _nobili_ as Manetti tells us, _De nobili Parentucellorum +progenie_,[12] that certainly was of but little assistance to him in his +youth. + +"Maestro Tomaso da Serezano," says Vespasiano the serene bookseller of +Florence, with something of Walton's charm--"Maestro Tomaso da Serezano, +who was afterwards Pope Nicholas V, was born at Pisa of humble parents. +Later on account of discord in that city, his father was imprisoned, so +that he went to Sarzana, and there gave to his little son in his tender +years lessons in grammar, which, through the excellence of his +understanding, he quickly learned. His father died, however, when he who +was to come to such eminence was but nine years old, leaving two sons, +our Maestro Tomaso, and Maestro Filippo, who later was Cardinal of +Bologna. Now Maestro Tomaso fell sick at that time, and his mother, +seeing him thus ailing, being a widow and having all her great hope in +her sons, was in the greatest anxiety and sorrow, and prayed God +unweariedly to spare her little son. Thus intent in prayer, hoping that +he would not die, she fell asleep about dawn, when One called to her and +said: 'Andreola (for that was her name), doubt nothing that thy son +shall live.' And it seemed in her vision that she saw her son in a +bishop's robe, and One said to her that he would be Pope. Waking then +from this dream, immediately she went to her little son and found him +already better, and to all those in the house she told the vision she +had had. Now, when the child was well, because of the steadfast hope +which the vision had given her, she at once begged him to pursue his +studies; which he did, so that when he was sixteen he had a very good +knowledge of grammar and the Latin tongue, and began to work at logic, +in order later to come at philosophy and theology. Then he left Sarzana +and went to Bologna, so that he might the better pursue his studies in +every faculty. At Bologna he studied in logic and in philosophy with +great success. In a short time he became learned in all the seven +Liberal Arts. Staying at Bologna still he was eighteen, and Master of +Arts, lacking money, it was necessary for him to go to Sarzana to his +mother, who had remarried, in order to have money to furnish his +expenses. She was poor and her husband not very rich, and then Tomaso +was not his son, but a stepson: he could not obtain money from them. +Determined to follow his studies, he thought to go to Florence, the +mother of studies and every virtue at that time. So he went thither, and +found Messer Rinaldo degli Albizzi, a most exceptional man, who carried +him off to instruct his sons, giving him a good salary as a young man of +great virtue. At the end of a year Messer Rinaldo left Florence, and +Maestro Tomaso wishing to remain in the city, he arranged for him to +enter the service of Messer Palla di Nofri Strozzi; and from him he had +a very good salary. At the end of another year he had gained so much +from these two citizens that he had enough to return to Bologna to his +studies, though in Florence he had not lost his time, for he read in +every faculty." + +Such were the early years of one of the most cultured and princely of +the Popes. Born in 1398, he was himself one of the sons of the early +Renaissance. Not altogether without pedantry, he yet by his learning, by +his patronage of scholars and artists (and indeed he was perhaps the +first Pope who preferred them to monks and friars), secured for the +Renaissance the allegiance of the Church. He died in a moment of +misfortune for Europe in 1455, just after the fall of Constantinople, +being succeeded on the throne of Christendom by Pius II, Pius Aeneas as +he called himself in a moment of enthusiasm, one of the most human of +all those men of the world who have become the vicegerent of Jesus. +Nicholas V was not a man of the world, he was a scholar, full of the +enthusiasm of his day. As a statesman, while he pacified Italy, he saw +Byzantium fall into the hands of the barbarians. He was a Pagan in whom +there was no guile. His enthusiasm was rather for Apollo and the Muses +than for Jesus and the Saints. With a simplicity touching and +delightful, he watched Sigismondo Malatesta build his temple at Rimini, +and was his friend and loved him well. Pius II, with all his love of +nature and the classics, though his own life was full of unfortunate +secrets and his pride and vanity truly Sienese, could not look on +unmoved while Malatesta built a temple to the old gods in the States of +the Church. But then Pius had not lived all the long years of his youth +at Luna Nova. Who can tell what half-forgotten deity may have found +Maestro Tomaso asleep in the woods, that magician Virgil in his +hands,--for on this coast the gods wander even yet,--and, creeping +behind him, finding him so fair, may have kissed him on the ears, as the +snakes kissed Cassandra when she lay asleep at noon in Troy of old. +Certainly their habitations, their old places may still be found. We are +not so far from Porto Venere, and then on the highway towards Massa, not +long after you have come out of the beautiful avenue of plane trees, +itself like some great temple, through which the road leaves Sarzana, +you come upon the little city of Luna, or the bright fragments of it, +among the sand of what must once have been the seashore, with here a +fold of the old amphitheatre, there the curve of the circus, while +scattered on the grass softer than sleep, you may find perhaps the +carved name of a goddess, the empty pedestal of a statue. + +Lying there on a summer day in the everlasting quietness, unbroken even +by a wandering wind or the ripple of a stream, some inkling of that old +Roman life, always at its best in such country places as this, comes to +you, yes, from the time when Juno was yet a little maid among the mossy +fountains and the noise of the brooks. Tacitus in his _Agricola_, that +consoling book, tells us of those homes of a refined and severe +simplicity in Frejus and Como, but it is to Rutilius, with his strange +gift of impressionism, you must go for a glimpse of Luna. In his +perfect verses[13] we may see the place as he found it when, gliding +swiftly on the waves, perhaps on a day like this, he came to those walls +of glistening marble, which got their name from the planet that borrows +her light from the sun, her brother. The country itself furnished those +stones which shamed with their whiteness the laughing lilies, while +their polished surface with its veins threw forth shining rays. For this +is a land rich in marbles which defy, sure of their victory, the virgin +whiteness of the snow itself. + +Well, there is but little left of that shining city, and yet, as I lay +dreaming in the grass-grown theatre, it seemed to be a festal day, and +there among the excited and noisy throng of holiday-makers, just for a +moment I caught sight of the aediles in their white tunics, and then, +far away, the terrified face of a little child, frightened at the +hideous masks of the actors. Then, the performance over, I followed home +some simple old centurion was it?--who, returned from the wars on the +far frontier, had given the city a shady walk and that shrine of +Neptune. We came at last to a country house of "pale red and yellow +marble," half farm, half villa, lying away from the white road at the +point where it begins to decline somewhat sharply to the marshland +below. It is close to the sea. Large enough for all requirements, and +not expensive to keep in repair, my host explains. At its entrance is a +modest but beautiful hall; then come the cloisters, which are rounded +into the likeness of the letter D, and these enclose a small and pretty +courtyard. These cloisters, I am told, are a fine refuge in a storm, for +they are protected by windows and deep over-hanging eaves. Facing the +cloisters is a cheerful inner court, then the dining-room towards the +seashore, fine enough for anyone, as my host asserts, and when the +south-west wind is blowing the room is just scattered by the spray of +the spent waves. On all sides are folding doors, or windows quite as +large as doors, so that from two sides and the front you command a +prospect of three seas as it were; while at the back, as he shows me, +one can see through the inner court to the woods or the distant hills. +Just then the young mistress of the place comes to greet me, bidden by +my host her father, and in a moment I see the nobility of this life, +full of pure and honourable things, together with a certain simplicity +and sweetness. Seeing my admiration, my host speaks of his daughter, of +her love for him, of her delight in his speeches,--for he is of +authority in the city,--of how on such occasions she will sit screened +from the audience by a curtain, drinking in what people say to his +credit. He smiles as he tells me this, adding she has a sharp wit, is +wonderfully economical, and loves him well; and indeed she is worthy of +him, and doubtless, as he says, of her grandfather. Then my proud old +centurion leads me down the alleys of his garden full of figs and +mulberries, with roses and a few violets, till in the perfect stillness +of this retreat we come to the seashore, and there lies the white city +of Luna glistening in the sun. As I take my leave, reluctantly, for, I +would stay longer, my hostess is so sweet, my host so charming, I catch +sight of the name of the villa cut into the rosy marble of the gates: +"Ad Vigilias Albas" I read, and then and then ... Why, what is this? I +must have fallen asleep in that old theatre among the debris and the +fine grass. Ad Vigilias Albas--"White Nights," nights not of quite blank +forgetfulness, certainly. But it is with the ancestors of Marius I seem +to have been talking in the old city of Luna, that in his day had +already passed away.[14] + +It was sunset when I found myself at the door of the Inn in Sarzana. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] Even the name is uncertain. In the Duomo here, in Cappella di S. +Tommaso, you may find his mother's grave, on which she is called +Andreola dei Calandrini. His uncle, however, is called J.P. +Parentucelli. In two Bulls of Felix V he is called Thomas de +Calandrinis; cf. Mansi, xxxi. 190. + +[12] Muratori, _Rer. Ital. Scrip._, III. ii. 107. + +[13] Sed deverticulo fuimus fortasse loquaces: + Carmine propositum jam repetamus iter. + Advehimur celeri candentia moenia lapsu: + Nominis est auctor sole corusca soror. + Indigenis superat ridentia lilia saxis, + Et levi radiat picta nitore silex. + Dives marmoribus tellus, quae luce coloris + Provocat intactas luxuriosa nives. + +[14] You may see the place to-day--but it is of plaster now--as Pater +describes it.--_Marius the Epicurian_, vol. i. 20. + + + + +V. CARRARA, MASSA DUCALE, PIETRA-SANTA, VIAREGGIO + + +And truly it is into a city of marble that you come, when, following the +dusty road full of the ruts of the bullock-wagons, past Avenza, that +little city with a great castle of Castruccio Castracani, after climbing +into the gorge where the bullocks, a dozen of them it may be, yoked to a +single dray, take all the way, you enter the cold streets of Carrara, +that are always full of the sound of falling water. And strangely +enough, as one may think, in this far-away place, so close to the +mountains as to be littered by their debris, it is an impression of +business and of life that you receive beyond anything of the sort to be +found in Spezia. Not a beautiful city certainly, Carrara has a little +the aspect of an encampment, an encampment that has somehow become +permanent, where everything has been built in a hurry, as it were, of +the most precious and permanent material. So that, while the houses are +of marble, they seem to be with but few exceptions mere shanties without +beauty of any sort, that were built yesterday for shelter, and to-morrow +will be destroyed. It is true that the Church of S. Andrea is a building +of the thirteenth century, in the Gothic manner, with a fine facade and +sculptures of a certain merit, but it fails to impress itself on the +town, which is altogether alien from it, modern for the most part in the +vulgar way of our time, when ornament is a caprice of the rich and +merely ostentatious, the many living, without beauty or light, in +barracks or huts of a brutal and hideous uniformity. + +It was a Sunday evening when I came to Carrara; all that world of +labouring men and women was in the streets; in the piazza a band played; +close to the hotel, in a tent set up for the occasion, a particularly +atrocious collection of brass instruments were being blown with might +and main to attract the populace to a marionette performance. The whole +world seemed dizzy with noise. After dinner I went out into the streets +among the people, but it was not any joy I found there, only a mere +brutal cessation from toil, in which amid noise and confusion, the +labourer sought to forget his labour. More and more as I went among them +it seemed to me that the mountains had brutalised those who won from +them their snowy treasure. In all Carrara and the valley of Torano I saw +no beautiful or distinguished faces,--the women were without sweetness, +the men a mere gang of workmen. Now, common as this is in any +manufacturing city of the North, it is very uncommon in Italy, where +humanity has not been injured and enslaved by machinery as it has with +us. You may generally find beauty, sweetness, or wisdom in the faces of +a Tuscan crowd in any place. Only here you will see the man who has +become just the fellow-labourer of the ox. + +I understood this better when, about four o'clock on the next morning, I +went in the company of a lame youth into the quarries themselves. There +are some half-dozen of them, glens of marble that lead you into the +heart of the mountains, valleys without shade, full of a brutal +coldness, an intolerable heat, a dazzling light, a darkness that may be +felt. Torano, that little town you come upon at the very threshold of +the quarries, is like a town of the Middle Age, full of stones and +refuse and narrow ways that end in a blind nothingness, and low houses +without glass in the windows, and dogs and cats and animals of all +sorts, goats and chickens and pigs, among which the people live. Thus +busy with the frightful labour among the stones in the heart of the +mountains, where no green thing has ever grown or even a bird built her +nest, where in summer the sun looks down like some enormous moloch, and +in winter the frost and the cold scourge them to their labour in the +horrid ghostly twilight, the people work. The roads are mere tracks +among the blocks and hills of broken marble, yellow, black, and white +stones, that are hauled on enormous trolleys by a line of bullocks in +which you may often find a horse or a pony. Staggering along this way of +torture, sweating, groaning, rebelling, under the whips and curses and +kicks of the labourers, who either sit cursing on the wagon among the +marble, or, armed with great whips, slash and cut at the poor capering, +patient brutes, the oxen drag these immense wagons over the sharp +boulders and dazzling rocks, grinding them in pieces, cutting themselves +with sharp stones, pulling as though to break their hearts under the +tyranny of the stones, not less helpless and insensate than they. Here +and there you may see an armed sentry, as though in command of a gang of +convicts, here and there an official of some society for the protection +of animals, but he is quite useless. Whether he be armed to quell a +rebellion or to put the injured animals out of their pain, I know not. +In any case, he is a sign of the state of life in these valleys of +marble. Out of this insensate hell come the impossible statues that grin +about our cities. Here, cut by the most hideous machinery with a noise +like the shrieking of iron on iron, the mantelpieces and washstands of +every jerry-built house and obscene emporium of machine-made furniture +are sawn out of the rock. There is no joy in this labour, and the +savage, harsh yell of the machines drowns any song that of old might +have lightened the toil. Blasted out of the mountains by slaves, some +13,000 of them, dragged by tortured and groaning animals, the marble +that might have built a Parthenon is sold to the manufacturer to +decorate the houses of the middle classes, the studios of the +incompetent, the streets of our trumpery cities. Do you wonder why +Carrara has never produced a sculptor? The answer is here in the +quarries that, having dehumanised man, have themselves become obscene. +The frightful leprous glare of crude whiteness that shines in every +cemetery in Europe marks only the dead; the material has in some +strange way lost its beauty, and with the loss of beauty in the material +the art of sculpture has been lost. These thousands of slaves who are +hewing away the mountains are ludicrous and ridiculous in their +brutality and absurdity. They have sacrificed their humanity for no end. +The quarries are worked for money, not for art. The stone is cut not +that Rodin may make a splendid statue, but that some company may earn a +dividend. As you climb higher and higher, past quarry after quarry, it +is a sense of slavery and death that you feel. Everywhere there is +struggle, rebellion, cruelty; everywhere you see men, bound by ropes, +slung over the dazzling face of the cliffs, hacking at the mountains +with huge iron pikes, or straining to crash down a boulder for the ox +wagons. As you get higher an anxious and disastrous silence surrounds +you, the violated spirit of the mountains that has yielded itself only +to the love of Michelangelo seems to be about to overwhelm you in some +frightful tragedy. In the shadowless cool light of early morning, these +pallid valleys, horrid with noise of struggle and terror, the snorting +of a horse, the bellow of a bullock in pain, seem like some fantastic +dream of a new Inferno; but when at last the enormous sun has risen over +the mountains, and flooded the glens with furious heat, it is as though +you walked in some delirium, a shining world full of white fire dancing +in agony around you. You stumble along, sometimes waiting till a wagon +and twelve oxen have been beaten and thrust past you on the ascent, +sometimes driven half mad by the booming of the dynamite, here threading +an icy tunnel, there on the edge of a precipice, almost fainting in the +heat, listening madly to the sound of water far below. Then, as you +return through the sinister town of Torano with its sickening sights and +smells, you come into the pandemonium of the workshops, where nothing +has a being but the shriek of the rusty saws drenched with water, driven +by machinery, cutting the marble into uniform slabs to line urinals or +pave a closet. At last, in a sort of despair, overwhelmed with heat and +noise, you reach your inn, and though it be midday in July, you seize +your small baggage and set out where the difficult road leads out of +this spoiled valley to the olives and the sea. + + * * * * * + +It was midday when, in spite of the sun, I set out up the long hill that +leads to La Foce and Massa from Carrara. It is a road that turns +continually on itself, climbing always, among the olive woods and +chestnuts, where the girls sing as they herd the goats, and the pleasant +murmur of the summer, the song of the cicale, the wind of the hills, +cleanse your heart of the horror of Carrara. Climbing thus at peace with +yourself for a long hour, you come suddenly to La Foce, a sort of ridge +or pass between the loftier hills, whence you may see the long-hidden +sea, and Montignoso, that old Lombard castle still fierce above the +olive woods, and Massa itself, Massa Ducale, a lofty precipitous city +crowned by an old fortress. Who may describe the beauty of the way under +the far-away peaks of marble, splendid in their rugged gesture, their +immortal perfection and indifference! And indeed, from La Foce all the +noise and cruelty of that life in the quarries at Carrara is forgotten. +As you begin to descend by the beautiful road that winds along the sides +of the hills, the burden of those immense quarries, echoing with cries +of distress inarticulate and pitiful, falls away from one. Here is Italy +herself, fair as a goddess, delicate as a woman, forlorn upon the +mountains. Everywhere in the quiet afternoon songs come to you from the +shady woods, from the hillsides and the streams. Something of the +simplicity and joy of a life we have only known in our hearts is +expressed in every fold of the mountains, olive clad and terraced with +walks and vines, where the husbandman labours till evening and the corn +is ripe or reaping, and the sound of the flute dances like a fountain in +the shade. And so, when at evening you enter the noble city of Massa, +among the women sitting at their doors sewing or knitting in the sunset, +while the children, whole crowds of them, play in the narrow streets, +their laughter echoing among the old houses as the sun dances in a +narrow valley, or you pass among the girls who walk together in a +nosegay, arm in arm, or the young men who lounge together in a crowd +against the houses watching them, there is joy in your heart, because +this is life, simple and frank and full of hope, without an afterthought +or a single hesitation of doubt or fear. + +There is little to be seen at Massa that is not just the natural beauty +of the place, set like a flower among the woods, that climb up to the +marble peaks. Not without a certain interest you come upon the +Prefettura, which once was the summer castle of Elisa Baciocchi, +Napoleon's sister, who as a gift from him held Lucca, and was much +beloved, from 1805 to 1814. And joyful as the country is under that +impartial sun, before that wide and ancient sea, among her quiet woods +and broken shrines, it is not without a kind of hesitation and shame +almost that you learn that the great fortress which crowns the city is +now a prison in which are many half-witted unhappy folk, who in this +transitory life have left the common way. It is strange that in so many +lands the prison is so often in a place of the greatest beauty. At +Tarragona, far away over the sea looking towards Italy, the hospital of +those who have for one cause or another fallen by the way is set by the +sea-shore, almost at the feet of the waves, so that in a storm the +momentary foam from those restless, free waters must often be scattered +about the courtyard, where those who have injured us, and whom in our +wisdom we have deprived of the world, are permitted to walk. It is much +the same in Tangier, where the horrid gaol, always full of groans and +the torture of the bastinado, is in the dip of the Kasbah, where it +joins the European city with nothing really between it and the Atlantic. +In Massa these prisoners and captives can see the sea and the great +mountains, and must often hear the piping of those who wander freely in +the woods. Even in Italy, it seems, where the criminal is beginning to +be understood as a sick person, they have not yet contrived to banish +the older method of treatment: as who should say, you are ill and +fainting with anaemia, come let me bleed you. + +It is at Massa that on your way south you come again into the highroad +from Genoa to Pisa, for while, having left it at Spezia, you found it +again at Sarzana, it was a by-road that led you to Carrara and again to +Massa Ducale. Now, though the way you seek be the highway of the +pilgrims, it is none the better as a road for that. For the wagons +bringing marble to the cities by the way have spoiled it altogether, so +that you find it ground with ruts six inches deep and smothered in dust; +therefore, if you come by carriage, and still more if you be _en +automobile_, it is necessary to go warily. On foot nothing matters but +the dust, and if you start early from Massa that will not annoy you, for +in the early morning, for some reason of the gods, the dust lies on the +highway undisturbed, while by ten o'clock the air is full of it. It is a +bad road then all the way to Pietrasanta, but most wonderful and lovely +nevertheless. For the most part the sea is hidden from you, for you are +in truth on the sea-shore, though far enough from the waves, a land of +fields and cucumbers coming between road and water. Swinging along in +the dawn, you soon pass that old castle of Montignoso, crumbling on its +high rock, built by the Lombard Agilulf to hold the road to Italy. Then +not without surprise you pass quite under an old Albergo which crosses +the way, where certainly of old the people of Massa took toll of the +Tuscans, and the Tuscans taxed all who came into their country. Then the +road winds through a gorge beside a river, and at last between delicious +woods of olives full of silver and golden shade most pleasant in the +heat, past Seravezza in the hills, you come to the little pink and white +town of Pietrasanta under the woods, at noon. + +Pietrasanta is set at the foot of the Hills of Paradise, littered with +marble, planted with figs and oleanders, full of the sun. For hours you +may climb among the olives on the hills, terraced for vines, shimmering +in the heat; and resting there, watch the sleepy sea lost in a silver +mist, the mysterious blue hills, listening to the songs of the maidens +in the gardens. Thus watching the summer pass by, caught by her beauty, +lying on an old wall beautiful with lichen and the colours of many +autumns, suddenly you may be startled by the stealthy, unconcerned +approach of a great snake three feet long at least, winding along the +gully by the roadside. Half fascinated and altogether fearful, you watch +her pass by till she disappears bit by bit in an incredibly small +fissure in the vineyard wall, leaving you breathless. Or all day long +you will lie under the olives waiting for the coolness of evening, +listening to the sound of everlasting summer, the piping of a shepherd, +the little lovely song of a girl, the lament of the cicale. Then +returning to Pietrasanta, you will sit in the evening perhaps in the +Piazza there, quite surrounded by the old walls, with its mediaeval air, +its lovely Municipio and fine old Gothic churches. Here you may watch +all the city, the man and his wife and children, the young girls +laughing together, conscious of the shy admiration of the youth of the +place; and you will be struck by the beauty of these people, peasants +and workmen, their open, frank faces, their grace and strength, their +unconcerned delight in themselves, their air of distinction too, coming +to them from a long line of ancestors who have lived with the earth, the +mountains, and the sea. + +Then in the early morning, perhaps, you will enter S. Martino and hear +the early Mass, where there are still so many worshippers, and then, +lingering after the service, you will admire the pulpit, carved really +by one of those youths whose frankness and grace surprised you in the +Piazza on the night before--Stagio Stagi, a native of this place, a fine +artist whose work continually meets you in Pietrasanta. Indeed, in the +choir of the church there are some candelabra by him, and an altar, +built, as it is said, out of two confessional boxes. In the Baptistery +close by are some bronzes, said to be the work of Donatello, and some +excellent sculptures by Stagio; while, as though to bear out the hidden +paganism, some dim memory of the old gods, that certainly haunts this +shrine, the font is an old Roman _tazza_, carved with Tritons and +Neptune among the waves; but over it now stands another supposed work of +Donatello, S. Giovanni Battista, reconciled, as we may hope, with those +whose worship he has usurped. + +The facade of S. Martino is of the fourteenth century, as is that of S. +Agostino, its neighbour, where you may find another altar by Stagio. + +Then it may be at evening you seek the sea-shore, that mysterious, +forlorn coast where the waves break almost with a caress. It was here, +or not far away, somewhere between this little wonderful city and +Viareggio, then certainly a mere village, that Shelley's body was +burned, as Trelawney records.[15] "The lovely and grand scenery that +surrounded us," he says, "so exactly harmonised with Shelley's genius, +that I could imagine his spirit soaring over us.... Not a human dwelling +was in sight.... I got a furnace made at Leghorn of iron bars and strong +sheet-iron supported on a stand, and laid in a stock of fuel and such +things as were said to be used by Shelley's much-loved Hellenes on their +funeral pyres.... At ten on the following morning, Captain S. and +myself, accompanied by several officers of the town, proceeded in our +boat down the small river which runs through Via Reggio (and forms its +harbour for coasting vessels) to the sea.[16] Keeping along the beach +towards Massa, we landed at about a mile from Via Reggio, at the foot of +the grave; the place was noted by three wand-like reeds stuck in the +sand in a parallel line from high to low-water mark. Doubting the +authenticity of such pyramids, we moved the sand in the line indicated, +but without success. I then got five or six men with spades to dig +transverse lines. In the meanwhile Lord Byron's carriage with Mr. Leigh +Hunt arrived, accompanied by a party of dragoons and the chief officers +of the town. In about an hour, and when almost in despair, I was +paralysed with the sharp and thrilling noise a spade made in coming in +direct contact with the skull. We now carefully removed the sand. This +grave was even nearer the sea than the other [Williams's], and although +not more than two feet deep, a quantity of the salt water oozed in. + +"... We have built a much larger pile to-day, having previously been +deceived as to the immense quantity of wood necessary to consume a body +in the unconfined atmosphere." Mr. Shelley had been reading the poems of +"Lamia" and "Isabella" by Keats, as the volume was found turned back +open in his pocket; so sudden was the squall. The fragments being now +collected and placed in the furnace here fired, and the flames ascended +to the height of the lofty pines near us. We again gathered round, and +repeated, as far as we could remember, the ancient rites and ceremonies +used on similar occasions. Lord B. wished to have preserved the skull, +which was strikingly beautiful in its form. It was very small and very +thin, and fell to pieces on attempting to remove it. + +"Notwithstanding the enormous fire, we had ample time e'er it was +consumed to contemplate the singular beauty and romantic wildness of the +scenery and objects around us. Via Reggio, the only seaport of the Duchy +of Lucca, built and encompassed by an almost boundless expanse of deep, +dark sand, is situated in the centre of a broad belt of firs, cedars, +pines, and evergreen oaks, which covers a considerable extent of +country, extending along the shore from Pisa to Massa. The bay of Spezia +was on our right, and Leghorn on our left, at almost equal distances, +with their headlands projecting far into the sea, and forming this whole +space of interval into a deep and dangerous gulf. A current setting in +strong, with a N.W. gale, a vessel embayed here was in a most perilous +situation; and consequently wrecks were numerous: the water is likewise +very shoal, and the breakers extend a long way from the shore. In the +centre of this bay my friends were wrecked, and their bodies tossed +about--Captain Williams seven, and Mr. Shelley nine days, e'er they were +found. Before us was a most extensive view of the Mediterranean, with +the isles of Gorgona, Caprera, Elba, and Corsica in sight. All around +us was a wilderness of barren soil with stunted trees, moulded into +grotesque and fantastic forms by the cutting S.W. gales. At short and +equal distances along the coast stood high, square, antique-looking +towers, with flagstaff's on the turrets, used to keep a look-out at sea +and enforce the quarantine laws. In the background was the long line of +the Italian Alps. + +"... After the fire was kindled ... more wine was poured over Shelley's +dead body than he had consumed during his life. This, with the oil and +salt, made the yellow flames glisten and quiver.... The only portions +that were not consumed were some fragments of bones, the jaw and the +skull; but what surprised us all was that the heart remained entire. In +snatching this relic from the fiery furnace my hand was severely burnt; +and had anyone seen me do the act I should have been put in quarantine." +Shelley's ashes were taken to Rome, and buried in the English cemetery +there, a place he loved, that is perhaps the most beautiful of the +beautiful graveyards of Italy. + +Of Viareggio itself there is little to be said. It is a town by the +seaside, full in summer of holiday-making Tuscans from Florence and the +cities round about. A pretty place enough, it possesses an unique +market-place covered in by ancient twisted plane trees, where the old +women chaffer with the cooks and contadine. But nothing, as it seems to +me, and certainly not so modern a place as Viareggio, will keep you long +from Pisa. Even on the dusty way from Pietrasanta, at every turn of the +road one has half expected to see the leaning tower and the Duomo. And +it is really with an indescribable impatience you spend the night in +Viareggio. Starting at dawn, still without a glimpse of Pisa, you enter +the Pineta before the sun, that lovely, green, cool forest full of +silver shadows, with every here and there a little farm for the pine +cones, about which they are heaped in great banks. Coming out of this +wood on the dusty road in the golden heat, between fields of cucumbers, +you meet market carts and contadini returning from the city. Then you +cross the Serchio in the early light, still and mysterious as a river +out of Malory. And at last, suddenly, like a mirage, the towers of Pisa +rise before you, faint and beautiful as in a dream. As you turn to look +behind you at the world you are leaving, you find that the mountains, +those marvellous Apuan Alps with their fragile peaks, have been lost in +the distance and the sky; and so, with half a regret, full of expectancy +and excitement nevertheless, you quicken your pace, and even in the heat +set out quickly for the white city before you,--Pisa, once lord of the +sea, the first great city of Tuscany. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] I no longer believe it is possible to be certain of the place. At +any rate, all the guide-books, Baedeker, Murray, and Hare, are wrong, +though not so far out as that gentleman who, having assured us that +Boccaccio was a "little priest," and that Petrarch, Poliziano, Lorenzo, +and Pulci were of no account as poets, remarks that Shelley's body was +found at Lerici, and that he was burned close by. + +[16] See Carmichael, _The Old Road_, etc., pp. 183-202. + + + + +VI. PISA + +I + + +To enter Pisa by the Porta Nuova, coming at once into the Piazza del +Duomo, is as though at midday, on the highway, one had turned aside into +a secret meadow full of a strange silence and dazzling light, where have +been abandoned among the wild flowers the statues of the gods. For the +Piazza is just that--a meadow scattered with daisies, among which, as +though forgotten, stand unbroken a Cathedral, a Baptistery, a Tower, and +a Cemetery, all of marble, separate and yet one in the consummate beauty +of their grouping. And as though weary of the silence and the light, the +tower has leaned towards the flowers, which may fade and pass away. So +amid the desolation of the Acropolis must the statues of the Parthenon +have looked from the hills and the sea, with something of this abandoned +splendour, this dazzling solitude, this mysterious calm silence, +satisfied and serene. + +Wherever you may be in Pisa, you cannot escape from the mysterious +influence of those marvellous ghosts that haunt the verge of the city, +that corner apart where the wind is white on the grass, and the shadows +steal slowly through the day. The life of the world is far away on the +other side of the city; here is only beauty and peace. + +If you come into the Piazza, as most travellers do, from the Lung' Arno, +as you turn into the Via S. Maria or out of the Borgo into the beautiful +Piazza dei Cavalieri, gradually as you pass on your way life hesitates +and at last deserts you. In the Via S. Maria, for instance, that winds +like a stream from the Duomo towards Arno, at first all is gay with the +memory and noise of the river, the dance of the sun and the wind. Then +you pass a church; some shadow seems to glide across the way, and it is +almost in dismay you glance up at the silent palaces, the colour of +pearl, barred and empty; and then looking down see the great paved way +where your footsteps make an echo; while there amid the great slabs of +granite the grass is peeping. It is generally out of such a shadowy +street as this that one comes into the dazzling Piazza del Duomo. But +indeed, all Pisa is like that. You pass from church to church, from one +deserted Piazza to another, and everywhere you disturb some shadow, some +silence is broken, some secret seems to be hid. The presence of those +marvellous abandoned things in the far corner of the city is felt in +every byway, in every alley, in every forgotten court. "Amid the +desolation of a city" this splendour is immortal, this glory is not +dead. + +II + +"Varie sono le opinioni degli Scrittori circa l'edificazione di Pisa," +says Tronci in his _Annali Pisani_, published at Livorno in the +seventeenth century. "Various are the opinions of writers as to the +building of Pisa, but all agree that it was founded by the Greeks. Cato +in his _Fragment_, and Dionysius Halicarnassus in the first book of his +_History_, affirm that the founders were the Pisi Alfei Pelasgi, who had +for their captain the King Pelops, as Pliny says in his _Natural +History_ (lib. 5), and Solinus too, as though it were indubitable: who +does not know that Pisa was from Pelops?" Certainly Pisa is very old, +and whether or no King Pelops, as Pliny thought, founded the city, the +Romans thought her as old as Troy. In 225 B.C. she was an Etruscan city, +and the friend of Rome; in Strabo's day she was but two miles from +the sea; Caesar's time she became a Roman military station; while in 4 +A.D. we read that the disturbances at the elections were so serious that +she was left without magistrates. That fact in itself seems to bring the +city before our eyes: it is so strangely characteristic of her later +history. + +[Illustration: PISA + +_Alinari_] + +But in spite of her enormous antiquity, there are very few left of her +Etruscan and Roman days, the remains of some Roman Thermae, Bagni di +Nerone near the Porta Lucca being, indeed, all that we may claim, save +the urns and sarcophagi scattered in the Campo Santo, from the great +days of Rome. The glory of Pisa is the end of the Middle Age and the +early dawn of the Renaissance. There, amid all the hurly-burly and +terror of invasion and civil wars, she shines like a beacon beside the +sea, proud, brave, and full of hope, almost the only city not altogether +enslaved in a country in the grip of the barbarian, almost overwhelmed +by the Lombards. And indeed, she was one of the first cities of Italy to +fling off the Lombard yoke. Favoured by her position on the shores of +the Tyrrhenian Sea, yet not so near the coast as to invite piracy, she +waged incessant war on Greek and Saracen. Lombardy, heavy with conquest, +fearful for her prize, which was Italy, was compelled to encourage the +growth of the naval cities. It was on the sea that the future of Pisa +lay, like the glory of the sun that in its splendour and pride passes +away too soon. + +Already in the ninth century we hear of her prowess at Salerno, while in +the tenth, having possessed herself of her own government under consuls, +she sent a fleet to help the Emperor Otho II in Sicily. Fighting without +respite or rest, continually victorious, never downhearted, she had +opened the weary story of the civil strife of Italy with a war against +Lucca, in the year 1004.[17] It was the first outburst of that hatred +in her heart which in the end was to destroy her for she died of a +poverty of love. + +In 1005, still with her fleet engaged in Sicilian waters, the Arab +pirates fell upon her, and, forcing the harbour, sacked a whole quarter +of the city. For the time Pisa could do little against the foes of +Europe, but in 1016 she allied herself with that city which proved at +last to be her deadliest foe, Genoa the Proud, and the united fleets +swept down on Sardinia for vengeance. It was this victorious expedition +that aroused the hatred of the Pisans for Genoa, a jealousy that was +only extinguished when at last Pisa was crushed at Meloria. + +Many were the attempts of the Arabs to regain Sardinia, but Pisa was not +to be deceived. Coasting along the African shore, her fleet took Bona +and threatened Carthage. Yet in 1050 the Arabs of Morocco and Spain +stole the island from her, only Cagliari holding out under the nobles +for the mother city. There was more than the loss of Sardinia at stake, +for with the victory of the Arabs the highway of the sea was no longer +secure, the existence of Pisa, and not of Pisa only, was threatened. So +we find Genoa once more standing beside Pisa in the fight of Europe. The +fleets again were combined, this time under the command of a Pisan, one +Gualduccio, a plebeian. He sailed for Cagliari, landed his men, and +engaged the enemy on the beach. The Arabs were led by the King Mogahid, +Re Musetto, as the Italians called him. He was over eighty years old at +the time, and though still full of cunning valour, attacked by the +fleets in front and the garrison in the rear, his army was defeated and +put to flight. He himself, fleeing on horseback, was wounded in two +places, and falling was captured; and they took him in chains to Pisa, +where he died. Thus Sardinia once more fell into the hands of Europe, +and the island, divided in fiefs under the rule of Pisa,[18] was held +and governed by her. + +But Pisa was not yet done with the Arab. She stood for Europe. In 1063 +she fought at Palermo, returning laden with booty. It was then, after +much discussion in the Senate,[19] sending an embassy to the Pope and +another to "Re Henrico di Germania," that she decided to employ this +spoil in building the Duomo, in the place where the old Church of S. +Reparata stood, and more anciently the Baths of Hadrian, the Emperor. +The temple, Tronci tells us,[20] was dedicated to the Magnificent Queen +of the Universe, Mary, ever Virgin, most worthy Mother of God, Advocate +of sinners. It was begun in 1064, and many years, as Tronci says, were +consumed in the building of it.[21] The pillars--and there are +many--were brought by the Pisans from Africa, from Egypt, from +Jerusalem, from Sardinia, and other far lands. + +At this time Pisa was divided into four parts, called _Quartieri_. The +first was called _Ponte_, the ensign of which was a rosy Gonfalon; the +second, _di Mezzo_, which had a standard with seven yellow stripes on a +red field; the third, _Foriporta_, which had a white gate in a rosy +field; and the fourth, _Chinsica_ with a white cross in a red field.[22] + +Nor was the Duomo the only building that the Pisans undertook about this +time. Eight years later, the Church of S. Pietro in Vincoli, called +to-day S. Pierino, was built on a spot where of old "there was a temple +of the Gentiles" dedicated to Apollo; that, when the Pisans received +the faith of Jesus Christ, they gave to St. Peter, the Prince of the +Apostles. This church appears to have been consecrated by the great +Archbishop Peter on 30th August 1119. + +These two churches, and especially the Duomo, still perhaps the most +wonderful church in Italy, prove the greatness of the civilisation of +Pisa at this time. She was then a self-governed city, owing allegiance, +it is true, to the Marquisate of Tuscany, but with consuls of her own. +Since she was so warlike, the nobles naturally had a large part in her +affairs. In the Crusade of 1099 the Pisans were late, as the Genoese +never ceased to remind them,--to come late, in Genoa, being spoken of as +"_Come l'ajuto di Pisa_"; and, indeed, like the Genoese, the Pisans +thought as much of their own commercial advantage in these Holy Wars as +of the Tomb of Jesus. In 1100 they returned from Jerusalem, their +merchants having gained, _una loggia, una contrada, un fondaco e una +chiesa_ for their nation in Constantinople, with many other fiscal +benefits. Nor were they forgetful of their Duomo, for they came home +with much spoil, bringing the bodies of the Saints Nicodemus the Prince +of the Pharisees, Gamaliel the master of St. Paul, and Abibone, one of +the seventy-two disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.[23] + +Encouraged by their success, not long afterwards, they, in their +invincible confidence and force, decided to undertake another +enterprise. Urged thereto by their Archbishop Peter, they set out, +partly for glory, partly in the hope of spoil to free the thousands of +Christians held captive by the Arabs in the Balearic islands. The fleet +sailed on the 6th August 1114, the Feast of S. Sisto, the anniversary of +other victories. There were, it seems, some three hundred ships of +diverse strength; and every sort of person, old and young, took part in +this adventure. Going astray, they first landed in Catalonia and did +much damage; then, "acknowledging their unfortunate mistake," they found +the island, where, under Archbishop Peter and the Pope's gonfalone, +they were entirely successful. They released the captives, and, amid the +immense spoil, they brought away the son of the Moorish king, whom later +they baptized in Pisa and sent back to the Moors. The Pisan dead were, +however, very many. At first they thought to load a ship with the slain +and bring them home again; but this was not found possible. Sailing at +last for Marseilles, they buried them there in the Badia di S. Vittore, +later bringing the monks to Pisa. + +Now, while the glory of Pisa shone thus upon the waters far away, the +Lucchesi thought to seize Pisa herself, deprived of her manhood. But the +Florentines, who at this time were friends with Pisa, since their +commerce depended upon the Porto Pisano, sent a company to guard the +city, encamping some two miles off; for since so much loot lay to hand, +to wit, Pisa herself, the Florentine captains feared lest they might not +be able to hold their men. And, indeed, one of their number entered the +city intent on the spoil, but was taken, and they judged him worthy only +of death. But the Pisans, not to be outdone in honour, refused to allow +him to be executed in their territory; then the Florentines bought a +plot of ground near the camp, and killed him there. When the fleet +returned and heard this, they determined to send Florence a present to +show their gratitude. Now, among the spoil were some bronze gates and +two rosy pillars of porphyry, very precious. Then they besought the +Florentines to choose one of these, the gates or the pillars, as a gift. +And Florence chose the pillars, which stand to-day beside the eastern +gate of the Baptistery in that city. But on the way to Florence they +encountered the Mugnone in flood, and were thrown down and broken there. +Hence the Florentines, that scornful and suspicious folk, swore that the +Pisans had cracked their gifts themselves with fire before sending them, +that Florence might not possess things so fair. + +Other jealousies, too, arose out of the success of Pisa, though +indirectly. For the Genoese, never content that she should have the +overlordship of Sardinia, were still more disturbed when Pope Gelasius +II., that Pisan, gave Corsica to Pisa, so that about 1125[24] they made +war on her. The war lasted many years, till Innocent II, being Pope and +come to Pisa, made peace, giving the Genoese certain rights in Corsica. +About this time S. Bernard was in Pisa, where in 1134 Innocent II held a +General Council; not for long, however, for in the same year he set out +for Milan to reconcile that Church with Rome. + +Her quarrel with Genoa was scarcely finished when Pisa found herself at +war with the Normans in Southern Italy, defending heroically the city of +Naples and utterly destroying Amalfi, the wonderful republic of the +South.[25] Certainly the might of Pisa was great; her supremacy was +unquestionable from Lerici to Piombino, but behind her hills Lucca was +on watch, not far away Florence her friend as yet, held the valley of +the Arno, while Genoa on the sea dogged her steps between the +continents. Thus Pisa stood in the middle of the twelfth century the +strongest and most warlike city in Tuscany, full of ambition and the +love of beauty and glory. For it was now in 1152 that she began to build +the Baptistery, and in 1174 the famous Campanile, a group of buildings +with the Duomo unrivalled in the world. + +Meanwhile the Great Countess of Tuscany had died in 1115; more and more +Italy became divided against itself, and by the end of the century +Guelph and Ghibelline, commune and noble, were tearing her in pieces. +Tuscany, really little more than a group of communes devoted to trade, +with the great feudatories ever in the offing, without any real unity, +slowly became the stronghold of the Guelphs. Only Pisa,[26] glorying in +the strength of the sea and the splendour of war, was Ghibelline, with +Siena on her sunny hills. Now, having won Sardinia for herself, her +nobles there established were, as was their manner everywhere, +continually at feud. The Church, thinking to make Pisan sovereignty less +secure, supported the weaker. Already Innocent III had, following this +plan, called on the Pisans to withdraw their claim to the island. And it +was a Pisan noble, Visconti, who, marrying into one of the island +families related to Gregory IX, recognised the Papal suzerainty. Thus +this family in Pisa became Guelph. But the other nobles, among whom was +the Gherardesca family, threw their weight on the other side, and so +Pisa, who had ever leaned that way, became staunchly Ghibelline.[27] + +The quarrel with Florence was certain sooner or later, for Florence was +growing in strength and riches; she would not for ever be content to let +Pisa hold her sea-gate, taking toll of all that passed in and out. It +was in 1222 that the first war broke out with the White Lily. Any excuse +was good enough; the bone of contention appears to have been a lap-dog +belonging to one of the Ambassadors[28]. Pisa was beaten. In 1259, +nevertheless, she turned on the Genoese and drove them down the seas. +But the death of Frederic in 1250 was the true end of the Ghibelline +cause in Italy. + +What then did Pisa look like in these the days of her great power and +prosperity? She was a city, we may think, of narrow shadowy streets like +the Via delle Belle Torri, full of refuse and garbage too, for then, as +now in the remoter places, the household slops were simply hurled out of +the windows with a mere _guarda_! called from an upper window. And to +the horror of less fortunate cities, these streets were full of "Pagans, +Turks, Libyans, Parthians, and foul Chaldeans, with their incense, +pearls, and jewels." Yet though so good a Guelph as Donizo, the +biographer of the great Countess, can express his horror of these +"Gentiles," Genoa, too, must have been in much the same case; but then +Genoa was Guelph, and Pisa Ghibelline. Yet then, as to-day in that quiet +far corner of the city, in a meadow sprinkled with daisies, the great +white Duomo stood a silent witness to the splendour of the noblest +republic in Tuscany. + +But her day was too soon over. In 1254, Florence and Lucca met and +defeated her. The Guelphs had won. In Pisa we find the government +reformed, elders appointed, a senate, a great council, and Podesta, a +Captain of the People. It seemed as though Pisa herself was about to +become Guelph, or at any rate to fling out her nobles. But in many a +distant colony the nobles ruled, undisturbed by the disaster at home. +And then, almost before she had set her house in order, the splendid +victory of Monteaperto threw the Guelphs into confusion, and the banners +of Pisa once more flew wide and far. But the fatal cause of the Empire +was doomed; Manfred fell at Benevento, and Corradino was defeated at +Tagliacozzo by Charles of Anjou, who, not content with victory, expelled +the Pisan merchants from his ports. There was left to her the sea. + +Now Ugolino della Gherardesca, of the great family which had been +especially enraged by the conduct of Visconti, married his sister to one +of that family reigning at Gallura in Sardinia. This man, the judge of +Gallura, as he was called, had come to live in Pisa. The Pisans looked +with much suspicion on this alliance, and exiled first the Visconti and +later Ugolino himself, with all the other Guelphs. Ugolino went to +Lucca, and with her help in 1276 overcame his native city and forced her +to receive again the exiles. Then the merchandise of Florence passed +freely through her port, Lucca regained her fortresses, and Pisa herself +fell into the possession of Ugolino. + +Nevertheless, without a thought of fear, looking ever seaward, she +awaited the Genoese attack, certain that it would come, since she was +divided within her gates. It was to be a fight to the death. During the +year 1282 the Genoese were driven back from the mouth of the Arno, the +Pisans were driven from Genoa, and scattered and spoiled by a storm. +These were but skirmishes; the fight was yet to come. In Genoa they +built a hundred and fifty ships of war; the Pisans, too, were straining +every nerve. Then came a running fight off Sardinia, in which the Pisans +had the worse of it, losing eight galleys and fifteen hundred men. Yet +they were not disheartened. They made Alberto Morosini, a Venetian, +their Podesta, and with him as Admirals were Count Ugolino della +Gherardesca and Andreotto Saracini. When the treasury was empty the +nobles gave their fortunes for the public cause. We hear of one family +giving eleven ships of war, others gave six, others less, as they were +able. At midsummer 1284 more than a hundred galleys sailed to Genoa, and +in scorn shot arrows of silver into the great harbour. But the Genoese +were not yet prepared. They were ready a few days later, however, when +the watchers by Arno "descried a hundred and seven sail" making for the +Porto. Then Pisa thrust forth her ships. With songs and with +thanksgiving the Archbishop Ubaldino, at the head of all the clergy of +the city, flung the Pisan standard out on the wind. It was night when +the fleet was lost to sight in the offing. In that night there came to +the Genoese thirty ships by way of reinforcement unknown to the Pisans. +These they hid behind the island of Meloria. At dawn the battle broke. +In many squadrons the ships flung themselves on one another, and for +long the victory hung in the balance. The Pisans had already grappled +for boarding, the battle was yet to win, when the Genoese reinforcements +sailed out from the island straight for the Pisan Admirals. The battle +was over. Flight--it was all that was left for Pisa. Ugolino himself was +said to have given the signal. + +There fell that day five thousand Pisans, with eleven thousand captured, +and twenty-eight galleys lost to Genoa. There was no family in Pisa but +mourned its dead: for six months on every side nothing was heard but +lamentations and mourning. If you would see Pisa, it was said, you must +go to Genoa. + +Pisa had lost the sea. In Tuscany she stood with Arezzo facing the +Guelph League. She elected Ugolino her Captain-General.[29] A man of the +greatest force and ability, he was ambitious rather for himself than for +Pisa. Having many Guelph friends, his business was to beat Genoa and the +Guelph League. He succeeded in part. He bribed Florence with certain +strongholds to leave the League, and he expelled the Ghibellines from +Pisa. Then he offered Genoa Castro in Sardinia as ransom for the Pisan +prisoners; but they sent word to the Council that they would not accept +their freedom at the price of the humiliation of their city. Such were +the Pisans. And, indeed, they threatened that if at such a price they +were set free, they would return only to punish those who had thought +such treason. Ugolino for his part cared not.[30] He proceeded to bribe +Lucca with other strongholds. In the city all was confusion. Ugolino was +turned out of the Dictatorship, he became Captain of the People. Not for +long, however, for soon he contrived to make himself tyrant again. + +Now the Genoese, seeing they were like to get nothing out of their +prisoners by this, were anxious for a money ransom. But Ugolino, fearing +those brave men, broke the truce with Genoa, urging certain pirates of +Sardinia to attack the Genoese; and, in order to make sure of this, +while he himself went to his castle in the country, he arranged with +Ruggieri dei Ubaldini, the Archbishop, to expel the Guelphs, among them +his own nephew, from Pisa. The plot succeeded; but Pisa desired that the +Archbishop should for the future divide the power with Ugolino. To this +Ugolino would not agree, and in a rage he slew the nephew of the +Archbishop. Meanwhile, Ugolino's nephew, Nino Visconti, was plotting +with him to return. This came to the ears of Ruggieri, who called the +Ghibellines to arms, and at last succeeded in capturing Ugolino and his +family, after days of fighting. Well had Marco Lombardo, that "wise and +valiant man of affairs," told him, "The wrath of God is the only thing +lacking to you." + +"Of a truth," says Villani, the old Florentine Chronicler,--"of a truth +the wrath of God soon came upon him, as it pleased God, because of his +treacheries and crimes; for when the Archbishop of Pisa and his +followers had succeeded in driving out Nino and his party, by the +counsel and treachery of Count Ugolino the forces of the Guelphs were +diminished; and then the Archbishop took counsel how to betray Count +Ugolino; and in a sudden uproar of the people he was attacked and +assaulted at the palace, the Archbishop giving the people to understand +that he had betrayed Pisa, and given up their fortresses to the +Florentines and the Lucchesi; and, being without any defence, the people +having turned against him, he surrendered himself prisoner; and at the +said assault one of his bastard sons and one of his grandsons were +slain, and Count Ugolino was taken and two of his sons and three +grandsons, his son's children, and they were put in prison; and his +household and followers, the Visconti and Ubizinghi, Guatini and all the +other Guelph houses, were driven out of Pisa. Thus was the traitor +betrayed by the traitor.... In the said year 1288, in the said month of +March ... the Pisans chose for their captain Count Guido of Montefeltro, +giving him wide jurisdiction and lordship; and he passed the boundaries +of Piedmont, within which he was confined by his terms of surrender to +the Church, and came to Pisa; for which thing he and his sons and family +and all the commonwealth of Pisa were excommunicated by the Church of +Rome, as rebels and enemies against Holy Church. And when the said Count +was come to Pisa ... the Pisans, which had put in prison Count Ugolino +and his two sons, and two sons of Count Guelpho his son ... in the tower +on the Piazza degli Anziani, caused the door of the said tower to be +locked and the keys thrown into Arno, and refused to the said prisoners +any food, which in a few days died there of hunger. And albeit first the +said Count demanded with cries to be shriven; yet did they not grant him +a friar or a priest to confess him. And when all the five dead bodies +were taken out of the tower, they were buried without honour; and +thenceforward the said prison was called the Tower of Hunger, and will +be always[31]." + +Enough of Ugolino. Count Guido, that mystical, fierce soul from Urbino, +seeing danger everywhere, called the whole city to the army. Florence +had allied herself with Lucca and Genoa[32]. Count Guido's business was +to beat them. He did it[33]; so that by the Assumption of Our Lady in +1292 he had won back again nearly all the lost fortresses, and wrung +peace from the Guelph League. Nevertheless, Pisa was compelled to +sacrifice her captain, and to see Genoa established in Corsica and in +part of Sardinia; also she had to pay 160,000 lire to Genoa for the +Pisan captives, and in Elba to admit Genoese trade free of tax. + +Some idea of the glory of Pisa even when she had suffered so much may be +had, perhaps, from Tronci's account of that Festival of the Assumption +of the Blessed Virgin as it was kept in August 1293, when the peace had +been signed. + +The Anziani, Tronci tells us[34], "were used, for a month before the +Festa, to publish it in the following manner. Twenty horses covered all +with scarlet, went out of the city bearing twenty youths dressed in +fanciful and rich costumes. The first two carried two banners, one of +the Comunita, the other of the Popolo. Two others carried two lances of +silver washed with gold, on which were the Imperial eagles. Two others +bore on their fists two living eagles crowned with gold. The rest +followed in a company, dressed in rich liveries. There came after, the +trumpeters of the Comunita with the silver trumpets, and others with +fifes and wind instruments of divers loudness, and they proclaimed the +_Palii_ which were to be won on land and water. + +"On land, the first prize was of red velvet lined with fur, with a great +eagle of silver. This he received who first reached the goal. To the +second was given a silken stuff of the value of thirty gold florins, to +the third in jest was offered a pair of geese and a bunch of garlic. On +the water the race was rowed in little galleys and brigantini. He who +came in first won a Bull covered with scarlet, and fifty _scudi_; the +second a piece of silken stuff with thirty gold florins, the third got +only geese and garlic. + +"On the first day of August were placed on the towers of the city, +certainly some 16,000 in number, three banners on each of them; one with +the Imperial eagle, another of the Commune, and the third of the People. +In like manner, on the cupola, facade, and corners of the Duomo, on S. +Giovanni, on the Campo Santo and the Campanile, these banners flew not +only on the top, but at all the angles of the columns. The same were +seen on all the churches of the city, and on all the palaces, the +Palazzo Pubblico, the Palace of the Podesta, the Palazzo del Capitano +del Conservatore, the Corte del Consulato di Mare, on the palaces of the +Mercati and of the seven Arti. The Contado followed the example of the +city; and thus it continued all the month of August. And the whole +people of every sort made great rejoicing and feasting, to which +foreigners were particularly invited. + +"At the first Vespers of the Festa, the Anziani went to the Duomo in +state: and before them walked the maidens dressed in new costumes; and +after came the trumpeters, and the Captain with his company, and all the +other lesser magistrates. When they were come to the Cathedral, the +Archbishop, vested _a Pontificale_, began solemn Vespers. This ended, a +youth mounted into the pulpit and chanted a prayer in praise of the +Assumption of the Most Glorious Virgin. Then Matins was sung; and that +finished, the procession made its way round about the church, and was +joined by all the Companies and the Regulars, carrying each man a candle +of wax of half a pound weight, alight in his hands. The Clergy followed +with the Canons and the Archbishop with lighted candles of greater +weight; and last came the Anziani, the Podesta, the Captain and other +Magistrates, the Representatives of the Arti, and all the People with +lights of wax in their hands. And the procession being over, all went to +see the illuminations, the bonfires, and the festa, through the city. + +"On the morning of the Festa, the _ceri_ were placed on the _trabacche_, +that were more than sixty in number, carried, by boys dressed in +liveries, with much pomp. Immediately after followed the Anziani, the +Podesta, and the Captain of the People with all the other Magistrates +and Officials and the people, with the Company of Horse richly dressed +and with the Companies of Foot; and a little after came all the _arti_, +carrying each one his great _cero_ all painted, and accompanied by all +the wind instruments. It was a thing sweet to hear and beautiful to see. +The offering made, they went out to bring the silver girdle[35] borne +with great pomp on a _carretta_; and there assisted all the clergy in +procession with exquisite music both of voices and of instruments. The +usual ceremonies being over, they encircled the Cathedral, and hung the +girdle to the irons that were set round about. Yes, it was this girdle +of a great value and very beautiful that was spoken of through the whole +world, so that from many a city of Italy people came in haste to see it; +but to-day there is nothing of it left save a small particle[36]." + +Misfortune certainly had not broken the spirit of Pisa. And so it is not +surprising that, though she dared scarcely fly her flag on the seas, on +land she thought to hold her own. No doubt this hope was strengthened by +the advent in 1312 of Henry VII of Luxembourg. With him on her side she +dreamed of the domination of Tuscany. But it was not to be. She found +money and arms in his cause and her own. She opened a new war with the +Guelph League; she suspended her own Government and made him lord of +Pisa. He remained with her two months, and then in 1313 he died at +Buonconvento. They buried him sadly in the Duomo. The two million +florins she had expended were lost for ever. Frederick of Sicily, +Henry's ally, though he came to Pisa, refused the proferred lordship, as +did Henry of Savoy; and at last Pisa placed herself under the Imperial +Vicar of Genoa, for that city also had been delivered by her nobles into +the hands of Henry VII. + +Uguccione della Faggiuola, the Imperial Vicar of Genoa, remained, as +Imperial legate, Podesta, Captain of the People, and Elector, bringing +with him one thousand German horse. The rest of the army of Henry +returned over the Alps. Pisa thought herself on the verge of ruin; she +must make terms with her foes. This being done, there appeared to be no +further need for Uguccione, whose German troops were expensive, and +whose presence did but anger the Guelphs. Uguccione was a man of +enormous strength, brave, too, and resolute, swift to decide an issue, +wise in council, but a barbarian. What had he to do with peace. His +business was war, as he very soon let the Pisans know. Nor were they +slow to take him at his word. Pisa was never beaten. Uguccione marched +through the streets with the living eagles of the Empire borne before +him. Before long he had deprived the Guelphs of power, and was +practically tyrant of Pisa. Everything now seemed to depend on victory. +Lucca scarcely ten miles away, Guelph by tradition and hatred of Pisa, +was in an uproar. Uguccione saw his chance and took it; he flung himself +on the city and delivered it up to its own factions while the Pisans +sacked it. Nor did they spare the place. The spoil was enormous; among +the rest, a large sum belonging to the Pope fell into their hands. +Florence and her allies sprang to arms. Uguccione took up the challenge, +burnt the lands of Pistoja and San Miniato al Tedesco, ravaged the +vineyards of Volterra, seized the fortresses of Val di Nievole, and at +last besieged Montecatini. + +It was now that the Ghibellines of Lucca with Castruccio Castracani +joined Uguccione. They met the army of Florence at Montecatini. +Machiavelli states that Uguccione fell ill, and had no part in the +battle, which was won by Castruccio. Villari, however, gives the glory +to Uguccione. + +It might seem that Uguccione, whether ill or not on the day of battle, +was jealous, and perhaps afraid, of Castruccio. Certainly he plotted +against him, sending his son Nerli to Lucca with orders to trap +Castruccio and imprison him; which was done. Nerli, however, wanted +resolution to kill him; and his father hearing this, set out from Pisa +with four hundred horse to take the matter in hand. The Pisans, who were +by this time completely enslaved by Uguccione, seized the opportunity to +rise. Macchiavelli tells us "they cut his Deputies' throats, and slew +all his Family. Now, that he might be sure they were in earnest, they +chose the Conte de Gherardesca, and made him their Governor." When +Uguccione got to Lucca he found the city in an uproar, and the people +demanding the release of Castruccio. This he was compelled to allow. +With Castruccio at liberty, Lucca was too hot for him, and he fled into +Lombardy to the Lords of Scala, where no long time after, he died. + +After the great victory of Montecatini, Gherardesca and Castruccio soon +came to terms with the Guelphs; and all that Pisa really seems to have +gained by the war was that she was compelled to build a hospital and +chapel for the repose of the souls of the dead at Montecatini. This +chapel, hidden away in the Casa dei Trovatelli at the top of Via S. +Maria in Pisa, became a glorious monument of the victory of Pisa over +Florence. + +But the freedom of Pisa was gone for ever; others, lords and tyrants, +arose, Castruccio Castracani and the rest, yet she was still at bay. On +the 2nd October 1325 she again defeated Florence at Altopascio, and even +excluded her from the port, and, in 1341, when Florence had bought Lucca +from Mastino della Scala for 250,000 florins, she besieged it to prevent +the entry of the Florentine army then aided by Milan, Mantova, and +Padova, In 1342, the Florentines having failed to relieve Lucca, the +Pisans entered the city. The possession of Lucca seemed to put Pisa, +where centuries ago Luitprand had placed her, at the head of the +province of Tuscany. This view, which certainly she herself was not slow +to take, was confirmed when Volterra and Pistoja placed themselves under +her protection; yet, as ever, her greatest danger was the discord within +her walls. The Republic was weak, nearly a million and a half of florins +had been spent on the war, and many tyrants were her allies; moreover, +she had lent troops to Milan.[37] It was this moment of reaction after +so great an effort that Visconti d'Oleggio chose for a conspiracy +against Gherardesca the Captain-General. It is true the plot was +discovered, the traitors exiled, and Visconti banished; but the mischief +was done. When Lucchino Visconti heard of it in Milan, he imprisoned the +Pisan troops in that city and sent Visconti d'Oleggio back with two +thousand men to seize Pisa. Thus the war dragged on; and though these +Milanese were destroyed for the most part by malaria in the Maremma, +still Pisa had no rest. After Visconti came famine, and after the famine +the Black Death. Seventy in every hundred of the population died, Tronci +tells us,[38] while during the famine, bread, such as it was, had to be +distributed every day at the taverns. Then followed a revolution in the +city. Count Raniero of the Gherardesca house had succeeded to the +Captain-Generalship of Pisa as though it were his right by birth. This +brought him many enemies; and, indeed, the city was in uproar for some +years: for, while he was so young, Dino della Rocca acted for him. Among +the more powerful enemies of della Rocca was Andrea Gambacorti, whose +family was soon to enslave the city. Now the one party was called +_Bergolini_, for they had named Raniero Bergo for hate, and of these +Gambacorti was chief. The other party which was at this time in power, +as I have said, was named _Raspanti_, which is to say graspers, and of +them Dino della Rocca was head. In the midst of this disputing Raniero +died, and the Raspanti were accused of having murdered him, among others +by Gambacorti. Every sort of device to heal these wounds was resorted +to; marriages and oaths all alike failed. The city blazed with their +arson every night, till at last the people rose and expelling the +Raspanti, chose Andrea Gambacorti for captain. This happened in 1348. +Seven years later, Charles IV, on his way to Rome to be crowned, came to +the city. Now the Conte di Montescudaio was known to Charles, who years +before had ruled in Lucca; therefore the Raspanti, of when Montescudaio +was one, took heart, and at the moment when Charles was in the Duomo +receiving the homage of the city, they roused the people assembled in +the Piazza, shouting for the Emperor and Liberty; but Charles heeded +them not. Nevertheless Gambacorti, to save himself, thought fit to give +Charles the lordship of the city; but the people, angered at this, +demanded their liberty, so that the magistrates, fearing for peace, +reconciled the two factions, who then together demanded of Charles his +new lordship. And he gave it them with as good a grace as he could, for +his men were few. Then again he heard from Lucca. There, too, they +demanded liberty, and especially from the dominion of Pisa, and, it is +said, the Lucchesi in France gave him 20,000 florins for this. But Pisa +heard of it. When Charles sent his troops to occupy Lucca, the Raspanti +saw their opportunity and rose. They put themselves at the head of the +people, who slew one hundred and fifty of Charles's Germans, and held +Charles himself a prisoner in the Duomo, where he lodged since the +Palazzo Comunale had been fired. Montescudaio, however, secretly joined +Charles with his men; he burnt the houses of the Gambacorti and +dispersed the mob. Apparently Lucca was free. But Charles had reckoned +without the Pisan garrison in the subject city. They fired their +beacons, and Pisa saw the blaze. It was enough, their dominion was in +danger; there were no longer any factions; Raspanti and Bergolini alike +stood together for Pisa. They streamed out of the great Porta a Lucca to +the relief of their own people, and though six thousand armed peasants +opposed them, they won to Lucca and took it, the Pisani still holding +the gates. Then they fired the city, and when the flames closed in round +S. Michele the Lucchesi surrendered. Thus they served their enemies. But +Charles had his revenge. He seized the Gambacorti, and appointing a +judge, having given instructions to find them guilty, tried them and +beheaded seven of them in Piazza degli Anziani, in spite of the rage of +Pisa. Then, with a large amount of treasure, of which he had spoiled the +Pisans, he fled back with his barbarians to his Germany. And as soon as +he was gone the city took Montescudaio and sent him into exile[39], with +the remaining Gambacorti also. So Charles left Pisa more Ghibelline than +he found her. + +It was at this time that Pisa really began to see perhaps her true +danger from Florence. Certainly she did everything to prick her into +war. But Florence was already victorious. Her answer was more disastrous +than any battle; she took her trade from the port of Pisa to the Sienese +port Talamone. Then Florence purchased Volterra, over the head of Pisa +as it were; and at last, careless whether it pleased the Pisans or no, +she permitted the Gambacorti to make raid upon Pisan territory, and +allowed Giovanni di Sano, who had lately been in her service, to seize a +fortress in the territory of Lucca. The peace was broken. On the brink +of ruin, ravaged by plague, Pisa turned to confront her hard, merciless +foe. For months Florence ravaged her territory, while she, too weak to +strike a blow in her own honour, could but hold her gates. Then the +plague left her, and she rose. + +Bernabo Visconti was sending her help for 150,000 florins.[40] The +English were on the way; already over the mountains, Hawkwood and his +White Company were coming to save her; meantime she tried to strike for +herself. Pietro Farnese of the Florentines laid her low, taking one +hundred and fifty prisoners and her general. The English tarried, but a +new ally was already by her side. The Black Death which had brought down +her pride, now fell upon the enemy, both in camp and in their city of +the Lily: and then--the English were come. On the 1st of February 1364, +Hawkwood, with a thousand horse and two thousand foot, drove the +Florentines through the Val di Nievole; he harried them above Vinci and +chased them through Serravalle, crushed them at Castel di Montale, and +scattered them in the valley of Arno. They found their city at last, as +foxes find their holes, and went to earth. There Pisa halted. Before the +gates of Pisa the Florentines for years had struck money: so the Pisans +did before Florence. Nor was this all. Halting there three days, says +the chronicle,[41] "they caused three palii to be run well-nigh to the +gates of Florence. One was on horseback, another was on foot, and the +third was run by loose women (_le feminine mundane_); and they caused +newly-made priests to sing Mass there, and they coined money of divers +kinds of gold and of silver; and on one side thereof was Our Lady, with +Her Son in Her arms; on the other side was the Eagle, with the Lion +beneath its feet.... Thereafter for further dispite they set up a pair +of gallows over against the gate of Florence, and hanged thereon three +asses." + +Florence refused to submit. Other Free Companies such as Hawkwood's +joined in the war. The Florentines hired that of the Star. But Hawkwood +was not to be denied. He marched up Arno, devastating the country, and +at last deigned to return to Pisa by Cortona and Siena. + +Then Florence did what might have been expected. She bribed Baumgarten, +who with his Germans had fought since the rout with Hawkwood. They met +at the Borgo di Cascina on 28th July. Hawkwood was caught napping, and +Pisa in her turn was humbled. The Florentines returned with two thousand +prisoners, having slain a thousand men. They took with them "forty-two +wagons full of prisoners, all packed together 'like melons,' with a dead +eagle tied by the neck and dragging along the ground."[42] Such was war +in Italy in the fourteenth century. + +Then followed the Doge Agnello: the greatness of Pisa was past. + +It had ever been the plan of Milan to weaken Florence by aiding Pisa, +and to weaken Pisa by this continual war, for it was the Visconti's +dream to carry their dominion into Tuscany. Now at this time, amid all +these disasters, the Pisan ambassador at Milan was a certain Giovanni +dell' Agnello, a merchant, ambitious but without honour. This plebeian +readily lent himself to the Visconti to betray the city, if thereby he +might win power; and this Visconti promised him, for, said he, "if I win +Pisa, you shall be my lieutenant, and all the world will take you even +for my ally." + +Agnello went back to Pisa full of this dream:[43] and at the first +opportunity suggested that Visconti would be flattered if a Lord were +to be elected in Pisa, if only for a year at a time; and in his subtilty +he proposed Pietro d' Albizzo da Vico, a very much respected (_di gran +stima_) citizen, as Lord. But Messer Pietro replied by asking to be sent +with other citizens to Pescia to arrange the peace with Florence. Then a +certain Vanni Botticella applied for the post; and Agnello praised him +for his patriotism, but asked him whether he had money enough to be +Lord. Certainly Pisa had fallen. By this Agnello was suspected, and +indeed one night certain citizens got leave to search his house, for +they believed him to be a traitor[44]. But he had warning, and already +Hawkwood had sold himself, for it was his business. So, when those +citizens had returned disappointed, for they found Agnello abed, he +arose and joined his bandits. With Hawkwood he went to the Palazzo dei +Anziani, bound the guard and had the Elders summoned, and told them a +tale of how the Blessed Virgin had bidden him assume the lordship of the +city. Well, he had his way, his bandits saw to that; so the Anziani +agreed and swore obedience. Next day Pisa acclaimed her Doge. + +Agnello remained Doge, or Lord as he preferred to be called, for four +years. Then Charles IV marched back over the Alps into Italy. Bought off +and thwarted in Lombardy, he came towards Lucca, which the Lucchesi +exiles again offered to buy from him. Agnello was terrified. In haste he +sent to Charles offering to give him Lucca if he were made sure in Pisa. +Outside the walls of Lucca, Charles knighted this astute tradesman. +Agnello ran back to Pisa and conferred knighthood on his nephews. Then +he built a platform and awaited the Emperor. His end was in keeping with +his life. As he stood on the insecure "hustings" which he had built, +that in sight of all the people Charles might declare him Imperial Vicar +of Pisa, the platform collapsed and Agnello's leg was broken. Now, +whether the comic spirit, so helpful to justice, be strong in our Pisans +still, I know not, but on learning of the misfortune of their Lord, they +rose, and, without noticing their Imperial Vicar, appointed Anziani to +rule by the old laws. + +Then the burghers and nobles--"Cittadini amatori della Patria," Tronci +calls them--formed the Campagnia di S. Michele, for it bore on its +gonfalon St. Michael Archangel, and the black eagle of the Empire. It +was the business of this company to restore peace and unity to the city. +The leaders resolved to recall the exiles, among them Pietro Gambacorti. +He came, and the city greeted him, and he swore to serve the Republic +and to forgive his enemies. A riot followed; the Bergolini armed +themselves and burnt the Gambacorti palaces. But Pietro Gambacorti +called to the city, which had risen to defend itself and to make +reprisals, saying, "I have pardoned them--I, whose parents they slew. By +what right do you refuse to do what I have done?"[45] The Bergolini took +the government, and there was peace. Then the Campagnia di S. Michele +broke up. + +Not for long, however, could there be peace in Pisa. The Raspanti still +held one of the gates; and thinking to better themselves, they sent an +embassy to Charles, who was in Lucca, asking his help. He imprisoned the +embassy, and at once sent his Germans to seize the city. But the Pisans +heard of it. They rang the great bells in the Campanile, and barricaded +the gates with the benches and stalls in the Duomo, on the Baptistery +they set their bowmen, and on the Campanile the slingers. Then they tore +up the streets, and waited to give death for death. The Germans, +however, were easily beaten and bought off, and Pisa again returned to +her internal quarrels. + +Out of these sprang, in 1385, Pietro Gambacorti, as Captain of the +people. It was the beginning of the last twenty years of Pisa's life as +an independent city. She now stood between Visconti in the north and +Florence close at hand. Florence was her friend against Visconti for +her own sake: she meant to have Pisa herself. Gambacorti did his best. +With infinite tact he kept friends with both cities. Under him Pisa +seemed to regain something of her old confidence and prosperity. A man +of fine courage, simplicity, and passing honest, he was incapable of +suspecting a tried friend whom he had benefited. Yet it was by the hand +of such an one he fell. + +Jacopo d'Appiano's father had been exiled with Gambacorti in 1348. Like +many another Pisan house which had risen from nothing, Appiano was at +feud with certain of his fellow-citizens, among them the Lanfranchi +family. For this cause he kept a guard about him. Now Gambacorti, who +remembered his father's exile, made Appiano permanent "Chancellor of the +Republic": and hoping to reconcile the Lanfranchi with the new +chancellor, he sent for Lanfranchi, but the bandits of Appiano murdered +him as he went thither, and then joined Appiano in his house. Gambacorti +ordered his chancellor to deliver them up, but he refused. Then the +Bergolini offered Gambacorti their assistance, but he refused it, +trusting to justice. Appiano, however, at the head of the Raspanti, +marched to the palace of Gambacorti. The city was in arms, and they had +to fight their way. Arrived before the palace, Gambacorti ordering his +men not to shoot his friend, agreed to confer with Appiano. So he went +out of his house, and as Appiano stretched out his hand, in token, as it +were, of friendship, his bandits fell upon him and slew him. A fight +followed, in which the Bergolini were beaten; then Appiano became +Captain of the People. In truth, it was only a device of Visconti for +seizing the city. Appiano admitted the Milanese, and what Agnello had +failed to do, he did, for he ruled as the creature of Gian Galeazzo. But +there is no honour among thieves. Soon Visconti, hoping to win Pisa all +for himself, plotted against Appiano. The quarrel went on, Appiano +fearing to make treaty with Florence lest he should fall, and fearing, +too, to decide with Visconti lest he should be murdered, till he died, +and his son became Captain, only to sell Pisa to Visconti for 200,000 +florins, with Elba also, and many castles.[46] Then Gian Galeazzo died +in 1404. + +Now Florence knew that in the confusion which followed the death of the +great Visconti, Pisa was weak and almost without defence, so without +hesitation she sent an army to seize the city: but Pisa, always at her +best in danger, worked night and day, nor was any man idle in building +fortifications. In Genoa the Frenchman Boucicault, who had held that +city, came to her assistance, for the last thing Genoa or Milan desired +was to see Pisa and her port in the hands of Florence. Boucicault +imprisoned all the Florentines in Genoa, and seized Livorno, nor would +he agree to release his prisoners till Florence had signed a four years' +peace. But Pisa soon wearied of this. In the grip of Genoa, fearing +Visconti, unable to save herself, she revolted, and Boucicault sold her +to Florence, for he had to defend himself in Genoa. It was in August +1405 that Pisa was given up to Florence, but although for a moment +Florence then held the city, she was to fight for it in earnest before +she could hold it for good. As yet she only possessed the citadel, and +by a ruse the Pisans managed to win that from her: then they sent to +Florence to negotiate. They offered to buy their freedom, but Florence +was obdurate. She was determined to possess herself of Pisa; her armies +were ordered to advance. + +Pisa was ready. At that moment all feuds were forgotten; a united city +opposed the Florentines: there was but one way to take it--by famine. +And it was thus at last, on 9th October 1406, Pisa fell. Preferring to +die rather than to surrender, it would have been into a city of the dead +that the armies of Florence would have marched, but for the brutal +treachery of Giovanni Gambacorti. As it was, it was only a city of the +dying that Florence occupied. After every kind of heroic effort, +Giovanni Gambacorti sold Pisa when she was too weak to fight, save +against a declared enemy, for 50,000 florins, the citizenship of +Florence and Borgo to rule. He opened the gates, and Florence streamed +in. There was scarcely a crust left in the city which was at last +become the vassal of Florence. + +Here, truly, the chronicles of Pisa end--in the horrid cruelty, scorn, +and disdain so characteristic of the Florentine. Certainly with the +Medici a more humane government was adopted, so that in 1472 we read of +Lorenzo Magnifico restoring the University to something of its old +splendour, but nothing he could do was able to extinguish the undying +hatred of Pisa for those who had stolen away her liberty. In 1494 that +carnival army of Charles VIII, winding through the valleys and over the +mountains, seemed to offer them a hope of freedom. They welcomed him +with every sort of joy, and hurled the Marzocco and the Gonfalon of +Florence into Arno, all to no purpose. And truly without hope, from 1479 +to 1505, they bore heroically three sieges and flung back three +different armies of Florence. Soderini and Macchiavelli urged on the +war. In 1509, Macchiavelli, that mysterious great man, besieged her on +three sides, and at last, forced by hunger and famine, Pisa admitted him +on the 8th June. It was her last fight for liberty. But she had won for +herself the respect of her enemies. A more humane and moderate policy +was adopted in dealing with her. Nevertheless, as in 1406, so now, her +citizens fled away, so that there was scarcely left a Pisan in Pisa for +the victor to rule. + +Grand Duke Cosimo seems to have loved her. It was there he founded his +Order of the Knights of St. Stephen to harry the pirates in the +Mediterranean. Still she was a power on the sea, though in the service +of another. And though dead, she yet lived, for she is of those who +cannot die. The ever-glorious name of Galileo Galilei crowns her +immortality. Born within her walls, he taught at her University, and his +first experiments in the knowledge of the law of gravity were made from +her bell-tower, while, as it is said, the great lamp of her Duomo taught +him the secret of the pendulum. + +Looking on her to-day, remembering her immortal story, one thinks only +of the beauty that is from of old secure in silence on that meadow among +the daisies just within her walls. + +III + +It is with a peculiar charm and sweetness that Pisa offers herself to +the stranger, who maybe between two trains has not much time to give +her. And indeed to him she knows she has not much to offer, just a few +things passing strange or beautiful, that are spread out for him as at a +fair, on the grass of a meadow in the dust and the sun. But to such an +one Pisa can never be more than a vision, vanished as soon as seen, in +the heat of midday or the shadow of evening. + +But for me, of all the cities that grow among the flowers in Tuscany, it +is Pisa that I love best. She is full of the sun; she has the gift of +silence. Her story is splendid, unfortunate, and bitter, and moves to +the song of the sea: still she keeps her old ways about her, the life of +to-day has not troubled her at all. In her palaces the great mirrors are +still filled with the ghosts of the eighteenth century; on her Lung' +Arno you may almost see Byron drive by to mount his horse at the gate, +while in the Pineta, not far away, Shelley lies at noonday writing +verses to Miranda. + +It is on the Lung' Arno, curved like a bow, so much more lovely than any +Florentine way, that what little world is left to Pisa lingers yet. +Before one is the Ponte di Mezzo, the most ancient bridge of the city, +built in 1660, but really the representative of its forerunners that +here bound north and south together: _En moles olim lapidea vix aetatem +ferrus nunc mormorea pulchrior et firmior stat simulato Marte virtutis +verae specimen saepe datura_, you read on one of the pillars at the +northern end. For indeed the first bridge seems to have been of wood, +partly rebuilt of stone after the great victory off the coast of Sicily, +and finished in 1046[47]. This bridge, called the Ponte Vecchio, took +ten years to build, and any doubt we might have as to whether it was of +wood or stone is set at rest by Tronci,[48] who tells us that in 1382, +"Pietro Gambacorta, together with the Elders and the Consiglio dei +Cittadini, determined to rebuild in stone the bridge of wood which +passed over Arno from the mouth of the Strada del Borgo to that of S. +Egidio, for the greater ornament of the city, chiefly because there were +many shops on the bridge that impeded the view of the beautiful Lung' +Arno." One sees the bridge that was thus built, the foundations having +been laid with much ceremony, a procession and a sung mass, in a +seventeenth-century print in the Museo Civico.[49] There is a buttress a +quarter of the way from each end, on which houses were still standing. +Then in 1635 this bridge was carried away by a flood. A new bridge was +immediately built, only to be destroyed in the same way on 1st January +1644. In 1660 the present Ponte di Mezzo was finished by Francesco Nave +of Rome. + +It was on these bridges that the great Pisan game the _Giuoco del Ponte_ +was played,[50] a model of which may be found in the Museo. This new +bridge, at any rate, does not shut out the view of the beautiful Lung' +Arno, _il bello di Pisa_, as one writer calls it. Standing there you may +see the yellow river, curved like a bow, pass through the beautiful +city, between the palaces of marble, their wrinkled image reflected in +the stream, till it is lost in the green fields on its way to the sea; +while on the other side, looking eastward, on either side the river are +the palaces of Byron and Shelley, just before the hideous iron bridge, +where Arno turns suddenly into the city from the plain and the hills. To +the south of the bridge is the Loggia dei Banchi, and farther to the +west, on the Lung' Arno, the great palace of the Gambacorti rises, now +the Palazzo del Comune, and farther still, the Madonna della Spina, a +little Gothic church of marble; while if you pass a little way westward, +the Torre Guelfa comes into sight at the bend of the river among the +ruins of the old arsenal. + +It is of course to the wonderful group of buildings to the north of the +city, just within the walls, that every traveller will first make his +way. Passing from Ponte di Mezzo down the Lung' Arno Regio, past the +Palazzo Agostini, beautiful in its red brick past Palazzo Lanfreducci +with its little chain and enigmatic motto, "Alla Giornata," past the +Grand Ducal Palace, you turn at last into the Via S. Maria, a beautiful +and lovely street that winds like a stream full of shadows to the Piazza +del Duomo. On your right is the Church of S. Niccolo, founded about the +year 1000 by Ugo, Marquis of Tuscany. It seems that with Otho III there +came into Italy the Marquis Hugh. "I take it," says Villani,[51] "this +must have been the Marquis of Brandenburg, inasmuch as there is no other +marquisate in Germany." His sojourn in Italy, and especially in our city +of Florence, liked him so well that he caused his wife to come thither, +and took up his abode in Florence as Vicar of Otho the Emperor. It came +to pass as it pleased God, that when he was riding to the chase in the +country of Bonsollazzo, he lost sight of all his followers in a wood, +and came out, as he supposed, at a workshop where iron was wont to be +wrought. Here he found men black and deformed, who in place of iron +seemed to be tormenting men with fire and with hammer, and he asked them +what this might be: and they answered and said that these were damned +souls, and that to similar pains was condemned the soul of the Marquis +Hugh by reason of his worldly life, unless he should repent. With great +fear he commended himself to the Virgin Mary, and when the vision was +ended he remained so pricked in spirit, that after his return to +Florence he sold all his patrimony in Germany and commanded that seven +monasteries should be founded. The first was the Badia of Florence, to +the honour of St. Mary; the second, that of Bonsollazzo, where he beheld +the vision; the third was founded at Arezzo, the fourth at Poggibonizzi, +the fifth at the Verruca of Pisa, the sixth at the city of Castello, the +last was the one at Settimo; and all these abbeys he richly endowed, +and lived afterwards with his wife in holy life, and had no son, and +died in the city of Florence on St. Thomas's Day in the year of Christ +1006, and was buried with great honour in the Badia of Florence. +Tronci[52] says, that beside the Badia di S. Michele di Verruca outside +Pisa, "this most pious Marquis" founded also the Church of S. Niccolo, +for the use of the Monks of S. Michele Fuori. The Church of S. Niccolo +has been altogether restored. The Campanile, however, the oldest tower +left in the city, is strange and lovely. It has been given to Niccolo +Pisano, but is certainly older than his day, and, resembling as it does +the tower of the Badia at Florence and of the Badia at Settimo, seems to +be of the same date as the church. There is a gallery joining the church +with the palace of the Grand Dukes, to which it served as chapel. + +Coming as one does out from this narrow deserted street of S. Maria into +the space and breadth of the Piazza del Duomo, one is almost blinded by +the sudden light and glory of the sun on those buildings, that seem to +be made of old ivory intricately carved and infinitely noble. Standing +there as though left stranded upon some shore that life has long +deserted, they are an everlasting witness to the Latin genius, symbols +as it were of what has had to be given up so that we may follow life at +the heels of the barbarian Teuton. + +It was in 1063,[53] after the great victory at Palermo, that the ships +of the Republic returning full of spoil, "after much discourse made in +the Senate,"[54] it was decided at last to build "a most magnificent +temple" to S. Maria Assunta, for it was about the time of her Festa, +that is to say, the 15th August, that the victory had been won. This +having been decided on, the Republic sent ambassadors to Rome to the +Pope and to King Henry of Germany, and the Pope sent the church many +privileges, and the King a royal dowry. So they began to build the +temple where stood the old Church of S. Reparata, and more anciently the +Baths of the Emperor Hadrian; and they brought marble from Africa, +Egypt, Jerusalem, Sardinia, and other far places to adorn the church. In +1065 we read that the Pope received under his protection the Chapter and +Canons of Pisa. The Cathedral was finished in about thirty years, and +was consecrated by Pope Gelasius II in 1118. The architects, two dim +names still to be read on the facade ever kissed by the setting sun, +were Rainaldus and Busketus. They built in that Pisan style which, as +some of us may think, was never equalled till Bramante and his disciples +dreamed of St. Peter's and built the little church at Todi, and S. +Pietro in Montorio. However this may be, the Duomo of Pisa, the first +modern cathedral of Italy, was to be the pattern of many a church built +later in the contado, and even in Lucca and Pistoja and the country +round about. It was a style at once splendid and devout, not forgetful +of the Roman Empire, yet with new thoughts concerning it, so that where +a Roman building had once really stood, now a Latin Church should stand, +white with marble and glistening with precious stones. It is strange to +find in this far-away piazza the great buildings of the city; and +stranger still, when we remember that S. Reparata, the church that was +destroyed to make room for the Duomo, was called S. Reparata in Palude, +in the swamp. It may be that Pisa was less open to attack on this side, +or that this being the highest spot near the city, a flood was less to +be feared. But there were other foes beside the flood and the enemy, for +the church was damaged by fire in 1595, and was restored in 1604. + +The Duomo is a basilica with nave and double aisles[55], with a +transept flanked with aisles, covered by a dome over the crossing. Built +all of white marble, that has faded to the tone of old ivory, it is +ornamented with black and coloured bands, and stands on a beautiful +marble platform in the grass of a meadow. It is, however, the facade +that is the most splendid and beautiful part of the church. It consists +of seven round arches; in the centre and in each alternate arch is a +door of bronze made by Giovanni da Bologna in 1602. Above these arches +is the first tier of columns, eighteen in number, of various coloured +marbles, supporting the round arches of the first storey; above, the +roof of the aisles slopes gradually inwards, and is supported again by a +tier of pillars of various marbles, while above rise two other tiers +supporting the roof of the nave. On the corners of the church and on the +corners of the nave are figures of saints, while above all, on the cusp +of the facade, stands Madonna with Her Son in Her arms. The door in the +south transept is by Bonannus, whose great doors were destroyed in 1595. + +Within, the church is solemn and full of light. Sixty-eight antique +columns, the spoil of war, uphold the church, while above is a coffered +Renaissance ceiling, of the seventeenth century. There is but little to +see beside the church itself, a few altar-pieces, one by Andrea del +Sarto; a few tombs; the bronze lamp of Battista Lorenzi, which is said +to have suggested the pendulum to Galileo, and that is all in the nave. +The choir screens, work of the Renaissance, are very lovely, while above +them are the _ambones_, from which on a Festa the Epistle and Gospel are +sung. The stalls are of the end of the fifteenth century, and the altar, +a dreadful over-decorated work, of the year 1825. Matteo Civitali of +Lucca made the wooden lectern behind the high altar, and Giovanni da +Bologna forged the crucifix, while Andrea del Sarto, not at his best, +painted the Saints Margaret and Catherine, Peter and John, to the right +and left of the altar. The capital of the porphyry column here is by +Stagio Stagi of Pietrasanta, while the porphyry vase is a prize from a +crusade. The mosaics in the apsis are much restored, but they are the +only known work of Cimabue,[56] and are consequently, even in their +present condition, valuable and interesting. The most beautiful and the +most interesting work of art in the Duomo is the Madonna, carved in +ivory in 1300 by Giovanni Pisano, in the sacristy. This Madonna is a +most important link in the history of Italian art; it seems to suggest +the way in which French influence in sculpture came into Italy. Such +work as this, by some French master, probably came not infrequently into +Italian hands; nor was its advent without significance; you may find its +influence in all Giovanni's work, and in how much of that which came +later.[57] + +It is but a step across that green meadow to the Baptistery, that like a +casket of ivory and silver stands to the west of the Duomo. It was begun +in 1153 by Diotisalvi, but the work went very slowly forward. In 1164, +out of 34,000 families in Pisa subject to taxes, each gave a gold sequin +for the continuation of the work, but it was not finished altogether +till the fourteenth century. There are four doors; above them on the +east and north are sculptures of the thirteenth century.[58] + +Truly, one might as well try to describe the face of one's angel as +these holy places of Pisa, which are catalogued in every guide-book ever +written. At least I will withhold my hand from desecrating further that +which is still so lovely. Only, if you would hear the heavenly choirs +before death has his triumph over you, go by night into the Baptistery, +having bribed some choir-boy to sing for you, and you shall hear from +that marvellous roof a thousand angels singing round the feet of San +Raniero. + +Perhaps the loveliest thing here is the great octagonal font of various +marbles, in which every Pisan child has been christened since 1157; but +it is the pulpit of Niccolo Pisano that everyone praises. + +Niccolo Pisano appears to have been born in Apulia, and to have come to +Pisa about the middle of the thirteenth century. We know scarcely +anything of his life. The earliest record in which we find his name is +the contract of 1265, in which he binds himself to make a pulpit for the +Duomo of Siena.[59] There he is called _Magister Niccolus lapidum de +paroccia ecclesie Sancti Blasii de Ponte, de Pisis quondam Petri_. +Another document of later date describes him as _Magister Nichola Pietri +de Apulia_. Coming thus to Pisa from Apulia, possibly after many +wanderings, in about 1250, his childhood had been passed not among the +Tuscan hills, but in Southern Italy among the relics of the Roman world. +It is not any sudden revelation of Roman splendour he receives in the +Campo Santo of Pisa, but just a reminder, as it were, of the things of +his childhood, the broken statues of Rome that littered the country of +his birth. Thus in a moment this Southerner transforms the rude art of +his time here in Tuscany, the work of Bonannus, for instance, the +carvings of Biduinus, and the bas-reliefs at San Cassiano,[60] with the +faint memory of Rome that lingered like a ghost in the minds of men, +that already had risen in the laws and government of the cities, in the +desire of men here in Pisa, for instance, for liberty, and that was soon +to recreate the world. If the Roman law still lived as tradition and +custom in the hearts of men, the statues of the gods were but hiding for +a little time in Latin earth. It was Niccolo Pisano who first brought +them forth. + +The pulpit which he made for Pisa--perhaps his earliest work--is in the +form of a hexagon resting upon nine columns; the central pillar is set +on a strange group, a man, a griffin, and animals; three others are +poised on the backs of lions; while three are set on simple pediments on +the ground; and three again support the steps. A "trefoil arch" connects +the six chief pillars, on each of which stands a statue of a Virtue. It +is here that we came for the first time upon a figure not of the +Christian world, for Fortitude is represented as Hercules with a lion's +cub on his shoulder. In the spandrels of the trefoils are the four +Evangelists and six Prophets. Above the Virtues rise pillars clustered +in threes, framing the five bas-reliefs and supporting the parapet of +the pulpit; and it is here, by these the most beautiful and +extraordinary works of that age in Italy, that Niccolo Pisano will be +for ever remembered. + +Poor in composition though they be, they are full of marvellous energy, +a Roman dignity and weight. It is antiquity flowering again in a +Christian soil, with a certain new radiance and sweetness about it, a +naivete almost ascetic, that was certainly impossible from any Roman +hand. + +On the far side you may see the Birth of Our Lord, where Mary sits in +the midst, enthroned, unmoved, with all the serenity of a goddess, while +in another part the angel brings her the message with the gesture of an +orator. Consider, then, those horses' heads in the Adoration of the +Magi, or the high priest in the Presentation, and then compare them with +the rude work of Bonannus on the south transept door of the Duomo; no +Pisan, certainly no Tuscan, could have carved them thus in high relief +with the very splendour of old Rome in every line. And in the +Crucifixion you see Christ really for the first time as a God reigning +from the cross; while Madonna, fallen at last, is not the weeping Mary +of the Christians, but the mother of the Gracchi who has lost her elder +son. In the Last Judgment it is a splendid God you see among a crowd of +men with heads like the busts in a Roman gallery, with all the aloofness +and dignity of those weary emperors. There is almost nothing here of any +natural life observed for the first time, and but little of the +Christian asceticism so marvellously lovely in the French work of this +age; Niccolo has in some way discovered classic art, and has been +content with that, as the humanists of the Renaissance were to be +content with the discovery of ancient literature later: he has imitated +the statues and the bas-reliefs of the sarcophagi, as they copied +Cicero. + +To pass from the Baptistery into the Campo Santo, where among Christian +graves the cypresses are dying in the earth of Calvary, and the urns and +sarcophagi of pagan days hold Christian dust, is perhaps to make easier +the explanation we need of the art of Niccolo. Here, it is said, he +often wandered "among the many spoils of marbles brought by the +armaments of Pisa to this city." Among these ancient sarcophagi there is +one where you may find the Chase of Meleager and the Calydonian boar; +this was placed by the Pisans in the facade of the Duomo opposite S. +Rocco, and was used as a tomb for the Contessa Beatrice, the mother of +the great Contessa Matilda. Was it while wandering here, in looking so +often on that tomb on his way to Mass, that he was moved by its beauty +till his heart remembered its childhood in a whole world of such things? +It must have been so, for here all things meet together and are +reconciled in death. + +Out of the dust and heat of the Piazza one comes into a cool cloister +that surrounds a quadrangle open to the sky, in which a cypress still +lives. The sun fills the garden with a golden beauty, in which the +butterflies flit from flower to flower over the dead. I do not know a +place more silent or more beautiful. One lingers in the cool shadow of +the cloisters before many an old marble,--a vase carved with +Bacchanalian women, the head of Achilles, or the bust of Isotta of +Rimini. But it is before the fresco of the Triumph of Death that one +stays longest, trying to understand the dainty treatment of so horrible +a subject. Those fair ladies riding on horseback with so brave a show of +cavaliers, even they too must come at last to be just dust, is it, or +like that swollen body, which seems to taint even the summer sunshine, +lying there by the wayside, and come upon so unexpectedly? What +love-song was that troubadour, fluttering with ribbons, singing to that +little company under the orange-trees, cavaliers and ladies returned +from the chase, or whiling away a summer afternoon playing with their +falcons and their dogs? The servants have spread rich carpets for their +feet, and into the picture trips a singing girl, who has surely called +the very loves from Paradise or from the apple-trees covered with +blossom, where they make their temporary abode. What love song were they +singing, ere the music was frozen on their lips by a falling leaf or +chance flutter of bird life calling them to turn, and lo, Death is here? + +It is in such a place as this that any meditation upon death loses both +its sentimental and its ascetic aspect, and becomes wholly aesthetic, so +that it can never be before this fresco that such a contemplation should +be, as it were, "a lifelong following of one's own funeral." And indeed, +it is not any gross fear of death that comes to one at all here in the +mysterious sunshine, but a new delight in life. Those joyful pleasant +paintings of Benozzo Gozzoli, a third-rate master, but one who is always +full of joy and sunshine, with a certain understanding and love, too, of +the hills and the trees, seem to confirm us in our delight at the sun +and the sea wind, here in Italy, in Italy at last. For, indeed, in what +other land than this could a cemetery be so beautiful, and where else in +the world do frescoes like these stain the walls out of doors amid a +litter of antique statues, graves, and flowers over the heroic or holy +dead? Here you may see life at its sanest and most splendid moments. In +the long hot days of the vintage, for instance, when the young men tread +the wine-press, the girls bear the grapes in great baskets, and boy and +girl together pluck the purple fruit. Call it, if you will, the +Drunkenness of Noah, you will forget the subject altogether in your +delight in the sun and the joy of the vintage itself, where the girls +dance among the vines under the burden of the grapes, and the little +children play with the dogs, and the goodman tastes the wine. Or again, +in the fresco of the Tower of Babel: think if you can of all the mere +horror of the confusion, and the terror of death, but in a moment you +will forget it, remembering only that heroic Republic which amid her +enemies built her splendid city, her beautiful Duomo, her Tower like the +horn of an unicorn, and this Campo Santo too, where the hours pass so +softly, and the hottest days are cool and full of delight. The Victory +of Abraham is a battle gay with the banners of Pisa, when the Gonfalons +of Florence lay low in the dust. The Curse of Ham, with its multitude of +children, is just the departure of some prodigal for the Sardinian wars +on a summer evening beyond the city gate. Thus alone in this place of +death Pisa lives, ah! not in the desolate streets of the modern city, +but fading on the walls of her Campo Santo, a ghost among ghosts, +immortalised by an alien hand. + +Coming last of all to the greatest wonder of the Piazza, it is really +with surprise you find the Campanile so beautiful, perhaps the most +beautiful tower of Italy. It is like a lily leaning in the wind, it is +like the slanting horn of an unicorn, it is like an ivory Madonna that +the artist has not had the heart to carve since the ivory was so fair. +Begun in 1174, it was designed by Bonannus. He made it all of white +marble, which has faded now to the colour of old ivory. Far away at the +top of the tower live the great bells, and especially La +Pasquareccia,[61] founded in 1262, stamped with a relief of the +Annunciation, for it used to ring the Ave. I think there can be no +reasonable doubt that the lean of the Tower is due to some terrible +accident which befell it after the third gallery had been built, for the +fourth gallery, added in 1204 by Benenabo, begins to rectify the +sinking; the rest, built in 1260, continues to throw the weight from the +lower to the higher side. As we know, the whole Piazza was a marsh, and +just as the foundations of the Tower of S. Niccolo have given a little, +so these sank much earlier, offering an unique opportunity to a +barbarian architect. There is, as has been often very rightly said, no +such thing as a freak in Italian art: its aim was beauty, very simple +and direct; nowhere in all its history will you find a grotesque such as +this. It is strange that a northerner, William of Innspruck, finished +the Tower the fifth storey in 1260; and it may well be that this Teuton +brought to the work something of a natural delight in such a thing as +this, and contrived to finish it, instead of beginning again. It seems +necessary to add that the tower would be more beautiful if it were +perfectly upright. + +The Piazza del Duomo is full of interest. Almost opposite the Campanile, +at the corner of the Via S. Maria, is the Casa dei Trovatelli. It was +here, as I suppose,[62] that the Pisans built that hospital and chapel +to S. Giorgio after the great day of Montecatini.[63] Not far away, +behind the Via Torelli in Via Arcevescovado, is the archbishop's palace, +with a fine courtyard. If we follow the Via Torelli a little, we pass, +on the right, the Oratory of S. Ranieri, the patron saint of Pisa, where +there is a crucifix by Giunta Pisano which used to hang in the kitchen +of the Convent of S. Anna,[64] not far away, where Emilia Viviani was +"incarcerated," as Shelley says. Close by are the few remains of the +Baths of Hadrian. At the corner we pass into Via S. Anna, and then, +taking the first turning to the left, we come into the great Piazza di +S. Caterina, before the church of that name. Built in the thirteenth +century, it has a fine Pisan facade, but the church is now closed and +the convent has become a boys' school. Passing through the shady Piazza +under the plane-trees, we come into the Via S. Lorenzo, and then, +turning to the right into Vicolo del Ruschi, we come into a Piazza out +of which opens the Piazza di S. Francesco. S. Francesco fell on evil +days, and was altogether desecrated, but is now in the hands of the +Franciscans again. This is well, for the whole church, founded in 1211, +and not the Campanile only, is said to be by Niccolo Pisano.[65] Behind +it, in the old convent, is the Museo. + +As you come into this desecrated and ruined cloister littered with +rubbish, among which here and there you may see some quaint or charming +thing, it is difficult to remember S. Francis. Yet, indeed, the place +was founded by two of his followers, the blessed Agnolo and the blessed +Alberto, and still holds in a locked room one of the most extraordinary +of his portraits. In the old Chapter-house are some fragments of the +pulpit from the Duomo by Giovanni Pisano, destroyed in the fire of 1595. +Here we may see very easily the difference between father and son. It is +no longer the influence of the antique that gives life to Italian +sculpture, but certainly French work, something of that passionate +restless energy that, whether we like it or not, puts certain statues at +Chartres, for instance, without shame beside the best Greek work. The +subjects of these panels are the same as those of Niccolo's pulpit in +the Baptistery; one could not wish for a better opportunity of comparing +the work of the two men who stand at the source of the Renaissance. + +Passing through the cloister, we enter the convent through a great room +on the first floor, hung with the banners of the Giuoco del Ponte, and +bright with service books. In a little room on the left (Sala I) we come +into the gallery proper. Here, among all sorts of stained parchments, is +the precious remnant of the Cintola del Duomo, that girdle of Maria +Assunta which used to be bound round the Duomo.[66] It took some three +hundred yards of the fabric, crusted with precious stones, painted with +miniatures, sewn with gold and silver, to gird the Duomo. I know not +when first it was made, nor who first conceived the proud thought,[67] +nor what particular victory put it into his heart. Only the tyrant and +thief who stole it I know, Gambacorti, whom Pisa brought back from +exile. + +In the chamber next to this are some strangely beautiful crucifixes by +Giunta Pisano, and a little marvellous portrait of S. Francesco on +copper with a bright red book in his hand. + +Of the pictures which follow, but two ever made any impression upon me. +One, a Madonna and Child by Gentile da Fabriano, is full of a mysterious +loveliness that did not survive him; the other is an altar-piece from S. +Caterina by Simone Martini of Siena, where a Magdalen holds the delicate +casket of precious ointment, and, as though fainting with the sweetness +of her weeping, leans a little, her sleepy, languorous eyes drooping +under her heavy hair, which a jewelled ribbon hardly holds up. Something +in this "primitive" art has been lost when we come to Angelico, some +almost morbid loveliness that you may find even yet in the air about +Perugia and Siena, in the delicate flowers there, the honeysuckle which +the country people call _le manine della Madonnina_--the little hands of +the Virgin, and even in the people sometimes, in their soft gestures and +dreamy looks. And for these I pass by the pictures by Benozzo Gozzoli, +by Sodoma, and the rest, for they are as nothing. + +It is, however, not a work of art at all that is perhaps the most +interesting thing in the Museo; but a model of the _Giuoco del Ponte_, +with certain banners, flags, bucklers, and such, once used by the Pisans +in their national game.[68] This _Giuoco_ was played on the Ponte di +Mezzo, by the people who lived on the north bank of the river and those +on the south, nor were the country folk excluded; and Mr. Heywood tells +us that it was no uncommon sight a quarter of a century ago "to see +hanging above the doorway of a contadino's house the _targone_ [or +shield] with which his sires played at Ponte."[69] The city and +countryside being thus divided into two camps, as it were, each chose an +army, that was divided into six _squadre_ of from thirty to sixty +_soldati_. The _squadre_ of the north were, Santa Maria with a banner of +blue and white; San Michele, whose colours were white and red; the +Calci, white and green and gold; Calcesana, yellow and black; the +Mattaccini, white, blue, and peach-blossom; the Satiri, red and black. +The southern _squadre_ were called S. Antonio, whose banner was of +flame colour, on which was a pig; S. Martino, with a banner of white, +black, and red; San Marco, with a banner of white and yellow with a +winged lion, and under its feet was the gospel, on which was written +_Pax tibi Marce_; the Leoni, with a banner of black and white; the +Dragoni, with a banner of green and white; the Delfini, with a banner of +blue and yellow. All these banners were of silk, and very large.[70] + +Originally the game was played on St. Anthony's day, the 17th of +January; later, this first game came to be a sort of trial match, in +which the players were chosen for the _Battaglia generale_, which took +place on some later date agreed upon by both parties. Thus, I suppose, +if any noble visited Pisa, the _Battaglia generale_ would be fought in +his honour. + +The challenge of the side defeated at the last contest having been +received, a council of war was held in both camps, and permission being +given by the authorities, on that evening, the city was illuminated. The +great procession (the _squadre_ in each camp, in the order in which I +have named them) took place on the day of battle, each army keeping to +its own side of Arno. Then the Piazza del Ponte for the northern army, +the Piazza de' Bianchi for the southern, were enclosed with palisades to +form the camps, and the battle began. + +In order to save the _soldato_ from hurt, his head was covered with a +_falzata_ of cotton, and guarded by an iron casque with a barred +vizor.[71] The body was also swathed in cotton or a doublet of leather, +over which iron armour was worn. The arms, too, were covered with +quilted leather and the hands in gauntlets, and the legs were protected +with gaiters, while round the neck a quilted collar was tied to save the +collar bone. The only weapon allowed was the _targone_, a shield of wood +curved at the top, and almost but not quite pointed at the foot. At the +back of this were two handles, which were gripped by both hands, and +the blow delivered with the smaller end of the shield. When the press of +the fight was not very great, no doubt this shield was used as a club. +These _targoni_ were decorated with mottoes or a device, as we may see +from these now in the Museo; they were evidently even heirlooms in the +family which had the honour to see one of its members chosen for the +_Battaglia_. + +Four _comandanti_ or captains on each side entered the battle itself. +Two of these on each side stood on the parapet of the bridge directing +their men. The two northerners wore a scarlet uniform with white +facings, the two southerners a green uniform with white facings. Two +other _comandanti_ in each army stood on the ground. The two first were +unarmed, and were not allowed to interfere with the fight, but the two +on the ground, who were allowed two adjutants, could scarcely have been +prevented from giving or receiving blows. + +Before the fight began, the banner of Pisa, a silver cross on a red +ground, floated from a staff in the middle of the bridge. This was +lowered across the bridge to divide the two armies; and at the close of +the fight it was so lowered again, and, according as either side was in +the enemy's territory, so the victory went. + +When the battle was over, the victorious side made procession through +the city. If the north had won, all Pisa north of Arno was alight with +bonfires, the houses were decorated, everyone was in the streets; while +south of Arno the city was in darkness, the people in their houses, not +a dog lurked without. Then followed, after a few days, the great trionfo +of the victors. + +"The procession was headed," says Mr. Heywood, "by two trumpeters on +horseback, followed by a band of horsemen clad in military costumes, and +by war-cars full of arms and banners of the vanquished. Thereafter came +certain soldiers on foot with their hands bound, to represent prisoners +taken in the battle; then more trumpeters and drummers; and then the +triumphal chariot, drawn by four or six horses richly draped and adorned +with emblems and mottoes. It was accompanied and escorted by knights +and gentlemen on horseback. The noble ladies of the city followed in +their carriages, and behind them thronged an infinite people (_infinito +popolo_) scattering broadcast various poetical compositions, and singing +with sweet melodies in the previously appointed places, the glories of +the victory won, making procession through the city until night." After +dark, bonfires were lighted. On high above the triumphal car was set +some allegorical figure, such as Valour, Victory, or Fame.[72] + +The last _Giuoco del Ponte_ was fought in 1807. "Certain pastimes," says +Signor Tribolati, "are intimately connected with certain institutions +and beliefs; and when the latter cease to exist, the former also perish +with them. The _Giuoco del Ponte_ was a relic of popular chivalry, one +of the innumerable knightly games which adorned the simple, artistic, +warlike life of the hundred Republics of Italy.... What have we to do +with the arms and banners of the tourneys? At most we may rub the +cobwebs away and shake off the dust and lay them aside in a museum."[73] + +To come out of the Museo, that graveyard of dead beauty, of forgotten +enthusiasms, into the quiet, deserted Piazza di S. Francesco, where the +summer sleeps ever in the sun and no footstep save a foreigner's ever +seems to pass, is to fall from one dream into another, not less +mysterious and full of beauty. How quiet now is this old city that once +rang with the shouts of the victors home from some sea fight, or +returned from the Giuoco. Only, as you pass along Via S. Francesco and +turn into Piazza di S. Paolo, the children gather about you, reminding +you that in Italy even the oldest places--S. Paolo al Orto, for +instance, with its beautiful old tower that is now a dwelling--are put +to some use, and are really living still like the gods who have taken +service with us, perhaps in irony, to console themselves for our +treachery in watching our sadness without them. + +It is certainly with some such thought as this in his heart the +unforgetful traveller will enter S. Pierino, not far from S. Paolo al +Orto, at the corner of Via Cavour and Via delle belle Torri. Coming into +this old church suddenly out of the sunshine, how dark a place it seems, +full of a mysterious melancholy too, a sort of remembrance of change and +death, as though some treachery asleep in our hearts had awakened on the +threshold and accused us. The crypt has long been used as a charnel +house, the guide-book tells you, but maybe it is not any memory of the +unremembered and countless dead that has stirred in your heart, but some +stranger impulse urging you to a dislike of the darkness, that dim +mysterious light that is part of the north and has nothing to do with +Italy. How full of twilight it is, yet once in this place a temple to +Apollo stood, full of the sun, almost within sound of the sea, when, we +know not how,[74] the Pisans received news of Jesus Christ, and, +forgetting Apollo, gave his temple to St. Peter. Then in 1072 they +pulled down that old "house of idols,"[75] and built this church, +calling it S. Pietro in Vincoli, perhaps because of the presence of the +old gods, perhaps because it was so dark--who knows; and on the 30th of +August 1119, Archbishop Pietro, he who brought the cross of silver from +Rome and put in it the banner of the city and led Pisa to victory in +Majorca, solemnly consecrated it. + +I was thinking somewhat in this fashion, resting on a bench in that cool +twilight place, where the sounds of life come from very far off, when +out of the darkness an old man crept toward me; he seemed as old as the +church itself. "The Signore would see the church," he asked; "who can +the Signore wish for better than myself?--it is my own church, I am its +guardian." Truly he was very old: if he were Apollo, long and evil had +been his days; if he were St. Peter, indeed he was very like. + +It was a long story of buried treasure, buried or lost I know not which, +that he tried to tell me, while he pointed to the beautiful pavement, or +caressed the old fading pillars, leading me up the broken steps into the +greater darkness of the nave, where he showed me one of the most ancient +pictures in Pisa, a great, mournful, and grievous crucifix, a colossal +Christ, His feet nailed separately to the cross, His body tortured and +emaciated, a hideous mask of death;--here in the temple of Apollo. "It +is here," said he, smiling, "that Paganism and Christianity were +married; and in the temple lie the dead, and in the church the living +pray, as you see, Signore, beside these old pillars that were not built +for any Christian house. Such is the splendour and antiquity of our +city. For, as you know, doubtless, the Duomo itself is built on the +foundations of Nero's Palace,[76] S. Andrea (not far away) was once a +temple of Venus, in S. Niccola we besought Ceres, and in S. Michele +called on Mars; such, Signore, is the splendour and glory of our +city...." + +Evening had come when I found myself again on the Lung' Arno, in a world +neither Pagan nor Christian, in which I am a stranger. + + * * * * * + +Leaving behind you Ponte di Mezzo and the Lung' Arno, _quasi a modo d'un +archo di balestro_,[77] you come into the Borgo, under the low arches of +the old houses that make a covered way. This is perhaps the oldest part +of Pisa. Almost at once on your right you pass S. Michele in Borgo, +built probably just before his death by Fra Guglielmo, that disciple of +Niccolo Pisano. Fra Guglielmo died in the convent of S. Caterina, for he +had been fifty-seven years in the Dominican Order. Tronci tells us +that, being one day in Bologna, where he had gone with Niccolo his +master to make a tomb for S. Domenico, when the old tomb was opened he +secretly took a bone and hid it, and without saying anything presently +set out for Pisa. Arrived there, he placed the relic under the table of +the altar of S. Maria Maddalena, and was seen often by the brethren +praying there,--they knew not why. But at his death he revealed his +pious theft, and showed the bone in its place, and it was guarded and +shown to the people. + +But S. Michele in Borgo is older than Fra Guglielmo, who died about the +year 1313. Certainly the crypt is ancient as are the pillars. A certain +_Buono_ is said to have built a church here in 990; but little, however, +now remaining can be of that date, the church as a whole being of about +1312, and, as I have said, probably the last work of Fra Guglielmo. + +Passing up the Borgo, here and there we may see signs of ancient Pisa in +the sunken pillars, for instance, before a house in a street on the +left, Via del Monte, following which we come into the most beautiful +Piazza in Pisa, perhaps in Italy, Piazza dei Cavalieri, once the Piazza +dei Anziani. + +On the right is the Church of the Knights of St. Stephen, Santo Stefano +dei Cavalieri; next to it is the beautiful palace of the Anziani, later +the Palazzo Conventuale dei Cavalieri, rebuilt by Vasari. Almost +opposite this is a palace under which the road passes, built to the +shape of the Piazza; it marks the spot where the Tower of Hunger once +stood, where the eagles of the Republic were housed, and where Conte +Ugolino della Gherardesca with his sons and nephews was starved to death +by Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini. Opposite to this is the marble +Palazzo del Consiglio, also belonging to the Order of St. Stephen. + +The Knights of St. Stephen, to whom, indeed, the whole Piazza seems to +be devoted, were a religious and military Order founded by Cosimo I, +Grand Duke of Tuscany, who sits on horseback in front of the beautiful +steps of the _Conventuale_. The object of the Order was to harry the +Moorish pirates of the Mediterranean, to redeem their captives, and to +convert these Moors to Christianity; nor were they wanting in war, for +they fought at Lepanto. Cosimo placed the Order under the protection of +St. Stephen, because he had gained his greatest victory on that saint's +day. The Knights seem to have been of two kinds: the religious, who took +three major vows and lived in the Conventuale under the rule of St. +Benedict, and served the Church of S. Stefano; and the military, who +might not only hold property but marry. Their cross is very like the +cross of Pisa, but red, while that is white. + +In S. Stefano there is little to see, a few old banners, a series of bad +frescoes, and a bust of S. Lussorius by Donatello, perhaps,--at least, +that sculptor was working for eighteen months in the city. Before the +sixteenth century this Piazza must have been very different from what it +is to-day. Where S. Stefano stands now S. Sebastiano stood, that church +where the Anziani met so often to decide peace or war.[78] Close by was +the palace of the Podesta, while beyond the Palazzo Anziani rose the +Torre delle Sette Vie, Torre Gualandi, Torre della Fame, for it bore all +three names; only, the last came to it after the hideous crime of +Ruggiero. If we cross the Piazza opposite the Palazzo Conventuale, and +pass into Via S. Sisto, we come to the church of that saint, where also +the Grand Council used to meet. It was founded to commemorate the great +victories that came to Pisa on that day. Those antique columns are the +spoil of war, as Tronci tells us.[79] Returning to the Piazza, and +leaving it by Via S. Frediano, we soon come to the church of that saint, +with its lovely and spacious nave and antique columns. A little farther +on is the University, La Sapienza, founded by Conte Fazio della +Gherardesca in 1338. In that year Conte Fazio enlarged the Piazza degli +Anziani, so that _la nobilita_ should be able to walk there more +readily; and to render the city more honourable, with the consent of the +_Anziani_ and all the Senate, he founded a university, to lead the +greatest doctors to lecture there; and to establish the Theatre of the +Schools he sent ambassadors in the name of the Republic to Pope Benedict +for his authorisation. Needless to say, this was given and in 1340 we +find Messer Bartolo da Sassoferrato and Messer Guido da Prato, Doctor of +Physics, lecturing on "Chirugia."[80] In 1589, Galileo was Professor of +Mathematics here. The present building dates from 1493. Close by, +between the University and the Lung' Arno, are the remains of an old +gate of the city, Porta Aurea, and some remnants of towers. + +Crossing Arno by Ponte Solferino, and turning along the Lung' Arno +Gambacorti to the left, we come suddenly upon a great Piazza in which an +old and splendid church is hidden away. And just as the Duomo, the great +church of the northern part of the city, is set just within the walls +far away from the Borgo, so here, in the southern part of Pisa, S. Paolo +a Ripa d'Arno is abandoned by the riverside on the verge of the country, +for the fields are at its threshold. And indeed, this desolate church is +really older than the Duomo, for, as some say, it served as the Great +Church of Pisa while the Cathedral was building. Founded, as the Pisans +assert, by Charlemagne in 805, it was rather the model of the Duomo, if +this be true, than, as is generally supposed, a copy of it. Bare for the +most part and empty, its original beauty and simplicity still remain to +it; nor should any who find it omit to pass into the priest's house, to +see the old Baptistery now in the hands of Benedictine nuns. + +On our way back to Pisa by the Lung' Arno Gambacorti, we may look always +with new joy at the Torre Guelfa, almost all that is left of the great +arsenal built in 1200. And then you will not pass without entering, it +may be, S. Maria della Spina, where of old the huntsmen used to hear +Mass at dawn before going about their occasions. + +And many another church in Pisa is devout and beautiful. S. Sepolcro, +which Diotisalvi made, he who built the Baptistery, a church of the +Knights Templars below the level of the way; S. Martino too, both in +Chinseca, that part of the city named after her who gave the alarm +nearly a thousand years ago when the Saracen sails hove in sight.--Ah, +do not be in a hurry to leave Pisa for any other city. Let us think of +old things for a little, and be quiet. It may be we shall never see that +line of hills again--Monti Pisani; it were better to look at them a +little carefully. A little while before to-day the most precious of our +dreams was not so lovely as that spur of the Apennines. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] Muratori, _Annali ad ann._: He quotes from _Annali Pisani_ (see +tom. vi., Rer. Ital. Scrip): "Fecerunt bellum Pisani cum Lucensibus in +Aqua longa, et vicerunt illos." See Arch. St. It. VI. ii. p. 4. Cron. +Pis. ad annum. + +[18] Muratori, _Annali ad ann. 1050_: "et Pisa fuit firmata de tota +Sardinia a Romana sede."--_Ann. Pis._, R.I.S., tom. vi. + +[19] Tronci, _Annali Pisani_, Livorno, 1682, p. 21. + +[20] Ibid. p. 22. + +[21] Muratori (_Annali ad ann._) says Pope Alexander visited in this +year S. Martino the Duomo of Lucca. Ad ann. 1118 he suggests 1092 for +the foundation of the Duomo of Pisa. + +[22] Thus Tronci; but Volpe, _Studi sulle Istituzioni Comunali a Pisa_, +p. 6, tells us that these quarters did not exist till much later,--till +after 1164, when the system of division by _porte e base_ was abandoned +for division by _quartieri_. Tronci, later, says that the city was +unwalled (p. 38). But even in the eleventh century Pisa was a walled +city; the first walls included only the Quartiere di Mezzo; and in those +days the city proper, the walled part, was called "Populus Pisanus," +while the suburbs were called Cinthicanus, Foriportensis, and de Burgis. +Cf. _Arch. St. It._ iii. vol. VIII. p. 5. Muratori, _Dissertazioni_, 30, +"De Mercat." says that in the tenth century a part of the city was +called Kinzic; cf. Fanucci, _St. dei Tre celebri Popoli Maritt._ I. 96. +Kinzic is Arabic, and means _magazzinaggi_. + +[23] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 38. + +[24] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 60. + +[25] It was from Amalfi that they brought home the Pandects. + +[26] The first Podesta of the city was Conte Tedicis della Gherardesca. + +[27] Pisa was perhaps influenced, too, in her choice of the Ghibelline +side by the interference of the Papacy against her in Corsica. While, if +Pisa was Ghibelline, Lucca, of course, was Guelph. + +[28] Cf. G. Villani, _op. cit._ lib. vii. cap. ii., "La cagione perche +si comincio la guerra da' Fiorentini a' Pisani," and Villari, _History +of Florence_ (Eng. ed. 1902), p. 176. + +[29] This seems to give the lie to the accusation of treachery, which +said that he gave the signal for flight at Meloria; but in fact it does +not, for Pisa elected Ugolino for reasons, in the hope of conciliating +Florence; cf. Villari, _op. cit._ p. 284. + +[30] He knew them to be Ghibellines. + +[31] It was also called _la muda_. It seems hardly necessary to refer +the reader to Dante, _Inferno_, xxxiii. 1-90. This tower (now to be +called the Tower of Hunger) was the mew of the eagles. For even as the +Romans kept wolves on the Capitol, so the Pisans kept eagles, the +Florentines lions, the Sienese a wolf. See Villani, bk. vii. 128. +Heywood, _Palio and Ponte_, p. 13, note 2. + +[32] Florence here means the League, to wit, Prato, Pistoja, Siena even, +and all the allies, including the Guelphs of Romagna, who were fighting +Arezzo under Archb. Uberti, and Pisa under Archb. Ruggieri. + +[33] Yet in 1290 Genoa seized Porto Pisano: "Furono allora disfatte le +torri ... il fanale e tutte." + +[34] Tronci, _op. cit._ 269-271. For the _Palio_,--the name of the race +and the prize of victory, a piece of silk not too much unlike the +banners given at a modern battle of Flowers,--see Heywood, _Palio and +Ponte_, 1904, p. 12. + +[35] The girdle was made of silver and jewels and silk to represent the +girdle of the B.V.M. It encircled the Duomo--a most splendid and unique +thing, only possible, I think, in Pisa. No parsimonious Florentine could +have imagined it. + +[36] Now in the Museo, room 1. See page 119. + +[37] Tronci, _op. cit._ 366. + +[38] See Tronci, _op. cit._ 304. + +[39] They imprisoned him in Lucca. + +[40] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 404. + +[41] Cronaca Sanese in _Muratori_, xv. 177. + +[42] Heywood, _Palio and Ponte_, p. 22. + +[43] Tronci, _op. cit._ 412. + +[44] A pleasing story of how these citizens found Agnello's house in +darkness and all sleeping within, of his awakened maid-servant and +frightened wife, is told in Marangoni, _Cron. di Pisa_. See _Sismondi_, +ed. Boulting (1906), p. 401. + +[45] _See_ Sismondi, _op. cit._ p. 403. + +[46] Cf. Sismondi, _op. cit._ p. 557. + +[47] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 18. + +[48] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 453. + +[49] The print is dated 1634. + +[50] For all things concerning this game and the Palio, see Heywood, +_Palio and Ponte_. + +[51] Villani, _op. cit._ Bk. iv. 2. The Badia, like that of Firenze, +seems rather to have been founded by Ugo's mother, Countess Willa. + +[52] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 9. + +[53] It may be as well to explain here that the Pisan Calendar differed +not only from our own but from that of other cities of Tuscany. The +Pisans reckoned from the Incarnation. The year began, therefore, on 25th +March: so did the Florentine and the Sienese year, but they reckoned +from a year after the Incarnation. The Aretines, Pistoiese, and +Cortonese followed the Pisans. + +[54] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 21. + +[55] 104 yards long by 35-1/2 yards wide. + +[56] Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _History of Painting in Italy_, new +edition, 1903, vol. i. pp. 185, 186. + +[57] There is a miracle picture, S. Maria sotto gli Orcagni in the +Duomo. Mr. Carmichael, in his book, _In Tuscany_, gives a full account +of this picture. See also my _Italy and the Italians_, pp. 117-120. + +[58] Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 103. + +[59] Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 109. + +[60] See below, p. 134. + +[61] See _On the Old Road through France to Florence_ (Murray, 1904), in +which Mr. Carmichael wrote the Italian part. He has much pleasant +information about the bells of Pisa, p. 223. + +[62] Was it here, or in the Ospedale dei Trovatelli close to S. Michele +in Borgo? cf. Tronci, p. 179. + +[63] See p. 95. + +[64] Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _op. cit_, vol. i. p. 146, note. + +[65] See _Pisa_. da I.B. Supino, 1905, p. 43. + +[66] See p. 91. + +[67] Mr. Carmichael (_On the Old Road through France to Florence_, p. +224) says it must have been worth L30,000 of our money. + +[68] Let me refer the reader again to Mr. William Heywood's exhaustive +work on Italian mediaeval games, _Palio and Ponte_, Methuen, 1904. + +[69] See also F. Tribolati, _Il Gioco del Ponte_, Firenze, 1877, p. 5. + +[70] Many of these banners are hung in the great Salone--the first room +you enter on the first floor of the Museo. + +[71] All the coverings and armour are illustrated in the _Oplomachia +Pisana_ of Camillo Borghi. (Lucca, 1713.) + +[72] There is a rich literature of poems and _Relazioni_, etc., on the +_Gioco del Ponte_. + +[73] F. Tribolati, _Il Gioco del Ponte_, Firenze, 1877. See also +Heywood, _op. cit._ p. 136. + +[74] Yet it is said that St. Peter himself came to Pisa from Antioch, +and founded the Church of S. Pietro in Grado, and consecrated Pierino +first bishop of Pisa; cf. Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 3. + +[75] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 23. + +[76] He said palace, and palace it may be, for the baths are a quarter +of a mile away. + +[77] So a nineteenth-century writer calls it. Leopardi, too, cannot find +words enough to express its beauty: "Questo Lung' Arno e uno spetaccolo +cosi bello cosi ampio cosi magnifico," etc. + +[78] It was in S. Sebastiano that Ruggiero condemned Count Ugolino and +his sons. + +[79] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 30. + +[80] Tronci, op. cit. p. 343. + + + + +VII. LIVORNO[81] + + +It was only after many days spent in the Pineta, those pinewoods that go +down to the sea at Gombo, where the silent, deserted shore, strewn with +sea-shells and whispering with grass, stretches far away to the Carrara +hills, that very early one morning I set out for Livorno, that port +which has taken the place of the old Porto Pisano,[82] so famous through +the world of old. Leaving Pisa by the Porta a Mare, I soon came to S. +Pietro a Grado, a lonely church among the marshes, that once, as I +suppose, stood on the seashore. It was here St. Peter, swept out of his +course by a storm on his way from Antioch, came ashore before setting +out again for Naples, entering Italy first, then, on the shores of +Etruria. So the tale goes; but the present church seems to be a building +of the twelfth century. Its simple beauty, which the seawind and the sun +have kissed for seven hundred years, seems to give character to the +whole plain, so ample and green, beyond the wont of Italy; but, indeed, +here we are on the threshold of the Maremma, that beautiful, wild, +deserted country that man has not yet reclaimed from Death, where the +summer is still and treacherous in its loveliness, where in winter for a +little while the herdsmen come down with their cattle from the +Garfagnana, and the hills musical with love songs. On the threshold of +that treacherous summer, as it were, this lonely church stands on guard. +Within, she is beautiful, in the old manner, splendid with antique +pillars caught about now with iron; but it is perhaps the frescoes, that +have faded on the walls till they are scarcely more than the shadows of +a thousand forgotten sunsets, that you will care for most. They are the +work of Giunta Pisano, or if, indeed, they are not his they are of his +school,--a school already decadent, splendid with the beauty that has +looked on death and can never be quite sane again. No one, I think, can +ever deny the beauty of Giunta's work; it is full of a strange subtilty +that is ready to deny life over and over again. He is concerned not with +life, but chiefly with religion, and with certain bitter yet altogether +lovely colours which evoke for him, and for us too, if we will lend +ourselves to their influence, all the misery and pessimism of the end of +the Middle Age, its restlessness and ennui, that find consolation only +in the memory of the grotesque frailty of the body which one day Jesus +will raise up. All the anarchy and discontent of our own time seems to +me to be expressed in such work as this, in which ugliness, as we might +say, has as much right as beauty. It is, I think, the mistake of much +popular criticism in our time to assert that these "primitive" painters +were beginners, and could not achieve what they wished. They were not +beginners, rather they were the most subtle artists of a convention--and +all art is a convention--that was about to die. If one can see their +work aright, it is beautiful; but it has lost touch with life, or is a +mere satirical comment upon it, that Giotto, with his simplicity, his +eager delight in natural things and in man, will supersede and banish. +In him, Europe seems to shake off the art and fatality of the East, +under whose shadow Christianity had grown up, to be altogether +transformed and humanised by Rome, when she at the head really of +humanism and art should once more give to the world the thoughts and +life of another people full of joy and temperance--things so hard for +the Christian to understand. And it is really with such a painter as +Giunta Pisano that Christian art pure and simple comes to end. Some +divinity altogether different has touched those who came after: Giotto, +who is enamoured of life which the Christian must deny; Angelico, whose +world is full of a music that is about to become pagan; Botticelli, who +has mingled the tears of Mary with the salt of the sea, and has seen a +new star in heaven, and proclaimed the birth not of the Nazarene, but +the Cyprian. + +But it is not such thoughts as these you will find in Livorno, one of +the busiest towns in Italy, full of modern business life; material in +the manner of the Latin people that by reason of some inherent purity of +heart never becomes sordid in our fashion. + +"There is absolutely nothing to see in Leghorn," says Mr. Hare. Well, +but that depends on what you seek, does it not? If you would see a +Tuscan city that is absolutely free from the tourist, I think you must +go to Livorno. It is true, works of art are not many there; but the +statue of Grand Duke Ferdinand, with four Moors in bronze chained to his +feet, a work of Piero Jacopo Tacca, made in 1617-1625, is something; +though I confess those chained robbers at the feet of a petty tyrant who +was as great a robber, he and his forebears, as any among them, are in +this age of sentimental liberalism, from which who can escape, a little +disconcerting. Ferdinand has his best monument in the city itself, which +he founded to take the place of Porto Pisano, that in the course of +centuries had silted up. In order to populate the new port, he +proclaimed there a religious liberty he denied to his Duchy at large. +His policy was splendidly successful. Every sort of outcast made Livorno +his home--especially the Jews, for whom Ferdinando had a great respect; +but there were there Greeks also, and _nuovi christiani_, Moors +converted to Christianity. These last, I think, indeed, must have been +worth seeing; for no doubt Ferdinand's politic grant of religious +liberty did not include Moors who had not been "converted to +Christianity." + +But the great days of Livorno are over; though who may say if a new +prosperity does not await her in the near future, she is so busy a +place. Livorno la cara, they call her, and no doubt of old she endeared +herself to her outcasts. To-day, however, it is to the Italian summer +visitor that she is dear. There he comes for sea-bathing, and it is +difficult to imagine a more delightful seaside. For you may live on the +hills and yet have the sea. Beyond Livorno rises the first high ground +of the Maremma, Montenero, holy long ago with its marvellous picture of +the Madonna, which, as I know, still works wonders. Here Byron lived, +and not far away Shelley wrote the principal part of _The Cenci_. + +Passing out by tramway by the Porta Maremmana, you come to Byron's +villa, almost at the foot of the hills, on a sloping ground on your +right. Entering by the great iron gates of what looks like a neglected +park, you climb by a stony road up to the great villa itself, among the +broken statues and the stone pines, where is one of the most beautiful +views of the Pisan country and seashore, with the islands of Gorgona, +Capraja, Elba, and Corsica in the distance. Villa Dupoy, as it was +called in Byron's day, is now in the summer months used as a girls' +school: and, indeed, it would be easy to house a regiment in its vast +rooms, where here and there a seventeenth century fresco is still +gorgeous on the walls, and the mirrors are dim with age. From here the +walk up to Our Lady of Montenero is delightful; and once there, on the +hills above the church, the rolling downs towards Maremma lie before you +without a single habitation, almost without a road, a country of heath +and fierce rock, desolate and silent, splendid with the wind and the +sun. + +The Church of Madonna lies just under the crest of the hill, and is even +to-day a place of many pilgrimages: for the whole place is strewn and +hung with thank-offerings, silver hearts, shoes, crutches, and I know +not what else, among the pathetic pictures of her kindly works. The +picture itself, loaded now with jewellery, is apparently a work of the +thirteenth century; but it is said to have been miraculously brought +hither from Negroponte. It was found at Ardenza close by, by a shepherd, +who carried it to Montenero, where, as I suppose, he lived; but just +before he won the top of the hill it grew so heavy he had to set it +down. So the peasants built a shrine for it; and the affair getting +known, the Church inquired into it, with the result that certainly by +the fifteenth century the shrine was in charge of a Religious Order; +to-day the monks of the Vallombrosan Benedictines serve the church. + +One returns always, I think, with regret from Montenero to Livorno; yet, +after all, not with more sadness than that which always accompanies us +in returning from the country to any city, howsoever fair and lovely. +God made the country; man made the town; and though in Italy both God +and man have laboured with joy and done better here than anywhere else +in the world, who would not leave the loveliest picture to look once +more on the sky, or neglect the sweetest music if he might always hear +the sea, or give up praising a statue, if he might always look on his +beloved? So it is in Italy, where all the cities are fair; flowers they +are among the flowers; yet any Tuscan rose is fairer far than ever Pisa +was, and the lilies of Madonna in the gardens of Settignano are more +lovely than the City of Flowers: come, then, let us leave the city for +the wayside, for the sun and the dust and the hills, the flowers beside +the river, the villages among the flowers. For if you love Italy you +will follow the road. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[81] Livorno, in the barbarian dialect of the Genovesi, Ligorno; and +hence our word Leghorn. It is excusable that we should have taken St. +George from Genoa, but not that we should have stolen her dialect also. + +[82] Perhaps, but Bocca d'Arno, that delicious place, is far and far +to-day from Livorno. + + + + +VIII. TO SAN MINIATO AL TEDESCO + + +The road from Pisa to Florence, out of the Porta Fiorentina, to-day the +greatest gate of the city, passes at first across the Pisan plain, +beside Arno though not following it in its wayward and winding course, +to Cascina at the foot of those hills behind which Lucca is hidden away: +Monti Pisani + + "Perche i Pisani veder Lucca non ponno." + +And unlike the way through the Pineta to the sea, the road, so often +trodden by the victorious armies of Florence, is desolate and sombre, +while beside the way to-day a disused tramway leads to Calci in the +hills. On either side of this road, so deep in dust, are meadows lined +with bulrushes, while there lies a village, here a lonely church. It is +indeed a rather sombre world of half-reclaimed marshland that Pisa thus +broods over, in which the only landmarks are the far-away hills, the +smoke of a village not so far away, or the tower of a church rising +among these fields so strangely green. For Pisa herself is soon lost in +the vagueness of a world thus delicately touched by sun and cloud, and +seemingly so full of ruinous or deserted things like the beautiful great +Church of Settimo, whose tower you may see far away in the golden summer +weather standing quite alone in a curve of the river; so that you leave +the highway and following a little by-road come upon Pieve di S. +Cassiano, a basilica in the ancient Pisan manner set among the trees in +a shady place, and over the three doors of the facade you find the +beautiful work of Biduino da Pisa, as it is said, sculptures in relief +of the resurrection of Lazarus, the entry of Christ into Jerusalem, a +fight of dragons, and certain subjects from the Bestiaries. + +Another lonely church, set, not at the end of a byway by the river, but +on the highroad itself, greets you as you enter Cascina. It is the +Chiesa della Madonna dell' Acqua, rebuilt in the eighteenth century. In +this wide plain there are many churches, some of them of a great +antiquity, as S. Jacopo at Zambra and S. Lorenzo alle Corti, and in the +hills you may find a place so wonderful as the Certosa di Calci, a +monastery founded in 1366, but altered and spoiled in the seventeenth +century, and the marvellous Church of S. Giovanni there. Cascina itself +is as it were the image of this wide flat country between the hills and +the Maremma, where the sun has so much influence and the shadows of the +clouds drift over the fields all day long, and the mist shrouds the +evening in blue and silver. Desolate and sober enough on a day of rain, +when the sun shines this gaunt outpost of Pisa, for it is little more, +is as gay as a flower by the wayside. The road runs through it, giving +it its one long and almost straight street, while behind the poor houses +that have so little to boast of, lies a beautiful old Piazza, with a +great palace seemingly deserted on one side and an old tower and a +church with a beautiful facade on another. Always a prize of the enemy, +Cascina in the Pisan wars fell to Lucca, to the Guelph League, and to +Florence. Its old walls, battered long ago, still remain to it, so that +from afar, from the Pisan hills, for instance, it looks more picturesque +than in fact it proves to be. + +The high road, Via Pisana, as it is still called, though, indeed, it was +more often the way of the Florentines, sometimes almost deserted, +sometimes noisy with peasants returning from market, finds the river +again at Cascina only to lose it, however, till after a walk of some +five miles you come to Pontedera, a wild and miserable place, full of +poor and rebellious people, who eye you with suspicion and a sort of +envy. Yet in spite of the proclamation of their wretchedness, I think of +them now in London, as fortunate. At least upon them the sun will +surely shine in the morning, the unsullied infinite night will fall; +while for us there is no sun, and in the night the many are too unhappy +to remember even that. There in Pontedera they preach their socialism, +and none is too miserable to listen; these poor folk have been told they +are unhappy, and, indeed, Pontedera is not beautiful. Yet on a market +day you may see the whole place transformed. It has an aspect of joy +that lights up the dreary street. All day on Friday you may watch them +at their little stalls, which litter Via Pisana and make it impassable. +You might think you were at a fair, but that a fair in England, at any +rate, is not so gay. All along the highway that runs through the town in +front of the shops and the inn you see the stalls of the crockery +merchants, of the dealers in lace and stuffs, of those who sell macaroni +and pasti, and of those who sell mighty umbrellas. And it is then, I +think, that Pontedera is at her best; life which ever contrives in Italy +to keep something of a gay sanity, disposing for that day at least of +the surliness of this people, who are very poor, and far from any great +city. + +As for me, I left Pontedera with all speed, being intent on Vico Pisano, +a fortress built by Filippo Brunellesco for the Republic of Florence, +after the fall of the old Pisan Rocca of Verruca, on the hill-top. +There, too, if we may believe Villani,[83] the Marchese Ugo founded a +monastery. To-day on Monte della Verruca there is nothing remaining of +the Rocca, and the monastery is a heap of stones; but in Vico Pisano the +fortifications and towers of Brunellesco still stand, battered though +they be,--gaunt and bitter towers, their battlements broken, the walls +that the engines of old time have battered, hung now with ivy, over +which, all silver in the wind, the ancient olive leans. + +Here, where the creeping ivy has hidden the old wounds, and the +oleanders speak of the living, and the lilies remind us of the dead, let +us, too, make peace in our hearts and suffer no more bitterness for the +fallen, nor think hardly of the victor. Florence, too, in her turn +suffered slavery and oblivion; and from the same cause as her own +victims, because she would not be at peace. If Pisa fell, it was just +and right; for that she was Ghibelline, and would not make one with her +sisters. For this Siena was lopped like a lily on her hills, and Lucca +pruned like her own olive trees, and Pistoia gathered in the plain. This +Florence stood for the Guelph cause and for the future, yet she too in +her turn failed in love, and great though she was, she too was not great +enough. One of her sons, seeing her power, dreamed of the unity of +Italy, and for this cause followed Cesare Borgia; but she could not +compass it, and so fell at last as Pisa fell, as Siena fell, as all must +fall who will not be at one. How beautiful these old towers of Vico +Pisano look now among the flowers, yet once they were cruel enough: men +defended them and thought nothing of their beauty, and time has spoiled +them of defence and left only their beauty to be remembered. For the +ancients of Pisa have met for the last time; the signory of Florence +plots no more; no more will any Emperor with the pride of a barbarian, +the mien of a beggar or a thief, cross the Alps, or such an one as +Hawkwood was sell his prowess for a bag of silver; and if the ships of +war shall ever put out from Genoa, they will be the ships of Italy. For +she who slept so long has awakened at last, and around her as she stands +on the Capitol, there cluster full of the ancient Latin beauty that can +never die, the beautiful cities of the sea, the plain, and the mountain, +who have lost life for her sake, to find it in her. + +It is a long road of some fifteen miles from Pontedera to S. Miniato al +Tedesco: a hot road not without beauty passing through Rotta, own sister +to Pontedera, through Castel del Bosco, only a dusty village now, for +the castello is gone which guarded the confines of the Republic of Pisa, +divided from the Republic of Florence by the Chiecinella, a torrent bed +almost without water in the summer heat, while not far away on the +southern hills Montopoli thrusts its tower into the sky, keeping yet its +ancient Rocca, once in the power of the Bishops of Lucca, but later in +the hands of Florence, an answer, as it were, to Castel del Bosco of +Pisa in the land where both Pisa and Florence were on guard. There is +but little to see at Montopoli, just two old churches and a picture by +Cigoli; indeed the place looks its best from afar; and then, since the +day is hot, you may spend a pleasanter hour in S. Romano in the old +Franciscan church there, which is worth a visit in spite of its modern +decorations, and is full of coolness and quiet. It was afternoon when I +left S. Romano and caught sight of Castelfranco far away to the north, +and presently crossed Evola at Pontevola, and already sunset when I saw +the beautiful cypresses of Villa Sonnino and the tower of S. Miniato +came in sight. Slowly in front of me as I left Pinocchio a great ox +wagon toiled up the hill winding at last under a splendid Piazza fronted +with flowers; and it was with surprise and joy that, just as the angelus +rang from the Duomo, I came into a beautiful city that, like some +forgotten citadel of the Middle Age, lay on the hills curved like the +letter S, smiling in the silence while the sun set to the sound of her +bells. + +And indeed you may go far in Tuscany, covered as it is to-day by the +trail of the tourist, before you will find anything so fair as S. +Miniato. Some distance from the railway, five miles from Empoli, +half-way between Pisa and Florence, it alone seems to have escaped +altogether the curiosity of the traveller, for even the few who so +wisely rest at Empoli come not so far into the country places. + +Lying on the hills under the old tower of the Rocca, of which nothing +else remains, S. Miniato is itself, as it were, a weather-beaten +fortress, that was, perhaps, never so beautiful as now, when no one +keeps watch or ward. You may wander into the Duomo and out again into +the cloistered, narrow streets, and climbing uphill, pass down into the +great gaunt church like a fortress, S. Domenico, with its scrupulous +frescoes, and though you will see many wonderful and some delightful +things, it will be always with new joy you will return to S. Miniato +herself, who seems to await you like some virgin of the centuries of +faith, that age has not been able to wither, fresh and rosy as when she +first stood on her beautiful hills. Yet unspoiled as she is, Otto I has +dwelt with her, she was a stronghold of the Emperors, the fortress of +the Germans; Federigo Barbarossa knew her well, and Federigo II has +loved her and hated her, for here he spoke with poets and made a few +songs, and here he blinded and imprisoned Messer Piero della Vigna, that +famous poet and wise man, accusing him of treason.[84] Was it that he +envied him his verses or feared his wisdom, or did he indeed think he +plotted with the Pope? Piero della Vigna was from Capua, in the Kingdom; +very eloquent, full of the knowledge of law, the Emperor made him his +chancellor, and indeed gave him all his confidence, so that his +influence was very great with a man who must have been easily influenced +by his friends. Seeing his power, others about the Emperor, remembering +Piero's low condition, no doubt sought to ruin him; and, as it seems, at +last in this they were successful, forging letters to prove that the +chancellor trafficked with the Pope. It was a time of danger for +Frederick; he was easily persuaded of Piero's guilt, and having put out +his eyes, he imprisoned him. Driven to despair at the loss of that fair +world, Piero dashed his head against the walls of his prison, and so +died. Dante meets him among the suicides in the seventh circle of the +Inferno. + +But the Rocca of S. Miniato, as it is said, having brought death to a +poet and housed many Emperors, gave birth at last to the greatest +soldier of the fifteenth century, Francesco Sforza himself, he who made +himself Duke of Milan and whose statue Leonardo set himself to make, on +which the poets carved _Ecce Deus_. A mere fort, perhaps, in its origin, +in the days of Federigo II the Rocca must have been of considerable +strength, size, and luxury, dominating as it did the road to Florence +and the way to Rome: and then even in its early days it was a +stronghold of the German foreigner from which he dominated the Latins +round about, and not least the people of S. Miniato. Like all the +Tuscans, they could not bear the yoke, and they fled into the valley to +S. Genesio: soon to return, however, for the people of the plain liked +them as little as he of the tower. This exodus is, as it were, +commemorated in the dedication of the Duomo to S. Maria e a S. Genesio. +The church is not very interesting; some fragments of the old pulpit or +_ambone_, where you may see in relief the Annunciation and a coat of +arms with a boar and an inscription, are of the thirteenth century. It +is, however, in S. Domenico, not far away, that what remains to S. +Miniato of her art treasures will be found. Everyone seems to call the +church S. Domenico, but in truth it belongs to S. Jacopo and S. Lucia. +As in many another Tuscan city, it guards one side of S. Miniato, while +S. Francesco watches on the other, as though to befriend all who may +pass by. S. Domenico was founded in 1330, but it has suffered much since +then. The chapels, built by the greatest families of the place, in part +remain beautiful with the fourteenth-century work of the school of Gaddi +and of some pupil of Angelico; but it is a work of the fifteenth century +by some master of the Florentine school that chiefly delights us. For +there you may see Madonna, her sweet, ambiguous face neither happy nor +sad, with the Prince of Life in her lap, while on the one side stand S. +Sebastian and St. John Baptist, and on the other perhaps S. Jacopo and +S. Roch. Below the donors kneel a man and his wife and little daughter, +while in the predella you see our Lord's birth, baptism, and +condemnation. Altogether lovely, in that eager yet dry manner, a little +uncertain of its own dainty humanism, this picture alone is worth the +journey to S. Miniato. Yet how much else remains--a tomb attributed to +Donatello in this very chapel, a lovely terra-cotta of the Annunciation +given to Giovanni della Robbia, and indeed, not to speak of S. Francesco +with its spaciousness and delicate light, and the Palazzo Comunale, with +its frescoed Sala del Consiglio, there is S. Miniato itself, full of +flowers and the wind. Like a city of a dream, at dawn she rises out of +the mists of the valley pure and beautiful upon her winding hills that +look both north and south; cool at midday and very still, hushed from +all sounds, she sleeps in the sun, while her old tower tells the slow, +languorous hours; golden at evening, the sunset ebbs through her streets +to the far-away sea, till she sinks like some rosy lily into the night +that for her is full of familiar silences peopled by splendid dreams. +Then there come to her shadows innumerable--Otto I, Federigo Barbarossa, +Federigo II, poor blinded Piero della Vigna, singing his songs, and +those that we have forgotten. The ruined dream of Germany, the Holy +Roman Empire, the resurrection of the Latin race--she has seen them all +rise, and two of them she helped to shatter for ever. It is not only in +her golden book that she may read of splendour and victory, but in the +sleeping valley and the whisper of her olives, the simple song of the +husbandman among the corn, the Italian voices in the vineyard at dawn: +let her sleep after the old hatred, hushed by this homely music. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[83] See p. 107. + +[84] "Io son colui che tenni ambo le chiavi + Del cuor di Federigo e che le volsi + Serrando e disserando si soavi + Che dal segreto suo quasi ogni uom tolsi." + + + + +IX. EMPOLI, MONTELUPO, LASTRA, SIGNA + + +It is but four miles down the hillside and through the valley along Via +Pisana to Empoli in the plain. And in truth that way, difficult truly at +midday--for the dusty road is full of wagons and oxen--is free enough at +dawn, though every step thereon takes you farther from the hills of S. +Miniato. Empoli, which you come to not without preparation, is like a +deserted market-place, a deserted market-place that has been found, and +put once more to its old use. Set as it is in the midst of the plain +beside Arno on the way to Florence, on the way to Siena, amid the +villages and the cornfields, it was the Granary of the Republic of +Florence, its very name, may be, being derived from the word Emporium, +which in fact it was. Not less important perhaps to-day than of old, its +new villas, its strangely busy streets, its cosy look of importance and +comfort there in the waste of plain, serve to hide any historical +importance it may have, so that those who come here are content for the +most part to go no farther than the railway station, where on the way +from Pisa or from Florence they must change carriages for Siena. And +indeed, for her history, it differs but little from that of other Tuscan +towns within reach of a great city. Yet for Empoli, as her Saint willed, +there waited a destiny. For after the rout of the Guelphs, and +especially of Florence, the head and front of that cause at Montaperti, +when in all Tuscany only Lucca remained free, and the Florentine +refugees built the loggia in front of S. Friano, there the Ghibellines +of Tuscany proposed to destroy utterly and for ever the City of the +Lily, and for this cause Conte Giordano and the rest caused a council to +be held at Empoli; and so it happened. Now Conte Giordano, Villani tells +us, was sent for by King Manfred to Apulia, and there was proclaimed as +his vicar and captain, Conte Guido Novello of the Conti Guidi of +Casentino, who had forsaken the rest of the family, which stood for the +Guelph cause. This man was eager to fling every Guelph out of Tuscany. +There were assembled at that council all the cities round about, and the +Conti Guidi and the Conti Alberti, and those of Santafiora and the +Ubaldini; and these were all agreed that for the sake of the Ghibelline +cause Florence must be destroyed, "and reduced to open villages, so that +there might remain to her no renown or fame or power." It was then that +Farinata degli Uberti, though a Ghibelline and an exile, rose to oppose +this design, saying that if there remained no other, whilst he lived he +would defend the city, even with his sword. Then, says Villani, "Conte +Giordano, seeing what manner of man he was, and of how great authority, +and how the Ghibelline party might be broken up and come to blows, +abandoned the design and took new counsel, so that by one good man and +citizen our city of Florence was saved from so great fury, destruction, +and ruin." But Florence was ever forgetful of her greatest sons, and +Farinata's praise was not found in her mouth, but in that of her +greatest exile, who, finding him in his fiery tomb, wishes him rest. + + "Deh se riposi mai vostra semenza + Prega io lui." + +To-day, however, in Empoli the long days are unbroken by the whisperings +from any council; and as though to mark the fact that all are friends at +last, if you come to her at all, you will sleep at the Aquila Nera in +the street of the Lily; Guelph and Ghibelline hate no more. And as +though to prove to man, ever more mindful of war than peace, that it is +only the works of love after all that abide for ever, in Empoli at least +scarcely anything remains from the old beloved days save the churches, +and, best of all, the pictures that were painted for them. + +You pass the Church of S. Maria a Ripa just before you enter the city by +the beautiful Porta Pisana, but though you may find some delightful +works of della Robbia ware there, especially a S. Lucia, it is in the +Collegiata di S. Andrea in the lovely Piazza Farinata degli Uberti, that +most of the works have been gathered in some of the rooms of the old +college. The church itself is very interesting, with its beautiful +facade in the manner of the Badia at Fiesole, where you may see carved +on either side of the great door the head of S. Andrea and of St. John +Baptist. + +In the Baptistery, however, comes your first surprise, a beautiful +fresco, a Pieta attributed to Masolino da Panicale, where Christ is laid +in the tomb by Madonna and St. John, while behind rises the Cross, on +which hangs a scourge of knotted chords. And then in the second chapel +on the right is a lovely Sienese Madonna, and a strange fresco on the +left wall of men taming bulls. + +In the gallery itself a few lovely things have been gathered together, +of which certainly the finest are the angels of Botticini, two children +winged and crowned with roses, dressed in the manner of the fifteenth +century, with purfled skirts and slashed sleeves powdered with flowers, +who bow before the S. Sebastian of Rossellino. Two other works +attributed to Botticini, certainly not less lovely, are to be found +here: an Annunciation in the manner of his master Verrocchio, where Mary +sits, a delicate white girl, under a portico into which Gabriele has +stolen at sunset and found her at prayer; far away the tall cypresses +are black against the gold of the sky, and in the silence it almost +seems as though we might overhear the first Angelus and the very message +from the angel's lips. And if this is the Annunciation as it happened +long ago in Tuscany, in heaven the angels danced for sure, thinking of +our happiness, as Botticini knew; and so he has painted those seven +angels playing various instruments, while about their feet he has strewn +a song of songs. A S. Andrea and St. John Baptist in a great +fifteenth-century altar are also given to him, while below you may see +S. Andrea's crucifixion, the Last Supper, and Salome bringing the head +of St. John Baptist to Herodias at her supper with Herod. Some fine +della Robbia fragments and a beautiful relief of the Madonna and Child +by Mino da Fiesole are among the rest of the treasures of the +Collegiata, where you may find much that is merely old or curious. Other +churches there are in Empoli, S. Stefano, for instance, with a Madonna +and two angels, given to Masolino, and the marvellously lovely +Annunciation by Bernardo Rossellino; and S. Maria di Fuori, with its +beautiful loggia, but they will not hold you long. The long white road +calls you; already far away you seem to see the belfries of Florence +there, where they look into Arno, for the very water at your feet has +held in its bosom the fairest tower in the world, whiter than a lily, +rosier than the roses of the hills. With this dream, dream or +remembrance, in your heart, it is not Empoli with its brown country face +that will entice you from the way. And so, a little weary at last for +the shadows of the great city, it was with a sort of impatience I +trudged the dusty highway, eager for every turn of the road that might +bring the tall towers, far and far away though they were, into sight. +Somewhat in this mood, still early in the morning, I passed through +Pontormo, the birthplace of the sixteenth-century painter Jacopo +Carrucci, who has his name from this little town. Two or three pictures +that he painted, a lovely font of the fourteenth century in the Church +of S. Michele Arcangiolo, called for no more than a halt, for there, +still far away before me, were the hills, the hills that hid Florence +herself. + +It was already midday when I came to the little city of Montelupo at the +foot of these hills, and, in front of a beautiful avenue of plane trees, +to the trattoria, a humble place enough, and full at that hour of +drivers and countrymen, but quite sufficient for my needs, for I found +there food, a good wine, and courtesy. Later, in the afternoon, climbing +the stony street across Pesa, I came to the Church of S. Giovanni +Evangelista, and there in the sweet country silence was Madonna with her +Son and four Saints, by some pupil of Sandro Botticelli. + +It is not any new vision of Madonna you will see in that quiet country +church, full of afternoon sunshine and wayside flowers, but the same +half-weary maiden of whom Botticelli has told us so often, whose honour +is too great for her, whose destiny is more than she can bear. Already +she has been overwhelmed by our praise and petitions; she has closed her +eyes, she has turned away her head, and while the Jesus Parvulus lifts +his tiny hands in blessing, she is indifferent, holding Him languidly, +as though but half attentive to those priceless words which St. John, +with the last light of a smile still lingering round his eyes, notes so +carefully in his book. Something of the same eagerness, graver, and more +youthful, you may see in the figure of St. Sebastian, who, holding three +arrows daintily in his hand, has suddenly looked up at the sound of that +Divine childish voice. Two other figures, S. Lorenzo and perhaps S. +Roch, listen with a sort of intent sadness there under that splendid +portico, where Mary sits on a throne, she who was the carpenter's wife, +with so little joy or even surprise. Below, in the predella, you may see +certain saints' heads, S. Lorenzo giving alms, the death of S. Lorenzo, +the risen Christ. + +[Illustration: BADIA AL SETTIMO] + +But though Montelupo possesses such a treasure as this picture, for me +at least the fairest thing within her keeping is the old fortress, +ruined now, on her high hill, and the view one may have thence. For, +following that stony way which brought me to S. Giovanni, I came at last +to the walls of an old fortress, that now houses a few peasants, and +turning there saw all the Val d'Arno, from S. Miniato far and far away +to the west, to little Vinci on the north, where, as Vasari says, +Leonardo was born; while below me, beside Arno, rose the beautiful Villa +Ambrogiana, with its four towers at the corners; and then on a hill +before me, not far away, a little town nestling round another fortress, +maybe less dilapidated than Montelupo, Capraja, that goat which +caused Montelupo to be built. For in the days when Florence disputed Val +d'Arno and the plains of Empoli with many nobles, the Conti di Capraja +lorded it here, and, as the Florentines said: + + "Per distrugger questa Capra non ci vuol altro che un Lupo." + +To-day Montelupo is but a village; yet once it was of importance not +only as a fortress, for that she ceased to be almost when the Counts of +Capraja were broken, and certainly by 1203, when Villani tells us that +the Florentines destroyed the place because it would not obey the +commonwealth; but as a city of art, or at any rate of a beautiful +handicraft. Even to-day the people devote themselves to pottery, but of +old it was not merely a matter of commerce, but of beauty and +craftsmanship. + +It was through a noisy gay crowd of these folk, the young men lounging +against the houses, the girls talking, talking together, arm in arm, as +they went to and fro before them, with a wonderful sweet air of +indifference to those who eyed them so keenly and yet shyly too, and +without anything of the brutal humour of a northern village, that in the +later afternoon I again sought the highway. And before I had gone a mile +upon my road the whole character of the way was changed; no longer was I +crossing a great plain, but winding among the hills, while Arno, noisier +than before, fled past me in an ever narrower bed among the rocks and +buttresses of what soon became little more than a defile between the +hills. Though the road was deep in dust, there was shadow under the +cypresses beside the way, there was a whisper of wind among the reeds +beside the river, and the song of the cicale grew fainter and the hills +were touched with light; evening was coming. + +And indeed, when at last I had left the splendid villa of Antinori far +behind, evening came as I entered Lastra, and by chance taking the wrong +road, passing under a most splendid ilex, huge as a temple, I climbed +the hill to S. Martino a Gangalandi. Standing there in the pure calm +light just after sunset, the whole valley of Florence lay before me. To +the left stood Signa, piled on her hill like some fortress of the Middle +Age; then Arno, like a road of silver, led past the Villa delle Selve to +the great mountain Monte Morello, and there under her last spurs lay +Florence herself, clear and splendid like some dream city, her towers +and pinnacles, her domes and churches shining in the pure evening light +like some delectable city seen in a vision far away, but a reality, and +seen at last. Very far off she seemed in that clear light, that +presently fading fled away across the mountains before the advance of +night, that filled the whole plain with its vague and beautiful shadow. + +And so, when morning was come, I went again to S. Martino a Gangalandi, +but Florence was hidden in light. In my heart I knew I must seek her at +once, that even the fairest things were not fair, since she was hidden +away. Not without a sort of reluctance I heard Mass in S. Martino, spent +a moment before the beautiful Madonna of that place, a picture of the +fifteenth century, and looked upon the fortifications of Brunellesco. +Everywhere the women sitting in their doorways were plaiting straw, and +presently I came upon a whole factory of this craft, the great courtyard +strewn with hats of all shapes, sizes, and colours, drying in the sun. +Signa, too, across the river as I passed, seemed to be given up to this +business. Then taking the road, hot and dusty, I set out--not by Via +Pisana, but by the byways, which seemed shorter--for Florence. For long +I went between the vines, in the misty morning, all of silver and gold, +till I was weary. And at last houses began to strew the way, herds of +goats led by an old man in velveteen and a lad in tatters, one herd +after another covered me with dust, or, standing in front of the houses, +were milked at the doorways, where still the women, their brown legs +naked in the sun, plaited the straw. Then at a turning of the way, as +though to confirm me in any fears I might have of the destruction of the +city I had come so far to see, a light railway turned into the highway +between the houses, where already there was not room for two carts to +pass. How may I tell my anger and misery as I passed through that +endless suburb, the great hooting engine of the train venting its +stench, and smoke, and noise into the very windows of the houses, +chasing me down the narrow way, round intricate corners, over tiny +piazzas, from the very doors of churches. Yet, utterly weary at last, +covered with dust, it was in this brutal contrivance that I sought +refuge, and after an hour of agony was set down before the Porta al +Prato. The bells were ringing the Angelus of midday when I came into +Florence. + + + + +X. FLORENCE + + +Florence is like a lily in the midst of a garden gay with wild-flowers; +a broken lily that we have tied up and watered and nursed into a +semblance of life, an image of ancient beauty--as it were the _memento +mori_ of that Latin spirit which contrived the Renaissance of mankind. +As of old, so to-day, she stands in the plain at the foot of the +Apennines, that in their sweetness and strength lend her still something +of their nobility. Around her are the hills covered with olive gardens +where the corn and the wine and the oil grow together between the iris +and the rose; and everywhere on those beautiful hills there are villas +among the flowers, real villas such as Alberti describes for us, full of +coolness and rest, where a fountain splashes in an old courtyard, and +the grapes hang from the pergolas, and the corn is spread in July and +beaten with the flail. And since the vista of every street in Florence +ends in the country, it is to these hills you find your way very often +if your stay be long, fleeing from the city herself, perhaps to hide +your disappointment, in the simple joy of country life. More and more as +you live in Florence that country life becomes your consolation and your +delight: for there abide the old ways and the ancient songs, which you +will not find in the city. And indeed the great treasure of Florence is +this bright and smiling country in which she lies: the old road to +Fiesole, the ways that lead from Settignano to Compiobbi, the path +through the woods from S. Martino a Mensola, that smiling church by the +wayside, to Vincigliata, to Castel di Poggio, the pilgrimage from Bagno +a Ripoli to the Incontro. There, on all those beautiful gay roads, you +will pass numberless villas whispering with summer, laughing with +flowers; you will see the _contadini_ at work in the _poderi_, you will +hear the _rispetti_ and _stornelli_ of the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries sung perhaps by some love-sick peasant girl among the olives +from sunrise till evening falls. And the ancient ways are not forgotten +there, for they still reap with the sickle and sing to the beat of the +flail; while the land itself, those places "full of nimble air, in a +laughing country of sweet and lovely views, where there is always fresh +water, and everything is healthy and pure," of which Leon Alberti tells +us, are still held and cultivated in the old way under the old laws by +the _contadino_ and his _padrone_. This ancient order, quietness, and +beauty, which you may find everywhere in the country round about +Florence, is the true Tuscany. The vulgarity of the city, for even in +Italy the city life has become insincere, blatant, and for the most part +a life of the middle class, seldom reaches an hundred yards beyond the +_barriera_: and this is a charm in Florence, for you may so easily look +on her from afar. And so, if one comes to her from the country, or +returns to her from her own hills, it is ever with a sense of loss, of +sadness, of regret: she has lost her soul for the sake of the stranger, +she has forgotten the splendid past for an ignoble present, a strangely +wearying dream of the future. + +Yet for all her modern ways, her German beer-houses, her English +tea-shops, her noisy trams on Lung' Arno, her air as of a museum, her +eagerness to show her contempt for the stranger while she sells him her +very soul for money, Florence remains one of the most delightful cities +of Italy to visit, to live with, to return to again and again. Yet I for +one would never live within her walls if I could help it, nor herd with +those barbarian, exclamatory souls who in guttural German or cockney +English snort or neigh at the beauties industriously pointed out by a +loud-voiced cicerone, quoting in American all the appropriate +quotations, Browning before Filippo Lippi, Ruskin in S. Croce, Mrs. +Browning at the door of S. Felice, Goethe everywhere. + +No, I will live a little way out of the city on the hillside, perhaps +towards Settignano, not too far from the pine woods, nor too near the +gate. And my garden there shall be a vineyard, bordered with iris, and +among the vines shall be a garden of olives, and under the olives there +shall be the corn. And the yellow roses will litter the courtyard, and +the fountain will be full of their petals, and the red roses will strew +the paths, and the white roses will fall upon the threshold; and all day +long the bees will linger in the passion-flowers by the window when the +mulberry trees have been stripped of leaves, and the lilies of Madonna, +before the vines, are tall and like ghosts in the night, the night that +is blue and gold, where a few fire-flies linger yet, sailing faintly +over the stream, and the song of the cicale is the burden of endless +summer. + +Then very early in the morning I will rise from my bed under the holy +branch of olive, I will walk in my garden before the sun is high, I will +look on my beloved city. Yes, I shall look over the near olives across +the valley to the hill of cypresses, to the poplars beside Arno that +tremble with joy; and first I shall see Torre del Gallo and then S. +Miniato, that strange and beautiful place, and at last my eyes will rest +on the city herself, beautiful in the mist of morning: first the tower +of S. Croce, like a tufted spear; then the tower of Liberty, and that +was built for pride; and at last, like a mysterious rose lifted above +the city, I shall see the dome, the rosy dome of Brunellesco, beside +which, like a slim lily, pale, immaculate as a pure virgin, rises the +inviolate Tower of the Lowly, that Giotto built for God. Yes, often I +shall thus await the Angelus that the bells of all the villages will +answer, and I shall greet the sun and be thankful. Then I shall walk +under the olives, I shall weigh the promised grapes, I shall bend the +ears of corn here and there, that I may feel their beauty, and I shall +bury my face in the roses, I shall watch the lilies turn their heads, I +shall pluck the lemons one by one. And the maidens will greet me on +their way to the olive gardens, the newly-married, hand in hand with +her husband, will smile upon me, she who is heavy with child will give +me her blessing, and the children will laugh and peep at me from behind +the new-mown hay; and I shall give them greeting. And I shall talk with +him who is busy in the vineyard, I shall watch him bare-foot among the +grapes, I shall see his wise hands tenderly unfold a leaf or gather up a +straying branch, and when I leave him I shall hear him say, "May your +bread be blessed to you." Under the myrtles, on a table of stone spread +with coarse white linen, such we see in Tuscany, I shall break my fast, +and I shall spill a little milk on the ground for thankfulness, and the +crumbs I shall scatter too, and a little honey that the bees have given +I shall leave for them again. + +So I shall go into the city, and one will say to me, "The Signore must +have a care, for the sun will be hot, in returning it will be necessary +to come under the olives." And I shall laugh in my heart, and say, "Have +no fear, then, for the sun will not touch me." And how should I but be +glad that the sun will be hot, and how should I but be thankful that I +shall come under the olives? + +And I shall come into the city by Porta alla Croce for love, because I +am but newly returned, and presently through the newer ways I shall come +to the oldest of all, Borgo degli Albizzi, where the roofs of the +beautiful palaces almost touch, and the way is cool and full of shadow. +There, amid all the hurry and bustle of the narrow, splendid street, I +shall think only of old things for a time, I shall remember the great +men who founded and established the city, I shall recall the great +families of Florence. Here in this Borgo the Albizzi built their towers +when they came from Arezzo, giving the city more than an hundred +officers, Priori and Gonfalonieri, till Cosimo de' Medici thrust them +out with the help of Eugenius IV. The grim, scornful figure of Rinaldo +seems to haunt the old palace still. How often in those September days +must he have passed to and fro between his palace and the Bargello close +by, the Palace of the Podesta: but the people, fearing they knew not +what, barricaded the place so that Rinaldo was persuaded to consult +with the Pope in S. Maria Novella. At dawn he dismissed his army, and +remained alone. Then the friends of Cosimo in exile went to the Pope and +thanked him, thus, as some have thought, surprising him into an +abandonment of Rinaldo. However that may be, Rinaldo was expelled, +leaving the city with these words, "He is a blind man without a guide, +who trusts the word of a Pope." And what figure haunts Palazzo Altovite, +the home of that fierce Ghibelline house loved by Frederick II, if not +that hero who expelled the Duke of Athens. Palazzo Pazzi and Palazzo +Nonfinito at the Canto de' Pazzi where the Borgo degli Albizzi meets Via +del Proconsolo, brings back to me that madman who first set the Cross +upon the walls of Jerusalem in 1099, and who for this cause was given +some stones from Christ's sepulchre by Godfrey de Bouillon, which he +brought to Florence and presented to the Republic. They were placed in +S. Reparata, which stood where the Duomo now is, and, as it is said, the +"new fire" was struck from them every Holy Saturday, and the clergy, in +procession, brought that sacred flame to the other churches of the city. +And the Pazzi, because of their gift, gave the guard of honour in this +procession: and this they celebrated with much pomp among themselves; +till at last they obtained permission to build a _carro_, which should +be lighted at the door of S. Reparata by some machine of their +invention, and drawn by four white oxen to their houses. And even to +this day you may see this thing, and to this day the car is borne to +their canto. But above all I see before that "unfinished" palace the +ruined hopes of those who plotted to murder Lorenzo de' Medici with his +brother at the Easter Mass in the Duomo. Even now, amid the noise of the +street, I seem to hear the shouting of the people, _Vive le Palle, Morte +ai Pazzi_. + +So I shall come into the Proconsolo beside the Bargello, where so many +great and splendid people are remembered, and she, too, who is so +beautiful that for her sake we forget everything else, Vanna degli +Albizzi, who married Lorenzo de' Tornabuoni, whom Verrocchio carved and +Ghirlandajo painted. Then I shall follow the Via del Corso past S. +Margherita, close to Dante's mythical home, into Via Calzaioli, the +busiest street of the city, and I shall think of the strange difference +between these three great ways, Via del Proconsolo, Via Calzaioli, and +Via Tornabuoni, which mark and divide the most ancient city. I shall +turn toward Or San Michele, where on St. John's Day the banners of the +guilds are displayed above the statues, and for a little time I shall +look again on Verrocchio's Christ and St. Thomas. Then in this +pilgrimage of remembrance I shall pass up Via Calzaioli, past the gay +cool caffe of Gilli, into the Piazza del Duomo. And again, I shall fear +lest the tower may fall like a lopped lily, and I shall wish that Giotto +had made it ever so little bigger at the base. Then I shall pass to the +right past the Misericordia, where for sure I shall meet some of the +_confraternita_, past the great gazing statue of Brunellesco, till, at +the top of Via del Proconsolo, I shall turn to look at the Duomo, which, +seen from there, seems like a great Greek cross under a dome, that might +cover the world. And so I shall pass round the apse of the Cathedral +till I come to the door of the Cintola, where Nanni di Banco has +marvellously carved Madonna in an almond-shaped glory: and this is one +of the fairest things in Florence. And I shall go on my way, past the +Gate of Paradise to the open door of the Baptistery, and returning find +the tomb of Baldassare Cossa, soldier and antipope, carved by Donatello: +and here, in the most ancient church of Florence, I shall thank St. John +for my return. + +Out in the Piazza once more, I shall turn into Borgo S. Lorenzo, and +follow it till I come to Piazza di S. Lorenzo, with its bookstalls where +Browning found that book, "small quarto size, part print, part +manuscript," which told him the story of "The Ring and the Book." There +I shall look once more on the ragged, rugged front of S. Lorenzo, and +entering, find the tomb of Piero de' Medici, made by Verrocchio, and +thinking awhile of those other tombs where Michelangelo hard by carved +his Night and Day, Twilight and Dawn, I shall find my way again into the +Piazza del Duomo, and, following Via Cerretani, that busy street, I +shall come at last into Piazza S. Maria Novella, and there on the north +I shall see again the bride of Michelangelo, S. Maria Novella of the +Dominicans. + +Perhaps I shall rest there a little before Duccio's Madonna on her high +altar,[85] and linger under the grave, serene work of Ghirlandajo; but +it may be the sky will be too fair for any church to hold me, so that +passing down the way of the Beautiful Ladies, and taking Via dei Serpi +on my left, I shall come into Via Tornabuoni, that smiling, lovely way +just above the beautiful Palazzo Antinori, whence I may see Palazzo +Strozzi, but without the great lamp at the corner where the flowers are +heaped and there are always so many loungers. Indeed, the whole street +is full of flowers and sunshine and cool shadow, and in some way, I know +not what, it remains the most beautiful gay street in Florence, where +past and present have met and are friends. And then I know if I follow +this way I shall come to Lung' Arno,--I may catch a glimpse of it even +from the corner of Via Porta Rossa over the cabs, past the Column of S. +Trinita. + +[Illustration: PONTE VECCHIO] + +Presently, in the afternoon, I shall follow Via Porta Rossa, with its +old palaces of the Torrigiani (now, Hotel Porta Rossa), and the +Davanzati into Mercato Nuovo, where, because it is Thursday, the whole +place will be smothered with flowers and children, little laughing +rascals as impudent as Lippo Lippi's Angiolini, who play about the Tacca +and splash themselves with water. And so I shall pass at last into +Piazza della Signoria, before the marvellous palace of the people with +its fierce, proud tower, and I shall stand on the spot before the +fountains where Humanism avenged itself on Puritanism, where Savonarola, +that Ferrarese who burned the pictures and would have burned the city, +was himself burned in the fire he had invoked. And I shall look once +more on the Loggia de' Lanzi, and see Cellini's young _contadino_ +masquerading as Perseus, and in my heart I shall remember the little wax +figure he made for a model, now in Bargello, which is so much more +beautiful than this young giant. So, under the cool cloisters of Palazzo +degli Uffizi I shall come at last on to Lung' Arno, where it is very +quiet, and no horses may pass, and the trams are a long way off. And I +shall lift up my eyes and behold once more the hill of gardens across +Arno, with the Belvedere just within the old walls, and S. Miniato, like +a white and fragile ghost in the sunshine, and La Bella Villanella +couched like a brown bird under the cypresses above the grey olives in +the wind and the sun. And something in the gracious sweep of the hills, +in the gentle nobility of that holy mountain which Michelangelo has +loved and defended, which Dante Alighieri has spoken of, which Gianozzo +Manetti has so often climbed, will bring the tears to my eyes, and I +shall turn away towards Ponte Vecchio, the oldest and most beautiful of +the bridges, where the houses lead one over the river, and the little +shops of the jewellers still sparkle and smile with trinkets. And in the +midst of the bridge I shall wait awhile and look on Arno. Then I shall +cross the bridge and wander upstream towards Porta S. Niccolo, that +gaunt and naked gate in the midst of the way, and there I shall climb +through the gardens up the steep hill + + "... Per salire al monte + Dove siede la chiesa...." + +to the great Piazzale, and so to the old worn platform before S. Miniato +itself, under the strange glowing mosaics of the facade: and, standing +on the graves of dead Florentines, I shall look down on the beautiful +city. + +Marvellously fair she is on a summer evening as seen from that hill of +gardens, Arno like a river of gold before her, leading over the plain +lost in the farthest hills. Behind her the mountains rise in great +amphitheatres,--Fiesole on the one side, like a sentinel on her hill; on +the other, the Apennines, whose gesture, so noble, precise, and +splendid, seems to point ever towards some universal sovereignty, some +perfect domination, as though this place had been ordained for the +resurrection of man. Under this mighty symbol of annunciation lies the +city, clear and perfect in the lucid light, her towers shining under the +serene evening sky. Meditating there alone for a long time in the +profound silence of that hour, the whole history of this city that +witnessed the birth of the modern world, the resurrection of the gods, +will come to me. + +Out of innumerable discords, desolations, hopes unfilled, everlasting +hatred and despair, I shall see the city rise four square within her +rosy walls between the river and the hills; I shall see that lonely, +beautiful, and heroic figure, Matilda the great Countess; I shall suffer +the dream that consumes her, and watch Germany humble in the snow. And +the Latin cause will tower a red lily beside Arno; one by one the great +nobles will go by with cruel alien faces, prisoners, to serve the Lily +or to die. Out of their hatred will spring that mongrel cause of Guelph +and Ghibelline, and I shall see the Amidei slay Buondelmonte +Buondelmonti. Through the year of victories I shall rejoice, when +Pistoja falls, when Siena falls, when Volterra is taken, and Pisa forced +to make peace. Then in tears I shall see the flight at Monteaperti, I +shall hear the thunder of the horses, and with hate in my heart I shall +search for Bocca degli Abati, the traitor, among the ten thousand dead. +And in the council I shall be by when they plot the destruction of the +city, and I shall be afraid: then I shall hear the heroic, scornful +words of Farinata degli Uberti, when in his pride he spared Florence for +the sake of his birth. And I shall watch the banners at Campaldino, I +shall hear the intoxicating words of Corso Donati, I shall look into his +very face and read the truth. + +And at dawn I shall walk with Dante, and I shall know by the softness of +his voice when Beatrice passeth, but I shall not dare to lift my eyes. I +shall walk with him through the city, I shall hear Giotto speak to him +of St. Francis, and Arnolfo will tell us of his dreams. And at evening +Petrarch will lead me into the shadow of S. Giovanni and tell me of +Madonna Laura. But it will be a morning of spring when I meet +Boccaccio, ah, in S. Maria Novella, and as we come into the sunshine I +shall laugh and say, "Tell me a story." And Charles of Valois will pass +by, who sent Dante on that long journey; and Henry VII, for whom he had +prayed; and I shall hear the trumpets of Montecatini, and I shall +understand the hate Uguccione had for Castracani. And I shall watch the +entry of the Duke of Athens, and I shall see his cheek flush at the +thought of a new tyranny. Then for the first time I shall hear the +sinister, fortunate name Medici. Under the banners of the Arti I shall +hear the rumour of their names, Silvestro who urged on the Ciompi, Vieri +who once made peace; nor will the death of Gian Galeazzo of Milan, nor +the tragedy of Pisa, hinder their advent, for I shall see Giovanni di +Bicci de' Medici proclaimed Gonfaloniere of the city. Then they will +troop by more splendid than princes, the universal bankers, lords of +Florence: Cosimo the hard old man, Pater Patriae, the greatest of his +race; Piero, the weakling; Lorenzo il Magnifico, tyrant and artist; and +over his shoulder I shall see the devilish, sensual face of Savonarola. +And there will go by Giuliano, the lover of Simonetta; Piero the exile; +Giovanni the mighty pope, Leo X; Giulio the son of Guiliano, Clement +VII; Ippolito the Cardinal, Alessandro the cruel, Lorenzino his +assassin, Cosimo l'Invitto, Grand Duke of Tuscany, bred in a convent and +mourned for ever. + +So they pass by, and their descendants follow after them, even to poor, +unhappy, learned Gian Gastone, the last of his race. + +And around them throng the artists; yes, I shall see them all. Angelico +will lead me into his cell and show me the meaning of the Resurrection. +With Lippo Lippi I shall play with the children, and talk with Lucrezia +Buti at the convent gate; Ghirlandajo will take me where Madonna Vanna +is, and with Baldovinetti I shall watch the dawn. And Botticelli will +lead me into a grove apart: I shall see the beauty of those three women +who pass, who pass like a season, and are neither glad nor sorry; and +with him I shall understand the joy of Venus, whose son was love, and +the tears of Madonna, whose Son was Love also. And I shall hear the +voice of Leonardo; and he will play upon his lyre of silver, that lyre +in the shape of a horse's head which he made for Sforza of Milan; and I +shall see him touch the hands of Monna Lisa. And I shall see the statue +of snow that Buonarotti made; I shall find him under S. Miniato, and I +shall weep with him. + +So I shall dream in the sunset. The Angelus will be ringing from all the +towers, I shall have celebrated my return to the city that I have loved. +The splendour of the dying day will lie upon her; in that enduring and +marvellous hour, when in the sound of every bell you may find the names +that are in your heart, I shall pass again through the gardens, I shall +come into the city when the little lights before Madonna will be shining +at the street corners, and the streets will be full of the evening, +where the river, stained with fading gold, steals into the night to the +sea. And under the first stars I shall find my way to my hillside. On +that white country road the dust of the day will have covered the vines +by the way, the cypresses will be white half-way to their tops, in the +whispering olives the cicale will still be singing; as I pass every +threshold some dog will rouse, some horse will stamp in the stable, or +an ox stop munching in his stall. In the far sky, marvellous with +infinite stars, the moon will sail like a little platter of silver, like +a piece of money new from the mint, like a golden rose in a mirror of +silver. Long and long ago the sun will have set, but when I come to the +gate I shall go under the olives; though I shall be weary I shall go by +the longest way, I shall pass by the winding path, I shall listen for +the whisper of the corn. And I shall beat at my gate, and one will say +_Chi e_, and I shall make answer. So I shall come into my house, and the +triple lights will be lighted in the garden, and the table will be +spread. And there will be one singing in the vineyard, and I shall hear, +and there will be one walking in the garden, and I shall know. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[85] Alas, this too has now become as nothing and its place knows it no +more.--E.H. + + + + +XI. FLORENCE + +PIAZZA DELLA SIGNORIA AND PALAZZO VECCHIO + + +In every ancient city of the world, cities that in themselves for the +most part have been nations, one may find some spot holy or splendid +that instantly evokes an image of that of which it is a symbol,--which +sums up, as it were, in itself all the sanctity, beauty, and splendour +of her fame, in whose name there lives even yet something of the glory +that is dead. It is so no longer; in what confused street or shapeless +square shall I find hidden the soul of London, or in what name then +shall I sum up the lucid restless life of Paris? But if I name the +Acropolis, all the pale beauty of Athens will stir in my heart; and when +I speak the word Capitolium, I seem to hear the thunder of the legions, +to see the very face of Caesar, to understand the dominion and majesty +of Rome. + +Something of this power of evocation may still be found in the Piazza +della Signoria of Florence: all the love that founded the city, the +beauty that has given her fame, the immense confusion that is her +history, the hatred that has destroyed her, lingers yet in that strange +and lovely place where Palazzo Vecchio stands like a violated fortress, +where the Duke of Athens was expelled the city, where the Ciompi rose +against the Ghibellines, where Jesus Christ was proclaimed King of the +Florentines, where Savonarola, was burned, and Alessandro de' Medici +made himself Duke. + +It is not any great and regular space you come upon in the Piazza della +Signoria, such as the huge empty Place de la Concorde of Paris, but one +that is large enough for beauty, and full of the sweet variety of the +city; it is the symbol of Florence--a beautiful symbol. + +In the morning the whole Piazza is full of sunlight, and swarming with +people: there, is a stall for newspapers; here, a lemonade merchant +dispenses his sweet drinks. Everyone is talking; at the corner of Via +Calzaioli a crowd has assembled, a crowd that moves and seems about to +dissolve, that constantly re-forms itself without ever breaking up. On +the benches of the loggia men lie asleep in the shadow, and children +chase one another among the statues. Everywhere and from all directions +cabs pass with much cracking of whips and hallooing. There stand two +Carabinieri in their splendid uniforms, surveying this noisy world; an +officer passes with his wife, leading his son by the hand; you may see +him lift his sword as he steps on the pavement. A group of tourists go +by, urged on by a gesticulating guide; he is about to show them the +statues in the loggia; they halt under the Perseus. He begins to speak +of it, while the children look up at him as though to catch what he is +saying in that foreign tongue. + +And surely the Piazza, which has seen so many strange and splendid +things, may well tolerate this also; it is so gay, so full of life. Very +fair she seems under the sunlight, picturesque too, with her buildings +so different and yet so harmonious. On the right the gracious beauty of +the Loggia de' Lanzi; then before you the lofty, fierce old Palazzo +Vecchio; and beside it the fountains play in the farther Piazza. Cosimo +I rides by as though into Siena, while behind him rises the palace of +the Uguccioni, which Folfi made; and beside you the Calzaioli ebbs and +flows with its noisy life, as of old the busiest street of the city. + +The Palazza Vecchio, peaceful enough now, but still with the fierce +gesture of war stands on one side, facing the Piazza, a fortress of huge +stones four storeys high--the last, thrust out from the wall and +supported by arches on brackets of stone, as though crowning the +palace itself. It stands almost four-square, and above rises the +beautiful tower, the highest tower in the city, with a gallery similar +to the last storey of the palace, and above a loggia borne by four +pillars, from which spring the great arches of the canopy that supports +the spire; and whereas the battlements of the palazzo are square and +Guelph, those of the tower are Ghibelline in the shape of the tail of +the swallow. Set, not in the centre of the square, nor made to close it, +but on one side, it was thus placed, it is said, in order to avoid the +burned houses of the Uberti, who had been expelled the city. However +this may be, and its position is so fortunate that it is not likely to +be due to any such chance, Arnolfo di Cambio began it in February 1299, +taking as his model, so some have thought, the Rocca of the Conti Guidi +of the Casentino, which Lapo his father had built. Under the arches of +the fourth storey are painted the coats of the city and its gonfaloni. +And there you may see the most ancient device of Florence, the lily +argent on a field gules; the united coats gules and argent of Florence +and Fiesole in 1010; the coat of Guelph Florence, a lily gules on a +field argent; and, among the rest, the coat of Charles of Anjou, the +lilies or on a field azure. + +[Illustration: LOGGIA DE' LANZI] + +On the platform or ringhiera before the great door, the priori watched +the greater festas, and made their proclamations, before the Loggia de' +Lanzi was built in 1387; and here in 1532 the last Signoria of the +Republic proclaimed Alessandro de' Medici first Duke of Florence, in +front of the Judith and Holofernes of Donatello, whose warning went +unheeded. And indeed, that group, part of the plunder that the people +found in Palazzo Riccardi, in the time of Piero de' Medici, who sought +to make himself tyrant, once stood beside the great gate of Palazzo +Vecchio, whence it was removed at the command of Alessandro, who placed +there instead Bandinelli's feeble Hercules and Cacus. Opposite to it +Michelangelo's David once stood, till it was removed in our own time to +the Accademia, where it looks like a cast. + +Over the great door where of old was set the monogram of Christ, you +may read still REX REGUM ET DOMINUS DOMINANTIUM, and within the gate is +a court most splendid and lovely, built after the design of Arnolfo, and +once supported by his pillars of stone, but now the columns of +Michelozzo, made in 1450, and covered with stucco decoration in the +sixteenth century, form the cortile in which, over the fountain of +Vasari, Verrocchio's lovely Boy Playing with the Dolphin ever half turns +in his play. Altogether lovely in its naturalism, its humorous grace, +Verrocchio made it for Lorenzo Magnifico, who placed it in his gardens +at Careggi, whence it was brought here by Cosimo I. + +Passing through that old palace, up the great staircase into the Salone +del Cinquecento, where Savonarola was tried, with the Cappella di S. +Bernardo, where he made his last communion, and at last up the staircase +into the tower, where he was tortured and imprisoned, it is ever of that +mad pathetic figure, self-condemned and self-murdered, that you think, +till at last, coming out of the Palazzo, you seek the spot of his awful +death in the Piazza. Fanatic puritan as he was, vainer than any Medici, +it is difficult to understand how he persuaded the Florentines to listen +to his eloquence, spoiled as it must have been for them by the Ferrarese +dialect. How could a people who were the founders of the modern world, +the creators of modern culture, allow themselves to be baffled by a +fanatic friar prophesying judgment? Yet something of a peculiar charm, a +force that we miss in the sensual and almost devilish face we see in his +portrait, he must have possessed, for it is said that Lorenzo desired +his company; and even though we are able to persuade ourselves that it +was for other reasons than to enjoy his friendship, we have yet to +explain the influence he exercised over Sandro Botticelli and Pico della +Mirandola, whose lives he changed altogether. In the midst of a people +without a moral sense he appears like the spirit of denial. He was +kicking against the pricks, he was guilty of the sin against the light, +and whether his aim was political or religious, or maybe both, he +failed. It is said he denied Lorenzo absolution, that he left him +without a word at the brink of the grave but when he himself came to +die by the horrible, barbaric means he had invoked in a boast, he did +not show the fortitude of the Magnificent. Full of every sort of +rebellion and violence, he made anarchy in Florence, and scoffed at the +Holy See, while he was a guest of the one and the officer of the other. +His bonfires of "vanities," as he called them, were possibly as +disastrous for Florence as the work of the Puritan was for England; for +while he burned the pictures, they sold them to the Jews. He is dead, +and has become one of the bores of history; and while Americans leave +their cards on the stone that marks the place of his burning, the +Florentines appear to have forgotten him. Peace to his ashes! + +As you enter the Loggia de' Lanzi, gay with children now, once the +lounge of the Swiss Guard, whose barracks were not far away, you wonder +who can have built so gay, so happy a place beside the fortress of the +Signoria. Yet, in truth, it was for the Priori themselves that loggia +was built, though not by Orcagna as it is said, to provide, perhaps, a +lounge in summer for the fathers of the city, and for a place of +proclamation that all Florence might hear the laws they had made. Yes, +and to-day, too, do they not proclaim the tombola where once they +announced a victory? Even now, in spite of forgotten greatness, it is +still a garden of statues. Looking ever over the Piazza stands the +Perseus of Cellini, with the head of Medusa held up to the multitude, +the sword still gripped in his hand. It is the masterpiece of one who, +like all the greatest artists of the Renaissance--Giotto, Orcagna, +Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael--did not confine himself to one art, but +practised many. And though it would be unjust to compare such a man as +Cellini with the greatest of all, yet he was great not only as a +sculptor and a goldsmith, but as a man of letters and as a man of the +world. His Perseus, a little less than a demigod, is indeed not so +lovely as the wax model he made for it, which is now in the Bargello; +but in the gesture with which he holds out the severed head from him, in +the look of secret delight that is already half remorseful for all that +dead beauty, in the heroic grace with which he stands there after the +murder, the dead body marvellously fallen at his feet, Cellini has +proved himself the greatest sculptor of his time. That statue cost him +dear enough, as he tells you in his Memoirs, but, as Gautier said, it is +worth all it cost. + +On the pedestal you may see the deliverance of Andromeda; but the finest +of these reliefs has been taken to the Bargello. The only other bronze +here is the work of Donatello--a Judith and Holofernes, under the arch +towards the Uffizi. It is Donatello's only large bronze group, and was +probably designed for the centre piece of a fountain, the mattress on +which Holofernes has fallen having little spouts for water. Judith +stands over her victim, who is already dead, her sword lifted to strike +again; and you may see by her face that she will strike if it be +necessary. Beneath you read--"Exemplum salut. publ. cives posuere, +MCCCCXV." Poor as the statue appears in its present position, the three +bronze reliefs of the base gain here what they must lose in the midst of +a fountain, yet even they too are unfortunate. Indeed, very few statues +of this sort were made by the sculptors of the Renaissance; for the most +part they confined themselves to single figures and to groups in relief: +even Michelangelo but rarely attempted the "freestanding group." It is, +however, to such a work we come in the splendidly composed Rape of the +Sabines by Giovanni da Bologna in the Loggia itself. Spoiled a little by +its too laboured detail, its chief fault lies in the fact that it is +top-heavy, the sculptor having placed the mass of the group so high that +the base seems unsubstantial and unbalanced. Bologna's other group here, +Hercules and Nessus, which once stood at the foot of the Ponte Vecchio, +is dramatic and well composed, but the forms are feeble and even +insignificant. The antique group of Ajax dragging the body of Patrocles, +is not a very important copy of some great work, and it is much +restored: it was found in a vineyard near Rome. + +The great fountain which plays beside the Palazzo, where of old the +houses of the Uberti stood, is rich and grandiose perhaps, but in some +unaccountable way adds much to the beauty of the Piazza. How gay and +full of life it is even yet, that splendid and bitter place, that in its +beauty and various, everlasting life seems to stand as the symbol of +this city, so scornful even in the midst of the overwhelming foreigner +who has turned her into a museum, a vast cemetery of art. Only here you +may catch something of the old life that is not altogether passed away. +Still, in spite of your eyes, you must believe there are Florentines +somewhere in the city, that they are still as in Dante's day proud and +wise and easily angry, scornful too, a little turbulent, not readily +curbed, but full of ambition--great nobles, great merchants, great +bankers. Does such an one never come to weep over dead Florence in this +the centre of her fame, the last refuge of her greatness, in the night, +perhaps, when none may see his tears, when all is hushed that none may +mark his sorrow? + +[Illustration: WAX MODEL FOR THE PERSEUS IN THE BARGELLO + +_Benvenuto Cellini_ + +_Alinari_] + +It was past midnight when once more I came out of the narrow ways, +almost empty at that hour, when every footfall resounds between the old +houses, into the old Piazza to learn this secret. Far away in the sky +the moon swung like a censer, filling the place with a fragile and +lovely light. Standing there in the Piazza, quite deserted now save for +some cloaked figure who hurried away up the Calzaioli, and two +Carabinieri who stood for a moment at the Uffizi corner and then turned +under the arches, I seemed to understand something of the spirit that +built that marvellous fortress, that thrust that fierce tower into the +sky;--yes, surely at this hour some long dead Florentine must venture +here to console the living, who, for sure, must be gay so sadly and with +so much regret. + +In the Loggia de' Lanzi the moonlight fell among the statues, and in +that fairy light I seemed to see in those ghostly still figures of +marble and bronze some strange fantastic parable, the inscrutable +prophecy of the scornful past. Gian Bologna's Sabine woman, was she not +Florence struggling in the grip of the modern vandal; Cellini's Perseus +with Medusa's head, has it not in truth turned the city to stone? + +The silence was broken; something had awakened in the Piazza: perhaps a +bird fluttered from the battlements of the Palazzo, perhaps it was the +city that turned in her sleep. No, there it was again. It was a human +voice close beside me: it seemed to be weeping. + +I looked around: all was quiet. I saw nothing, only there at the corner +a little light flickered before a shrine; and yes, something was moving +there, someone who was weeping. Softly, softly over the stones I made my +way to that little shrine of Madonna at the street corner, and I found, +ah! no proud and scornful noble mourning over dead Florence, but an old +woman, ragged and alone, prostrate under some unimaginable sorrow, some +unappeasable regret. + +Did she hear as of old--that Virgin with narrow half-open eyes and the +sidelong look? God, I know not if she heard or no. Perhaps I alone have +heard in all the world. + + + + +XII. FLORENCE + +THE BAPTISTERY--THE DUOMO--THE CAMPANILE--THE OPERA DEL DUOMO + + +On coming into the Piazza del Duomo, perhaps from the light and space of +the Lung' Arno or from the largeness of the Piazza della Signoria, one +is apt to think of it as too small for the buildings which it holds, as +wanting in a certain spaciousness such as the Piazza of St. Peter at +Rome certainly possesses, or in the light of the meadow of Pisa; and yet +this very smallness, only smallness when we consider the great buildings +set there so precisely, gives it an element of beauty lacking in the +great Piazza of Rome and in Pisa too--a certain delicate colour and +shadow and a sense of nearness, of homeliness almost; for the shadow of +the dome falls right across the city itself every morning and evening. +And indeed the Piazza del Duomo of Florence is still the centre of the +life of the city, and though to some this may be matter for regret, I +have found in just that a sort of consolation for the cabs which Ruskin +hated so, for the trams which he never saw; for just these two necessary +unfortunate things bring one so often there that of all the cathedrals +of Italy that of Florence must be best known to the greatest number of +people at all hours of the day. And this fact, evil and good working +together for life's sake, makes the Duomo a real power in the city, so +that everyone is interested, often passionately interested, in it: it +has a real influence on the lives of the citizens, so that nothing in +the past or even to-day has ever been attempted with regard to it +without winning the people's leave. Yet it is not the Duomo alone that +thus lives in the hearts of the Florentines, but the whole Piazza. There +they have established their trophies, and set up their gifts, and +lavished their treasure. It was built for all, and it belongs to all; it +is the centre of the city. + +This enduring vitality of a place so old, so splendid, and so beloved, +is, I think, particularly manifest in the Church of S. Giovanni +Battista, the Baptistery. It is the oldest building in Florence, built +probably with the stones from the Temple of Mars about which Villani +tells us, and almost certainly in its place; every Florentine child, +fortunate at least in this, is still brought there for baptism, and +receives its name in the place where Dante was christened, where +Ippolito Buondelmonti first saw Dianora de' Bardi, where Donatello has +laboured, which Michelangelo has loved. + +Built probably in the sixth or seventh century, it was Arnolfo di Cambio +who covered it with marble in 1288, building also three new doorways +where before there had been but one, that on the west side, which was +then closed. The mere form, those octagonal walls which, so it is said, +the Lombards brought into Italy, go to show that the church was used as +a Baptistery from the first, though Villani speaks of it as the Duomo; +and indeed till 1550 it had the aspect of such a church as the Pantheon +in Rome, in that it was open to the sky, so that the rain and the +sunlight have fallen on the very floor trodden by so many generations. +Humble and simple enough as we see it to-day before the gay splendour of +the new facade of the Duomo, it has yet those great treasures which the +Duomo cannot boast, the bronze doors of Andrea Pisano and of Ghiberti. + +[Illustration: PIAZZA DEL DUOMO] + +Over the south doorway there was placed in the end of the sixteenth +century a group by Vincenzo Danti, said to be his best work, the +Beheading of St. John Baptist; and under are the gates of Andrea Pisano +carved in twenty bronze panels with the story of St. John and certain +virtues: and around the gate Ghiberti has twined an exquisite pattern of +leaves and fruits and birds, it is strange to find Ghiberti's work +thus completing that of Andrea Pisano, who, as it is said, had Giotto to +help him, till we understand that originally these southern gates stood +where now are the "Gates of Paradise" before the Duomo. Standing there +as they used to do before Ghiberti moved them, they won for Andrea not +only the admiration of the people, but the freedom of the city. To-day +we come to them with the praise of Ghiberti ringing in our ears, so that +in our hurry to see everything we almost pass them by; but in their +simpler, and, as some may think, more sincere way, they are as lovely as +anything Ghiberti ever did, and in comparing them with the great gates +that supplanted them, it may be well to remind ourselves that each has +its merit in its own fashion. If the doors of Andrea won the praise of +the whole city, it was with an ever-growing excitement that Florence +proclaimed a public competition, open to all the sculptors of Italy, for +the work that remained, those two doors on the north and east. Ghiberti, +at that time in Rimini at the court of Carlo Malatesta, at the entreaty +of his father returned to Florence, and was one of the two artists out +of the thirty-four who competed, to be chosen for the task: the other +was Filippo Brunellesco. You may see the two panels they made in the +Bargello side by side on the wall. The subject is the Sacrifice of +Isaac, and Ghiberti, with the real instinct of the sculptor, has +altogether outstripped Brunellesco, not only in the harmony of his +composition, but in the simplicity of his intention. Brunellesco seems +to have understood this, and, perhaps liking the lad who was but +twenty-two years old, withdrew from the contest. However this may be, +Ghiberti began the work at once, and finished the door on the north side +of the Baptistery in ten years. There, amid a framework of exquisite +foliage, leaves, birds, and all kinds of life, he has set the gospel +story in twenty panels, beginning with the Annunciation and ending with +the Pentecost; and around the gate he has set the four Evangelists and +the doctors of the Church and the prophets. Above you may see the group +of a pupil of Verrocchio, the Preaching of St. John. + +In looking on these beautiful and serene works, we may already notice +an advance on the work of Andrea Pisano in a certain ease and harmony, a +richness and variety, that were beyond the older master. Ghiberti has +already begun to change with his genius the form that has come down to +him, to expand it, to break down its limitations so that he may express +himself, may show us the very visions he has seen. And the success of +these gates with the people certainly confirmed him in the way he was +going. In the third door, that facing the Duomo, which Michelangelo has +said was worthy to be the gate of Paradise, it is really a new art we +come upon, the subtle rhythms and perspectives of a sort of pictorial +sculpture, that allows him to carve here in such low relief that it is +scarcely more than painting, there in the old manner, the old manner but +changed, full of a sort of exuberance which here at any rate is beauty. +The ten panels which Ghiberti thus made in his own way are subjects from +the Old Testament: the Creation of Adam and Eve, the story of Cain and +Abel, of Noah, of Abraham and Isaac, of Jacob and Esau, of Joseph, of +Moses on Sinai, of Joshua before Jericho, of David and Goliath, of +Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. At his death in 1455 they were +unfinished, and a host of sculptors, including Brunellesco and Paolo +Uccello, are said to have handled the work, Antonio del Pollajuolo being +credited with the quail in the lower frame. Over the door stands the +beautiful work of Sansovino, the Baptism of Christ. + +It is with a certain sense of curiosity that one steps down into the old +church; for in spite of every sort of witness it has the air of some +ancient temple: nor do the beautiful antique columns which support the +triforium undeceive us. For long enough now the mosaics of the vault +have been hidden by the scaffolding of the restorers; but the beautiful +thirteenth-century floor of white and black marble, in the midst of +which the font once stood, is still undamaged. The font, which is +possibly a work of the Pisani, is on one side, set there, as it is said, +because of old the roof of the church was open, and many a winter +christening spoiled by rain.[86] It was not, however, till 1571 that +the old font, surrounded by its small basins, one of which Dante broke +in saving a man from drowning there, was removed from the church by +Francesco I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, for the christening of his son. + +Certain vestiges of the oldest church remain: you may see a sarcophagus, +one of those which, before Arnolfo covered the church with marble, stood +without and held the ashes of some of the greater families. But the most +beautiful thing here is the tomb that Donatello made for Baldassare +Cossa, pirate, condottiere, and anti-pope, who, deposed by the Council +of Constance (1414), came to Florence, and, as ever, was kindly received +by the people. It stands beside the north door. On a marble couch +supported by lions, the gilt bronze statue of this prince of +adventurers, who grasped the very chair of St. Peter as booty, lies, his +brow still troubled, his mouth set firm as though plotting new conquests +even in the grave. Below, on the tomb itself, two winged _angiolini_ +hold the great scroll on which we read the name of the dead man, +Johannes Quondam Papa XXIII: to which inscription Martin V, Cossa's +successful rival at Constance, is said to have taken exception; but the +Medici who had built the tomb answered in Pilate's words to the +Pharisees, "What I have written, I have written." The three marble +figures in niches at the base may be by Michelozzo, who worked with +Donatello, or possibly by Pagano di Lapo, as the Madonna above the tomb +almost certainly is. + +Coming up once more into the Piazza from that mysterious dim church, dim +with the centuries of the history of the city, you come upon two +porphyry columns beside the eastern door. They are the gift of Pisa[87] +when her ships returned from the Balearic Islands to Florence, who had +defended their city from the Lucchesi. The column with the branch of +olive in bronze upon it to the north of the Baptistery reminds us of the +miracle performed by the body of S. Zenobio in 490. Borne to burial in +S. Reparata, the bier is said to have touched a dead olive tree standing +on this spot, which immediately put forth leaves: the column +commemorates this miracle. So in Florence they remind us of the gods. + +In turning now to the Duomo we come to one of the great buildings of the +world. Standing on the site of the old church of S. Salvatore, of S. +Reparata, it is a building of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, +begun in 1298 from the designs of Arnolfo; and it is dedicated to S. +Maria del Fiore. Coming to us without the wonderful romantic interest, +the mysticism and exaltation of such a church as Notre Dame d'Amiens, +without the more resolute and heroic appeal of such a stronghold as the +Cathedral of Durham, it is more human than either, the work of a man +who, as it were, would thank God that he was alive and glad in the +world. And it will never bring us delight if we ask of it all the +consummate mystery, awe, and magic of the great Gothic churches of the +North. The Tuscans certainly have never understood the Christian +religion as we have contrived to do in Northern Europe. It came to them +really as a sort of divine explanation of a paganism which entranced but +bewildered them. Behind it lay the Roman Empire; and its temples became +their churches, its halls of justice their cathedrals, its tongue the +only language understood of the gods. It is unthinkable that a people +who were already in the twelfth century the possessors of a marvellous +decadent art in the painting of the Byzantine school, who, finding again +the statues of the gods, created in the thirteenth century a new art of +painting, a Christian art that was the child of imperial Rome as well as +of the Christian Church, who re-established sculpture and produced the +only sculptor of the first rank in the modern world, should have failed +altogether in architecture. Yet everywhere we may hear it said that the +Italian churches, spoken of with scorn by those who remember the +strange, subtle exaltation of Amiens, the extraordinary intricate +splendour of such a church as the Cathedral of Toledo, are mere barns. +But it is not so. As Italian painting is a profound and natural +development from Greek and Roman art, certainly influenced by life, but +in no doubt of its parentage; so are the Italian churches a very +beautiful and subtle development of pagan architecture, influenced by +life not less profoundly than painting has been, but certainly as sure +of their parentage, and, as we shall see, not less assured of their +intention. Just as painting, as soon as may be, becomes human, becomes +pagan in Signorelli and Botticelli, and yet contrives to remain true to +its new gods, so architecture as soon as it is sure of itself moves with +joy, with endless delight and thanksgiving, towards that goal of the old +builders: in such a church as S. Maria della Consolazione outside Todi, +for instance,--in such a church as S. Pietro might have been,--and that +it is not so, we may remind ourselves, is the fault of that return to +barbarism and superstition which Luther led in the North. + +What then, we may ask ourselves, were the aim and desire of the Italian +builders, which it seems have escaped us for so long? If we turn to the +builders of antiquity and seek for their intention in what remains to us +of their work, we shall find, I think, that their first aim was before +all things to make the best building they could for a particular +purpose, and to build that once for all. And out of these two intentions +the third must follow; for if a temple, for instance, were both fit and +strong it would be beautiful because the purpose for which it was needed +was noble and beautiful. Now the first necessity of the basilica, for +instance, was space; and the intention of the builder would be to build +so that that space should appear as splendid as possible, and to do this +and to enjoy it would necessitate, above all things, light,--a problem +not so difficult after all in a land like Italy, where the sun is so +faithful and so divine. Taking the necessity, then, of the Italian to be +much the same as that of the Roman builder when he was designing a +basilica,--that is to say, the accommodation of a crowd of people who +are to take part in a common solemnity,--we shall find that the +intention of the Italian in building his churches is exactly that of the +Roman in building his basilica: he desires above all things space and +light, partly because they seem to him necessary for the purpose of the +church, and partly because he thinks them the two most splendid and +majestic things in the world. + +Well, he has altogether carried out his intention in half a hundred +churches up and down Italy: consider here in Florence S. Croce, S. Maria +Novella, S. Spirito, and above all the Duomo. Remember his aim was not +the aim of the Gothic builder. He did not wish to impress you with the +awfulness of God, like the builder of Barcelona; or with the mystery of +the Crucifixion, like the builders of Chartres: he wished to provide for +you in his practical Latin way a temple where you might pray, where the +whole city might hear Mass or applaud a preacher. He did this in his own +noble and splendid fashion as well as it could be done. He has never +believed, save when driven mad by the barbarians, in the mysterious +awfulness of our far-away God. He prays as a man should pray, without +self-consciousness and not without self-respect. He is without +sentiment; he believes in largeness, grandeur, splendour, and sincerity; +and he has known the gods for three thousand years. + +What, then, we are to look for in entering such a church as S. Maria del +Fiore is, above all, a noble spaciousness and the beauty of just +that.[88] + +The splendour and nobility of S. Maria del Fiore from without are +evident, it might seem, to even the most prejudiced observer; but +within, I think, the beauty is perhaps less easily perceived. + +One comes through the west doors out of the sunshine of the Piazza into +an immense nave, and the light is that of an olive garden,--yes, just +that sparkling, golden, dancing shadow of a day of spring in an old +olive grove not far from the sea. In this delicate and fragile light the +beauty and spaciousness of the church are softened and simplified. You +do not reason any longer, you accept it at once as a thing complete and +perfect. Complete and perfect--yet surely spoiled a little by the +gallery that dwarfs the arches and seems to introduce a useless detail +into what till then must have been so simple. One soon forgets so small +a thing in the immensity and solemnity of the whole, that seems to come +to one with the assurance of the sky or of the hills, really without an +afterthought. And indeed I find there much of the strange simplicity of +natural things that move us we know not why: the autumn fields of which +Alberti speaks, the far hills at evening, the valleys that in an hour +will make us both glad and sorry, as the sun shines or the clouds gather +or the wind sings on the hills. Not a church to think in as St. Peter's +is, but a place where one may pray, said Pius IX when he first saw S. +Maria del Fiore: and certainly it has that in common with the earth, +that you may be glad in it as well as sorry. It is not a museum of the +arts; it is not a pantheon like Westminster Abbey or S. Croce; it is the +beautiful house where God and man may meet and walk in the shadow. + +Yet little though there be to interest the curious, Giovanni Acuto, that +Englishman Sir John Hawkwood of the White Company, one of the first of +the Condottieri, the deliverer of Pisa, "the first real general of +modern times," is buried here. You may see his equestrian portrait by +Paolo Uccello over the north-west doorway in his habit as he lived. +Having fought against the Republic and died in its service, he was +buried here with public honours in 1394. And then in the north aisle you +may see the statue called a portrait of Poggio Bracciolini[89] by +Donatello. Donatello carved a number of statues, of which nine have been +identified, for the Opera del Duomo, three of these are now in the +Cathedral: the Poggio, the so-called Joshua in the south aisle, which +has been said to be a portrait of Gianozzo Manetti; and the St. John +the Evangelist in the eastern part of the nave. The Poggio certainly +belongs to the series: it would be delightful if the cryptic writing on +the borders of the garment were to prove it to be the Job. The St. John +Evangelist is an earlier work than the Poggio; it was begun when +Donatello was twenty-two years old, and, as Lord Balcarres says, "it +challenges comparison with one worthy rival, the Moses of Michelangelo." +It was to have stood on one side of the central door. Something of the +wonder of this work in its own time may be understood if we compare it, +not with the later work of Michelangelo, but with the statues of St. +Mark by Niccolo d'Arezzo, the St. Luke of Nanni di Banco, and the St. +Matthew of Bernardo Ciuffagni, which were to stand beside it and are now +placed in a good light in the nave, while the work of Donatello is +almost invisible in this dark apsidal chapel. Of the other works which +Donatello made for the Opera del Duomo, the David is in the Bargello, +while the Jeremiah, and Habbakuk, the so-called Zuccone, the Abraham, +and St. John Baptist are still on the Campanile. + +The octagonal choir screens carved in relief by Baccio Bandinelli, whom +Cellini hated so scornfully because he spoke lightly of Michelangelo, +will not keep you long; but there behind the high altar is an unfinished +Pieta by Michelangelo himself. It is a late work, but in that fallen +Divine Figure just caught in Madonna's arms you may see perhaps the most +beautiful thing in the church, less splendid but more pitiful than the +St. John of Donatello, but certainly not less moving than that severe, +indomitable son of thunder. Above, the dome soars into heaven; that +mighty dome, higher than St. Peter's, the despair of Michelangelo, one +of the beauties of the world. One wanders about the church looking at +the bronze doors of the Sagrestia Nuova, or the terra-cottas of Luca +della Robbia, always to return to that miracle of Brunellesco's. Not far +away in the south aisle you come upon his monument with his portrait in +marble by Buggiano. The indomitable persistence of the face! Is it any +wonder that, impossible as his dream appeared, he had his way with +Florence at last--yes, and with himself too? As you stand at the corner +of Via del Proconsolo, and, looking upward, see that immense dome +soaring into the sky over that church of marble, something of the joy +and confidence and beauty that were immortal in him come to you too from +his work. Like Columbus, he conquered a New World. His schemes, which +the best architects in Europe laughed at, were treated with scorn by the +Consiglio, yet he persuaded them at last. In 1418 he made his designs, +and the people, as now, were called upon to vote. Two years went by, and +nothing was done; then in 1420 he was elected by the Opera to the post +of Provveditore della Cupola, but not alone, for Lorenzo Ghiberti and +Battista d'Antonio were elected with him. Still he persisted, and, as +the Florentines say, by pretending sickness and leaving the work to +Ghiberti, who knew nothing about it and could do nothing without him, in +1421 he won over the Consiglio. He began at once. What his agonies may +have been, what profound difficulties he discovered and conquered, we do +not know, but by 1434, when Eugenius IV was in Florence and the Duomo +was consecrated, his dome was finished, wanting only the lantern and the +ball. These he began in 1437, but died too soon to see, for the lantern +was not finished till 1458, and it was only in 1471 that Verrocchio cast +the bronze ball.[90] + +Wandering round to the facade, finished in 1886, it is a careful +imitation of fifteenth-century work we see, saved from the mere routine +of just that, in its design at any rate, by the vote of the people, who, +against the opinion of all the artists in Florence at that time, +insisted on the cornice following the basilical form of the tower, +refusing to endorse the pointed "tricuspidal" design. It is not, +however, in such merely competent work as this that we shall find +ourselves interested, but rather in the beautiful door on the north +just before the transept, over which, in an almond-shaped glory, Madonna +gives her girdle to St. Thomas. Given now to Nanni di Banco, a sculptor +of the end of the fourteenth century, whom Vasari tells us was the pupil +of Donatello, it long passed as the work of Jacopo della Quercia. +Certainly one of the loveliest works of the early Renaissance, it is so +full of life and gracious movement, so natural and so noble, that +everything else in the Cathedral, save the work of Donatello, is +forgotten beside it. Madonna enthroned among the Cherubim in her oval +mandorla, upheld by four puissant fair angels, turns with a gesture most +natural and lovely to St. Thomas, who kneels to her, his drapery in +beautiful folds about him, lifting his hands in prayer. Above, three +angels play on pipes and reeds; while in a corner a great bear gnaws at +the bark of an oak in full leaf. + +In turning now to the Campanile, which Giotto began in 1334, on the site +of a chapel of S. Zenobio, we come to the last building of the great +group. Fair and slim as a lily, as light as that, as airy and full of +grace, to my mind at least it lacks a certain stability, so that looking +on it I always fear in my heart lest it should fall. It seems to lack +roots, as it were, yet by no means to want confidence or force. Can it +be that, after all, it would have seemed more secure, more firm and +established, if the spire Giotto designed for it had in truth been +built? The consummate and supreme artist, architect, sculptor, and +painter was not content to design so fair, so undreamed-of a flower as +this, but set himself to make the statues and the reliefs that were +necessary also. And then has he not built as only a painter could have +done, in white and rose and green? He died too soon to see the fairest +of his dreams, and it is really to two other artists--Taddeo Gaddi and +Francesco Talenti--that the actual work, after the first five +storeys--those windows, for instance, that add so much to the beauty of +the tower--is owing.[91] + +[Illustration: THE MADONNA DELLA CINTOLA + +_By Nanni di Banco. Duomo, Florence_ + +_Alinari_] + +The reliefs that, set some five-and-twenty feet from the ground, are +so difficult to see, are the work of Andrea Pisano, the sculptor of the +south gate of the Baptistery. Born at Pontedera, the pupil of Giovanni +Pisano, this great and lovable artist has been robbed of much that +belongs to him. Vasari tells us--and for long we believed him--that +Giotto helped him to design the gate of the Baptistery; and again, that +Giotto designed these reliefs for Andrea to carve and found. It might +seem impossible to believe that the greatest sculptor then living, fresh +from a great triumph, would have consented to use the design of a +painter, even though he were Giotto. However this may be, the reliefs +really speak for themselves: those on the south side--early Sabianism, +house-building, pottery, training horses, weaving, lawgiving, and +exploration--are certainly by Andrea; while among the rest the Jubal, +the Creation of Man, the Creation of Woman, seem to be his own among the +work of his pupils. It is to quite another hand, however, to Luca della +Robbia, that the Grammar, Poetry, Philosophy, Astrology, and Music must +be given. The genius of Andrea Pisano, at its best in those Baptistery +gates, in the panel of the Baptism of our Lord, for instance, or in +those marvellous works on the facade of the Duomo at Orvieto, so full of +force, vitality, and charm, is, as I think, less fortunate in its +expression when he is concerned with such work as these statues of the +prophets in the niches on the south wall of the Campanile,--if indeed +they be his. Seen as these figures are, beside the large, splendid, +realistic work of Donatello, so wonderfully ugly in the Zuccone, so +pitiless in the Habakkuk, they are quickly forgotten; but indeed +Donatello's work seems to stand alone in the history of sculpture till +the advent of Michelangelo. + +I speak of Donatello elsewhere in this book,[92] but you will find one +of his best works among much curious, interesting litter from the Duomo +in the Opera del Duomo, the Cathedral Museum in the old Falconieri +Palace just behind the apse of the Cathedral. A bust of Cosimo Primo +stands over the entrance, and within you find a beautiful head of +Brunellesco by Buggiano. It is, however, in a room on the first floor +that you will find the great organ lofts, one by Donatello and the other +by Luca della Robbia, which I suppose are among the best known works of +art in the world. Made for the Cathedral, these galleries for singers +seem to be imprisoned in a museum. + +The beautiful youths of Luca, the children of Donatello, for all their +seeming vigour and joy, sing and dance no more; they are in as evil a +case as the Madonnas of the Uffizi, who, in their golden frames behind +the glass, under the vulgar, indifferent eyes of the multitude, envy +Madonna of the street-corner the love of the lowly. So it is with the +beautiful Cantorie made for God's praise by Donatello and Luca della +Robbia. Before the weary eyes of the sight-seer, the cold eyes of the +scientific critic, in the horrid silence of a museum, amid so much that +is dead, here the headless trunk of some saint, there the battered +fragments of what was once a statue, some shadow has fallen upon them, +and though they keep still the gesture of joy, they are really dead or +sleeping. Is it only sleep? Do they perhaps at night, when all the doors +of their prisons are barred and their gaolers are gone, praise God in +His Holiness, even in such a hell as this? Who knows? They were made for +a world so different, for a time that out of the love of God had seen +arise the very beauty of the world, and were glad therefor. Ah, of how +many beautiful things have we robbed God in our beggary! We have +imprisoned the praise of the artists in the museums that Science may +pass by and sneer; we have arranged the saints in order, and Madonna we +have carefully hidden under the glass, because now we never dream of God +or speak with Him at all. Art is dying, Beauty is become a burden, +Nature a thing for science and not for love. They are become too +precious, the old immortal things; we must hide them away lest they fade +and God take them from us: and because we have hidden them away, and +they are become too precious for life, and we have killed them because +we loved them, we seldom pass by where they are save to satisfy the +same curiosity that leads us to any other charnel-house where the dead +are exposed. + +[Illustration: SINGING BOYS FROM THE CANTORIA OF LUCA DELLA ROBBIA + +_In Opera del Duomo, Florence_ + +_Alinari_] + +Thus they have stolen away the silver altar of the Baptistery, that +miracle of the fourteenth-century silversmiths, Betto di Geri, Leonardo +di Ser Giovanni, and the rest, that it may be a cause of wonder in a +museum. So a flower looks between the cold pages of a botanist's album, +so a bird sings in his case: for life is to do that for which we were +created, and if that be the praise of God in His sanctuary, to stand +impotently by under the gaze of innumerable unbelievers in a museum is +to die. And truly this is a shame in Italy that so many fair and lovely +things have been torn out of their places to be catalogued in a gallery. +It were a thousand times better that they were allowed to fade quietly +on the walls of the church where they were born. It is a vandalism only +possible to the modern world in which the machines have ground out every +human feeling and left us nothing but a bestial superstition which we +call science, and which threatens to become the worst tyranny of all, +that we should thus herd together, catalogue, describe, arrange, and +gape at every work of art and nature we can lay our hands on. No doubt +it brings in, directly and indirectly, an immense revenue to the country +which can show the most of such death chambers. Often by chance or +mistake one has wandered into a museum--though I confess I never +understood in what relation it stood to the Muses--where your scientist +has collected his scraps and refuse of Nature, things that were +wonderful or beautiful once--birds, butterflies, the marvellous life of +the foetus, and such--but that in his hands have died in order that he +may set them out and number them one by one. Here you will find a leg +that once stood firm enough, there an arm that once for sure held +someone in its embrace: now it is exposed to the horror and curiosity of +mankind. Well, it is the same with the Pictures and the statues. Why, +men have prayed before them, they have heard voices, tears have fallen +where they stood, and they have whispered to us of the beauty and the +love of God. To-day, herded in thousands, chained to the walls of their +huge dungeons, they are just specimens like the dead butterflies which +we pay to see, which some scientific critic without any care for beauty +will measure and describe in the inarticulate and bestial syllables of +some degenerate dialect he thinks is language. Our unfortunate gods! How +much more fortunate were they of the older world: Zeus, whose statue of +ivory and gold mysteriously was stolen away; Aphrodite of Cnidus, which +someone hid for love; and you, O Victory of Samothrace, that being +headless you cannot see the curious, peeping, indifferent multitude. Was +it for this the Greeks blinded their statues, lest the gods being in +exile, they might be shamed by the indifference of men? And now that our +gods too are exiled, who will destroy their images and their pictures +crowded in the museums, that the foolish may not speak of them we have +loved, nor the scientist say, such and such they were, in stature of +such a splendour, carved by such a man, the friend of the friend of a +fool? But our gods are dead. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[86] I give this story for what it is worth. So far as I know, however, +the font was placed in its present position in 1658, more than a hundred +years after the church was roofed in. It may, however, have occupied +another position before that. + +[87] See p. 82. + +[88] To compare an Italian church with a French cathedral would be to +compare two altogether different things, a fault in logic, and in +criticism the unforgivable sin; for a work of art must be judged in its +own category, and praised only for its own qualities, and blamed only +for its own defects. + +[89] Cf. _Donatello_, by Lord Balcarres: Duckworth, 1903, p. 12. + +[90] Not the ball we see now, which was struck by lightning and hurled +into the street in 1492. Verrocchio's was rather smaller than the +present ball. + +[91] See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _History of Painting in Italy_: London, +1903, p. 116, note 4. + +[92] See pp. 283-289. + + + + +XIII. FLORENCE + +OR SAN MICHELE + + +Or San Michele, S. Michele in Orto, was till the middle of the +thirteenth century a little church belonging, as it is said, to the +Cistercians, who certainly claimed the patronage of it. About 1260, +however, the Commune of Florence began to dispute this right with the +Order, and at last pulled down the church, building there, thirty years +later, a loggia of brick, after a design by Arnolfo di Cambio, according +to Vasari, who tells us that it was covered with a simple roof and that +the piers were of brick. This loggia was the corn-market of the city, a +shelter, too, for the contadini who came to show their samples and to +talk, gossip, and chaffer, as they do everywhere in Italy even to-day. +And, as was the custom, they made a shrine of Madonna there, hanging on +one of the brick pillars a picture (_tavola_) of Madonna that, as it is +said, was the work of Ugolino da Siena. This shrine soon became famous +for the miracles Madonna wrought there. "On July 3rd," says Giovanni +Villani, writing of the year 1292, "great and manifest miracles began to +be shown forth in the city of Florence by a figure of Saint Mary which +was painted on a pilaster of the loggia of S. Michele d'Orto, where the +corn was sold: the sick were healed, the deformed were made straight, +and those who were possessed of devils were delivered from them in +numbers." In the previous year the Compagnia di Or San Michele, called +the Laudesi, had been established, and this Company, putting the fame of +the miracles to good use, grew rich, much to the disgust of the Friars +Minor and the Dominicans. "The Preaching Friars and the Friars Minor +likewise," says Villani, "through envy or some other cause, would put no +faith in that image, whereby they fell into great infamy with the +people. But so greatly grew the fame of these miracles and the merits of +Our Lady, that pilgrims flocked thither from all Tuscany for her festas, +bringing divers waxen images because of the wonders, so that a great +part of the loggia in front of and around Madonna was filled." +Cavalcanti, too, speaks of Madonna di Or San Michele, likening her to +his Lady, in a sonnet which scandalised Guido Orlandi-- + + "Guido an image of my Lady dwells + At S. Michele in Orto, consecrate + And duly worshipped. Fair in holy state + She listens to the tale each sinner tells: + And among them that come to her, who ails + The most, on him the most doth blessing wait. + She bids the fiend men's bodies abdicate; + Over the curse of blindness she prevails, + And heals sick languors in the public squares. + A multitude adores her reverently: + Before her face two burning tapers are; + Her voice is uttered upon paths afar. + Yet through the Lesser Brethren's jealousy + She is named idol; not being one of theirs."[93] + +The feuds of Neri and Bianchi at this time distracted Florence; at the +head of the Blacks, though somewhat their enemy, was Corso Donati; at +the head of the Whites were the Cerchi and the Cavalcanti. After the +horrid disaster of May Day, when the Carraja bridge, crowded with folk +come to see that strange carnival of the other world, fell and drowned +so many, there had been much fighting in the city, in which Corso Donati +stood neutral, for he was ill with gout, and angered with the Black +party. Robbed thus of their great leader, the Neri were beaten day and +night by the Cerchi, who with the aid of the Cavalcanti and Gherardini +rode through the city as far as the Mercato Vecchio and Or San +Michele, and from there to S. Giovanni, and certainly they would have +taken the city with the help of the Ghibellines, who were come to their +aid, if one Ser Neri Abati, clerk and prior of S. Piero Scheraggio, a +dissolute and worldly man, and a rebel and enemy against his friends, +had not set fire to the houses of his family in Or San Michele, and to +the Florentine Calimala near to the entrance of Mercato Vecchio. This +fire did enormous damage, as Villani tells us, destroying not only the +houses of the Abati, the Macci, the Amieri, the Toschi, the Cipriani, +Lamberti, Bachini, Buiamonti, Cavalcanti, and all Calimala, together +with all the street of Porta S. Maria, as far as Ponte Vecchio and the +great towers and houses there, but also Or San Michele itself. In this +disaster who knows what became of the miracle picture of Madonna? For +years the loggia lay in ruins, till peace being established in 1336, the +Commune decided to rebuild it, giving the work into the hands of the +Guild of Silk, which, according to Vasari, employed Taddeo Gaddi as +architect. The first stone of the new building was laid on July 29, +1337, the old brick piers, according to Villani, being removed, and +pillars of stone set up in their stead.[94] In 1339 the Guild of Silk +won leave from the Commune to build in each of these stone piers a +niche, which later should hold a statue; while above the loggia was +built a great storehouse for corn, as well as an official residence for +the officers of the market. + +[Illustration: OR SAN MICHELE] + +Nine years later there followed the great plague, of which Boccaccio has +left us so terrible an impression. In this dreadful calamity, which +swept away nearly two-thirds of the population, the Compagnia di Or San +Michele grew very wealthy, many citizens leaving it all their +possessions. No doubt very much was distributed in charity, for the +Company had become the greatest charitable society in the city, but by +1347, so great was its wealth, that it resolved to build the most +splendid shrine in Italy for the Madonna di Or San Michele. The loggia +was not yet finished, and after the desolation of the plague the Commune +was probably too embarrassed to think of completing it immediately. Some +trouble certainly seems to have arisen between the Guild of Silk, who +had charge of the fabric, and the Company, who were only concerned for +their shrine, the latter, in spite of their wealth, refusing in any way +to assist in finishing the building. Whether from this cause or another, +a certain suspicion of the Company began to rise in Florence, and Matteo +Villani roundly accuses the Capitani della Compagnia of peculation and +corruption. However this may be, by 1355 Andrea Orcagna had been chosen +to build the shrine of Madonna, which is still to-day one of the wonders +of the city. It seems to have been in a sort of recognition of the +splendour and beauty of Orcagna's work that the Signoria, between 1355 +and 1359, removed the corn-market elsewhere, and thus gave up the whole +loggia to the shrine of Madonna. Thus the loggia became a church, the +great popular church of Florence, built by the people for their own use, +in what had once been the corn-market of the city. The architect of this +strange and secular building, more like a palace than a church, is +unknown. Vasari, as I have said, speaks of Taddeo Gaddi; others again +have thought it the work of Orcagna himself; while Francesco Talenti and +his son Simone are said to have worked on it. The question is to a large +extent a matter of indifference. What is important here is the fact that +it is to the greater Guilds and to the Parte Guelfa that we owe the +church itself--that is to say, to the merchants and trades of the +city--while the beautiful shrine within is due to a secular Company +consisting of some of the greatest citizens, and to a large extent +opposed to the regular Orders of St. Dominic and St. Francis. It is, +then, as the great church of the _popolo_ that we have to consider Or +San Michele. Here, because their greatest and most splendid deed, the +expulsion of the Duke of Athens, had been achieved on St. Anne's Day, +July 26, 1343, they built a chapel to St. Anne, and around the church +on every anniversary, above the fourteen niches which hold the statues +presented by the seven greater arts, by six of the fourteen lesser arts, +and by the Magistrato della Mercanzia, that magistracy which governed +all the guilds,[95] their banners are set up even to this day. + +The great Guild of Wool was already responsible for the Duomo, and it +was for this reason, it might seem, that to the Guild of Silk was given +the care of Or San Michele; not altogether without jealousy, it might +seem, for when they had asked leave to place the image of their saint in +one of the niches there, all the other guilds had demanded a like +favour, thus in an especial manner marking the place as the Church of +the Merchants, the true _popolo_; the great popular shrine of Florence, +therefore, since Florence was a city of merchants. + +It is on the south side, in the niche nearest to Via Calzaioli, that the +Guild of Silk set its statue of St. John the Evangelist by Baccio da +Montelupo; next to it is an empty niche belonging to the Guild of +Apothecaries and Doctors. Here a Madonna and Child by Simone Ferrucci +once stood, but, owing to a rumour current in the seventeenth century, +that Madonna sometimes moved her eyes, the statue was placed inside the +church, so that the crowd which always collected to see this miracle +might no longer stop the way. In the next niche the Furriers placed a +statue of St. James by Nanni di Banco, and beyond, the Guild of Linen +set up a statue of St. Mark by Donatello. On the west, in the first +niche, is S. Lo, the patron of the Furriers, carved by Nanni di Banco, +and beyond, St. Stephen, set there by the Guild of Wool and carved by +Ghiberti; while next to him stands St. Matthew, set there by the Bankers +and carved by Ghiberti, and cast in 1422 by Michelozzo. On the north, +Donatello's statue of St. George used to fill the first niche, somewhat +shallower than the rest owing to a staircase inside the church, but it +was removed to the Bargello for fear of the weather: the beautiful +relief, also by Donatello, below the copy, is still in its place, under +the St. George of the Armourers. The four statues in the next niche were +placed there by the Guilds of Sculptors, Masons, Smiths, and +Bricklayers; they are the work of Nanni di Banco. Further, is the St. +Philip of the Shoemakers, again by Nanni di Banco, and the St. Peter of +the Butchers, by Donatello. On the east stands St. Luke, placed there by +the Notaries, and carved by Giovanni da Bologna; the great bronze group +of Christ and St. Thomas, the gift of the Magistrato della Mercanzia, +the governor of all the guilds; and the St. John Baptist, the gift of +the Calimala, and the work of Ghiberti: this last was the first statue +placed here--in 1414. + +Nanni di Banco, that delightful sculptor of the Madonna della Cintola of +the Duomo, has thus four works here at Or San Michele--the S. Lo, the +group on the north side, the St. Philip, and the St. James. The St. +Philip, and the group which represents the four masons who, being +Christians, refused to build a Pagan temple, and were martyred long and +long ago, have little merit; and though the S. Lo has a certain force, +and the relief below it a wonderful simplicity, they lack altogether the +charm of the Madonna della Cintola. + +Ghiberti has three works here--the St. Stephen, the St. Matthew, and the +St. John Baptist, the only sculptures of the kind he ever produced. Full +of energy though the St. Stephen may be, it has about it a sort of +divine modesty that lends it a charm altogether beyond anything we may +find in the St. John Baptist, a figure full of character, nevertheless. +It is, however, in the St. Matthew that we see Ghiberti at his best +perhaps, in a figure for once full of strength, and altogether splendid. + +Donatello, too, had three figures here beside the relief beneath the St. +George. The St. Peter on the north side is probably the earliest work +done for Or San Michele, and is certainly the poorest. The St. Mark on +the south side is, however, a fine example of his earlier manner, with +a certain largeness, strength, and liberty about it a frankness, too, in +expression so that he has made us believe in the goodness of the +Apostle, which, as Michelangelo is reported to have said must have +vouched for the truth of what he taught. + +The masterpiece, certainly, of these Tuscan sculptures is the bronze +group of Christ and St. Thomas by Verrocchio, which I have so loved. All +the work of this master is full of eagerness and force: something of +that strangeness without which there is no excellent beauty, that later +was so characteristic of the work of his pupil Leonardo, you will find +in this work also, a subtlety sometimes a little elaborate, that, as I +think is but a sort of over-eagerness to express all he has thought to +say. Donatello prepared this niche for him at the end of his life it was +almost his last work; and Verrocchio, after many years of labour, had +thought to place here really his masterpiece, in the church that, more +than any other, belonged to the people of the city, that middle class, +as we might say, from which he sprang. How perfectly, and yet not +altogether without affectation, he has composed that difficult scene, so +that St. Thomas stands a little out of the setting, and places his +finger--yes, almost as a child might do--in the wounded side of Jesus, +who stands majestically fair before him. It is true the drapery is +complicated, a little heavy even, but with what care he has remembered +everything! Consider the grace of those beautiful folds, the beauty of +the hair, the loveliness of the hands: and then, as Burckhardt reminds +us, as a piece of work founded and cast in bronze, it is almost +inimitable. + + * * * * * + +Within, the church is strange and splendid. It is as though one stood in +a loggia in deep shadow, at the end of the day in the last gold of the +sunset; and there, amid the ancient fading glory of the frescoes, is the +wonderful shrine that Orcagna made for the picture of Madonna, who had +turned the Granary of S. Michele into the Church of the People. Finished +in 1359, this tabernacle is the loveliest work of the kind in Italy, an +unique masterpiece, and perhaps the most beautiful example of the +Italian Gothic manner in existence. Orcagna seems to have been at work +on it for some ten years, covering it with decoration and carving those +reliefs of the Life of the Virgin in that grand style which he had found +in Giotto and learned perhaps from Andrea Pisano. To describe the shrine +itself would be impossible and useless. It is like some miniature and +magic church, a casquet made splendid not with jewels but with beauty, +where the miracle picture of Madonna--not that ancient and wonderful +picture by Ugolino da Siena, but a work, it is said, of Bernardo +Daddi--glows under the lamps. On the west side, in front of the altar, +Orcagna has carved the Marriage of the Virgin and the Annunciation; on +the south, the Nativity of Our Lord and the Adoration of the Magi; on +the north, the Presentation of the Virgin and her Birth; and on the +east, the Purification and the Annunciation of her Death. And above +these last, in a panel of great beauty, he has carved the Death of the +Virgin, where, among the Apostles crowding round her bed, while St. +Thomas--or is it St. John?--passionately kisses her feet, Jesus Himself +stands with her soul in His arms, that little Child which had first +entered the kingdom of heaven. Above this sorrowful scene you may see +the Glory and Assumption of Our Lady in a mandorla glory, upheld by six +angels, while St. Thomas kneels below, stretching out his arms, assured +at last. It is, as it were, the prototype of the Madonna della Cintola, +that exquisite and lovely relief which Nanni di Banco carved later for +the north gate of the Duomo, only here all the sweetness that Nanni has +seen and expressed seems to be lost in a sort of solemnity and strength. + +Between these panels Orcagna has set the virtues Theological and +Cardinal, little figures of much force and beauty; and at the corners he +has carved angels bearing palms and lilies. Some who have seen this +shrine so loaded with ornament, so like some difficult and complicated +canticle, have gone away disappointed. Remembering the strength and +significance of Orcagna's work in fresco, they have perhaps looked for +some more simple thing, and indeed for a less rhetorical praise. Yet I +think it is rather the fault of Or San Michele than of the shrine +itself, that it does not certainly vanquish any possible objection and +assure us at once of its perfection and beauty. If it could be seen in +the beautiful spacious transept of S. Croce, or even in Santo Spirito +across Arno, that sense as of something elaborate and complicated would +perhaps not be felt; but here in Or San Michele one seems to have come +upon a priceless treasure in a cave. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[93] Rossetti's translation of Guido Cavalcanti's Sonnet written in +exile. + +[94] Franceschini, however, in his record (_L'Oratorio di S. Michele in +Orto in Firenze_: P. Franceschini: Firenze, 1892), says that the +Tabernacle of Orcagna was built round the old brick pillars. It may well +be that the pillar on which the Madonna was painted or was hung (for it +is not clear whether the painting was a panel or a wall painting) was +saved while the rest was destroyed. + +[95] The Parte Guelfa originally set up their statue of St. Louis of +Toulouse, carved by Donatello, in the place where now stands the statue +of Magistrates, the group of Christ and St. Thomas made by Verrocchio. +Eight of the fourteen lesser arts are not represented--namely, the +Bakers, the Carpenters, the Leatherworkers, the Saddlers, the +Innkeepers, the Vintners, and the Cheesemongers. + + + + +XIV. FLORENCE + +PALAZZO RICCARDI, AND THE RISE OF THE MEDICI + + +It is in the Ciompi rising of 1278, that social revolution in which all +Florence seems for once to have been interested, that we catch really +for the first time the name of Medici. In 1352, Salvestro de' +Medici--_non gia Salvestro ma Salvator mundi_, Franco Sacchetti calls +him--had led the Florentines against the Archbishop of Milan, and in +1370 he had been chosen Gonfaloniere of Justice. He was filling this +office against the wishes of the Parte Guelfa, when, not without his +connivance, the Ciompi riot broke out against the magnates, whose power +he had sought to break by means of the Ordinances of Justice. + +The result of that bloody struggle was really a victory for the Arti +Maggiori, the Arti Minori being bribed with promises and thus separated +from the populace, who had sided with the Parte Guelfa, which was beaten +for ever. The oligarchy was saved, but the struggle between rich and +poor was by no means over. Soon the older Guilds seem to lose grip, and +we see instead great trusts arising, associations of wealth, and above +all, Banking Companies. What was wanting in Florence, as elsewhere in +Italy, was some legitimate authority that might have guided the people +in their desire for power. As it was, the city became divided into +classes, each anxious to gain power at the expense of others, the result +being an oligarchy, continually a prey to schism, merely waiting for a +despot to declare himself. + +Seemingly in the hands of a group of families without any legitimate +right, the government was really in the power of one among them, and +thus of one man, the head of it, Maso degli Albizzi. Brilliant, clever, +and fascinating, Maso ruled with a certain strength and generosity; but +Florence was a city of merchants, and between the Scylla of oligarchy +and the Charybdis of despotism, was really driven into the latter by her +economic position. The Duke Gian Galeazzo of Milan closed the trade +routes, and Florence was compelled to fight for her life. Pisa, too, had +to be overcome, again for economic reasons, and in 1414 a long war with +King Ladislaus brought Cortona into the power of the Republic; but all +these wars cost money, and the taxes pressed on the poor, who obtained +no advantage from them. Maso's son Rinaldo, who succeeded him before the +wars were over, had less ability than his father, and was certainly less +beloved; he seems, however, to have been upright and incorruptible. He +was, nevertheless, capable of mistakes, and, while engaged in war with +Milan, attempted to seize Lucca. At length, when the grumbling of the +poor had already gone too far, he readjusted the taxes, and thus +alienated the rich also. His own party was divided, he himself heading +the more conservative party, which refused to listen to the clamour of +the wealthier families for a part in the government, while Niccolo +Uzzano, with the more liberal party, would have admitted them. Among +these wealthy families excluded from the government was the Medici. + +The Medici had been banished after the Ciompi riots, but a branch of the +family had returned, and was already established in the affections of +the people. To the head of this branch, Giovanni de' Medici, all the +enemies of Rinaldo looked with hope. This extraordinary man, who +certainly was the founder of the greatness of his house, had long since +understood that in such an oligarchy as that of Florence, the wealthiest +must win. He had busied himself to establish his name and credit +everywhere in Europe. He refused to take any open and active part in +the fight that he foresaw must, with patience decide in his favour, but +on his death, Cosimo, his elder son, no longer put off the crisis. He +opposed Rinaldo for the control of the Signoria, and was beaten, in +spite of every sort of bribery and corruption. It fell out that Bernardo +Guadagni, whom Rinaldo had made his creature, was chosen Gonfaloniere +for the months of September and October 1433. Rinaldo at once went to +him and persuaded him that the greatest danger to the State was the +wealth of Cosimo, who had inherited vast riches, including some sixteen +banks in various European cities, from his father. He encouraged him to +arrest Cosimo, and to have no fear, for his friends would be ready to +help him, if necessary, with arms. Cosimo was cited to appear before the +Balia, which, much against the wishes of his friends, he did. "Many," +says Machiavelli, "would have him banished many executed, and many were +silent, either out of compassion for him or apprehension of other +people, so that nothing was concluded." Cosimo, however, was in the +meantime a prisoner in the Palazzo Vecchio in the Alberghettino +tower[96] in the custody of Federigo Malavolti. He could hear all that +was said, and the clatter of arms and the tumult made him fear for his +life, and especially he was afraid of assassination or poison, so that +for four days he ate nothing. This was told to Federigo, who, according +to Machiavelli, addressed him in these words: "You are afraid of being +poisoned, and you kill yourself with hunger. You have but small esteem +of me to believe I would have a hand in any such wickedness; I do not +think your life is in danger, your friends are too numerous, both within +the Palace and without; if there be any such designs, assure yourself +they must take new measures, I will never be their instrument, nor +imbrue my hands in the blood of any man, much less of yours, since you +have never offended me. Courage, then, feed as you did formerly, and +keep yourself alive for the good of your country and friends, and +that you may eat with more confidence, I myself will be your taster." + +[Illustration: THE FLOWER MARKET, FLORENCE] + +Now Malavolti one night brought home with him to supper a servant of the +Gonfaloniere's called Fargannaccio, a pleasant man and very good +company. Supper over, Cosimo, who knew Fargannaccio of old, made a sign +to Malavolti that he should leave them together. When they were alone, +Cosimo gave him an order to the master of the Ospedale di S. Maria Nuova +for 1100 ducats, a thousand for the Gonfaloniere and the odd hundred for +himself. On receipt of this sum Bernardo became more moderate, and +Cosimo was exiled to Padua. "Wherever he passed," says Machiavelli, "he +was honourably received, visited publicly by the Venetians, and treated +by them more like a sovereign than a prisoner." Truly the oligarchy had +at last produced a despot. + +The reception of Cosimo abroad seems to have frightened the Florentines, +for within a year a Balia was chosen friendly disposed towards him. Upon +this Rinaldo and his friends took arms and proceeded to the Palazzo +Vecchio, the Senate ordering the gates to be closed against them; +protesting at the same time that they had no thought of recalling +Cosimo. At this time Eugenius IV, hunted out of Rome by the populace, +was living at the convent of S. Maria Novella. Perhaps fearing the +tumult, perhaps bribed or persuaded by Cosimo's friends, he sent +Giovanni Vitelleschi to desire Rinaldo to speak with him. Rinaldo +agreed, and marched with all his company to S. Maria Novella. They +appear to have remained in conference all night, and at dawn Rinaldo +dismissed his men. What passed between them no man knows, but early in +October 1434 the recall of Cosimo was decreed and Rinaldo with his son +went into exile. Cosimo was received, Machiavelli tells us, "with no +less ostentation and triumph than if he had obtained some extraordinary +victory; so great was the concourse of people, and so high the +demonstration of their joy, that by an unanimous and universal +concurrence he was saluted as the Benefactor of the people and the +Father of his country." Thus the Medici established themselves in +Florence. Practically Prince of the Commune, though never so in name, +Cosimo set himself to consolidate his power by a judicious munificence +and every political contrivance known to him. Thus, while he enriched +the city with such buildings as his palace in Via Larga, the Convent of +S. Marco, the Church of S. Lorenzo, he helped Francesco Sforza to +establish himself as tyrant of Milan, and in the affairs of Florence +always preferred war to peace, because he knew that, beggared, the +Florentines must come to him. Yet it was in his day that Florence became +the artistic and intellectual capital of Italy. Under his patronage and +enthusiasm the Renaissance for the first time seems to have become sure +of itself. The humanists, the architects, the sculptors, the painters +are, as it were, seized with a fury of creation; they discover new +forms, and express themselves completely, with beauty and truth. For a +moment realism and beauty have kissed one another: for reality is not +enough, as Alberti will find some day, it is necessary to find and to +express the beauty there also. It was an age that was learning to enjoy +itself. The world and the beauty of the world laid bare, partly by the +study of the ancients, partly by observation, really almost a new +faculty, were enough; that conscious paganism which later, but for the +great disaster, might have emancipated the world, had not yet discovered +itself; in Cosimo's day art was still an expression of joy, impetuous, +unsophisticated, simple. In this world of brief sunshine Cosimo appears +to us very delightfully as the protector of the arts, the sincere lover +of learning, the companion of scholars. To him in some sort the world +owes the revival of the Platonic Philosophy, for the Greek Argyropolis +lived in his house, and taught Piero his son and Lorenzo his grandson +the language of the Gods. When Gemisthus Pletho came to Florence, Cosimo +made one of his audience, and was so moved by his eloquence that he +determined to establish a Greek academy in the city on the first +opportunity. He was the dear friend of Marsilio Ficino, and he founded +the Libraries of S. Marco and of the Badia at Fiesole. The great +humanists of his time, Leonardo Bruni, Carlo Marsuppini, Poggio and +Niccolo de' Niccoli were his companions, and in his palace in Via Larga, +and in his villas at Careggi and Poggio a Caiano, he gathered the most +precious treasures, rare manuscripts, and books, not a few antique +marbles and jewels, coins and medals and statues, while he filled the +courts and rooms, built and decorated by the greatest artists of his +time, with the statues of Donatello, the pictures of Paolo Uccello, +Andrea del Castagno, Fra Filippo Lippo, and Benozzo Gozzoli. Cosimo, +says Gibbon, "was the father of a line of princes whose name and age are +almost synonymous with the restoration of learning; his credit was +ennobled with fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of mankind; +he corresponded at once with Cairo and London, and a cargo of Indian +spices and Greek books were often imported in the same vessel." While +Burckhardt, the most discerning critic of the civilisation of the +Renaissance, tells us that "to him belongs the special glory of +recognising in the Platonic philosophy the fairest flower of the ancient +world of thought, and of inspiring his friends with the same belief." + +Among those who had loved Cosimo so well as to go with him into exile, +had been Michelozzo Michelozzi, the architect and sculptor, the pupil of +Donatello. Already, Vasari tells us in 1430, Cosimo had caused +Michelozzo to prepare a model for a palace at the corner of Via Larga +beside S. Giovannino, for one already made by Brunellesco appeared to +him too sumptuous and magnificent, and quite as likely to awaken envy +among his fellow-citizens as to contribute to the grandeur and ornament +of the city, and to his own convenience. The palace which we see to-day +at the corner of Via Cavour and Via Gori and call Palazzo Riccardi, was +perhaps not begun till 1444, and is certainly somewhat changed and +enlarged since Michelozzo built it for Cosimo Vecchio. The windows on +the ground floor, for instance, were added by Michelangelo and the +Riccardi family, whose name it now bears, and who bought it in 1695 from +Ferdinando II, enlarged it in 1715. + +In 1417, Cosimo, after his marriage with Contessina de' Bardi, had +bought and Michelozzo had rebuilt for him the Villa Careggi, where, in +the Albizzi conspiracy, he had retired, he said, "to escape from the +contests and divisions in the city." It was here that he lay dying when +he wrote to Marsilio Ficino to come to him. "Come to us, Marsilio, as +soon as you are able. Bring with you your translation of Plato _De Summo +Bono_, for I desire nothing so much as to learn the road to the greatest +happiness": and there too Lorenzo his grandson turned his face to the +wall, when Savonarola came to him in his last hours and bade him give +back liberty to Florence. + +It is, however, the palace in the Via Larga that recalls to us most +vividly the lives and times of these first Medici, Cosimo Vecchio, Piero +the gouty, Lorenzo il Magnifico. Michelozzo, Vasari tells us, deserves +infinite credit for this building, since it was the first palace built +in Florence after modern rules in which the rooms were arranged with a +view to convenience and beauty. "The cellars are excavated," he +explains, "to more than half their depth under the ground, having four +braccia beneath the earth, that is with three above, on account of the +lights. There are, besides buttresses, store-rooms, etc., on the same +level. In the first or ground floor are two court-yards with magnificent +loggia, on which open various saloons, bed-chambers, ante-rooms, +writing-rooms, offices, baths, kitchens, and reservoirs, with staircases +both for private and public use, all most conveniently arranged. In the +upper floors are dwellings and apartments for a family, with all those +conveniences proper, not only to that of a private citizen, as Cosimo +then was, but sufficient also for the most powerful and magnificient +sovereign. Accordingly, in our time, kings, emperors, popes, and +whatever of most illustrious Europe can boast in the way of princes, +have been most commodiously lodged in this palace, to the infinite +credit of the magnificent Cosimo, as well as that of Michelozzo's +eminent skill in architecture." + +It is not, however, the splendour of the palace, fine as it is, or the +memory of Cosimo even, that brings us to that beautiful house to-day, +but the work of Donatello in the courtyard, those marble medallions +copied from eight antique gems, and the little chapel on the second +floor, almost an afterthought you might think, since in a place full of +splendidly proportioned rooms, it is so cramped and cornered under the +staircase, where Benozzo Gozzoli has painted in fresco quite round the +walls, the Journey of the Three Kings, in which Cosimo himself, Piero +his son, and Lorenzo his grandson, then a golden-haired youth, ride +among the rest, in a procession that never finds the manger at +Bethlehem, is indeed not concerned with it, but is altogether occupied +with its own light-hearted splendour, and the beauty of the fair morning +among the Tuscan hills. Is it the pilgrimage of the Magi to the lowly +cot of Jesus that we find in that tiny dark chapel, or the journey of +man, awake now on the first morning of spring in quest of beauty? Over +the grass scattered with flowers, that gay company passes at dawn by +little white towns and grey towers, through woods where for a moment is +heard the song of some marvellous bird, past running streams, between +hedges of pomegranates and clusters of roses; and by the wayside rise +the stone-pine and the cypress, while over all is the far blue sky, full +of the sun, full of the wind, which is so soft that not a leaf has +trembled in the woods, nor the waters stirred in a single ripple. Truly +they are come to Tuscany where Beauty is, and are far from Bethlehem, +where Love lies sleeping. There on a mule, a black slave beside his +stirrup, rides Cosimo Pater Patriae, and beside him comes Piero his son, +attended too, and before them on a white horse stepping proudly, with +jewels in his cap, rides the golden-haired Lorenzo, the youngest of the +three kings, already magnificent, the darling of this world of hills and +streams, which one day he will sing better than anyone of his time. Not +thus came the Magi of the East across the deserts to stony Judaea, and +though the Emperor of the East be of them, and the Patriarch of +Constantinople another, we know it is to the knowledge of Plato they +would lead us, and not to the Sedes Sapientiae. And so it is before an +empty shrine that those clouds of angels sing; Madonna has fled away, +and the children are singing a new song, surely the Trionfo of Lorenzo, +it is the first time, perhaps, that we hear it-- + + Quant' e' bella giovinezza. + +Ah, if they had but known how tragically that day would close. + +As Cosimo lay dying at Careggi, often closing his eyes, "to use them to +it," as he told his wife, who wondered why he lay thus without sleeping, +it was perhaps some vision of that conflict which he saw and would fain +have dismissed from his mind, already divided a little in its +allegiance--who knows--between the love of Plato and the love of Jesus. +Piero, his son, gouty and altogether without energy, was content to +confirm his political position and to overwhelm the Pitti conspiracy. It +is only with the advent of Lorenzo and Giuliano, the first but +twenty-one when Piero died, that the spirit of the Renaissance, free for +the first time, seems to dance through every byway of the city, and, +confronted at last by the fanatic hatred of Savonarola, to laugh in his +face and to flee away through Italy into the world. + +Born in 1448, Lorenzo always believed that he owed almost everything +that was valuable in his life to his mother Lucrezia, of the noble +Florentine house of Tornabuoni, which had abandoned its nobility in +order to qualify for public office. A poetess herself, and the patron of +poets, she remained the best counsellor her son ever had. In his early +youth she had watched over his religious education, and in his +grandfather's house he had met not only statesmen and bankers, but +artists and men of letters. His first tutor had been Gentile Becchi of +Urbino, afterwards Bishop of Arezzo; from him he learned Latin, but +Argyropolus and Ficino and Landino taught him Greek, and read Plato and +Aristotle with him. Nor was this all, for we read of his eagerness for +every sort of exercise. He could play calcio and pallone, and his own +poems witness his love of hunting and of country life, and he ran a +horse often enough in the palii of Siena. He was more than common tall, +with broad shoulders, and very active. In colour dark, though he was not +handsome, his face had a sort of dignity that compelled respect, but he +was shortsighted too, and his nose was rather broad and flat. If he +lacked the comeliness of outward form, he loved all beauteous things, +and was in many ways the most extraordinary man of his age; his verse, +for instance, has just that touch of genius which seems to be wanting in +the work of contemporary poets. His love for Lucrezia Donati, in whose +honour the tournament of 1467 was popularly supposed to be held, though +in reality it was given to celebrate his betrothal with Clarice Orsini, +seems to have been merely an affectation in the manner of Petrarch, so +fashionable at that time. Certainly the Florentines, for that day at +least, wished to substitute a lady of their city for the Roman beauty, +and Lorenzo seems to have agreed with them. Like the tournament that +Giuliano held later in honour of Simonetta Vespucci, which Poliziano has +immortalised, and for which Botticelli painted a banner, this pageant of +Lorenzo's, for it was rather a pageant than a fight, was sung, too, by +Luca Pulci, and was held in Piazza S. Croce. A rumour of the splendour +of the dresses, the beauty and enthusiasm of the scene, has come down to +us, together with Lorenzo's own account of the day, and Clarice's +charming letter to him concerning it. "To follow the custom," he writes +unenthusiastically in his Memoir--"to follow the custom and do as others +do, I gave a tournament in Piazza S. Croce at a great cost, and with a +considerable magnificence; it seems about 10,000 ducats were spent. +Although I was not a great fighter, nor even a very strong hitter, I won +the prize, a helmet of inlaid silver, with a figure of Mars as a crest." +"I have received your letter, in which you tell me of the tournament +where you won the prize," writes Clarice, "and it has given me much +pleasure. I am glad you are fortunate in what pleases you and that my +prayers are heard, for I have no other wish but to see you happy. Give +my respects to my father Piero and my mother Lucrezia, and all who are +near to you, and I send, too, my respect to you. I have nothing else to +say.--Yours, Clarice de Orsinis." Poor little Clarice, she was married +to Lorenzo on June 4, in the following year. "I, Lorenzo, took to wife +Clarice, daughter of Signor Jacopo, or rather she was given to me." He +writes more coldly, certainly, than he was used to do. The marriage +festa was celebrated in Palazzo Riccardi with great magnificence. +Clarice, who was tall, slender, and shapely, with long delicate hands +and auburn hair, but without great beauty of feature, dressed in white +and gold, was borne on horseback through the garlanded way, in a +procession of girls and matrons, trumpeters and pipers, all Florence +following after to the Palace. There in the loggia above the garden she +dined with the newly-married ladies of the city. In the courtyard, round +the David of Donatello, some seventy of the greatest among the citizens +sat together, while the stewards were all sons of the _grandi_. Piero +de' Medici entertained each day some thousand guests, while for their +entertainment mimic battles were fought, and in the manner of the time +wooden forts were built, defended, and taken by assault, and at night +there were dances and songs. Almost immediately after the marriage +Lorenzo set out for Milan to visit the new Duke, and stand godfather to +his heir. All his way through Prato, Pistoja, Lucca, Pietrasanta +Sarzana, Pontremoli to Milan was a triumphal progress. He came home to +find his father ailing, and on 2nd December 1469, Piero de' Medici died. +He was buried in S. Lorenzo, in a tomb made by Verrocchio. + +It was to a great extent owing to the prompt action of Tommaso Soderini +that the power of the Medici did not pass away at Piero's death, as that +of many another family had done in Florence. The tried friend of that +house, Soderini gathered some six hundred of the leading citizens in the +convent of S. Antonio, and, as it seems, with the help of the relatives +of Luca Pitti, persuaded them that the fortunes of Florence were wrapped +up in the Medici. "The second day after my father's death," writes +Lorenzo in his Memoir, "although I, Lorenzo, was very young, in fact +only in my twenty-first year, the leading men of the city and of the +ruling party came to our house to express their sorrow for our +misfortune, and to persuade me to take upon myself the charge of the +government of the city as my grandfather and father had already done. +This proposal being contrary to the instincts of my age, and entailing +great labour and danger, I accepted against my will, and only for the +sake of protecting my friends and our own fortunes, for in Florence one +can ill live in the possession of wealth without control of the +government." Thus Lorenzo came to be tyrant of Florence. It was a rule +illegitimate in its essence, purchased with gold, and without any +outward sign of office. That it would come to be disputed might have +seemed certain. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[96] The Alberghettino was the prison in the great tower. + + + + +XV. FLORENCE + +SAN MARCO AND SAVONAROLA + + +For there was another spirit, too, moving secretly through the ways of +the city, among the crowds that gathered round the Cantastoria of the +Mercato Vecchio, or mingled with the wild procession of the carnival, a +spirit not of life, but of denial, a little forgetful as yet that the +days of the Middle Age were over: and even as one day that joy in the +earth and the beauty of world was to pass almost into Paganism, so this +mysticism, that was at first like some marvellous fore-taste of heaven, +fell into just Puritanism, a brutal political and schismatic hatred in +the fanaticism of--let us be thankful for that--a foreigner. "If I am +deceived, Christ, thou hast deceived me," Savonarola will come to say; +and amid his cursing and prophecies it is perhaps difficult to catch the +words of Pico--"We may rather love God than either know Him or by speech +utter Him." But in Cosimo's day men had no fear, the day was at the +dawn: who could have thought by sunset life would be so disastrous? + +[Illustration: CHIOSTRO DI S. MARCO] + +Cosimo de' Medici had a villa near the convent of S. Domenico at +Fiesole, where, as it is said, he would often go when Careggi was too +far, and the summer had turned the city into a furnace. Here, as we may +think, he may well have talked with Fra Angelico, for he would often +walk in the cloisters in the evening with the friars, and must have seen +and praised the frescoes there. These Dominicans at Fiesole had already +sent a colony to Florence, for in June 1435 they had obtained from +Pope Eugenius iv, who was then at S. Maria Novella the little church of +S. Giorgio across Arno. Seeing the order and comeliness of that convent +at Fiesole, Cosimo, on behalf of the magistrates of Florence, presented +a petition to the Pope about this time, praying that since he was +engaged on a reform of the Religious Orders, which, partly owing to the +schism and partly to the plague, were much relaxed, he would suppress +the Sylvestrians who dwelt in the old convent of S. Marco, and give it +to the Dominicans of Fiesole, who in exchange would give up their +convent of S. Giorgio, for in the centre of the city numerous and +zealous ministers were needed. Eugenius very gladly agreed to this, and +in a Bull of January 1436, S. Marco was given to the Dominican +Friars.[97] So they came down from Fiesole in procession, and went +through the city accompanied by three bishops, all the clergy, and an +immense concourse of people, and Fra Cipriano took possession of S. +Marco "in the name of his congregation." The convent at this time would +seem to have been in a deplorable state: in the previous year a fire had +destroyed much of it, and the church even was without a roof, so that +the friars were obliged to build themselves wooden cells to live in, and +to roof the church with timber. When Cosimo heard this he prepared at +once to rebuild the convent, and sent Michelozzo to see what could be +done. Michelozzo first pulled down the old cloister, leaving only the +church and the refectory; and in 1437 began to build the beautiful +convent we see to-day, completing it in 1443, at a cost of 36,000 +ducats. The church which was then restored has suffered many violations +since, and is very different to-day from what it was at the end of the +fifteenth century. It was consecrated in 1442, on the feast of the +Epiphany, by Pope Eugenius in the presence of his Cardinals. The +library, Vasari tells us, was built later. It was vaulted above and +below, and had sixty-four bookcases of cypress wood filled with most +valuable books, among them later the famous collection of Niccolo +Niccoli, whose debts Cosimo paid on condition that he might dispose +freely of his books, which were arranged here by Thomas of Sarzana, +afterwards Nicholas v. The convent thus completed is "believed to be," +says Vasari, "the most perfectly arranged, the most beautiful and most +convenient building of its kind that can be found in Italy, thanks to +the skill and industry of Michelozzo." + +Fra Angelico was nearly fifty years old when his Order took possession +of S. Marco. Already he had painted three choir books, which Cosimo so +loved that he wished nothing else to be used in the convent, for, as +Vasari tells us, their beauty was such that no words can do justice to +it. Born in 1387, he had entered the Order of S. Dominic in 1408 at +Fiesole. The convent into which he had come had only been founded in +1406, and as with S. Marco later, so with S. Domenico, many disputes as +to the property had to be encountered, so that he had early been a +traveller, going with the brethren to Foligno and later to Cortona, +returning to Fiesole in 1418. Who amid these misfortunes could have been +his master? It might seem that in the silence of the sunny cloister in +the long summer days of Umbria some angel passing up the long valleys +stayed for a moment beside him, so that for ever after he could not +forget that vision. And then, who knows what awaits even us too, in that +valley where Blessed Angela heard Christ say, "I love thee more than any +other woman in the valley of Spoleto"? It is certainly some divinity +that we find in those clouds of saints and angels, those marvellously +sweet Madonnas, those majestic and touching crucifixions, that with a +simplicity and sincerity beyond praise, Angelico has left up and down +Italy, and not least in the convent of S. Marco. + +Yes, it is a divine world he has dreamed of, peopled by saints and +martyrs, where the flowers are quickly woven into crowns and the light +streams from the gates of Paradise, and every breeze whispers the sweet +sibilant name of Jesus, and there, on the bare but beautiful roads, +Christ meets His disciples, or at the convent gate welcomes a +traveller, and if He be not there He has but just passed by, and if He +has not just passed by He is to come. It is for Him the sun is darkened; +to lighten His footsteps the moon shall rise; because His love has +lightened the world men go happily, and because He is here the world is +a garden. In all that convent of S. Marco you cannot turn a corner but +Christ is awaiting you, or enter a room but His smile changes your +heart, or linger on the threshold but He bids you enter in, or eat at +midday but you see Him on the Cross, and hear, "Take, eat; this is My +Body, which was given for you." + +You enter the cloister, and the first word is Silence; St. Peter Martyr, +with finger on lip, seems to utter the first indispensable word of the +heavenly life. The second you see over the door of the chapter-house, +Discipline and the denial of the body; St. Dominic with a scourge of +nine cords is about to give you the difficult book of heavenly wisdom. +The third is spoken by Christ Himself; Faith, for He points to the wound +in His side. And the fourth Christ speaks too, for none other may utter +it; Love, for as a pilgrim He is welcomed by two pilgrims, two Dominican +brothers, to their home. Pass into the Refectory and He is there; go +into the Capitolo and He is there also, the Prince of life between two +malefactors, hanging on a cross for love of the world, and in His face +all the beauty and sweetness of the earth have been gathered and purged +of their dross, and between His arms is the kingdom of Heaven. In that +room the name of Jesus continually vibrates with an intense and +passionate life, more wonderful, more beautiful, and more terrible than +the tremor of all the sea. And it has brought together in adoration not +the world, which cannot hear its music, but those who above the tumult +of their hearts have caught some faint far echo of that supernal concord +which has bound together this whispering universe: for there beneath the +Cross of Jesus are none but saints, Madonna and the two SS. Maries, St. +John the Baptist and St. John the Divine, and beside them kneel the +founders of the Religious Orders St. Dominic, the founder of the +preaching friars, St. Jerome the father of monasticism, St. Francis the +little poor man, St. Bernard who spoke with Madonna, S. Giovanni +Gualberto the founder of Vallombrosa, St. Peter Martyr who was wounded +for Christ's sake. Above him stands St. Thomas Aquinas the angelic +doctor, St. Romuald the founder of Camaldoli St. Benedict who overthrew +the temples, St. Augustine who has spoken of the City of God, S. Alberto +di Vercelli the founder of the Carmelites. And on the other side, beside +St. John Baptist, St. Mark the patron of the convent kneels with his +open Gospel, St. Laurence stands with his gridiron, and behind him come +the two other Medici saints, S. Cosmo and S. Damiano. + +Pass into the dormitories, and in every cell you enter Jesus is there +before you; on the threshold the angel announces His advent, and little +by little, scene by scene, you are involved in the beauty and the +tragedy of His life. You see Him transfigured (No. 6), you see Him +buffeted (No. 7), you see Him rise from the tomb (No. 8), and you see +Him in glory crowning Madonna (No. 9), or as a youth presented in the +Temple (No. 11). Many times you come upon Him crucified (15-23), once +John baptizes Him in Jordan (24), or Madonna and St. John the Divine +weep over Him dead (26). Here He bears His Cross (28), there descends +into Hades (31), preaches to the people (32), is betrayed by Judas (33), +agonises in the Garden (34), gives us His Body to eat, His Blood to +drink (35), is nailed to the Cross (36); crucified (37), and again +adored as a Child by the Magi (38), speaks with Mary in the garden (1), +is buried (2); the angel announces His birth (3), He is crucified (4), +and born in Bethlehem (5). It is the rosary of Jesus that we tell, +consisting of the glorious and sorrowful mysteries of His life and +death. It is the spirit of Christianity that we see here, blossoming +everywhere, haphazard like the wild flowers that are the armies of +spring. As Benozzo Gozzoli has expressed with an immense good fortune, +the very spirit of the Renaissance at its birth almost, the spirit and +the joy of youth, so Angelico with as simple an eagerness and a more +sure sincerity has expressed here the very spirit of Christianity,--He +that loseth his life shall gain it: take no thought for your life. + +[Illustration: THE CRUCIFIXION + +_By Fra Angelica. S. Marco, Florence_ + +_Alinari_] + +It was here, then, amid all this mystical and heavenly beauty, that +first S. Antonino and later Savonarola sought to oppose the "new +religion of love and beauty" which had already filled Florence with a +new joy. At first, certainly, that new joy seemed not unfriendly to the +mysterious and heavenly beauty of the Christian ideal. It is not till +later, when both have been a little spoiled by love, that there seems to +have been any antagonism between them. It is true that it was only with +reluctance that S. Antonino accepted the Arch-bishopric of Florence, but +this seems rather to have been owing to humility, the most beautiful +characteristic of a beautiful nature, than to any perception that he +might have to oppose that new spirit fostered so carefully, and indeed +so unwittingly, by Cosimo de' Medici, his benefactor. Born of Florentine +parents in 1389, the son of a notary, Antonino, at the age of sixteen, +had entered the convent of S. Domenico at Fiesole, not without a severe +test of his steadfastness, for Fra Domenico made him learn the whole of +Gratian's decree by heart before he would admit him to the Order. Later, +he became priest, wrote his _Summa Theologicae_, and was called by +Eugenius, who loved him, to the General Council in Florence in 1439; +while there he was made Prior of the Convent of S. Marco. Having set his +Congregation in order, and, as such a man was bound to do, endeared +himself to the Florentines, he set out for other convents, not in +Tuscany only, but in Naples, which needed his presence. He was absent +for two years. During that time the See of Florence became vacant, and +Eugenius, to the great joy of the city, appointed Antonino Archbishop. +Surprised and troubled that he should have been thought of for such a +dignity, he set out to hide himself in Sardinia, but, being prevented, +came at last to Siena, whence he wrote to the Pope begging him to change +his mind, saying that he was old, sick and unworthy. How little he knew +Eugenius, the on altogether inflexible will in all that time, so full of +trouble for the Church! The Pope sent him to S. Domenico at Fiesole and +told the Florentines their Archbishop was at their gates. So, with +Cosimo de' Medici at their head, they went out to meet him, but he +refused to enter the city till Eugenius threatened him with +excommunication. He was consecrated Archbishop of Florence in March 1446 +borne in procession from S. Piero down Borgo degli Albizzi to the +Duomo.[98] As a boy, it is said, he would pray before the Madonna of Or +San Michele, and, indeed, in his Chronicle he defends his Order against +the charges of scepticism as to the miracles worked there, with a +certain eloquence. Many are the stories told of him, and Poccetti has +painted the story of his life round the first cloister of S. Marco, +where he was buried in May 1459. S. Antonino was a saint and a +theologian, not a politician or an historian. Certainly he did not +foresee the tragedy that was already opening, and that was to end, not +in the lenten fires of Piazza Signoria, nor even in the death of +Savonarola, but in the siege of Florence, the establishment of the House +of Medici, the tombs of S. Lorenzo. How often in those days Cosimo would +walk with him and Fra Angelico in the cloisters on a summer night, after +listening may be to Marsilio Ficino or to the vague and wonderful +promises of Argyropolis. "To serve God is to reign," Antonino told him, +not without a certain understanding of those restless ambitions which at +that time seemed to promise the city nothing but good. And then, was it +not Cosimo who had rebuilt the convent, was it not Cosimo who had built +S. Lorenzo and S. Spirito too, by the hand of Michelozzo? + +Antonino was not a politician; the _Chronicon Domini Antonini +Archipraesulis Florentini_ is the work rather of a theologian than of an +historian: the friend of Leonardo Bruni, or at least well acquainted +with his work, he cared rather for charity than for learning; and it was +as the father of the poor that Florence loved him. He lived by love. An +in those days of uncertain fortune, amid the swift political changes of +the time, there were many whom, doubtless, he saved from degradation or +suicide. I poveri vergognosi--the poor who are ashamed, it was these he +first took under his protection. We read of him sending for twelve men +of all classes and various crafts, and, laying the case before them, +refounded a charity--_Provveditori dei poveri vergognosi_, which soon +became in the mouth of Florence _I Buonomini di S. Martino_, the good +men of S. Martin, for the society had its headquarters in the Church S. +Martino; and, was not S. Martino himself, as it were, the first of this +company? + +Born in Ferrara in 1452, the grandson of a famous doctor of Padua, +Girolamo Savonarola had entered the Dominican Order at Bologna when he +was twenty-two years old, finding the world but a wretched place, and +the wickedness of men more than he could bear. Something of this strange +and almost passionate pessimism remained with him his whole life long. +In 1481 he had been sent to the convent of S. Marco, in Florence, when +Lorenzo de' Medici had been at the head of affairs for some twelve +years. The Pazzi conspiracy, in which Giuliano de' Medici lost his life, +had come in 1478, and Lorenzo was fixed more firmly than ever in the +affections of the people. Simonetta had been borne like a dead goddess +through the streets of the city to burial; Lorenzo was already busy with +those carnival songs which, as some thought, were written to corrupt the +people: the Renaissance had come. "Gladius Domini super terram cite et +velociter," thought Savonarola, unable to understand that life from +which he had fled into the cloister. It was the first voice that had +been raised against the resurrection of the Gods, but at that moment +Martin Luther was lying in his mother's arms, while his father worked in +the mines at Eisleben: the Reaction was already born. + +On a Latin city such as Florence was, Savonarola at first made little or +no impression; too often the friars had prophesied evil for no cause, +wandering through every little city in Italy denouncing the Signori. It +was in San Gemignano, even to-day the most medieval of Tuscan cities, a +place of towers and winding narrow ways, that Savonarola first won a +hearing; and so it was not till nine years after his first coming to her +that Florence seems to have listened to his prophecy, when, in August +1490, in S. Marco he began to preach on the Revelation of St. John the +Divine. It was a programme half political, half spiritual, that he +suggested to those who heard him, the reformation of the Church and the +fear of a God who had been forgotten but who would not forget. In the +spring of the year following, so great were the crowds who flocked to +hear his half-political discourses that he had to preach in the Duomo. +There unmistakably we are face to face with a political agitator. "God +intends to punish Lorenzo Magnifico,--yes, and his friends too"; and +when, a little later, he was made prior of S. Marco, he refused to +receive Lorenzo in the house his grandfather had built. In the following +year Lorenzo died; Savonarola, as the tale goes, refusing him absolution +unless he would restore liberty to the people of Florence. Consider the +position. How could Lorenzo restore that which he had never stolen away, +that which had, in truth, never had any real existence? He was without +office, without any technical right to government, merely the first +among the citizens of what, in name at least, was a Republic. If he was +a tyrant, he ruled by the will of the people, not by divine right, a +thing unknown among the Signori of Italy, nor by the will of the Pope, +nor by the will of the Emperor, but by the will of Florence. Yet +Savonarola, the Ferrarese, whether or no he refused him absolution, did +not hesitate to denounce him, with a wild flood of eloquence and fanatic +prophecy worthy of the eleventh century. "Leave the future alone," +Lorenzo had counselled him kindly enough: it was just that he could not +do, since for him the present was too disastrous. And the future?--the +future was big with Charles VIII and his carnival army, gay with +prostitutes, bright with favours, and behind him loomed the fires of +Piazza della Signoria. + +The peace of Italy is dead, the Pope told his Cardinals, when in the +spring of 1492 Lorenzo passed away at Careggi It was true. In September +1494, Charles VIII, on his way to Naples, came into Italy, was received +by Ludovico of Milan at Asti, while his Switzers sacked Rapallo. Was +this, then, the saviour of Savonarola's dreams? "It is the Lord who is +leading those armies," was the friar's announcement. Amid all the horror +that followed, it is not Savonarola that we see to-day as the hero of a +situation he had himself helped to create, but Piero Capponi, who, Piero +de' Medici having surrendered Pietrasanta and Sarzana, stood for the +Republic. On 9th November Piero and Giuliano his brother fled out of +Porta di S. Gallo, while Savonarola with other ambassadors went to meet +the King. A few days later, on 17th November 1494, at about four o'clock +in the afternoon, Pisa in the meantime having revolted, Charles entered +Florence[99] with Cardinal della Rovere, the soldier and future Pope, +and in his train came the splendour and chivalry of France, the Scotch +bowmen, the Gascons, and the Swiss. "Viva la Francia!" cried the people, +and Charles entered the Duomo at six o'clock in the evening, down a lane +of torches to the high altar. And coming out he was conducted to the +house of Piero de' Medici, the people crying still all the time "Viva la +Francia!" The days passed in feasting and splendour, Charles began to +talk of restoring the Medici, nor were riots infrequent in Borgo +Ognissanti; in Borgo S. Frediano the Switzers and French pillaged and +massacred, and were slain too in return. Florence, always ready for +street fighting, was, as we may think, too much for the barbarians. On +24th November the treaty was signed, an indemnity being paid by the +city, but the rioting did not cease. Landucci gives a very vivid account +of it. Even the King himself was not slow to pillage: he was +discontented with the indemnity offered, and threatened to loot the +city. "_Io faro dare nelle trombe_," said he; Piero Capponi was not slow +to answer, "_E noi faremo dare nello campane_"--and we will sound our +bells. The King gave in, and Florence was saved. On 26th November he +heard Mass for the last time in S. Maria del Fiore, and on the 28th he +departed--_si parti el Re di Firenze dopo desinare, e ando albergo alla +Certosa e tutta sua gente gli ando dietro e innanzi, che poche ce ne +rimase_, says Landucci thankfully. + +Then the city, free from this rascal, who carried off what he could of +the treasures of Cosimo and Lorenzo, turned not to Piero Capponi but to +another foreigner, Girolamo Savonarola. The political eagerness of this +friar now came to the point of action. He set up a Greater Council, +which in its turn elected a Council of Eighty; he refused to call a +parliament, since he told them that "parliament had ever stolen the +sovereignty from the people." Then, on the 1st of April, he said that +the Virgin Mary had revealed to him that the city would be more +glorious, rich, and powerful than ever before, and, as Landucci says, +"_La maggiore parte del popolo gli credeva."_ He also said that the +Greater Council was the creation of God, and that whoever should attempt +to change it would be eternally damned. Nor was this all. If it were +right and splendid for Florence to be free, free as she always had been +from the domination of any other city, so it was for revolted Pisa. Yet +this fanatic Ferrarese told the people that he had had a vision in which +the Blessed Virgin had told him that Florence should make treaty with +France, and thus regain Pisa. This was on the return of the King from +Naples with Piero de' Medici in his train. However, he met the King at +Poggibonsi, told him Florence was his friend, that God desired him to +spare it, and with other tales succeeded in keeping Charles out of the +city. This, as it seems to me, is the one good deed Savonarola did for +Florence. + +But the people still believed in him, though he turned the whole life of +the city into a sort of religious carnival. Now, if Lorenzo had kept the +people quiet with songs, Savonarola was equally successful with hymns. +"Viva Cristo e la Vergine Maria, nostra regina," shouted the +people,--merchants, friars, women, and children dancing before the +crucifix with olive boughs in their hands. "On 27th March 1496, which +was Palm Sunday, Fra Girolamo made a procession of children with olive +branches in their hands and crowns of olive on their heads and all +bore, too, a red cross. There were some five thousand boys, and a great +number of girls all dressed in white, then after came all the Ufici, and +all the guilds, and then all the men, and after all the women of the +city. There never was so great a procession," says Landucci. Indeed, +there was not a man nor a woman who did not join the company. "It was a +holy time, but it was short," says Landucci again, whose own children +were among "these holy and blessed companies." + +Short indeed! The Italian League had been formed against France; only +Florence and Ferrara remained outside. If it were politics that had +taken Savonarola so high, it was to them he owed his fall. He denounced +all Italy, and not least Alexander VI, the vicious but very capable +Pope. When he began to denounce Rome he signed his own death; her hour +was not yet come. "I announce to you, Italy and Rome, the Lord will come +out of His place.... I tell you, Italy and Rome, the Lord will tread you +down. I have commanded penance, yet you are worse and worse.... Soon all +priests, friars, bishops, cardinals, and great masters shall be trampled +down." It was a brave denunciation, and if it were unjust, what was +justice to one who had made Jesus King of Florence and established +himself as His Vicegerent. + +The Pope excommunicated him: the factions in Florence--the Arrabbiati, +the Compagnacci, the Palleschi--rejoiced; yet the people he had led so +long seemed inclined to support him. Then came the plague, and then the +discovery of a plot to bring back Piero. Well, Savonarola began to +preach again; but he was beaten. Many would not go to hear him, of whom +Landucci was one, because of the excommunication.[100] And at last +Savonarola himself seems to have seen the end. "If I am deceived, Christ +Thou hast deceived me," he says and at last he challenged the fire to +prove it. It was too much for the Signoria; they agreed. It was the +Franciscans he had to meet; whether or no they meant to persist with the +"trial by fire" we shall never know, but when, on 7th April 1498, the +fire was lighted in Piazza della Signoria, it was Savonarola who +refused. A few minutes later, amid the uproar, a deluge of rain put out +the flames. Savonarola's last chance was gone. The people hounded him +back to S. Marco, and but for the Guards of the Signoria he would have +been torn in pieces. On 8th April, which was Palm Sunday, in the +evening, the attack that had been threatening all day began: through the +church, through the cloisters the fight raged, while the whole city was +in the streets. At last Savonarola and Fra Domenico, his friend, gave +themselves up to the guard, really for protection, and were lodged in +Palazzo Vecchio. There the Signoria tortured them, with another friar, +Silvestro, and at last from Savonarola even they seem to have dragged +some sort of admission. What such a confession was worth, drawn from the +poor mangled body of a broken man, one can well imagine; but that +mattered nothing to the wild beasts he had taught to roar, who now had +him at their mercy. The effect of this on the city seems to have been +very great. "We had thought him to be a prophet," writes Luca Landucci +simply, "and he confessed he was not a prophet, that he had not from God +the things he preached.... And I was by when this was read, and I was +astonished, bewildered, amazed.... Ah, I expected Florence to be, as it +were, a New Jerusalem, ... and I heard the very contrary." + +The Signoria which tortured Savonarola was presently replaced by +another; and though, like its predecessor, it too refused to send him to +Rome, it went about to compass his death. Again they tortured him; then +on the 23rd May, the gallows having been built over night in the Piazza, +they killed him with his companions, afterwards burning their bodies. +"They wish to crucify them,"[101] cried one in the crowd; and indeed, +the scaffold seems to have resembled a cross. Was it Florence herself +perhaps who hung there? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[97] Not without protest, for the Sylvestrians appealed to the +schismatic counsel at Basle, but got no good by it; and a whole series +of lawsuits followed. + +[98] See p. 256. + +[99] Cf. L. Landucci, _Diario Fiorentino_ (Sansoni, 1883), p. 80. + +[100] It would be wrong to conclude that Savonarola attacked the faith +of the Catholic Church. He never did. He protested himself a faithful +Catholic to the last. He was a puritan and a politician, and it was on +these two counts that he fought the Papacy. + +[101] Landucci, _op. cit. p_. 176. + + + + +XVI. FLORENCE + +S. MARIA NOVELLA + + +If Florence built the Baptistery, the Duomo, and the Campanile for the +glory of the whole city, that there might be one place, in spite of all +the factions, where without difference all might enter the kingdom of +heaven, one temple in which all the city might wait till Jesus passed +by, one tower which should announce the universal Angelus, she built +other churches too, more particular in their usefulness, less splendid +in their beauty, but not less necessary in their hold on the life of the +city, or their appeal to us to-day. You may traverse the city from east +to west without forsaking the old streets, and a little fantastically, +perhaps, find some hint in the buildings you pass of that old far-away +life, so restless and so fragile, so wanting in unity, and yet, as it +seems to us, with but one really profound intention in all its work, the +resurrection of life among men. In the desolate but beautiful Piazza of +S. Maria Novella, at the gates of the old city, you find a Dominican +convent, and before it the great church of that Order, S. Maria Novella +herself, the bride of Michelangelo. Then, following Via dei Fossi, you +enter the old city at the foot of the Carraja bridge, following Via di +Parione past an old Medici palace into Via Porta Rossa and so into Via +Calzaioli, where you came upon that strange and beautiful church so like +a palace, Or San Michele, built by the merchants, the Church of the +Guilds of the city. Passing thence into Piazza Signoria, and so into Via +de' Gondi, in the Proconsolo you find the Church of the great monastic +Order the Badia of the Benedictines, having passed on your way Palazza +Vecchio, the Palace of the Republic, afterwards of the Medici; and the +Bargello, the Palace of the Podesta, afterwards a prison; coming later +through Borgo de' Greci to the Church of S. Croce, the convent of the +Franciscans. Thus, while beyond the old west gate of the city there +stood the house of the Dominicans, the Franciscans built their convent +on the east, just without the city; and between them in the heart of +Florence dwelt the oldest Order of all, the Benedictines, busy with +manuscripts. Again, if the tower of authority throws its shadow over the +Bargello, it is the tower of liberty that rises over Palazzo Vecchio, +and the whole tragedy of the beautiful city seems to be expressed for us +in the fact that while the one became a prison the other came to house +the gaoler. + +So this city of warm brick, with its churches of marble, its old ways, +its palaces of stone, its convents at the gates, comes to hold for us, +as it were, the very dream of Italy, the dream that was too good to +last, that was so soon to be shattered by the barbarian. Yet in that +little walk through the narrow winding ways from the west to the east of +the city, all the eloquence and renown, the strength and beauty of Italy +seem to be gathered for you, as in a nosegay you may find all the beauty +of a garden. And of all the broken blossoms that you may find by the +way, not one is more fragrant and fair than the sweet bride of +Michelangelo, S. Maria Novella. + +Standing in a beautiful Piazza, itself the loveliest thing therein, +dressed in the old black and white habit, it dreams of the past: it is +full of memories too, for here Boccaccio one Tuesday morning, just after +Mass in 1348, amid the desolation of the city, found the seven beloved +ladies of the _Decamerone_ talking of death; here Martin V, and Eugenius +IV, fugitives from the Eternal City, found a refuge; here Beata Villana +confessed her sins; here Vanna Tornabuoni prayed and the Strozzi made +their tombs. Full of memories--and of what else, then, but the past +can she dream? For her there is no future. Her convent is suppressed, +the great cloister has become a military gymnasium. What has she, then, +in common with the modern world, with the buildings of Piazza Vittorio +Emmanuele, for instance?--the past is all that we have left her. + +[Illustration: S. MARIA NOVELLA] + +Begun in 1278, as some say, from the design of Fra Ristoro and Fra +Sisto, the facade, one of the most beautiful in the world, is really the +fifteenth-century work of Leon Alberti working to the order of Giovanni +Rucellai--you may see their blown sail everywhere--with that profound +and unifying genius which involved everything he touched in a sort of +reconciliation, thus prophesying to us of Leonardo da Vinci. For Alberti +has here very fortunately made the pointed work of the Middle Age +friends with Antiquity, Antiquity seen with the eyes of the Renaissance, +full of a new sort of eagerness and of many little refinements. In the +fagade of his masterpiece, the Tempio Malatestiano at Rimini, that +beautiful unfinished temple where the gods of Greece seem for once to +have come to the cradle of Jesus with something of the wonder of the +shepherds who left their flocks to worship Him, Leon Alberti has taken +as his model the arch of Augustus, that still, though broken, stands on +the verge of the city in the Flaminian Way; but as though aware at last +of the danger of any mere imitation of antiquity such as that, he has +here contrived to express the beauty of Roman things, just what he +himself had really felt concerning them, and has combined that very +happily with the work of the age that was just then passing away; thus, +as it were, creating for us one of the most perfect buildings of the +fifteenth century, very characteristic too, in its strange beauty, as of +the dead new risen. And then how subtly he has composed this beautiful +facade, so that somehow it really adds to the beauty of the Campanile, +with its rosy spire, in the background. + +Within, the church is full of a sort of twilight, in which certainly +much of its spaciousness is lost; those chapels in the nave, for +instance, added by Vasari in the sixteenth century have certainly +spoiled it of much of its beauty. Built in the shape of a tau cross--a +Latin cross that is almost tau, in old days it was divided, where still +there is a step across the nave into two parts, one of which was +reserved for the friars, while the other was given to the people. There +is not much of interest in this part of the church: a crucifix over the +great door, attributed to Giotto; a fresco of the Holy Trinity, with +Madonna and St. John, by Masaccio, that rare strong master; the altar, +the fourth in the right aisle, dedicated to St. Thomas of +Canterbury,--almost nothing beside. It is in the south transept, where a +flight of steps leads to the Rucellai Chapel, that we came upon one of +the most beautiful and mysterious things in the city, the Madonna, so +long given to Cimabue, but now claimed for Duccio of Siena.[102] + +Vasari describes for us very delightfully the triumph of this picture, +when, so great was the admiration of the people for it that "it was +carried in solemn procession, with the sound of trumpets and other +festal demonstrations, from the house of Cimabue to the church,--he +himself being highly rewarded and honoured for it"; while, as he goes on +to tell us, when Cimabue was painting it, in a garden as it happened +near the gate of S. Pietro, King Charles of Sicily, brother of St. +Louis, saw the picture, and praising it, "all the men and women of +Florence hastened in great crowds to admire it, making all possible +demonstrations of delight. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood, +rejoicing in this occurrence, ever after called that place Borgo +Allegri,"--the name it bears to this day. However reluctant we may be to +find Vasari, that divine gossip, at fault, it might seem that Cimabue's +Triumph is a fable, or if, indeed, it happened, was stolen, for the +Rucellai Madonna is apparently the work of Duccio the Sienese.[103] Of +the works of Cimabue not one remains to us; we do not know, we have +certainly no means of knowing, whether he was, as Ghiberti tells us, a +painter in the old Greek manner, or whether, as Vasari suggests, he was +the true master of Giotto, in that to him was owing the impulse of life +which we find so moving in Giotto's work. And then Vasari, it seems, is +wrong in his account of Borgo Allegri, for that place was named not +after happiness, the happiness of that part of the city in their great +neighbour, but from a family who in those days lived thereabout and bore +that name. + +It is, however, of comparatively little importance who painted the +picture. The controversy, which is not yet finished, serves for the most +part merely to obscure the essential fact that here is the picture still +in its own place, and that it is beautiful. Very lovely, indeed, she is, +Madonna of Happiness, and still at her feet the poor may pray, and still +on her dim throne she may see day come and evening fall. Far up in the +obscure height she holds Christ on her knees. Perhaps you may catch the +faint dim loveliness of her face in the early dawn amid the beauty of +the angels kneeling round her throne when the light steals through the +shadowy windows across the hills; or perhaps at evening in the splendour +of some summer sunset you may see just for a moment the whiteness of her +delicate hands; but she is secret and very far away, she has withdrawn +herself to hear the prayers of the poor in spirit who come when the +great church is empty, when the tourists have departed, when the workmen +have returned to their homes. And beside her in that strange, mysterious +place Beata Villana sleeps, where the angels draw back the curtain, in a +tomb by Desiderio da Settignano. She was not of the great company whose +names we falter at our altars and whisper for love over and over again +in the quietness of the night; but of those who are weary. Born to a +wealthy Florentine merchant, Andrea di Messer Lapo by name, little Vanna +went her ways with the children, yet with a sort of naive sincerity +after all, so that when she heard Saint Catherine praised or Saint +Francis, she believed it and wished to be of that company; but the +world, full of glamour and laughter in those days, and now too, caught +her by the waist and bore her away, in the person of a noble youth of +the Benintendi, who loved her well enough; yet it was love she loved +rather than her husband; and life calling sweetly enough down the long +narrow streets, she followed, yes, till she was a little weary. So she +would question her beauty, and, looking in her glass, see not herself +but the demon love that possessed her; and again in another mirror she +found a devil, she said, like a faun prick-eared and with goat's feet, +peering at her with frightening eyes. So she stripped off her fair gay +dresses, and took instead the rough hair-shirt, and came at evening +across the Piazza to confess in S. Maria Novella; and gave herself to +the poor, and forgot the sun till weary she fled away. Her grandson, as +it is said, built this tomb to her memory, and they wrote above, Beata +Villana. + +It is always with reluctance, I think, that one leaves that dim chapel +of the Rucellai, and yet how many wonderful things await us in the +church. In the second chapel of the transept, the Chapel of Filippo +Strozzi, who is buried behind the altar, Filippino Lippi, the son of Fra +Lippo, the pupil of Botticelli, has painted certain frescoes,--a little +bewildering in their crowded beauty, it is true, but how good after all +in their liveliness, their light and shadow, the pleasant, eager faces +of the women--where St. John raises Drusiana from the grave, or St. +Philip drives out the Dragon of Hierapolis; while above St. John is +martyred, and St. Philip too. But it is in the choir behind the high +altar, where for so long the scaffolding has prevented our sight, that +we come upon the simple serious work of Domencio Ghirlandajo, whom all +the critics have scorned. Born in 1449, the pupil of Alessio +Baldovinetti, Ghirlandajo is not a great painter perhaps, but rather a +craftsman, a craftsman with a wonderful power of observation, of noting +truly the life of his time. He seems to have asked of art rather truth +than beauty. Almost wholly, perhaps, without the temperament of an +artist, his success lies in his gift for expressing not beauty but the +life of his time, the fifteenth century in Florence, which lives still +in all his work. Consider, then, the bright facile mediocre work of +Benozzo Gozzoli, not at its best, in the Campo Santo of Pisa, remember +how in the dark chapel of the Medici palace he lights up the place +almost as with a smile, in the gay cavalcade that winds among the hills. +There is much fancy there, much observation too; here a portrait, there +a gallant fair head, and the flowers by the wayside. Well, it is in much +the same way that Ghirlandajo has painted here in the choir of S. Maria +Novella. He has seen the fashions, he has noted the pretty faces of the +women, he has watched the naive homely life of the Medici ladies, for +instance, and has painted not his dreams about Madonna, but his dreams +of Vanna Tornabuoni, of Clarice de' Medici, and the rest. And he was +right; almost without exception his frescoes are the most interesting +and living work left in Florence. He has understood or divined that one +cannot represent exactly that which no longer exists; and it is to +represent something with exactitude that he is at work. So he contents +himself very happily with painting the very soul of his century. It is a +true and sincere art this realistic, unimpassioned, impersonal work of +Ghirlandajo's, and in its result, for us at any rate, it has a certain +largeness and splendour. Consider this "Birth of the Virgin." It is full +of life and homely observation. You see the tidy dusted room where St. +Anne is lying on the bed, already, as in truth she was, past her youth, +but another painter would have forgotten it. She is just a careful +Florentine housewife, thrifty too, not flurried by her illness, for she +has placed by her bedside, all ready for her need, two pomegranates and +some water. Then, again, they are going to wash the little Mary. She +lies quite happily sucking her fingers in the arms of her nurse, the +basin is in the middle of the floor, a servant has just come in briskly, +no doubt as St. Anne has always insisted, and pours the water quickly +into the vessel. It is not difficult to find all sorts of faults, of +course, as the critics have not hesitated to do. That perspective, for +instance, how good it is: almost as good as Verrocchio's work,--and +those dancing _angiolini_; yes, Verrocchio might have thought of them +himself. But the lady in the foreground, how unmoved she seems; it is as +though the whole scene had been arranged for the sake of her portrait; +and, indeed it is a portrait, for the richly dressed visitor is Ginevra +de' Benci, who stands too in the fresco of the Birth of St. John. Again +in the fresco of the angel appearing to Zacharias in the Temple, there +are some thirty portraits of famous Florentines, painted with much +patience, and no doubt with an extraordinary truth of likeness. In the +left corner you may see Marsilio Ficino dressed as a priest; Gentile de' +Becchi turns to him, while Cristoforo Landini in a red cloak stands by, +and Angelo Poliziano lifts up his hands. + +Does one ever regret, I wonder, after looking at these realistic +fifteenth-century works, that the frescoes of Orcagna--for he painted +the whole choir--were destroyed in a storm, it is said, in 1358. +Fragments of his work, however, we are told, remained for more than a +hundred years, till, indeed, Ghirlandajo was employed to replace them. +We find his work, however, sadly damaged it is true, and really his +perhaps only in outline, in the Strozzi chapel here, the lofty chapel +of north transept, where he has painted on the wall facing the entrance +the Last Judgment, while to the left you may see Paradise, to the right +the Inferno. The pupil of Giotto and of Andrea Pisano, Orcagna is the +most important artist of his time, the one vital link in the chain that +unites Masolino with Giotto. He was a universal artist, practising as an +architect and goldsmith no less than as a painter. In the Last Judgment +in this chapel he seems not only to have absorbed the whole art of his +time, but to have advanced it; for to the grandeur and force of his work +he added a certain visionary loveliness that most surely already +foretells Beato Angelico. If in the Paradise and the Inferno we are less +moved by the greatness of his achievement, we remind ourselves how +terribly they have suffered from damp, from neglect, from the restorer. +In the altar-piece itself we have perhaps the only "intact painting" of +his remaining to us, and splendid as it is in colour and form, it lacks +something of the rhythm of the frescoes that like some slow and solemn +chant fill the chapel with their sincere unforgetable music. + +As you pass, beckoned by a friar, into the half-ruined cloisters below +S. Maria Novella, you come on your right into a little alley of tombs, +behind which, on the wall, you may find two bits of fresco by Giotto, +the Meeting of S. Joachim and S. Anna at the Golden Gate, and the Birth +of the Virgin. On your left you pass into the Chiostro Verde, where +Paolo Uccello has painted scenes from the Old Testament in a sort of +green monotone, for once without enthusiasm. Above you and around you +rises the old convent and the great tower; there, in the far corner, +perhaps a friar plays with a little cat, here a pigeon flutters under +the arches about the little ruined space of grass, the meagre grass of +the south, where now and then the shadow of a white cloud passes over +the city, whither who knows. For a moment in that silent place you +wonder why you have come, you feel half inclined to go back into the +church, when shyly the friar comes towards you, and, leading you round +the cloister, enters the Cappellina degli Spagnuoli. + +How much has been written in praise of the frescoes in the Spanish +chapel of S. Maria Novella, where Eleonora of Toledo, the wife of Grand +Duke Cosimo, used to hear Mass; yet how disappointing they are. In so +simple a building, some great artist, you might think, in listening to +Ruskin, had really expressed himself, his thoughts about Faith and the +triumph of the Church. But the work which we find there is the work of +mediocrities, poor craftsmen too, the pupils and imitators of the +Sienese and Florentine schools of their time, having nothing in common +with the excellent work of Taddeo Gaddi, the beautiful work of Simone +Martini of Siena. These figures, so pretty and so ineffectual, which +have been labelled here the Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas, there the +Triumph of the Church, have no existence for us as painting; they have +passed into literature, and in the pages of Ruskin have found a new +beauty that for the first time has given them some semblance of life. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[102] Mysterious no longer. For in the autumn of 1907 the chapel was +destroyed by fools and the Madonna--just an old panel picture after +all--set up in the cold daylight (1908). + +[103] Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _op. cit._ vol. i, 187. + + + + +XVII. FLORENCE + +S. CROCE + + +The Piazza di S. Croce, in which stands the great Franciscan church of +Florence, is still almost as it was in the sixteenth century when the +Palazzo del Borgo on the southern side was painted in fresco by the +facile brush of Passignano; but whatever charm so old and storied a +place might have had for us, for here Giuliano de' Medici fought in a +tournament under the eyes of La Bella Simonetta, and here, too, the +Giuoco del Calcio was played, it is altogether spoiled and ruined, not +only by the dishonouring statue of Dante, which for some unexplained +reason has here found a resting-place, but by the crude and staring +facade of the church itself, a pretentious work of modern Italy, which +lends to what was of old the gayest Piazza in the city, the very aspect +of a cemetery. + +Not long before the end of the thirteenth century, a little shrine of +St. Anthony stood where now we may see the great Church of S. Croce, in +the midst of the marshes, as it is said, that waste land which in the +Middle Age seems to have surrounded every city in Italy. It belonged, as +did the land round about, to a certain family called Altafronte, who +appear to have presented it to the friars of the neighbouring convent of +Franciscans just outside Porta S. Gallo. St. Francis being dead, and the +strictness of his rule relaxed, the first stone of the great Church of +S. Croce was laid on Holy Cross Day, 1297. Arnolfo, the architect of the +Duomo, was the first builder here, till later Giotto was appointed. The +church itself is in the form of a tau cross, the eastern end on both +sides of the choir consisting of twelve chapels scarcely less deep than +the choir and tiny apse, itself a chapel of St. Anthony. The wide and +spacious nave, with two aisles, could doubtless hold half the city, as +perhaps it did when Fra Francesco of Montepulciano preached here in the +early years of the sixteenth century just after the death of Savonarola. +And indeed the very real beauty of the church consists in just that +splendour of space and light which so few seem to have cared for, but +which seems to me certainly in Italy the most precious thing in the +world. And then S. Croce is really the Pantheon, as it were, of the +city; the golden twilight of S. Maria Novella even would seem too gloomy +for the resting-place of heroes. Already before the sixteenth century it +had been here that Florence had set up the banners of those she +delighted to honour. And though Cosimo I destroyed them when he let +Vasari so unfortunately have his way with the church, some remembrance +of the glory that of old hung about her seems to have lingered, for here +Michelangelo was buried, under a heavy monument by Vasari, and close by +Vittorio Alfieri lies in a tomb carved by Canova at the request of the +Duchess of Albany. Not far away you come upon the grave of Niccolo +Machiavelli, the statesman, and beside it the monument erected to his +memory in the eighteenth century. And then here too you find the +beautiful tomb of Leonardo Bruni, one of the first great scholars of the +modern world, and secretary to the Republic, who died in 1443. It is the +masterpiece of Bernardo Rossellino (1409-1464), achieved at the end of +the early Renaissance, and forming the very style of such things for +those sculptors who came after him. It is true that the lunette of +Madonna is a little feeble and without life, though some have given it +falsely to Verrocchio, and the two angioloni bearing the arms have +little force; but the tomb itself is a thing done once and for all, and +the figure of the dead poet is certainly the masterpiece of a man who +was perhaps the first sculptor in marble of his time. If we compare it +for a moment with the lovely Annunciation of Donatello (1386-1466) on +the other side of the gateway, where for once that strong and fearless +artist seems to have contented himself with beauty, we shall understand +better the achievement of Rossellino; and though it were difficult to +imagine a more lovely thing than that Annunciation set there by the +Cavalcanti, with the winged wreath of Victory beneath it to commemorate +their part in the victory of Florence over Pisa in 1406, as a piece of +architecture Rossellino's work is as much better than this earlier +design of Donatello's as in every other respect his work falls below it. +Covered with all sorts of lovely ornament, the frame supports an +elaborate and splendid cornice on which six children stand, three +grouped on either side, playing with garlands. And within the frame, as +though seen through some magic doorway, Madonna, about to leave her +prayers, has been stopped by the message of the angel, who has not yet +fallen on his knees. It is as though one had come upon the very scene +itself suddenly at sunset on some summer day. + +If the tomb of Leonardo Bruni is the masterpiece of Bernardo Rossellino, +the tomb of Carlo Marsuppini, the humanist, Bruni's successor as +secretary to the Republic, placed in the north aisle exactly opposite, +is no less the masterpiece of another of Donatello's friends, Desiderio +da Settignano (1428-1464). Standing as they were to do, face to face +across the church, no doubt Desiderio was instructed to follow as +closely as might be the general design of Rossellino. On a rich bed +Marsuppini lies, a figure full of sweetness and strength, while under is +the carved tomb, supported by the feet of lions, and borne by a winged +shell. On either side two children bear his arms, figures so naive and +lovely that, as it seems to me, Luca della Robbia in his happiest moment +might have thought of them almost in despair. Above, under a splendid +canopy of flowers and fruit, in a tondo, severe and simple, is Madonna +with Our Lord, and on either side an angel bows half-smiling, +half-weeping, while without stand two youths of tender age, slender and +full of grace, but strong enough to bear the great garland of fruits +with lovely and splendid gestures of confidence and expectancy. Before +the tomb in the pavement is a plaque of marble also from the hand of +Desiderio, and here Gregorio Marsuppini, Carlo's father, lies: other +similar works of his you may find here and there in the church. + +Scattered through the two aisles and the nave are many modern monuments +and tablets to famous Italians, Dante who lies at Ravenna, Galileo, +Alberti, Mazzini, Rossini, and the rest; they have but little interest. +It is not only in the aisles, however, that we find the work of the +Florentine sculptors. Galileo Galilei, an ancestor of the great +astronomer, is buried in the nave at the west end, under a carved +tombstone enthusiastically praised by Ruskin. And then on the first +pillar on the right we find the work of Bernardo Rossellino's youngest +brother Antonio (1427-1478), who, under the influence of Desiderio da +Settignano, has carved there a relief of Madonna and Child, surrounded +by a garland of cherubim lovely and fair. Antonio Rossellino's work is +scattered all over Tuscany, in Prato, in Empoli, in Pistoja, and we +shall find it even in such far-away places as Naples and Forli. His +masterpiece, however, the beautiful tomb of the Cardinal of Portugal, is +in the Church of S. Miniato al Monte, of which I shall speak later. + +It was another and younger pupil of Desiderio's, Benedetto da Maiano +(1442-1497), who made the beautiful pulpit to the order of that Pietro +Mellini, whose bust, also from his hand, is now in the Bargello. It is +the most beautiful pulpit in all Italy, splendid alike in its decoration +and its construction. It seems doubtful whether the pulpit itself is not +earlier than the five reliefs of the life of St. Francis which surround +it--The Confirmation of the Order by the Pope, the Test by Fire before +the Sultan, the Stigmata, the Death of St. Francis, and the Persecution +of the Order. These were carved in 1474, and for the life and charm +which they possess are perhaps Benedetto's finest work. In the beautiful +niches below he has set some delightful statuettes, representing Faith, +Hope, Charity, Fortitude, and Justice. + +Passing now into the south transept, we come to the great chapel of the +Blessed Sacrament, with its spoiled frescoes of the stories of St. John +Baptist, St. John the Divine, St. Nicholas and St. Anthony; while here, +too, is the tomb of the Duchess of Albany, who was the wife of the Young +Pretender, and who loved Alfieri the poet, whose monument, as we have +seen, she caused Canova to make. + +The south transept ends in the Baroncelli Chapel, which "between the +close of December 1332 and the first days of August 1338," Taddeo Gaddi +painted in fresco.[104] Giotto died in 1337, and Taddeo, who had served +under him, seems to have been content to carry on his practice without +bringing any originality of his own to the work. What Taddeo could +assimilate of Giotto's manner he most patiently reproduced, so that his +work, never anything but a sort of imitation, threatens to overwhelm in +its own mediocrity much of the achievement of his master. The beautiful +and sincere work of Giotto in him degenerates into a mannerism, a +mannerism that the people of his own day seem to have appreciated quite +as much as the living work of Giotto himself. Taddeo, trained by his +master in the Giottesque manner, became its most patient champion, and +practising an art that was in his hands little better than a craft, he +finds himself understood, and when Giotto is not available very +naturally takes his place. Here in S. Croce, a church in which Giotto +himself had worked, we find Taddeo's work everywhere: over the door of +the Sacristy he painted Christ and the Doctors; in the Cappella di S. +Andrea, the stories of St. Peter and St. Andrew; in the Bellaci chapel, +too, and above all in this the chapel of the Baroncelli family. But when +Giotto, being long dead, other and newer painters arose, Taddeo's work, +out of fashion at last, suffered the oblivion of whitewash, sharing this +fate with some of the best work in Italy: so that there is to-day but +little left of it in S. Croce save these frescoes, where he has painted, +not without a certain vigour and almost a gift for composition, the +story of the Blessed Virgin. + +Close by, without the chapel, is a very beautiful monument the school +of Niccolo Pisano; passing this and entering the great door of the +Sacristy, we come into a corridor and thence into the Sacristy itself, +which Vasari covered with whitewash. Built in the fourteenth century, it +is divided into two parts by a grating of exquisitely wrought iron of +the same period. Behind this grating is the Rinuccini chapel, painted in +fresco by a pupil of Taddeo Gaddi, Giovanni da Milano, in whose work we +may discern, in spite of the rigid convention of his master, something +sincere, a lightness and grace and even perhaps a certain reliance on +Nature, which the authority of Giotto had spoiled for Taddeo himself. It +is the stories of the Blessed Virgin and of St. Mary Magdalen that he +has set himself to tell, with an infinite detail that a little confuses +his really fine and sincere work. Repainted though they be, something of +their original beauty may still be found there, their simplicity and +homely realism. + +At the end of the corridor is the chapel which Cosimo de' Medici, Pater +Patriae caused Michelozzo to build for his delight. Over the altar is +one of the loveliest works of the della Robbia school, a Madonna and +Child, between St. Anthony of Padua, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. John +Baptist, St. Laurence, St. Louis of Toulouse, and St. Francis; while on +the wall is a later work of the same school, after a work by Verrocchio, +where Madonna holds her Son in her arms; and opposite is another work by +a Tuscan sculptor, a Tabernacle, by Mino da Fiesole (1431-1484), who +certainly has loved the gracious marbles of Desiderio da Settignano. The +picture of the Coronation of the Virgin beside this Tabernacle, once the +altar-piece of the Baroncelli Chapel, a genuine work of Giotto's, as it +is thought, is tender in feeling and magnificent in arrangement and +composition. Full of a grave earnestness and full of ardent life,--mark +the eagerness of those clouds of Saints,--it is worthy of the painter of +the tribune of the Lower Church at Assisi. + +Returning now to the church itself, we begin our examination of those +twelve chapels, which with the choir form the eastern end of S. Croce. +The first three chapels have little interest, but the two nearest the +choir, Cappella Peruzzi and Cappella Bardi, were both painted in fresco +by Giotto, his work there being among the best of his paintings. + +The Peruzzi Chapel was built by the powerful family that name, who had +already done much for S. Croce, when about 1307 they employed Giotto to +decorate these walls with frescoes of the story of St. John Baptist and +St. John the Divine. In 1714, the new Vasari tells us,[105] and, indeed, +we may read as much on the floor of the chapel itself, Bartolommeo di +Simone Peruzzi caused the place to be restored, and it was then, as we +may suppose, that the work of Giotto was covered with whitewash. It was +in 1841 that the Dance of Herodias was discovered, and the whitewash not +very carefully, perhaps, removed, and by 1863 the rest of the frescoes +here were brought to light. In their original brightness they formed +probably "the finest series of frescoes which Giotto ever produced"; but +the hand of the restorer has spoiled them utterly, so that only the +shadow of their former beauty remains, amid much that is hard or +unpleasing. + +On the left we see the story of St. John Baptist; above, the Angel +announces to Zacharias the birth of a son; and, with I know not what +mastery of his art, Giotto tells us of it with a simplicity and +perfection beyond praise. If we consider the work merely as a +composition, it is difficult to imagine anything more lovely; and then +how beautiful and full of life is the angel who has entered so softly +into the Holy of Holies, not altogether without dismay to the high +priest, who, busy swinging his censer before the altar, has suddenly +looked up and seen a vision. Below, we see the Birth of St. John +Baptist, where Elizabeth is a little troubled, it may be, about her dumb +husband, to whom the child has been brought. An old man with an eager +and noble gesture seems to argue with Zacharias, holding the child the +while by the shoulder, and Zacharias writes the name on his knee. Below +this again is the Dance of Herodias, the first of these frescoes to be +uncovered and ruined in the process. But even yet, in the perfect +grouping of the figures, the splendour of the viol player, the +frightened gaze of the servants, we may still see the very hand of +Giotto. + +But it is in the frescoes on the right wall that Giotto is seen at his +highest: it is the story of St. John the Divine; above he dreams on +Patmos, below he raises Drusiana at the Gate of Ephesus, and is himself +received into heaven. Damaged though they be, there is nothing in all +Italian art more fundamental, more simple, or more living than these +frescoes. It is true that the Dream of St. John is almost ruined, and +what we see to-day is very far from being what Giotto painted, but in +the Raising of Drusiana and in the Ascension of St. John we find a +grandeur and force that are absent from painting till Giotto's time, and +for very many years after his death. The restorer has done his best to +obliterate all trace of Giotto's achievement, especially in the fresco +of Drusiana, but in spite of him we may see here Giotto's very work, the +essence of it at any rate, its intention and the variety of his powers +of expressing himself. + +The chapel nearest the choir was built by Ridolfo de' Bardi, it is said, +sometime after 1310,[106] and it was for him that Giotto painted there +the story of St. Francis; while on the ceiling he has painted the three +Franciscan virtues, Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, and in the fourth +space has set St. Francis in Glory, as he had done in a different manner +at Assisi. + +After the enthusiastic pages of Ruskin,[107] to describe these frescoes, +beautiful still, in spite of their universal restoration, would be +superfluous. It will be enough to refer the reader to his pages, and to +add the subjects of the series. Above, on the left wall, St. Francis +renounces his father, while below he appears to the brethren at Arles, +and under this we see his death. On the left above, Pope Honorius gives +him his Rule, and below, he challenges the pagan priests to the test of +the fire before the Sultan, and appears to Gregory IX, who had thought +to deny that he received the Stigmata. Beside the window Giotto has +painted four great Franciscans, St. Louis of Toulouse, St. Clare, St. +Louis of France, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary. All these frescoes in the +Bardi Chapel are much more damaged by restoration than those in Cappella +Peruzzi. + +In the choir, behind the high altar, Agnolo Gaddi, one of the two sons +of Taddeo, has painted, with a charm and brightness of colour that hide +the poor design, the story of the Holy Cross. It was at the request of +Jacopo degli Alberti that Agnolo painted these eight frescoes, where the +angel gives a branch of the Tree of Life from Eden to Seth, whom Adam, +feeling his death at hand, had sent on this errand. Seth returns, +however, only to find Adam dead, and the branch is planted on his grave. +Then in the course of ages that branch grows to a tree, is hewn down, +and, as the Queen of Sheba passes on her way to King Solomon, the +carpenters are striving to cut this wood for the Temple, but they reject +it and throw it into the Pool of Bethesda. And this rejected tree was at +length hewn into the Cross of Our Lord. Then comes Queen Helena to seek +that blessed wood, and finding the three crosses, and in ignorance which +was that of Our Lord, commands that the dead body of a youth which is +borne by shall be touched with them all, one after another. So they find +the True Cross, for at its touch the dead rises from his bier. Then they +bear the cross before the Queen: till presently it is lost to Chosroes, +King of Persia, who took Jerusalem "in the year of Our Lord six hundred +and fifteen," and bare away with him that part of the Holy Cross which +St. Helena had left there. So he made a tower of gold and of silver, +crusted with precious stones, and set the Cross of Our Lord before him, +and commanded that he should be called God. Then Heraclius, the Emperor, +went out against him by the river of Danube, and they fought the one +with the other upon the bridge, and agreed together that the victor +should be prince of the whole Empire: and God gave the victory to +Heraclius, who bore the Cross into Jerusalem. So Agnolo Gaddi has +painted the story in the choir of S. Croce. + +In the chapels on the north side of the choir there is but little of +interest. And then one is a little weary of frescoes. If we return to +the south aisle and pass through the door between the Annunciation of +Donatello and the tomb of Leonardo Bruni, we shall come into the +beautiful cloisters of Arnolfo, where there will be sunshine and the +soft sky. Here, too, is the beautiful Cappellone that Brunellesco built +for the Pazzi family, whose arms decorate the porch. Under a strange and +beautiful dome, which, as Burckhardt reminds us, Giuliano da Sangallo +imitated in Madonna delle Carceri at Prato, Brunellesco has built a +chapel in the form almost of a Greek cross. And without, before it, he +has set, under a vaulted roof, a portico borne by columns, interrupted +by a round arch. It is the earliest example, perhaps, of the new +Renaissance architecture. Very fair and surprising it is with its frieze +of angels' heads by Donatello, helped perhaps by Desiderio da +Settignano. Within, too, you come upon Donatello's work again, in the +Four Evangelists in the spandrels, and below them the Twelve Apostles. + +Walking in the cloisters, you find the great ancient refectory of the +convent itself, which has here been turned into a museum, while another +part of it is used as a barracks; and indeed the finest cloister of the +Early Renaissance, one of the loveliest works of Brunellesco, has also +been given up to the army of Italy. The museum contains much that, in +its removal here or dilapidation, has lost nearly all its interest. The +beautiful fresco of St. Eustace, said to be the work of Andrea Castagno, +is yet full of delight, while here and there amid these old crucifixes, +tabernacles, and frescoes, by pupils of Giotto long forgotten, something +will charm you by its sincerity or naive beauty, so that you will +forget, if only for a moment, the destruction that has befallen all +around you; the convent that once housed S. Bernardino of Siena, now +noisy with conscripts, the library housed in another convent, Dominican +once, that like this has become a museum and public monument of +vandalism and rapacity. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[104] Cf. Crowe and Gavalcaselle, _op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 124. + +[105] Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 77. + +[106] Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 81. + +[107] _Mornings in Florence_, by John Ruskin. + + + + +XVIII. FLORENCE + +S. LORENZO + + +Something of the eager, restless desire for beauty, for antique beauty, +so characteristic of the fifteenth century--for the security and +strength of just that, may be found in S. Lorenzo and S. Spirito, those +two churches which we owe to the genius of Brunellesco, and in them we +seem to find the negation, as it were, of the puritan spirit, of all +that the Convent of S. Marco had come to mean: as though when, one day +at dawn, the peasants ploughing in some little valley in the hills, had +come upon the gleaming white body of the witch Venus, in burning the +precious statue which had lain so long in the earth, they had not been +able altogether to destroy the spirit, free at last, which in the cool +twilight had escaped them to wander about the city. It is the spirit of +Rome you come upon in S. Lorenzo, the old Rome of the Basilicas, that +were but half Christian after all, and, still in ruin, seem to remember +the Gods. + +A church has stood where S. Lorenzo stands certainly since pagan times, +for at the beginning of the fourth century, one Giuliana, who had three +daughters but no son, vowed a church to St. Laurence if he would grant +her a son; and a son being born to her she founded S. Lorenzo, and +called the child Laurence for praise. St. Ambrose is said to have come +from Milan to consecrate the place, bringing with him certain relics, +the bones of S. Agnola and S. Vitale, victims of the pagans which he had +found in Bologna; while for sixty years, till 490, the body of S. +Zenobio lay here. In those days, and until the last years of the +eleventh century, S. Lorenzo stood without the walls, and when Cosimo +came back to Florence, the old church, which had fallen into decay, was +already being rebuilt, Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, with others, having +given the work to Brunellesco. Filippo Brunellesco, however, had got no +farther, it seems, than the Sagrestia Vecchia when he died, while +Antonio Manetti, who succeeded him as architect, changed somewhat his +design. The church was consecrated at last in 1461, some three years +before the death of Cosimo, who lies before the high altar. + +It is really as the resting-place of the Medici that we have come to +consider S. Lorenzo, for here lie not only Giovanni di Bicci and +Piccarda, the parents of Cosimo Pater Patriae, and Cosimo himself, but +Piero and Giovanni his sons, while in the new sacristy lie Giuliano and +Lorenzo il Magnifico his grandsons, and their namesakes Giuliano Duc de +Nemours and Lorenzo Due d'Urbino; and in the Cappella dei Principi, +built in 1604 by Matteo Nigetti, lie the Grand Dukes from Cosimo I to +Cosimo III, the rulers of Florence and Tuscany from the sixteenth to the +beginning of the eighteenth centuries. + +The church itself is in the form of a Latin cross, consisting of nave +and aisles and transepts, the nave being covered with a flat coffered +ceiling, though the aisles are vaulted. Along the aisles are square +chapels, scarcely more than recesses, and above the great doors is a +chapel supported by pillars, a design of Michelangelo, who was to have +built the facade for Leo X, but, after infinite thought and work in the +marble mountains, the Pope bade him abandon it in 1519. For many years a +single pillar, the only one that ever came to Florence of all those hewn +for the church in Pietrasanta, lay forlorn in the Piazza. + +Those chapels that flank the aisles have to-day but little interest for +us, here and there a picture or a piece of sculpture, but nothing that +will keep us for more than a moment from the chapels of the transept, +the work of Desiderio da Settignano, of Verrocchio, and, above all, of +Donatello. It is all unaware to the tomb of this the greatest sculptor, +and in many ways the most typical artist, Florence ever produced, that +we come, when, standing in front of the high altar, we read the +inscription on that simple slab of stone which marks the tomb of Cosimo +Vecchio; for Donatello lies in the same vault with his great patron. A +modern monument in the Martelli Chapel, where the beautiful Annunciation +by Lippo Lippi hangs under a crucifix by Cellini, in the left transept, +commemorates him; but he needs no such reminder here, for about us is +his beautiful and unforgetable work: not perhaps the two ambones, which +he only began on his return from Padua when he was sixty-seven years +old, and which were finished by his pupils Bertoldo and Bellano, but the +work in the old sacristy built in 1421 by Brunellesco. How rough is the +modelling in the ambone reliefs, as though really, as Bandinelli has +said, the sight of the old sculptor was failing; and yet, in spite of +age and the intervention of his pupils, how his genius asserts itself in +a certain rhythm and design in these tragic panels, where, under a +frieze of dancing _putti_,--loves or angels I know not,--of bulls and +horses, he has carved the Agony in the Garden, Christ before Pilate, and +again before Caiaphas, the Crucifixion, the Deposition, in the southern +ambone; while in the northern we find the Descent into Hades, where John +Baptist welcomes our Lord, who draws forth Adam, and, as Dante records, +Abel too, and Noah, Moses, Abraham, and David, Isaac and Jacob and his +sons, not without Rachel, _E altri molti, e fecegli beati_, the +Resurrection and the Ascension, the Maries at the Tomb, the Pentecost. +It is another and very different work you come upon in the Cantoria, +which, lovely though it be, seems to be rather for a sermon than for +singing, so cold it is, and yet full enough of his perfect feeling for +construction, for architecture. It has a rhythm of its own, but it is +the rhythm of prose, not of poetry. + +The old sacristy, which is full of him--for indeed all the decorative +work seems to be his--is one of the first buildings of the Renaissance, +the beautiful work of Filippo Brunelleschi. Covered by a polygonal dome, +the altar itself stands under another dome, low and small; and +everywhere Donatello has added beauty to beauty, the two friends for +once combining to produce a masterpiece, though not, as it is said, +without certain differences between them. "Donatello undertook to +decorate the sacristy of S. Lorenzo in stucco for Cosimo de' Medici," +Vasari tells us. "In the angles of the ceiling he executed four +medallions, the ornaments of which were partly painted in perspective, +partly stories of the Evangelists[108] in basso-relievo. In the same +place he made two doors of bronze in basso-relievo of most exquisite +workmanship: on these doors he represented the apostles, martyrs, and +confessors, and above these are two shallow niches, in one of which are +S. Lorenzo and S. Stefano; in the other, S. Cosimo and S. Damiano." The +sacristy, according to Vasari, was the first work proceeded with in the +church. Cosimo took so much pleasure in it that he was almost always +himself present, and such was his eagerness, that while Brunellesco +built the sacristy, he made Donatello prepare the ornaments in stucco, +"with the stone decorations of the small doors and the doors of bronze." +And it is in these bronze doors that, as it seems to me, you have Donato +at his best, full of energy and life, yet never allowing himself for a +moment to forget that he was a sculptor, that his material was bronze +and had many and various beauties of its own, which it was his business +to express. There are two doors, one on each side of the altar, and +these doors are made in two parts, and each part is divided into five +panels. With a loyalty and apprehension of the fitness of things really +beyond praise, Donatello has here tried to do nothing that was outside +the realm of sculpture. It was not for him to make the Gates of +Paradise, but the gates of a sacristy in S. Lorenzo. His work is in +direct descent from the work of the earliest Italian sculptors, a +legitimate and very beautiful development of their work within the +confines of an art which was certainly sufficient to itself. Consider, +then, the naturalism of that figure who opens his book on his knees so +suddenly and with such energy; or again, the exquisite reluctance of him +who in the topmost panel turns away from the preaching of the apostle. +Certainly here you have work that is simple, sincere, full of life and +energy, and is beautiful just because it is perfectly fitting and +without affectation.[109] In one of the two small rooms which are on +each side of the sacristy, having the altar between them, Brunellesco by +Cosimo's orders made a well. Here, Vasari tells us later, Donato placed +a marble lavatory, on which Andrea Verrocchio also worked; but the +Lavabo we find there to-day seems very doubtfully Donatello's. + +In the centre of the sacristy itself, Vasari tells us, Cosimo caused the +tomb of his father Giovanni to be made beneath a broad slab of marble, +supported by four columns; and in the same place he made a sepulchre for +his family, wherein he separated the tombs of the men from those of the +women. But again this work too seems, in spite of Vasari, to belong +rather uncertainly to Donatello. It is very rare to find a detached tomb +in Italy, and rarer still to find it under a table, where it is very +difficult to see it properly, and the care and beauty that have been +spent upon it might seem to be wasted. It is perhaps rather Buggiano's +hand than Donato's we see even in so beautiful a thing as this, which +Donatello may well have designed. The beautiful bust of S. Lorenzo over +the doorway is, however, the authentic work of Donato himself. Full of +eagerness, S. Lorenzo looks up as though to answer some request, and to +grant it. + +The splendid porphyry sarcophagus set in bronze before a bronze screen +of great beauty, by Verocchio, is certainly one of the finest things +here. Every leaf and curl of the foliage seem instinct with some +splendid life, seem to tremble almost with the fierceness of their +vitality. There lie Giovanni and Piero de' Medici, the uncle and father +of Lorenzo il Magnifico. Close by you may see a relief of Cosimo +Vecchio, their father. + +The cloisters, where Lorenzo walked often enough, are beautiful, and +then from them one passes so easily into the Laurentian Library, founded +by Cosimo Vecchio, and treasured and added to by Piero and Lorenzo il +Magnifico, but scattered and partly destroyed by the vandalism and +futile stupidity of Savonarola and his puritans in 1494. Savonarola, +however, was a cleverer demagogue than our Oliver (it is well to +remember that he was a Dominican), for he persuaded the Signoria to let +him have such of the MSS. as he could find for the library of S. Marco. +The honour of such a person is perhaps not worth discussing, but we may +remind ourselves what Cosimo had done for S. Marco, and how he had built +the library there. In 1508 the friars turned these stolen goods into +money, selling them back to Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, who was soon +to be Leo X, who carried them to Rome. Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, later +Clement VII, presented Leo's collection to the Laurentian Library, which +he had bidden Michelangelo to rebuild. This was interrupted by the +unfortunate business of 1527, and it was not till Cosimo I came that the +library was finished. Perhaps the most precious thing here is the +Pandects of Justinian, taken by the Pisans from Amalfi in 1135, and +seized by the Florentines when they took Pisa in 1406. Amalfi prized +these above everything she possessed, Pisa was ready to defend them with +her life, Florence spent hundreds of thousands of florins to possess +herself of them--for in them was thought to lie the secret of the law of +Rome. Who knows what Italy, under the heel of the barbarian, does not +owe to these faded pages, and through Italy the world? They were, as it +were, the symbol of Latin civilisation in the midst of German barbarism. +Here too is that most ancient Virgil which the French stole in 1804. +Here is Petrarch's Horace and a Dante transcribed by Villani; and, best +of all, the only ancient codex in the world of what remains to us of +Aeschylus, of what is left of Sophocles. It is in such a place that we +may best recognise the true greatness of the abused Medici. Tyrants +they may have been, but when the mob was tyrant it satisfied itself with +destroying what they with infinite labour had gathered together for the +advancement of learning, the civilisation of the world. What, then, was +that Savonarola whom all have conspired to praise, whose windy +prophecies, whose blasphemous cursings men count as so precious? In +truth in his fashion he was but a tyrant too--a tyrant, and a poor one, +and therefore the more dangerous, the more disastrous. To the Medici we +owe much of what is most beautiful in Florence--the loveliest work of +Botticelli, of Brunellesco, of Donatello, of Lippo Lippi, of +Michelangelo, and the rest, to say nothing of such a priceless +collection of books and MSS. as this. Is, then, the work of Marsilio +Ficino nothing, the labours of a thousand forgotten humanists? What do +we owe to Savonarola? He burnt the pictures which to his sensual mind +suggested its own obscenity; he stole the MSS., and no doubt would have +destroyed them too, to write instead his own rhetorical and +extraordinary denunciations of what he did not understand. Who can deny +that when he proposed to give freedom to Florence he was dreaming of a +new despotism, the despotism, if not of himself, of that Jesus whom he +believed had inspired him, and on whom he turned in his rage? That he +was brave we know, but so was Cataline; that he believed in himself we +like to believe, and so did Arius of Alexandria; that he carried the +people with him is certain, and so did they who crucified Jesus; but +that he was a turbulent fellow, a puritan, a vandal, a boaster, a +wind-bag, a discredited prophet, and a superstitious failure, we also +know, as he doubtless did at last, when the wild beast he had roused had +him by the throat, and burnt him in the fire he had invoked. His +political ideas were beneath contempt; they were insincere, as he +proved, and they were merely an excuse for riot. He bade, or is said to +have bidden, Lorenzo restore her liberty to Florence. When, then, had +Florence possessed this liberty, of which all these English writers who +sentimentalise over this unique and unfortunate Ferrarese traitor speak +with so much feeling and awe? Florence had never possessed political +liberty of any sort whatever; she was ruled by the great families, by +the guilds, by an oligarchy, by a despot. She was never free till she +lost herself in Italy in 1860. Socially she was freer under the Medici +than she was before or has been since.[110] In the production of unique +personalities a sort of social freedom is necessary, and Florence under +the earlier Medici might seem to have produced more of such men than any +other city or state in the history of the world, saving Athens in the +time of the despot Pericles. The happiest period in the history of +Athens was that in which he was master, even as the greatest and most +fortunate years in the history of the Florentine state were those in +which Cosimo, Piero, and Lorenzo ruled in Florence. And when at last +Lorenzo died, the Pope saw very clearly that on that day had passed away +"the peace of Italy." It is to the grave of this great and unique man +you come when leaving the cloisters of S. Lorenzo, and passing round the +church into Piazza Madonna, you enter the Cappella Medicea, and, +ascending the stairs on the left, find again on the left the new +sacristy, built in 1519 by Michelangelo. Lorenzo lies with his murdered +brother Giuliano, who fell under the daggers of the Pazzi on that Easter +morning in the Duomo, between the two splendid and terrible tombs of his +successors, under an unfinished monument facing the altar; a beautiful +Madonna and Child, an unfinished work by Michelangelo, and the two +Medici Saints, S. Damian by Raffaello da Montelupo, and S. Cosmas by +Montorsoli. It is not, however, this humble and almost nameless grave +that draws us to-day to the Sagrestia Nuova, but the monument carved by +Michelangelo for two lesser and later Medici: Giuliano, Duc de Nemours, +who died in 1516, and Lorenzo, Duc d'Urbino, who died in 1519. When +Lorenzo il Magnifico died at Careggi in April 1492, he left seven +children: Giovanni, who became Leo X; Piero, who succeeded him and went +into exile; Giuliano, who returned; Lucrezia, who married Giacomo +Salviati, and was grandmother of Cosimo I; Contessina, who married +Piero Ridolfi; Maddalena, who married Francesco Cibo; and Maria, whom +Michelangelo is said to have loved. Lorenzo's successor, Piero, did not +long retain the power his father had left him; he was vain and +impetuous, and, trying to rule without the Signoria, placed Pisa and +Livorno in the hands of Charles VIII of France, who was on his carnival +way to Naples. Savonarola chased him out, and sacked the treasures of +his house. He died in exile. It was his brother Giuliano who returned, +Savonarola being executed in 1512. Giuliano was a better ruler than his +brother, but he behaved like a despot till his brother Giovanni became +Pope, when he resigned the government of Florence to his nephew Lorenzo, +the son of Piero, and while he became Gonfaloniere of Rome and +Archbishop, Lorenzo became Duke of Urbino and father of Catherine de' +Medici of France. It is this Giuliano and Lorenzo de Medici that +Michelangelo has immortalised with an everlasting gesture of sorrow and +contempt. On the right is the tomb of Giuliano, and over it he sits for +ever as a general of the Church; on the left is Lorenzo's dust, coffered +in imperishable marble, over which he sits plotting for ever. The +statues that Michelangelo has carved there have been called Night and +Day, Twilight and Dawn; but indeed these names, as I have said, are far +too definite for them: they are just a gesture of despair, of despair of +a world which has come to nothing. They are in no real sense of the word +political, but rather an expression, half realised after all, of some +immense sadness, some terrible regret, which has fallen upon the soul of +one who had believed in righteousness and freedom, and had found himself +deceived. It is not the house of Medici that there sees its own image of +despair, but rather Florence, which had been content that such things +should be. Some obscure and secret sorrow has for a moment overwhelmed +the soul of the great poet in thinking of Florence, of the world, of the +hearts of men, and as though trying to explain to himself his own +melancholy and indignation, he has carved these statues, to which men +have given the names of the most tremendous and the most sweet of +natural things--Night and Day, Twilight and Dawn; and even as in the +Sistine Chapel Michelangelo has thought only of Life,--of the Creation +of Man, of the Judgment of the World, which is really the +Resurrection,--so here he has thought only of Death, of the death of the +body, of the soul, and of the wistful life of the disembodied spirit +that wanders disconsolate, who knows where?--that sleeps uneasily, who +knows how long? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[108] Not of the Evangelists, but of St. John: the medallions are the +Four Evangelists. + +[109] See _Donatello_, by Lord Balcarres, p. 136 (London, 1904), where a +long comparison is made of the doors of Donatello, Ghiberti, and Luca +della Robbia. + +[110] Even politically, too, as Guicciardini tells us. + + + + +XIX. FLORENCE + +CHURCHES NORTH OF ARNO: OGNISSANTI--S. TRINITA--SS. APOSTOLI--S. +STEFANO--BADIA--S. PIERO--S. AMBROGIO--S. MARIA MADDALENA DE' +PAZZI--ANNUNZIATA--OSPEDALE DEGLI INNOCENTI--LO SCALZO--S. APOLLONIA--S. +ONOFRIO--S. SALVI + + +To pass through Florence for the most part by the old ways, from church +to church, is too often like visiting forgotten shrines in a museum. +Something seems to have been lost in these quiet places; it is but +rarely after all that they retain anything of the simplicity which once +made them holy. To their undoing, they have been found in possession of +some beautiful thing which may be shown for money, and so some of them +have ceased altogether to exist as churches or chapels or convents; you +find yourself walking through them as through a gallery, and if you +should so far forget yourself as to uncover your head, some official +will eagerly nudge you and say, "It is not necessary for the signore to +bare his head: here is no longer a church, but a public monument." A +public monument! But indeed, as we know, the Italian "public" is no +longer capable of building anything that is beautiful. If it is a bridge +they need, it is not such a one as the Trinita that will be built, but +some hideous structure of iron, as in Pisa, Venice, and Rome. If it is a +monument they wish to carve, they will destroy numberless infinitely +precious things, and express themselves as vulgarly as the Germans could +do, as in the monument of Vittorio Emmanuele at Rome, which is founded +on the ruined palaces of nobles, the convents of the poor. If it is a +Piazza they must make, they are no longer capable of building such place +as Piazza Signoria, but prefer a hideous and disgusting clearing, such +as Piazza Vittorio Emmanuele in Florence. How often have I sat at the +little cafe there on the far side of the square, wondering why the house +of Savoy should have brought this vandalism from Switzerland. Nor is +this strange monarchy content with broken promises and stolen dowries; +in its grasping barbarism it must rename the most famous and splendid +ways of Italy after itself: thus the Corso of Rome has become Corso +Umberto Primo, and we live in daily expectation that Piazza Signoria of +Florence will become Piazza Vittorio Emmanuele II. If that has not yet +befallen, it is surely an oversight; the Government has been so busy +renaming Roman places--the Villa Borghese, for instance--that Florence +has so far nearly escaped. Not altogether, however: beyond the Carraja +bridge, just before the Pescaia in the Piazza Manin, is the suppressed +convent (now a barracks) of the Humiliati, that democratic brotherhood +which improved the manufacture of wool almost throughout Italy. What has +the Venetian Jew, Daniel Manin, to do with them? Yet he is remembered by +means of a bad statue, while the Humiliati and the Franciscans are +forgotten: yet for sure they did more for Florence than he. But no doubt +it would be difficult to remind oneself tactfully of those one has +robbed, and a Venetian Jew looks more in place before a desecrated +convent than S. Francis would do. Like the rest of Italy, Florence seems +always to forget that she had a history before 1860; yet here at least +she should have remembered one of her old heroes, for in the convent +garden Giano della Bella, who fought at Campaldino, and was +anti-clerical too and hateful to the Pope, the hero of the Ordinances of +Justice, used to walk with his friends. _Perisca innanzi la citta_, say +I, _che tante opere rie si sostengano_. By this let even Venetian Jews, +to say nothing of Switzer princes, know how they are like to be +remembered when their little day is over. + +[Illustration: OGNISSANTI] + +It was in 1256 that the Humiliati founded here in Borgo Ognissanti the +Church of S. Caterina, and carved their arms, a woolpack fastened with +ropes, over the door. Originally founded by certain Lombard exiles in +Northern Germany, the Humiliati were at first at any rate a lay +brotherhood, which had learned in exile the craft of weaving wool. Such +wool as was to be had in Tuscany, a land of olives and vines, almost +without pasture, was poor enough, and it seems to have been only after +the advent of the Humiliati that the great Florentine industry began to +assert itself, foreign wools being brought in a raw state to the city +and sold, dressed and woven into cloth, in all the cities of Europe and +the East. This brotherhood, however, in 1140 formed itself into a +Religious Order under a Bull of Innocent III, and though from that time +the brethren seem no longer to have worked at their craft themselves, +they directed the work of laymen whom they enrolled and employed, +busying themselves for the most part with new inventions and the +management of what soon became an immense business. Their fame was +spread all over Italy, for, as Villari tells us,[111] "wherever a house +of their Order was established, the wool-weaving craft immediately made +advance," so that in 1239 the Commune of Florence invited them to +establish a house near the city, as they did in S. Donato a Torri, which +was given them by the Signoria. By 1250 we read that the Guild Masters +were already grumbling at their distance from the city, so that they +removed to S. Lucia sul Prato, under promise of exemption from all +taxes; and in 1256 they founded a church and convent in Borgo +Ognissanti. The Church of S. Lucia sul Prato still stands, but the +Humiliati were robbed of it in 1547 by Cosimo I, who, strangely enough, +had taken the old convent of S. Donato a Torri from the friars who had +acquired it, in order to build a fortification, and now wished to give +them the Church of S. Lucia sul Prato. It is said that the friars began +to build their convent, but four years later abandoned the work, +removing to S. Jacopo on the other side Arno. However this may be, the +Franciscans certainly succeeded the Humiliati in their convent in Borgo +Ognissanti about this time, and in 1627 they rebuilt S. Caterina, +renaming it S. Salvadore. To-day there is but little worth seeing in +this seventeenth-century church,--a St. Augustine by Botticelli, a St. +Jerome and two large frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandajo,--but in the old +refectory of the convent, which has now become a barracks, is Domenico +Ghirlandajo's fresco of the Last Supper. + +Passing from Ognissanti down the Borgo to Piazza Ponte alla Carraja, you +come to the great palace built by Michelozzo for the Ricasoli family: it +is now the Hotel New York. Thence you turn into Via di Parione behind +the palace, where at No. 7 you pass the Palazzo Corsini, coming at last +into Via Tornabuoni, where at the corner is the Church of S. Trinita +facing the Piazza. + +This beautiful and very ancient church stands on the site of an oratory +of S. Maria dello Spasimo, destroyed, as it is said, in the tenth +century. It was built by the monks of Vallombrosa, and was therefore in +the hands of Benedictines. Here, in the Cappella Sassetti, Domenico +Ghirlandajo has painted the Life of S. Francis; but it is not with his +commonplace treatment, often irrelevant enough, of a subject which +Giotto had already used with genius, that we are concerned, but perhaps +with the fresco above the altar, and certainly with the marvellous +portraits of Sassetti and Nera Cosi his wife, on either side. Here in +this portrait for once Ghirlandajo seems to have escaped from the +limitations of his cleverness, and to have really expressed himself so +that his talent becomes something more than talent, is full of life and +charm, and only just fails to convince us of his genius. + +Many another delightful or surprising thing may be found in the old +church, which has more than once suffered from restoration. In a chapel +in the right aisle Lorenzo Monaco has painted the Annunciation, while, +close by, you may see a beautiful altar by Benedetto da Rovezzano. Over +the high altar is the crucifix which bowed to S. Giovanni Gualberto, +who forbore to slay his brother's murderer; but the chief treasure of +the church is the tomb in the left transept of Benozzo Federighi, Bishop +of Fiesole, by Luca della Robbia. It was in the year 1450 that Luca +finished his most perfect work in marble--begun and finished, as it is +said, within the year--the tomb of Bishop Federighi. And here, as one +might almost expect, remembering his happy expressive art in many a +terra-cotta up and down in Italy, he has thought of death almost with +cheerfulness, not as oblivion, but as just sleep after labour. Amid a +profusion of natural things--fruits, garlands, grapes--the old man lies +half turned towards us, at rest at last. Behind him Luca has carved a +Pieta, and beneath two angels unfold the name of the dead man. The tomb +was removed hither from S. Francesco di Paolo. + +Passing now under the Column of the Trinita across the Piazza between +the two palaces, Bartolini Salimbeni and Buondelmonte on the left, and +Palazzo Spini on the right, you come into Borgo Santi Apostoli, where, +facing the Piazzetta del Limbo, is the little church de' Santi Apostoli, +which, if we may believe the inscription on the facade, was founded by +Charlemagne and consecrated by Turpin before Roland and Oliver. However +that may be, it is, with the exception of the Baptistery, the oldest +church on this side Arno, and already existed outside the first walls of +the city. Within, the church is beautiful, and indeed Brunellesco is +reported by Vasari to have taken it as a model for S. Lorenzo and S. +Spirito. In the sacristy lies the stone which Mad Pazzi brought from +Jerusalem, and from which the Easter fire is still struck in the Duomo; +while in the chapel to the left of the high altar is a beautiful +Tabernacle by the della Robbia, and a monument to Otto Altoviti by +Benedetto da Rovezzano. The Altoviti are buried here, and their palace, +which Benedetto built for them, is just without to the south. + +This Borgo SS. Apostoli and the Via Lambertesca which continues it are +indeed streets of old palaces and towers. Here the Buondelmonti lived, +and the Torre de' Girolami, where S. Zanobi is said to have dwelt, +still stands, while Via Lambertesca is full of remembrance of the lesser +guilds. Borgo SS. Apostoli passes into Via Lambertesca at the corner of +Por S. Maria, where of old the great gate of St. Mary stood in the first +walls, and the Amidei had their towers. It must have been just here the +Statue of Mars was set, under the shadow of which Buondelmonte was +murdered so brutally; and thus, as Bandello tells us, following Villani, +began the Guelph and Ghibelline factions in Florence. + +Just out of Via Lambertesca, on the left, is the little Church of S. +Stefano and S. Cecilia--S. Cecilia only since the end of the eighteenth +century, when that church was destroyed in Piazza Signoria; but S. +Stefano, _ad portam ferram_, since the thirteenth century at any rate. +This church seems to have been confused by many with the little Santo +Stefano, still, I think, a parish church, though now incorporated with +the abbey buildings, of the Badia. You pass out of Via Lambertesca by +Via de' Lanzi, coming thus into Piazza Signoria; then, passing Palazzo +Uguccione, you take Via Condotta to the right, and thus come into Via +del Proconsolo at the Abbey gate. + +Here in this quiet Benedictine house one seems really to be back in an +older world, to have left the noise and confusion of to-day far behind, +and in order and in quiet to have found again the beautiful things that +are from of old. The Badia, dedicated to S. Maria Assunta, was founded +in 978 by Countess Willa, the mother of Ugo of Tuscany,[112] and was +rebuilt in 1285 by Arnolfo di Cambio. The present building is, however, +almost entirely a work of the seventeenth century, though the beautiful +tower was built in 1328. Here still, however, in spite of rebuilding, +you may see the tomb of the Great Marquis by Mino da Fiesole. "It was +erected," says Mr. Carmichael, "at the expense of the monks, not of +the Signoria.... Ugo died in 1006, on the Feast of St. Thomas the +Apostle, December 21, and every year on that date a solemn requiem for +the repose of his soul is celebrated in the Abbey Church. His helmet and +breast-plate are always laid upon the catafalque. In times past--down to +1859, I think--a young Florentine used on this occasion to deliver a +panegyric on the Great Prince. I have heard ... that the mass is no +longer celebrated. That is not so; but since the city has ceased to care +about it, it takes place quietly at seven in the morning, instead of +with some pomp at eleven. Then again, it is said that the monks have +allowed the panegyric to drop. That too is not the case; it was not they +but the Florentines who were pledged to this pious office, and it is the +laity alone who have allowed it to fall into desuetude." + +[Illustration: VIA POR. S. MARIA] + +Even here we cannot, however, escape destruction and forgetfulness. The +monastery has been turned into communal schools and police courts; the +abbot has become a parish priest, and his abbey has been taken from him; +there are but four monks left. But in the steadfast, unforgetful eyes of +that Church which has already outlived a thousand dynasties, and beside +whom every Government in the world is but a thing of yesterday, the +Abbot of S. Maria is abbot still, and no parish priest at all. It is +not, however, such things as this that will astonish the English or +American stranger, whose pathetic faith in "progress" is the one +touching thing about him. He has come here not to think of deprived +Benedictines, or to stand by the tomb of Ugo, of whom he never heard, +but to see the masterpiece of Filippino Lippi, the Madonna and St. +Bernard, with which a thousand photographs have already made him +familiar. Painted in 1480, when Filippino was still, as we may suppose, +under the influence of Botticelli, it was given by Piero del Pugliese to +a church outside Porta Romana, and was removed here in 1529 during the +siege. + +Passing down Via della Vigna Vecchia, you come at last to the little +Church of S. Simone, which the monks of the Badia built about 1202, in +their vineyards then, and just within the second walls. At the beginning +of the fourteenth century it became a parish church, but was only taken +from them at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Within, there is +an early picture of Madonna, which comes from the Church of S. Piero +Maggiore, now destroyed. You may reach the Piazza di S. Piero (for it +still bears that name) if you turn into Via di Mercatino. Here the +bishops of Florence were of old welcomed to the city and installed in +the See. Thither came all the clergy of the diocese to take part in a +strange and beautiful ceremony. Attached to the church was a Benedictine +convent, whose abbess seems to have represented the diocese of Florence. +There in S. Piero the Archbishop came to wed her, and thus became the +guardian of the city. The church is destroyed now, and, as we have seen, +all the monks and nuns have departed; the Government has stolen their +dowries and thrust them into the streets. Well might the child, passing +S. Felice, cry before this came to pass, O bella Liberta! But S. Piero +was memorable for other reasons too beside this mystic marriage. There +lay Luca della Robbia, Lorenzo di Credi, Mariotto Albertinelli, Piero di +Cosimo: where is their dust to-day? As we look at their work in the +galleries and churches, who cares what has happened to them, or whether +such graves as theirs are rifled or no? Yet not one of them but has done +more for Italy than Vittorio Emmanuele; not one of them, O Italia Nuova, +but is to-day filling your pockets with gold, while he is nothing in the +Pantheon; yet their graves are rifled and forgotten, and him you have +placed on the Capitol. + +It is to another Benedictine convent you come down Via Pietrapiana, past +Borgo Allegri, whence the Florentines say they bore Cimabue's Madonna in +triumph to S. Maria Novella. It is a pity, truly, that it is not his +picture that is in the Rucellai Chapel to-day, and that the name of the +Borgo does not come from that rejoicing, but from the Allegri family, +who here had their towers. Yet here Cimabue lived, and Ghiberti and +Antonio Rossellino. Who knows what beauty has here passed by? + +The Benedictine Church and Convent at end of Via Pietrapiana is +dedicated to S. Ambrogio. It was the first convent of nuns built in +Florence, and dates certainly from the eleventh century. Like the rest, +it has been suppressed, and indeed destroyed. To-day it is nothing, +having suffered restoration, beside the other violations. Within, +Verrocchio was buried, and in the Cappella del Miracolo, where in the +thirteenth century a priest found the chalice stained with Christ's +blood, is the beautiful altar by Mino da Fiesole. The church is full of +old frescoes by Cosimo Rosselli, Raffaellino del Garbo, and such, and is +worth a visit, if only for the work of Mino and the S. Sebastian of +Leonardo del Tasso. + +It is to another desecrated Benedictine convent you come when, passing +through Via dei Pilastrati and turning into Via Farina, you come at last +in Via della Colonna to S. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi. This too is now a +barracks and a school. It was not, however, the nuns who commissioned +Perugino to paint for them his masterpiece, the Crucifixion, in the +refectory, but some Cistercian monks who had acquired the convent in the +thirteenth century. Perugino was painting there in 1496. More than a +hundred years later, Pope Urban VIII, who had some nieces in the +Carmelite Convent on the other side Arno, persuaded the monks to +exchange their home for the Carmine. S. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi, who +was born Lucrezia, had died in 1607, and later been canonised, so that +when the nuns moved here they renamed the place after her. The body of +S. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi, however, no longer lies in this desecrated +convent, for the little nuns have carried it away to their new home in +Piazza Savonarola. There in that place, always so full of children, +certain Florentine ladies have nobly built a little church and quiet +house, where those who but for them might have been in the street may +still innocently pray to God. + +There, in 1496, as I have said, Perugino finished the fresco of the +Crucifixion that he had begun some years before in the chapter-house of +the old S. Maria Maddalena. In almost perfect preservation still, this +fresco on the wall of that quiet and empty room is perhaps the most +perfect expression of the art of Perugino--those dreams of the country +and of certain ideal people he has seen there; Jesus and His disciples, +Madonna and Mary Magdalen, sweet, smiling, and tearful ghosts passing in +the sunshine, less real than the hills, all perhaps that the world was +able to bear by way of remembrance of those it had worshipped once, but +was beginning to forget. And here at last, in this fresco, the landscape +has really become of more importance than the people, who breathe there +so languidly. The Crucifixion has found something of the expressiveness, +the unction of a Christian hymn, something of the quiet beauty of the +Mass that was composed to remind us of it; already it has passed away +from reality, is indeed merely a memory in which the artist has seen +something less and something more than the truth. + +Divided into three compartments, we see through the beautiful round +arches of some magic casement, as it were, the valleys and hills of +Italy, the delicate trees, the rivers and the sky of a country that is +holy, which man has taken particularly to himself. And then, as though +summoned back from forgetfulness by the humanism of that landscape where +the toil and endeavour of mankind is so visible in the little city far +away, the cultured garden of the world, a dream of the Crucifixion comes +to us, a vision of all that man has suffered for man, summed up, as it +were, naturally enough by that supreme sacrifice of love; and we see not +an agonised Christ or the brutality of the priests and the soldiers, but +Jesus, who loved us, hanging on the Cross, with Mary Magdalen kneeling +at his feet, and on the one side Madonna and St. Bernard, and on the +other St. John and St. Benedict. And though, in a sort of symbolism, +Perugino has placed above the Cross the sun and the moon eclipsed, the +whole world is full of the serene and perfect light of late afternoon, +and presently we know that vision of the Crucifixion will fade away, +and there will be left to us only that which we really know, and have +heard and seen, the valleys and the hills, the earth from which we are +sprung. + +There are but six figures in the whole picture, and it is just this +spaciousness, perhaps, earth and sky counting for so much, that makes +this work so delightful. For it is not from the figures at all that we +receive the profoundly religious impression that this picture makes upon +all who look unhurriedly upon it; but from the earth and sky, where in +the infinite clear space God dwells, no longer hanging upon a Cross +tortured by men who have unthinkably made so terrible a mistake, but +joyful in His heaven, moving in every living thing He has made; visible +only in the invisible wind that passes over the streams suddenly at +evening, or subtly makes musical the trees at dawn, walking as of old in +His garden, where one day maybe we shall meet Him face to face. + +Turning down Via di Pinti to the left, and then to the right along Via +Alfani, we pass another desecrated monastery in S. Maria degli Angioli, +once a famous house of the monks of Camaldoli. This monastery has +suffered many violations, and is scarcely worth a visit, perhaps, unless +it be to see the fresco of Andrea del Castagno in the cloister, and to +remind ourselves that here, in the fifteenth century, Don Ambrogio +Traversari used to lecture in the humanities, a cynical remembrance +enough to-day. + +If we take the second street to the right, Via de' Servi, we shall come +at once into the beautiful Piazza della Santissima Annunziata. Before us +is the desecrated convent of the Servites, now turned into a school, and +the Church of SS. Annunziata itself, now the most fashionable church in +Florence. On the left and right are the beautiful arcades of +Brunellesco, decorated by the della Robbia; the building on the left is +now used for private houses, that on the right is the Ospedale degli +Innocenti. The equestrian statue was made by Giovanni da Bologna, and +represents Ferdinando I. + +The Order of Servites, whose church and convent are before us, was +originally founded by seven Florentines of the Laudesi, that Compagnia +di S. Michele in Orto which built Madonna a shrine by the art of Orcagna +in Or S. Michele, as we have seen. "I Servi di Maria" they were called, +and, determined to quit a worldly life, they retired to a little house +where now S. Croce stands; and later, finding that too near the city, +went over the hills of Fiesole beyond Pratolino, founding a hermitage on +Monte Senario. And I, who have heard their bells from afar at sunset, +why should I be sorry that they are no longer in the city. Well, on +Monte Senario, be sure, they lived hardly enough on the charity of +Florence, so that at last they built a little rest-house just without +the city, where SS. Annunziata stands to-day. But in those days Florence +was full of splendour and life; it had no fear of the Orders, and even +loved them, giving alms. Presently the Servi di Maria were able to build +not a rest-house only, but a church and a convent, and then they who +served Madonna were not forgotten by her, for did she not give them +miraculously a picture of her Annunciation, so beautiful and full of +grace that all the city flocked to see it? Thus it used to be. To-day, +as I have said, SS. Annunziata is the fashionable church of Florence. +The ladies go in to hear Mass; the gentlemen lounge in the cloister and +await them. It is not quite our way in England, but then the sun is not +so kind to us. It is true that on any spring morning you may see the +cloister filled with laughing lilies to be laid at Madonna's feet; but +who knows if she be not fled away with her Servi to Monte Senario? +Certainly those bells were passing glad and very sweet, and they were +ringing, too, the Angelus. + +However that may be, a committee, we are told, of which Queen Margherita +is patron here, "renders a programme of sacred music, chiefly Masses +from the ancient masters, admirably executed." It is comforting to our +English notions to know that "The subscribers have the right to a +private seat in the choir, and the best society of Florence is to be met +there." + +And then, here are frescoes by Cosimo Rosselli, Andrea del Sarto, under +glass too, a Nativity of Christ by Alessio Baldovinetti, not under +glass, which seems unfair; and what if they be the finest work of +Andrea, since you cannot see them. Within, the church is spoiled and +very ugly. On the left is the shrine of Madonna, carved by Michelozzo, +to the order of Piero de' Medici, decorated with all the spoils of the +Grand Dukes. Ah no, be sure Madonna is fled away! + +Passing out of the north transept, you come into the cloisters. Here is, +I think, Andrea's best work, the Madonna del Sacco, and the tomb of a +French knight slain at Campaldino. + +Passing out of the SS. Annunziata into S. Maria degli Innocenti, we come +to a beautiful picture by Domenico Ghirlandajo in the great altarpiece, +the Adoration of the Magi, painted in 1488. Though scarcely so lovely as +the Adoration of the Shepherds in the Accademia, perhaps spoiled a +little by over cleaning and restoration, it is one of the most simple +and serene pictures in Florence. The predella to this picture is in the +Ospedale; it represents the Marriage of the Virgin, the Presentation in +the Temple, the Baptism and Entombment of Our Lord. There, too, is a +replica of the Madonna of Lippo Lippi in the Uffizi. + +The Ospedale degli Innocenti was founded in 1421 by the Republic, urged +thereto by that Leonardo Bruni who is buried in S. Croce in the tomb by +Rossellino. It appears to have been already open in 1450, and was +apparently under the government of the Guild of Silk, for their arms are +just by the door. It is said to have been the first of its kind in +Europe; originally meant for the reception of illegitimate +children--Leonardo da Vinci, for instance--it is to-day ready to receive +any poor little soul who has come unwanted into the world; it cares for +more than a thousand of such every year. + +Passing out of Piazza degli SS. Annunziata through Via di Sapienza into +Piazza di S. Marco, we pass the desecrated convent of the Dominicans, +where Savonarola, Fra Antonino, and Fra Angelico lived, now a museum on +the right; and passing to the right into Via Cavour, come at No. 69 to +the Chiostro dello Scalzo. This is a cloister belonging to the +Brotherhood of St. John, which was suppressed in the eighteenth century. +The Brotherhood of St. John seems to have come about in this way. When +Frate Elias, who succeeded S. Francesco as Minister of the Franciscan +Order, began to rule after his own fashion, the Order was divided into +two parts, consisting of those who followed the Rule and those who did +not. The first were called Observants, the second Conventuals. The +Osservanti, or Observants, remained poor, and observed all the fasts; +perhaps their greatest, certainly their most widely known Vicar-General +was S. Bernardino of Siena. In France the Osservanti were known as the +Recollects, and the reform there having been introduced by John de la +Puebla, a Spaniard, about 1484, these brethren were known as the +Brotherhood of John, or Discalced Friars. In Italy they were called +Riformati. All this confusion is now at an end, for Leo XIII, in the +Constitution "Felicitate quadam," in 1897 joined all the Observants into +one family, giving them again the most ancient and beautiful of their +names, the Friars Minor. + +Here, where these little poor men begged or prayed, Andrea del Sarto was +appointed to paint in grisaille scenes from the life of John the +Baptist. They have been much injured by damp, and in fact are not +altogether Andrea's work. + +Returning down Via Cavour, if we turn into Via Ventisette Aprile we come +to two more desecrated convents,--that of S. Caterina, now the Commando +Militare, and facing it, S. Appolonia, now a magazine for military +stores. + +Here, in the refectory of the latter convent, where Michelangelo is said +to have had a niece, and for this cause to have built the nuns a door, +is the fresco of the Last Supper by Andrea del Castagno; while on the +walls are some portraits, brought here from the Bargello, of Farinata +degli Uberti, Niccolo Acciaiuoli, and others. + +In another suppressed convent, S. Onofrio in Via Faenza, not far away +(turn to the left down Via di S. Reparata, and then to the right into +Via Guelfa), is another Last Supper, supposed to be the work of a pupil +of Perugino,--Morelli says Giannicolo Manni, who painted the miracle +picture of Madonna in the Duomo of Perugia. + +Another picture of the Last Supper--this by Andrea del Sarto--may be +found in another desecrated monastery, founded in 1048 by the +Vallombrosans, the second monastery of the congregation, S. Salvi, just +without the Barriera towards Settignano. It was in front of this +monastery that Corso Donati was killed in 1307. He was buried by the +monks in the church, and four years later his body was borne away to +Florence by his family. This monastery is now turned into houses, and +the refectory with the Andrea del Sarto is become a national monument. +Like many another desecrated church, convent, or religious house, the +Government, as at S. Marco, Chiostro dello Scalzo, and S. Onofrio, +charges you twenty-five centesimi to see their stolen goods. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[111] Villari, _History of Florence_, London, 1905: p. 318. + +[112] The best account of this abbey I ever read in English is contained +in a book full of similar good things, good English, and good pictures, +called _The Old Road through France to Florence_, written by H.W. +Nevinson and Montgomery Carmichael, and illustrated by Hallam Murray +(Murray, London, 1904). + + + + +XX. FLORENCE + +OLTR'ARNO + + +The Sesto Oltr'arno, the Quartiere di S. Spirito as it was called later, +was never really part of the city proper, but rather a suburb +surrounded, as Florence itself was, by wall and river. The home for the +most part of the poor, though by no means without the towers and palaces +of the nobles, it seems always to have lent itself readily enough to the +hatching of any plot against the Government of the day. Here in 1343 the +nobles made their last stand, here the signal was given for the Ciompi +rising, and here Luca Pitti built his palace to outdo the Medici. If you +cross Arno by the beautiful bridge of S. Trinita, the first street to +your left will be Borgo S. Jacopo, the first palace that of the +Frescobaldi, whom the Duke of Athens brought into Florence after their +exile. This palace, as well as the Church of S. Jacopo close by, where +Giano della Bella's death was plotted, were given in 1529 to the +Franciscans of S. Salvatore, whose convent had suffered in the siege. S. +Jacopo, which still retains a fine romanesque arcade, was originally a +foundation of the eleventh century. It seems to have been entirely +rebuilt for the friars and the palace turned into a convent in 1580, and +again to have suffered restoration in 1790. Close by is a group of old +towers, still picturesque and splendid. Turning thence back into Via +Maggio, and passing along Via S. Spirito and Via S. Frediano, you come +at last on the left into Piazza del Carmine, before the great church of +that name. The church of the Carmine and the monastery now suppressed +of the Carmelites across Arno were originally built in 1268, with the +help of the great families whose homes were in this part of the +city,--the Soderini, the Nerli, the Serragli; it remained unfinished for +more than two centuries, and in 1771 it was unhappily almost wholly +destroyed by fire, only the sacristy and the Brancacci Chapel escaping. +Famous now because there Fra Lippo Lippi lived, and there Masolino and +Masaccio painted, it is in itself one of the most meretricious and +worthless buildings of the eighteenth century, full of every sort of +flamboyant ornament and insincere, uncalled-for decoration; and yet, in +spite of every vulgarity, how spacious it is, as though even in that +evil hour the Latin genius could not wholly forget its delight in space +and light. It is then really only the Brancacci Chapel in the south +transept that has any interest for us, since there, better than anywhere +else, we may see the work of two of the greatest masters of the first +years of the Quattrocento. + +[Illustration: PONTE VECCHIO] + +Masolino, according to Mr. Berenson, was born in 1384, and died after +1423, while his pupil Masaccio was born in 1401, and died, one of the +youngest of Florentine painters, in 1428. Here in the Brancacci Chapel +it might seem difficult to decide what may be the work of Masolino and +what of his pupil, and indeed Crowe and Cavalcaselle have denied that +Masolino worked here at all. Later criticism, however, interested in +work that marks a revolution in Tuscan painting, has made it plain that +certain frescoes here are undoubtedly from his hand, and Mr. Berenson +gives him certainly the Fall of Adam, the Raising of Tabitha, and the +Miracle at the Golden Gate, above on the right, as well as the Preaching +of St. Peter, above to the left on the altar wall. Masaccio's work is +more numerous, consisting of the Expulsion from the Temple and the +Payment of the Tribute, above on the right, part of the fresco below the +last; St. Peter Baptizing, above to the left on the altar wall, as well +as the two frescoes, St. Peter and St. John healing the Sick, and St. +Peter and St. John giving Alms, below on either side of the altar. The +rest of the frescoes, the St. Paul visiting St. Peter in Prison, below +on the left, part of the fresco next to it, the Liberation of St. Peter +opposite, and the St. Peter and St. Paul before Nero, and the +Crucifixion of St. Peter, below on the right, are the work of Filippino +Lippi. + +Masolino da Panicale of Valdelsa was, according to Vasari, a pupil of +Lorenzo Ghiberti, and had been in his younger days a very good +goldsmith. He was the best among those who helped Ghiberti in the +labours of the doors of S. Giovanni, but when about nineteen years of +age he seems to have devoted himself to painting, forsaking the art of +the goldsmith, and placing himself under Gherardo della Starnina, the +first master of his day. He is said to have gone to Rome, and some works +of his in S. Clemente would seem to prove this story; but finding his +health suffer from the air of the Eternal City, he returned to Florence, +and began to paint here in the Church of S. Maria del Carmine, the +figure of S. Piero beside the "Chapel of the Crucifixion," which was +destroyed in the fire of 1771. This S. Piero, Vasari tells us, was +greatly commended by the painters of the time, and brought Masolino the +commission for painting the Chapel of the Brancacci family in the same +church. Among the rest mentioned by Vasari, he speaks of the Four +Evangelists on the roof here, which have now been ruined by +over-painting and restoration. A man of an admirable genius, his study +and fatigues, Vasari tells us, so weakened him that he was always +ailing, till he died at the age of thirty-seven. Yet in looking on his +work to-day, beside that of Masaccio, one thinks less, I fancy, of his +"study and fatigues," of his structure and technique, than of the +admirable beauty of his work. Consider then those splendid young men in +the Raising of Tabitha, who pass by almost unconcerned, though one has +turned his head to see; the sheer loveliness of Eve and Adam, really for +the first time born again here naked and unashamed; or the easy and +beautiful gesture of the angel, who bids them begone out of the gate of +Paradise. In Masaccio's work you will find a more splendid style, the +real majesty of the creator, a strangely sure generalisation and +expression; but in Masolino's work there still lingers something of the +mere beauty of Gentile da Fabriano, the particular personal loveliness +of things which you may know he has touched with a caress or seen always +with joy. + +Masaccio was born at Castello S. Giovanni, on the way to Arezzo. He was +the son of a notary, Ser Giovanni di Simone Guidi, called della +Scheggia, and his first labours in art, Vasari tells us, were begun at +the time when Masolino was working at this chapel in the Carmine. He had +evidently been much impressed by the work of Donato, and, indeed, +something of the realism of sculpture has passed into his work, in the +St. Peter Baptizing, for instance, where he who stands by the side of +the pool, awaiting his turn, has much of the reality of a statue. And +then with a magical sincerity Masaccio has understood the mere +discomfort of such a delay in the cool air, and a shiver seems about to +pass over that body, which is as real to us as any figure in the work of +Michelangelo. Or again, in the fresco of the Tribute Money, how real and +full of energy these people are,--the young man with his back to us, who +has been interrupted; Jesus Himself, who has just interposed; Peter, who +is protesting. How full of a real majesty is this composition, admirably +composed, too, and original even in that. Here, it might seem, we have +the end of merely decorative painting, the beginning of realism, of the +effect of reality, and it is therefore with surprise we see so facile a +master as Filippino Lippi set to finish work of such elemental and +tremendous genius. How pretty his work seems beside these realities. + +Coming out into the Piazza again, and turning to the left down Via S. +Frediano, you come almost at once, on the right, to the Church of S. +Frediano in Castello. You may enter it from Lung' Arno, but it would +scarcely be worth a visit, for it is a late seventeenth-century +building, save that in the convent may still be found the cell of S. +Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi; for it was this convent that the Carmelite +nuns exchanged with the Cistercians for the house in Via di Pinti, +called to-day S. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi, where Perugino painted his +beautiful fresco of the Crucifixion. + +Just across the way is the Mercato di S. Frediano and the suppressed +monastery of the Camaldolese, now a school; and by this way you come to +Porta S. Frediano, by which Charles VIII of France entered Florence and +Rinaldo degli Albizzi left it. The whole of this quarter is given up to +the poor and to the Madonna of the street corner, for here her children +dwell, the outcasts and refuse of civilisation who work that we may +live. It is always with reluctance, in spite of the children that I come +by this way, so that if possible I always return by Lung' Arno, past +Torrino di S. Rosa and the barracks of S. Friano and the grain store of +Cosimo III, past the houses of the Soderini to Ponte alla Carraia, which +fell on Mayday 1304, sending so many to that other world they had come +out to see, and so past the house of Piero Capponi, the hero of 1494 who +kept the Medici at bay, and threatened Charles VIII in the council; then +turning down Via Coverelli one comes to Santo Spirito. + +It was the Augustinian Hermits who, coming to Florence about 1260, +bought a vineyard close to where Via Maggio, an abbreviation of Via +Maggiore, now is, from the Vellati family. Here they built a monastery +and a church, and dedicated them to the Santo Spirito, so that when the +city was divided into quartieri this Sestiere d'Oltrarno became +Quartiere di S. Spirito. In 1397, as it is said, they determined to +rebuild the place on a bigger scale, and to this end appointed +Brunellesco their architect. The church was begun in 1433, and was +burned down in 1471, during the Easter celebrations, which were +particularly splendid in that year owing to the visit of Galeazzo Maria +Sforza. It was rebuilt, however, in the next twenty years from the +designs of Brunellesco, and is to-day the most beautiful +fifteenth-century church in Florence, full of light and sweetness, very +spacious, too, and with a certain fortunate colour about it that gives +it an air of cheerfulness and serenity beyond anything of the kind to be +found in the Duomo or S. Lorenzo. And then, the Florentines have been +content to leave it alone,--at any rate, so far as the unfinished facade +is concerned. It is in the form of a Latin cross, and suggests even yet +in some happy way the very genius of the Latin people in its temperance +and delight in the sun and the day. The convent, it is true, has been +desecrated, and is now a barracks; most of the altars have been robbed +of their treasures; but the church itself remains to us a very precious +possession from that fifteenth century, which in Italy certainly was so +fortunate, so perfect a dawn of a day that was a little disappointing, +and at evening so disastrous. + +Of the works of art remaining in the nave, that spacious nave where one +could wander all day long, only the copy of Michelangelo's Pieta in St. +Peter's will, I think, detain us for more than a moment. What is left to +us of that far-away flower-like beauty of fifteenth-century painting and +sculpture will be found in the great transept, that makes of the church +a cross of light, a temple of the sun. Here, amid many works of that +time given to Fra Lippo Lippi, Botticelli, Ghirlandajo, Donatello, and +others, in the south transept there is a Madonna with the family of de' +Nerli by Filippino Lippi, and in the Capponi Chapel a fine portrait of +Neri Capponi, while in the next chapel Perugino's Vision of St. Bernard, +now in Berlin, used to stand. Here, too, is a Statue of St. Sebastian, +nearly always invisible, said to be from the hand of Donatello; in the +choir is a Madonna enthroned by Lorenzo di Credi. The sacristy is +beautiful, built by Giovanni da Sangallo, and the cloisters now spoiled +are the work of Ammanati. And then, here Niccolo Niccoli is buried, that +great book-collector and humanist; while the barbarians are represented, +if only by the passing figure of Martin Luther, not then forsworn, who +is said to have preached here on his way to Rome. It is strange to think +that these beautiful pillars have heard his rough eloquence, an +eloquence that was so soon to destroy the spirit that had conceived +them. + +Close by in Piazza S. Spirito is Palazzo Guadagni, built for Ranieri Dei +at the end of the fifteenth century by Cronaca. It was not, however, +till 1684 that the Guadagni family came into possession of it. Bernardo +Guadagni, it will be remembered, was Gonfaloniere of Justice when Cosimo +de' Medici was expelled the city in 1433. Passing this palace and +turning to the right into Via Mazzetta, you pass at the corner the +Church of S. Felice, which has been so often a refuge,--for at first the +Sylvestrians had it, and held it till the fourteenth century, when it +passed to the Camaldolese, from whom it passed again to a congregation +of Dominican nuns and became a sort of refuge for women who had fled +away from their husbands. Within, you may find a few old pictures, a +Giottesque Crucifixion, and a Madonna and Saints, a fifteenth-century +work. Then, turning into Via Romana, you come, past the gardens of S. +Piero in Gattolino, to the Porta Romana, the great gate of the Via +Romana, the way to Rome, and before you is the Hill of Gardens, and +behind you is the garden of the Pitti Palace, Giardino di Boboli, and +farther still, across Via Romana, the Giardino Torrigiani. + +The Boboli Gardens, with their alley ways of ilex, their cypresses and +broken statues, their forgotten fountains, are full of sadness-- + + "Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur, + L'amour vainqueur et la vie opportune, + Ils n'ont pas l'air de croire a leur bonheur, + Et leur chanson se mele au clair de lune, + + "Au calme clair de lune triste et beau, + Qui fait rever les oiseaux dans les arbres, + Et sangloter d'extase les jets d'eau, + Les grands jets d'eau sveltes parmi les marbres." + +But the gardens of the Viale are in spring, at any rate, full of the joy +of roses, banks, hedges, cascades of roses, armsful of them, drowsy in +the heat and heavy with sweetness. + + "I'mi trovai, fanciulle, un bel mattino + Di mezzo maggio, in un verde giardino." + +[Illustration: THE BOBOLI] + +And if it be not the very place of which Poliziano sang in the most +beautiful verses he ever wrote, certainly to-day there is nothing more +lovely in Florence in spring, and in autumn too, than this Hill of +Gardens. In autumn too; for then the way that winds there about the +hills is an alley of gold, strewn with the leaves of the plane-trees +that the winds have scattered in countless riches under your feet; that +whisper still in golden beauty over your head. There, as you walk in +spring, while the city unfolds herself before you, a garden of roses in +which a lily has towered, or in the autumn afternoons when she is caught +in silver mist, a city of fragile and delicate beauty, that is soon lost +in the twilight, you may see Florence as she remains in spite of every +violation, Citta dei Fiori, Firenze la Bella Bellissima, the sweet +Princess of Italy. And, like the way of life, this road among the +flowers ends in a graveyard, the graveyard of S. Miniato al Monte, under +which nestles S. Salvatore, that little brown bird among the cypresses, +over the grey olives. + +The story of S. Miniato makes one of the more quiet chapters of Villani. +"Our city of Florence,"[113] he tells you, returning from I know not +what delightful digression, "was ruled long time under the government +and lordship of the Emperors of Rome, and oft-times the Emperors came to +sojourn in Florence, when they were journeying into Lombardy and into +Germany and into France to conquer provinces. And we find that Decius +the Emperor, in the first year of his reign, which was in the year of +Christ 270, was in Florence, the treasure-house and chancelry of the +empire, sojourning there for his pleasure; and the said Decius cruelly +persecuted the Christians wheresoever he could hear of them or find them +out, and he heard tell how the blessed S. Miniato was living as a +hermit, near to Florence, with his disciples and companions, in a wood +which was called Arisbotto di Firenze, behind the place where now stands +his church, above the city of Florence. This blessed Miniato was +first-born son to the King of Armenia, and having left his kingdom for +the faith of Christ, to do penance and to be far away from his kingdom, +he went over-seas to gain pardon at Rome, and then betook himself to the +said wood, which was in those days wild and solitary, forasmuch as the +city of Florence did not extend, and was not settled beyond Arno but was +all on this side,--save only there was one bridge across Arno, not, +however, where the bridges now are. And it is said by many that it was +the ancient bridge of the Fiesolans which led from Girone to Candegghi, +and this was the ancient and direct road and way from Rome to Fiesole +and to go into Lombardy and across the mountains. The said Emperor +Decius caused the said blessed Miniato to be taken, as his story +narrates. Great gifts and rewards were offered him, as to a king's son, +to the end he should deny Christ; and he, constant and firm in the +faith, would have none of his gifts, but endured divers martyrdoms. In +the end the said Decius caused him to be beheaded, where now stands the +Church of S. Candida alla Croce at Gorgo; and many faithful followers of +Christ received martyrdom in this place. And when the head of the +blessed Miniato had been cut off, by a miracle of Christ, with his hands +he set it again upon his trunk, and on his feet passed over Arno, and +went up the hill where now stands his church, where at that time there +was a little oratory in the name of the blessed Peter the Apostle, where +many bodies of holy martyrs were buried. And when S. Miniato was come to +that place, he gave up his soul to Christ, and his body was there +secretly buried by the Christians; the which place, by reason of the +merits of the blessed S. Miniato, was devoutly venerated by the +Florentines after they were become Christians, and a little church was +built there in his honour. But the great and noble church of marble +which is there now in our times, we find to have been built later by the +zeal of the venerable Father Alibrando, Bishop and citizen of Florence +in the year of Christ 1013, begun on the 26th day of April, by the +commandment and authority of the Catholic and holy Emperor, Henry II of +Bavaria, and of his wife, the holy Empress Gunegonda, which was +reigning in those times; and they presented and endowed the said church +with many rich possessions in Florence and in the country, for the good +of their souls, and caused the said church to be repaired and rebuilt of +marble, as it is now. And they caused the body of the blessed Miniato to +be translated to the altar, which is beneath the vaulting of the said +church, with much reverence and solemnity, by the said bishop and the +clergy of Florence, with all the people, both men and women of the city +of Florence; but afterwards the said church was completed by the +commonwealth of Florence, and the stone steps were made which lead down +by the hill; and the consuls of the Art of the Calimala were put in +charge of the said work of S. Miniato, and were to protect it." + +Thus far Villani: to-day S. Miniato, the church, and the great palace +built in 1234 by Andrea Mozzi, Bishop of Florence, come to us with +memories, not of S. Miniato alone, that somewhat shadowy martyr of so +long ago, but of S. Giovanni Gualberto also, of the Benedictines too, +and of the Olivetans, of the siege of 1529, when Michelangelo fortified +the place in defence of Florence, saving the tower from destruction, as +it is said, by swathing it in mattresses; of Cosimo I, who from here +held the city in leash. It is the most beautiful of the +Tuscan-Romanesque churches left to us in Florence; built in 1013 in the +form of a basilica, with a great nave and two aisles, the choir being +raised high above the rest of the church on twenty-eight beautiful red +ancient pillars, over a crypt where, under the altar, S. Miniato sleeps +through the centuries. The fading frescoes of the aisles, the splendour +and quiet of this great and beautiful church that has guarded Florence +almost from the beginning, that has seen Buondelmonte die at the foot of +the Statue of Mars, that has heard the voice of Dante and watched the +flight of Corso Donati, have a peculiar fascination, almost ghostly in +their strangeness, beyond anything else to be found in the city. And if +for the most part the church is so ancient as to rival the Baptistery +itself, the Renaissance has left there more than one beautiful thing. +For between the two flights of steps that lead out of the nave into the +choir, Michelozzo built in 1448, for Piero de' Medici a chapel to hold +the crucifix, now in S. Trinita, which bowed to S. Giovanni Gualberto +when he forgave his brother's murderer,[114] and in the left aisle is +the chapel, built in 1461 by Antonio Rossellino, where the young +Cardinal Jacopo of Portugal lies in one of the loveliest of all Tuscan +tombs, and there Luca della Robbia has placed some of his most charming +terracottas, and Alessio Baldovinetti has painted in fresco. In all +Tuscany there is nothing more lovely than that tomb carved in 1467 by +Antonio Rossellino for the body of the young Cardinal, but twenty-six +years old when he died, "having lived in the flesh as though he were +freed from it, an Angel rather than a man." Over the beautiful +sarcophagus, on a bed beside which two boy angels wait, the young +Cardinal sleeps, his delicate hands folded at rest at last. Above, two +angels kneel, about to give him the crown of glory which fadeth not +away, and Madonna, borne from heaven by the children, comes with her Son +to welcome him home. There, in the most characteristic work of the +fifteenth century, you find man still thinking about death, not as a +trance out of which we shall awaken to some terrible remembrance, but as +sleep, a sweet and fragile slumber, that has something of the drooping +of the flowers about it, in a certain touching beauty and regret that is +never bitter, but, like the ending of a song or the close of a fair day +of spring, that rightly, though not without sadness, passes into +silence, into night, in which shine only the eternal stars. + +It is strange that of all the difficult hills of Italy, it is the steep +way hither from Porto S. Niccola, of old, in truth Via Crucis, that +comes into Dante's mind when, in the Twelfth Purgatorio, he sees the +ascent to the second cornice, where is purged the sin of envy. Something +of the immense sadness of that terrible hill seems to linger to-day +about the Monti alle Croci: it is truly a hill of the dead, over which +hovers, pointing the way, some angel + + "la creatura bella + Bianco vestita, e nella faccia quale + Per tremolando mattutina Stella." + +The Convent of S. Salvatore--S. Francesco al Monte, as it was called of +old--was built in 1480 after a design by Cronaca. Hesitating among the +cypresses on the verge of the olives gardens, Michelangelo called it La +bella Villanella, and truly in its warm simplicity and shy loveliness it +is just that, a beautiful peasant girl among the vines in a garden of +olives. But she has been stripped of her treasures, her trinkets of +silver, her pretty gold chains, her gown of taffetas, her kerchief of +silk (do you not remember the verses of Lorenzo), and all these you will +find to-day, fading out of use in the Uffizi, where, in a palace that +has become a museum, they are most out of place: thus they have robbed +the peasants for the sake of the gold of the tourists, the sterile +ejaculations of the critics. + +It is well not to return to the city by the tramway, which rushes +through the trees of the Viale Michelangelo like I know not what hideous +and shrieking beast of prey, but to wander down towards the Piazzale, +and then, just before you came to it, on your left, by S. Salvatore, to +go down to Porta S. Miniato, that "gap in the wall," and then to pass by +the old wall itself up the hill to Porta di S. Giorgio among the olives +between the towers under the Belvedere. It is the most beautiful of all +the gates of the city, little, too, and still keeps its fresco of the +fourteenth century. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[113] Villani, _Cronica_, l. i. c. 57, translated by R.E. Selfe. +Constable, 1906. + +[114] See p. 363. + + + + +XXI. FLORENCE + +THE BARGELLO + + +If Arnolfo di Cambio is the architect not only of the Duomo but of the +Palazzo Vecchio, and if Orcagna conceived the delicate beauty of the +Loggia de' Lanzi, it is, if we may believe Vasari, partly to Arnolfo and +partly to Agnolo Gaddi that we owe Bargello, that palace so like a +fortress, at the corner of Via del Proconsolo and Via Ghibellina. Begun +in the middle of the thirteenth century for the Capitano del Popolo, it +later became the Palace of the Podesta, passing at last, under the Grand +Dukes, to the Bargello, the Captain of Justice, who turned it +barbarously enough into a prison, dividing the great rooms, as it is +said, into cells for his prisoners. To-day it is become the National +Museum, where all that could be gathered of the work of the Tuscan +sculptors is housed and arranged in order. + +Often as I wander through those rooms or loiter in the shadow under the +cloisters of the beautiful courtyard, perhaps the most lovely court in +Tuscany, the remembrance of that old fierce life which desired beauty so +passionately and was so eager for every superiority, comes to me, and I +ask myself how the dream which that world pursued with so much +simplicity and enthusiasm can have led us at last to the world of +to-day, with its orderly disorder, its trams and telegraphs and +steam-engines, its material comfort which, how strangely, we have +mistaken for civilisation. In all London there is no palace so fine as +this old prison, nor a square so beautiful as Piazza della Signoria. +Instead of Palazzo Pitti (so much more splendid is our civilisation than +theirs) we are content with Buckingham Palace, and instead of Palazzo +Riccardi we have made the desolate cold ugliness of Devonshire House. +Our craftsmen have become machine-minders, our people, on the verge of +starvation, as we admit, without order, with restraint, without the +discipline of service, having lost the desire of beauty or splendour, +have become serfs because they are ignorant and fear to die. And it is +we who have claimed half the world and thrust upon it an all but +universal domination. In thus bringing mankind under our rule, it is +ever of our civilisation that we boast, that immense barbarism which in +its brutality and materialism first tried to destroy the Latin Church +and then the Latin world, which alone could have saved us from +ourselves. Before our forests were cleared here in Italy they carved +statues, before our banks were founded here in Italy they made the +images of the gods, and in those days there was happiness, and men for +joy made beautiful things. And to-day, half dead with our own smoke, +herded together like wild beasts, slaves of our own inventions, ah, +blinded by our unthinkable folly, before the statues that they made, +before the pictures that they painted, before the palaces that they +built, in the churches where they still pray, stupefied by our own +stupidity, brutalised by our own barbarism, we boast of a civilisation +that has already made us ridiculous, and of which we shall surely die. +Here in the Bargello, the ancient palace of the Podesta of a Latin city, +let us be silent and forget our madness before the statues of the Gods, +the images of the great and beautiful people of old. + +Tuscan sculpture, that of all the arts, save architecture, was the first +to rise out of the destruction with which the barbarians of the North +had overwhelmed the Latin world, came to its own really in the fifteenth +century. After the beautiful convention of Byzantium had passed away, +and Gruamone and Adeodatus had carved at Pistoja, Biduinus at S. +Cassiano, Robertus at Lucca, Bonamicus and Bonannus at Pisa, and Guido +da Como again at Pistoja, in the work of Niccolo Pisano at Pisa we come +upon the first thought of the Renaissance, the reliefs of the pulpit in +the Baptistery, in which the Middle Age seems to have passed over the +work of Antiquity almost like a caress. In these panels of the pulpit at +Pisa, where Madonna masquerades as Ariadne and the angel speaks with the +gesture of Hermes, some sentiment of a new sweetness in the world seems +to lurk amid all the naive classicism, finding expression at last in +such a thing, for instance, as the divine figure of Virtue in the pulpit +of the Duomo of Siena, in which some have thought to find French +influence, the work of the artists of Chartres and Rheims, visible +enough, one might think, in the work of Niccolo's son Giovanni Pisano, +whose ivory Statue of Madonna is to-day perhaps the greatest treasure of +the sacristy of the Duomo at Pisa. + +Niccolo Pisano was from Apulia. He may well have seen the beautiful +fragments of Greek and Roman art scattered over the South before he came +to Pisa, yet there may, too, be more truth in Vasari's tale than we are +sometimes willing to admit, so that in the northern city beside Arno it +may well have been with a sort of delight he came upon the art of the +ancients, asleep in the beautiful Campo Santo of Pisa, and awakened it, +yes, almost with a kiss. + +It is, however, in the work of his pupils Giovanni Pisano and Arnolfo +Fiorentino[115] that Tuscan sculpture begins to throw off the yoke of +antiquity and to express itself. Fra Guglielmo, another pupil of +Niccolo's, in his work at Perugia more nearly preserves the manner of +his master, though always inferior to him in beauty and force: but in +the work of Arnolfo which remains to us chiefly in the tomb of Cardinal +de Braye in S. Domenico at Orvieto, and in the Tabernacle of S. Paolo +Fuori at Rome, and more especially in the work of Giovanni Pisano in the +pulpit for the Duomo of Pisa, now in the Museo, for instance, we may see +the beginnings of that new Tuscan sculpture which in Andrea Pisano and +Andrea Orcagna was to make the work of Nanni di Banco, of Ghiberti and +Donatello possible, and through them to inspire the art of all the +sculptors of the fifteenth century, that is to say of the Renaissance +itself. + +Here in the Bargello it is chiefly that art of the fifteenth century +that we see in all its beauty and realism: and though for the proper +understanding of it some knowledge of its derivation might seem to be +necessary, a knowledge not to be had in the Museo itself, it is really a +new impulse in sculpture, different from, though maybe directed by, that +older art which we come upon, and may watch there, in its dawn and in +its splendour, till with Bandinelli and the pupils of Michelangelo it +loses itself in a noisy grandiosity, a futile gesticulation. + +Realism, I said in speaking of the character of this fifteenth century +work, and indeed it is just there that we come upon the very thought of +the time. Sculpture is no longer content with mere beauty, it has +divined that something is wanting, yes, even in the almost miraculous +work of Niccolo Pisano himself; is it only an expression of character, +of the passing moment, of movement that is lacking, or something +comprising all these things--some indefinable radiance which is very +life itself? It is this question which seems to have presented itself to +the sculptors of the fifteenth century: and their work is their answer +to it. + +For even as the philosophers and alchemists had sought so patiently for +life, for the very essence of it, through all the years of the Middle +Age, so art now set out in search of it, the greatest treasure of all, +and seems to have found it at last, not hardly or hidden away in some +precipitous place of stones, or among the tombs, but as a little child +playing among the flowers. + +The great masters of the Middle Age had set themselves to express in +stone or colour the delicate beauty of the soul, its terror, too, in the +loneliness of the world, where only as it were by chance it might escape +everlasting death. The subtle beauty and pathos of their art has +escaped our eyes filled as they are with the marvellous work of Greece, +unknown till our own time, the splendid and joyful work of the +Renaissance, the mysterious and lovely work of our own day: it remains, +nevertheless, a consummate and exquisite art in its dawn, in its noon, +in its decadence, but it seeks to express something we have forgotten, +and its secret is for the most part altogether hidden from us. It is +from this art, as beautiful in its expression of itself as that of +Greece, that Niccolo Pisano turns away, not to Nature, but to Antiquity. +The movement which followed, producing while it continued almost all +that is to-day gathered in the Bargello, together with much else that is +still happily where it was born, is as it were an appeal from Antiquity +to Life, to Nature. In the simplicity and impulse of this movement, so +spontaneous, so touching, so full of a sense of beauty, which sometimes, +though not often, becomes prettiness, the art of sculpture, awakened at +last from the mysticism of the Middle Age, seems to look back with +longing to the antique world, which it would fain claim as its brother, +and after a little moment in the sun falls again into a sort of +mysticism, a new kingdom of the spirit with Michelangelo, and of the +senses merely with Sansovino and Giovanni da Bologna. + +Really Tuscan in its birth, the art of the Quattrocento became at last +almost wholly Florentine, a flower of the Val d'Arno or of the hills +about it, where even to-day at Settignano, at Fiesole, at Majano, at +Rovezzano, you may see the sculptors at work in an open bottega by the +roadside, the rough-hewn marble standing here and there in many sizes +and shapes, the chips and fragments strewing the highway. + +In the twilight of this new dawn of the love of nature, perhaps the +first figure we may descry is Piero di Giovanni Tedesco (1386-1402), who +carved the second south door of the Duomo about 1398, where amid so many +lovely natural things, the fig leaf and the oak leaf and the vine, you +may see the lion and the ox, the dog and the snail, and man too; little +fantastic children peeping out from the foliage, or blowing through +musical reeds, or playing with a kitten, tiny naked creatures full of +life and gladness. + +The second door north of the Duomo was carved by Niccolo di Piero +d'Arezzo, who was still working more than forty years after Tedesco's +death; but his best work, for we pass by his Statue of St. Mark in the +chapel of the apex of the Duomo, is the little Annunciation over the +niche of the St. Matthew of Or San Michele. In his work on the gate of +the Duomo, however, he was assisted by his pupil Nanni di Banco, who, +born in the fourteenth century, died in 1420; and in his work, and in +that of Jacopo della Quercia, a Sienese, and a much greater man, we see +the very dawn itself. + +Nanni di Banco, Vasari tells us, was a man who "inherited a competent +patrimony, and one by no means of inferior condition." He goes on to say +that Nanni was the pupil of Donatello, and though in any technical sense +that seems to be untrue, it may well be that he sought Donato's advice +whenever he could, for he seems to have practised his art for love of +it, and may well have recognised the genius of Donatello, who probably +worked beside him. He too worked at Or San Michele, where he carved the +St. Philip, the delightful relief under the St. George of Donatello, the +Four Saints, which seem to us so full of the remembrance of antiquity, +and the S. Eligius with its beautiful drapery, a little stupid still, or +sleepy is it, with the mystery of the Middle Age that after all was but +just passing away. Something of this sleepiness seems also to have +overtaken the St. Luke, that tired figure in the Duomo; and so it is +with a real surprise that we come at last upon the best work of Nanni's +life, "the first great living composition of the Renaissances," as +Burckhardt says, the Madonna della Cintola over Niccolo d'Arezzo's door +of the Duomo. Even with all the work of Ghiberti, of Donatello even, to +choose from, that relief of Madonna in an almond-shaped glory, +stretching out her hands among the cherubim, with a gesture so eager and +so moving to St. Thomas, who kneels before her, remains one of the most +beautiful works of that age, and one of the loveliest in all Tuscany. + +There follows Ciuffagni (1381-1457), that poor sculptor working in his +old age amid much that was splendid and strange at Rimini, where Lorenzo +Ghiberti (1378-1455) had painted in his youth. For all his genius, +Ghiberti, that euphuist, did not influence those who came after him as +Donatello did. His work, inspired by the past, by Andrea Pisano, for +instance, is full of the lost beauty of the Middle Age, the old secrets +of the Gothic manner. His solution of the problem before him, a problem +of movement, of character, of life, is to make the relief as purely +picturesque as possible; with him sculpture almost passes into painting, +using not without charm the perspective of a picture the mere seeming of +just that, but losing how profoundly, much of the nobility, the delight +of pure form, the genius peculiar to sculpture. As an artist pure and +simple, as a master of composition, he may well have no superior, for +the fantasy and beauty of his work, its complexity, too, are almost +unique, and entirely his own; but in simplicity, and in a certain sense +of reality, he is wanting, so that however delightful his work may be, +those "gates of Paradise," for instance, that Michelangelo praised, it +seems to be complete in itself, to suggest nothing but the wonderful +effect one may get by using the means proper to one art for expression +in another, as though one were to write a book that should have the +effect upon one of an opera, to allow the strange rhythm and sensuous +beauty of Tristan and Isolde, for instance, to disengage itself from +pages which were full of just musical words. + +Ghiberti's gift for composition, as well as his failure to understand, +or at least to satisfy the more fundamental needs of his art, may be +seen very happily in those two panels now in the Bargello, which he and +Brunellesco made in the competition for the gates of the Baptistery. +Looking on those two panels, where both artists have carved the +Sacrifice of Isaac, you see Ghiberti at his best, the whole interest not +divided, as it is in Brunellesco's panel, between the servants and the +sacrifice, but concentrated altogether upon that scene which is about +to become so tragical. Yet with what energy Brunellesco has conceived an +act that in his hands seems really to have happened. How swiftly the +angel has seized the hand of Abraham; how splendidly he stands, the old +man who is about to kill his only son for the love of God. And then +consider the beauty of Isaac, that naked body which in Brunellesco's +hands is splendid with life, really living and noble, with a truth and +loveliness far in advance of the art of his time. Ghiberti has felt none +of the joy of a creation such as this; his Isaac is sleepy, a little +surprised and altogether docile; he has not sprung up from his knees as +in Brunellesco's panel, but looks up at the angel as though he had never +understood that his very life was at stake. Yet it was in those gates +which, Brunellesco, as it is said, retiring from the contest, the Opera +then gave into his hands, that we shall find the best work of Ghiberti. +There it is really the art of Andrea Pisano that he takes as a master, +and with so fair an example before him produces as splendid a thing as +he ever accomplished, simpler too, and it may be more sincere, though a +little lacking in expressiveness and life. All the rest of his work +seems to me to be lacking in conviction, to be frankly almost an +experiment. His Statue of St. John Baptist, his St. Matthew and St. +Stephen, too, at Or San Michele, different though they are, and with six +years between each of them, seem alike in this, that they are, while +splendid in energy, wanting in purpose, in intention: he never seems +sufficiently sure of himself to convince us. His reliquary in bronze +containing the ashes of S. Zenobius in the apse of the Duomo, is +difficult to see, but it is in the manner of the gates of Paradise. It +was not to the disciples of Ghiberti that the future belonged, but to +those who have studied with Brunellesco. His crucifix in S. Maria +Novella, his Evangelists in the Pazzi Chapel, are among the finest work +of that age, full of life and the remembrance of it in their strength +and beauty. + +It is, however, in the art of a contemporary that the new age came at +last to its own--in the work of Donatello. In his youth he had worked +for the Duomo and for Or San Michele side by side with Nanni di Banco, +who may perhaps pass as his master. Of Donatello's life we know almost +nothing If we seek to learn something of him, it must be in his works of +which so many remain to us. We know, however, that he was the intimate +friend of Brunellesco, and that it was with him he set out for Rome soon +after this great and proud man had withdrawn from the contest with +Ghiberti for the Baptistery gates. Donatello was to visit Rome again in +later life, but on this first journey that he made with Brunellesco for +the purposes of study, he must have become acquainted with what was left +of antiquity in the Eternal City. It was too soon for that enthusiasm +for antiquity, which later overwhelmed Italian art so disastrously, to +have arisen. When Donatello returned about a year later to Florence to +work for the Opera del Duomo, it is not any classic influence we find in +his statues, but rather the study of nature, an extraordinary desire to +express not beauty, scarcely ever that, but character. His work is +strong, and often splendid, full of energy, movement, and conviction, +but save now and then, as in the S. Croce Annunciation, for instance, it +is not content with just beauty. + +Of his work for the Duomo and the Campanile, I speak elsewhere; it will +be sufficient here to note the splendour of the St. John the Divine in +the apse of the Duomo, which, as Burckhardt has divined, already +suggests the Moses of Michelangelo. The destruction of the unfinished +facade has perhaps made it more difficult to identify the figures he +carved there, but whether the Poggio of the Duomo, for instance, be Job +or no, seems after all to matter very little, since that statue itself, +be its subject what it may, remains to us. + +In his work at Or San Michele, in the St. Peter, in the St. Mark, so +like the St. John the Divine and in the St. George, here in the +Bargello, we see his progress, and there in that last figure we find +just that decision and simplicity which seem to have been his own, with +a certain frankness and beauty of youth which are new in his work. + +[Illustration: ST. JOHN THE DIVINE + +_By Donatello. Duomo, Florence_ + +_Alinari_] + +There are some ten works by the master in the Bargello, together with +numerous casts of his statues and reliefs in other parts of Italy, so +that he may be studied here better than anywhere else. Looking thus on +his work more or less as a whole, it is a new influence we seem to +divine for the first time in the marble David, a little faintly, +perhaps, but obvious enough in the St. George, a Gothic influence that +appears very happily for once, in work that almost alone in Italy seems +to need just that, well, as an excuse for beauty. That marble statue of +David was made at about the same time as the St. John the Divine, for +the Duomo too, where it was to stand within the church in a chapel there +in the apse. A little awkward in his half-shy pose, the young David +stands over the head of Goliath, uncertain whether to go or stay. It is +a failure which passes into the success, the more than success of the +St. George, which is perhaps his masterpiece. Made for the Guild of +Armourers, from the first day on which it was set up it has been +beloved. Michelangelo loved it well, and Vasari is enthusiastic about +it, while Bocchi, writing in 1571,[116] devotes a whole book to it. In +its present bad light--for the light should fall not across, but from in +front and from above, as it did once when it stood in its niche at Or +San Michele--it is not seen to advantage, but even so, the life that +seems to move in the cold stone may be discerned. With a proud and +terrible impetuosity St. George seems about to confront some renowned +and famous enemy, that old dragon whom once he slew. Full of confidence +and beauty he gazes unafraid, as though on that which he is about to +encounter before he moves forward to meet it. Well may Michelangelo have +whispered "March!" as he passed by, it is the very order he awaits, the +whisper of his own heart. It is in this romantic and beautiful figure +that, as it seems to me, that new Gothic influence may be most clearly +discerned. M. Reymond, in his learned and pleasant book on Florentine +sculpture, has pointed out the likeness which this St. George of +Donatello bears to the St. Theodore of Chartres Cathedral, and though +it is impossible to deny that likeness, it seems at first almost as +impossible to explain it. It is true that many Italians were employed in +France in the building of the churches; it is equally true that +Michelozzo, the friend and assistant of Donato, was the son of a +Burgundian; but it seems as unlikely that an Italian artist, inspired by +the French style, returned from France to work in Florence, as that +Michelozzo was born with a knowledge of the northern manner which he +never practised. An explanation, however, offers itself in the fact that +the Religious Orders, those internationalists, continually passed from +North to South, from East to West, from monastery to monastery, and that +they may well have brought with them certain statues in ivory of Madonna +or the Saints, in which such an one as Donatello could have found the +hint he needed. That such statues were known in Italy is proved not only +by their presence in this museum, but by the ivory Madonna of Giovanni +Pisano in the sacristy of the Duomo at Pisa. + +The Marzocco which stood of old on the Ringhiera before the Palazzo +Vecchio might seem to be a work of this period, for it is only saved by +a kind of good fortune from failure. It is without energy and without +life, but in its monumental weight and a certain splendour of design it +impresses us with a sort of majesty as no merely naturalistic study of a +lion could do. If we compare it for a moment with the heraldic shield in +Casa Martelli, where Donato has carved in relief a winged griffin +rampant, cruel and savage, with all the beauty and vigour of Verrocchio, +we shall understand something of his failure in the Marzocco, and +something, too, of his success. In that heavy grotesque and fantastic +Lion of the Bargello some suggestion of the monumental art of Egypt +seems to have been divined for a moment, but without understanding. + +In the Casa Martelli, too, you may find a statue of St. John Baptist, a +figure fine and youthful and melancholy, with the vague thoughts of +youth, really the elder brother as it were of the child of the Bargello, +who bears his cross like a delicate plaything, unaware of his destiny. +That figure, so full of mystery, seems to have haunted Donatello all his +life, and then St. John Baptist was the patron of Florence and presided +over every Baptistery in Italy; yet it is always with a particular +melancholy that Donatello deals with him, as though in his vague destiny +he had found as it were a vision. The child of the Bargello passes into +the boy of the Casa Martelli, that lad who maybe has heard a voice sweet +enough as yet while wandering by chance on the mountains, sandalled and +clad in camel's hair. We see him again as the chivalrous youth of the +Campanile, the dedicated, absorbed wanderer of the Bargello, the +haggard, emaciated prophet of the Friars' Church at Venice, and at last +as the despairing and ancient seer of Siena, a voice that is only a +voice weary of itself, crying unheeded in the wilderness. And, as it +seems to me in all these figures, which in themselves have so little +beauty, it is rather a mood of the soul that Donatello has set himself +to express than any delight. He has turned away from physical beauty, in +which man can no longer believe, using the body refined almost to the +delicacy and transparency of a shell, in which the soul may shine, or at +least be seen, in all its moods of happiness or terror. That weary +figure who, unconscious of his cross, unconscious of the world, absorbed +in his own destiny, in the scroll of his fate, trudges through the +wilderness without a thought of the way, is as far from the ideal +abstract beauty of the Greeks as from the romantic splendour of Gothic +art. Only with him the soul has lost touch with particular things, even +as the beauty of the Greeks was purged of all the accidents and feeling +that belonged alone to the individual. Like a ghost he passes by, intent +on some immortal sorrow; he is like a shadow on a day of sun, a dark +cloud over the moon, the wind in the desert. And in a moment, we knew +not why, our hearts are restless suddenly, we know not why, we are +unhappy, we know not why, we desire to be where we are not, or only to +forget. + +So in the bronze David now in the Bargello we seem to see youth itself +dreaming after the first victory of all the conquests to come, while a +smile of half-conscious delight, is passing from the lips; tyranny is +dead. It is the first nude statue of the Renaissance made for Cosimo de' +Medici before his exile. For Cosimo, too, the Amorino was made that +study of pure delight, where we find all the joy of the children of the +Cantoria, but without their unction and seriousness. And then in the +portrait busts the young Gattemalata, and the terra-cotta of Niccolo da +Uzzano, we may see Donatello's devotion to mere truthfulness without an +afterthought, as though for him Truth were beauty in its loyalty, at any +rate, to the impression of a moment that for the artist is eternity. + +His marvellous equestrian statue of Gattemalata is in Padua, his tomb +and reliefs and statues lie in many an Italian city, but here in the +Bargello we have enough of his work to enable us to divine something at +least of his secret. And this seems to me to have been Donatello's +intention in the art of sculpture: his figures are like gestures of +life, of the soul, sometimes involuntary and full of weariness, +sometimes altogether joyful, but always the expression of a mood of the +soul which is dumb, that in its agony or delight has in his work +expressed itself by means of the body, so that, though he never carves +the body for its own sake, or for the sake of beauty, he is as faithful +in his study of it for the sake of the truth, as he is in his study of +those moods of the soul which through him seem for the first time to +have found an utterance. His life was full of wanderings; beside the +journey to Rome with Brunellesco he went to Siena to make the tomb in +the Duomo there of Bishop Pecci of Grosseto, and in 1433, when Cosimo +de' Medici went into exile, he was again in Rome, and even in Naples. +Returning to Florence after no long time, in 1444, he went to Padua, +where he worked in S. Antonio and made the equestrian statue that was +the wonder of the world. On his return to Florence, an old man, a +certain decadence may be found in his work, so that his reliefs in S. +Lorenzo are not altogether worthy of him, are perhaps the work of a man +who is losing his sight and is already a little dependent on his +pupils. One of these, Bertoldo di Giovanni, who died in 1491, has left +us a beautiful relief of a battle, now in the Bargello, and later we +catch a glimpse of him in the garden of Lorenzo's villa directing the +studies in art of a number of young people, among whom was the youthful +Michelangelo. But of the real disciples of Donatello, those who, without +necessarily being his pupils, carried his art a step farther, we know +nothing. His influence seems to have died with him. Tuscan art after his +death, and even before that, had already set out on another road than +his. + +Something of that expressiveness, that _intimite_, which Pater found so +characteristic of Luca della Robbia, seems to have inspired all the +sculptors of the fifteenth century save Donatello himself. Not vitality +merely, but a wonderful sort of expressiveness--it is the mood of all +their work. It is perhaps in Luca della Robbia and his school that we +first come upon this strange sweetness, which is really a sort of +clairvoyance, as it were, to the passing aspect of the world, of men, of +the summer days that go by so fast, bringing winter behind them. What +the Greeks had striven to attain, that naturalness in sculpture, as +though the god were really about to breathe and put out its hand, that +wonderful vagueness of Michelangelo akin to nature, by which he attained +the same life giving effect, a something more than mere form, bloomed in +Luca's work like a new wild flower. Expression, life, the power to +express the spirit in marble and terra-cotta, these are what he really +discovered, and not the mere material of his art, that painted +earthenware, as Vasari supposes. + +Of his two great works in marble, the tomb of Benozzo Federighi, Bishop +of Fiesole, at San Miniato, and the Cantoria for the Duomo, of his +bronze doors for the sacristy there, and his work on the Campanile, I +speak elsewhere; but here in the Bargello, and all over Tuscany too, you +may see those terra-cotta reliefs of Madonna, of the Annunciation, of +the Birth of our Lord, painted first just white, and then blue and +white, and later with many colours which are peculiar to him and his +school--could such flower-like things have been born anywhere but in +Italy?--and then, if you take them away they fade in the shadows of the +North. + +Among the first to give Luca commissions for this exquisite work in clay +was Piero de' Medici. For him Luca decorated a small book-lined chamber +in the great Medici palace that Cosimo had built. His work was for the +ceiling and the pavement, the ceiling being a half sphere. For the hot +summer days of Italy, when the streets are a blaze of light and the sun +seems to embrace the city, this terra-cotta work with its cool whites +and blues, was particularly delightful bringing really, as it were, +something of the cool morning sea, the soft sky, into a place confined +and shut in, so that where they were, coolness and temperance might find +a safe retreat. And it was in such work as this that he found his fame. +Andrea della Robbia, his nephew, the best artist of his school, follows +him, and after come a host of artists, some little better than +craftsmen, who add colour to colour, till Luca's blue and white has been +almost lost amid the greens and yellows and reds which at last +altogether spoil the simplicity and beauty of what was really as +delicate as a flower peeping out from the shadow into the sun and the +rain. + +But of one of the pupils of Luca, Agostino di Duccio, 1418-81(?), +something more remains than these fragile and yet hardy works in +terra-cotta. He has carved in marble with something of Luca's gentleness +at Perugia and Rimini. He left Florence, it is said, in 1446, after an +accusation of theft, returning there to carve the lovely tabernacle of +the Ognissanti. It is said that he had tried unsuccessfully to deal with +that block of marble which stood in the Loggia dei Lanzi, and from which +Michelangelo unfolded the David. Two panels attributed to him remain in +the Bargello, a Crucifixion and a Pieta, which scarcely do him justice. +The last sculptor of the first half of the fifteenth century, his best +work seems to me to be at Rimini, where he worked for Sigismondo +Malatesta in the temple Alberti had built in that fierce old city by the +sea. + +It is with the second half of the fifteenth century that the art +contrived for the delight of private persons, for the decoration of +palaces, of chapels, and of tombs, begins. Already Donatello had worked +for Cosimo de' Medici, and had made portrait busts, and, as it might +seem, the work of Luca della Robbia was especially suited for private +altars or oratories, or the cool rooms of a people which had not yet +divided its religion from its life. And then, in Florence at any rate, +all the great churches were finished, or almost finished; it was +necessary for the artist to find other patrons. Among those workers in +metal who had assisted Ghiberti when he cast the reliefs of his first +baptistery gate was the father of a man who had with his brother learned +the craft of the goldsmiths. His name was Antonio Pollajuolo. Born in +1429, he was the pupil of his father and of Paolo Uccello, learning from +the latter the art of painting, which he practised, however, like a +sculptor, his real triumph being, in that art at any rate, one of +movement and force. His best works in sculpture seem to me to be his +tombs of Sixtus IV and Innocent VII in S. Pietro in Rome; but here in +the Bargello you may see the beautiful bust in terra-cotta of a young +condottiere in a rich and splendid armour, and a little bronze group of +Hercules and Antaeus. In the Opera del Duomo his silver relief of the +Birth of St. John Baptist is one of the finest works of that age; but +his art is seen at its highest in that terra-cotta bust here in the +Bargello, perhaps a sketch for a bronze, where he has expressed the +infinite confidence and courage of one of those captains of adventure, +who, with war for their trade, carried havoc up and down Italy. + +It is, however, in the work of another goldsmith--or at least the pupil +of one, whose name he took--that we find the greatest master of the new +age, Andrea Verrocchio. Born in 1435, and dead in 1488, he was +preoccupied all his life with the fierce splendour of his art, the +subtle sweetness that he drew from the strength of his work. The master, +certainly, of Lorenzo di Credi and Leonardo, and finally of Perugino +also, he was a painter as well as a sculptor; and though his greatest +work was achieved in marble and bronze, one cannot lightly pass by the +Annunciation of the Uffizi, or the Baptism of the Accademia. Neglected +for so long, he is at last recognised as one of the greatest of all +Italian masters of the Renaissance. + +The pupil of a goldsmith practising the craft of a founder, he cast the +sacristy gates of the Duomo for Luca della Robbia. In sculpture he +appears to have studied under Donatello, though his work shows little of +his influence; and working, as we may suppose, with his master in S. +Lorenzo, he made the bronze plaque for the tomb of Cosimo there before +the choir, and the monument of Piero and Giovanni de' Medici beside the +door of the sacristy. It was again for Lorenzo de' Medici that he made +the exquisite Child and Dolphin now in the court of Palazzo Vecchio, and +the statue of the young David now in Bargello. The subtle grace and +delight of this last seem not uncertainly to suggest the strange and +lovely work of Leonardo da Vinci. There for the first time you may +discern the smile that is like a ray of sunshine in Leonardo's shadowy +pictures. More perfect in craftsmanship and in the knowledge of anatomy +than Donatello, Verrocchio here, where he seems almost to have been +inspired by the David of his master, surpasses him in energy and beauty, +and while Donatello's figure is involved with the head of Goliath, so +that the feet are lost in the massive and almost shapeless bronze, +Verrocchio's David stands clear of the grim and monstrous thing at his +feet. Simpler, too, and less uncertain is the whole pose of the figure, +who is in no doubt of himself, and in his heart he has already "slain +his thousands." + +In the portrait of Monna Vanna degli Albizi, the Lady with the Nosegay, +Verrocchio is the author of the most beautiful bust of the Renaissance. +She fills the room with sunshine, and all day long she seems to whisper +some beloved name. A smile seems ever about to pass over her face under +her clustering hair, and she has folded her beautiful hands on her +bosom, as though she were afraid of their beauty and would live ever in +their shadow. + +[Illustration: THE LADY WITH THE NOSEGAY (VANNA TORNABUONI?) + +_In the Bargello. Andrea Verrocchio_ + +_Alinari_] + +In two reliefs of Madonna and Child, one in marble and one in +terra-cotta, you find that strange smile again, not, as with Leonardo, +some radiance of the soul visible for a moment on the lips, but the +smile of a mother happy with her little son. In the two Tornabuoni +reliefs that we find here too in the Bargello, it is not Verrocchio's +hand we see; but in the group of Christ and St. Thomas at Or San +Michele, and in the fierce and splendid equestrian statue of Bartolomeo +Colleoni at Venice, you see him at his best, occupied with a subtle +beauty long sought out, and with an expression of the fierce ardour and +passion that consumed him all his life. He touches nothing that does not +live with an ardent splendour and energy of spirit because of him. If he +makes only a leaf of bronze for a tomb, it seems to quiver under his +hands with an inextinguishable vitality. + +Softly beside him, untouched by the passion of his style, grew all the +lovely but less passionate works of the sculptors in marble, the sweet +and almost winsome monuments of the dead. Bernardo Rossellino, born in +1409, his elder by more than twenty years, died more than twenty years +before him, in 1464, carving, among other delightful things, the lovely +Annunciation at Empoli, the delicate monument of Beata Villana in S. +Maria Novella, and creating once for all, in the tomb of Leonardo Bruni +in S. Croce, the perfect pattern of such things, which served as an +example to all the Tuscan sculptors who followed, till Michelangelo +hewed the great monuments in the Sacristy of S. Lorenzo. His brother +Antonio, born in 1427, worked with him at Pistoja certainly in the tomb +of Filippo Lazzari in S. Domenico, surpassing him as a sculptor, under +the influence of Desiderio da Settignano. His finest work is the +beautiful tomb in S. Miniato of the young Cardinal of Portugal, who died +on a journey to Florence. In that strange and lovely place there is +nothing more beautiful than that monument under the skyey work of Luca +della Robbia, before the faintly coloured frescoes of Alessio +Baldovinetti. Under a vision of Madonna borne by angels from heaven, +where two angels stoop, half kneeling, on guard, the young Cardinal +sleeps, supported by two heavenly children, his hands--those delicate +hands--folded in death. Below, on a frieze at the base of the tomb, +Antonio has carved all sorts of strange and beautiful things--a skull +among the flowers over a garland harnessed to two unicorns; angels too, +youthful and strong, lifting the funeral vases. At Naples, again, he +carved the altar of the Cappella Piccolomini in S. Maria at Montoliveto. +Here in the Bargello some fragments of beautiful things have been +gathered--a tabernacle with two adoring angels, a little St. John made +in 1477 for the Opera, a relief of the Adoration of the Shepherds, +another of Madonna in an almond-shaped glory of cherubim, and, last of +all, the splendid busts of Matteo Palmieri and Francesco Sassetti; but +his masterpiece in pure sculpture is the S. Sebastian in the Collegiata +at Empoli, a fair and youthful figure without the affectation and +languor that were so soon to fall upon him. + +Perhaps the greatest of these sculptors in marble, whose works, as +winsome as wild flowers, are scattered over the Tuscan hills, was +Desiderio da Settignano, born in 1428. He had worked with Donatello in +the Pazzi Chapel, and his tabernacle in the chapel of the Blessed +Sacrament in S. Lorenzo is one of the most charming things left in that +museum of Tuscan work. Of his beautiful tomb of Carlo Marsuppini in S. +Croce I speak elsewhere: it is worthy of its fellows--Bernardo +Rosellino's tomb of Leonardo Bruni in the same church, and the tomb of +the Cardinal of Portugal by Antonio Rossellino at S. Miniato. Desiderio +has not the energy of Rossellino or the passionate ardour of Verrocchio. +He searches for a quiet beauty full of serenity and delight. His work in +the Bargello is of little account. The bust of a girl (No. 198 in the +fifth room on the top floor) is but doubtfully his: Vasari speaks only +of the bust of Marietta Strozzi, now in Berlin. He died in 1464, and his +work, so rare, so refined and delicate in its beauty, comes to its own +in the perfect achievement of Benedetto da Maiano, born in 1442, who +made the pulpit of S. Croce, the ciborium of S. Domenico in Siena. It +was for Pietro Mellini that he carved the pulpit of S. Croce, and here +in the Bargello we may see the bust he made of his patron. In his youth +he had carved in wood and worked at the intarsia work so characteristic +a craft of the fifteenth century; but on bringing some coffers of this +work to the King of Hungary, Vasari relates that he found they had +fallen to pieces on the voyage, and ever after he preferred to work in +marble. Having acquired a competence, of this work too he seems to have +tired, devoting himself to architectural work--porticos, altars, and +such--buying an estate at last outside the gate of Prato that is towards +Florence; dying in 1497. + +It is with a prolific master, Mino da Fiesole, the last pupil, according +to Vasari, of Desiderio da Settignano, that the delicate and flower-like +work of the Tuscan sculptors may be said to pass into a still lovely +decadence. His facile work is found all over Italy. The three busts of +the Bargello are among his earliest and best works--the Piero de' +Medici, the Giuliano de' Medici, and the small bust of Rinaldo della +Luna. There, too, are two reliefs from his hand, and some tabernacles +which have no great merit. A relief of the Madonna and Child is a finer +achievement in his earlier manner, and in the Duomo of Fiesole there +remains a bust of the Bishop, Leonardo Salutati, while in the same +chapel, an altar and relief, from his hand, seem to prove that it was +only a fatal facility that prevented him from becoming as fine an artist +as Benedetto da Maiano. + +With Andrea Sansovino, born in 1460, we come to the art of the sixteenth +century, very noble and beautiful, at any rate in its beginning, but so +soon to pass into a mere affectation. The pupil, according to Vasari, of +Antonio Pollaiuolo, Sansovino's work is best seen in Rome. Here in +Florence he made in his youth the altar of the Blessed Sacrament in the +left transept of S. Spirito, and in 1502 the Baptism of Christ, over the +eastern gates of the Baptistery, but this was finished by another hand. +And there followed him Benedetto da Rovezzano, whose style has become +classical, the sculptor of every sort of lovely furniture,--mantelpieces, +tabernacles, and such,--yet in his beautiful reliefs of the life of +S. Giovanni Gualberto you see the work of the sixteenth century at its +best, without the freshness and delicate charm of fifteenth-century +sculpture, but exquisite enough in its perfect skill, its real +achievement. + +There follows Michelangelo (1475-1564). It is with a sort of surprise +one comes face to face with that sorrowful, heroic figure, as though, +following among the flowers, we had come upon some tragic precipice, +some immense cavern too deep for sight. How, after the delight, the +delicate charm of the fifteenth century, can I speak of this beautiful, +strong, and tragic soul? It might almost seem that the greatest Italian +of the sixteenth century has left us in sculpture little more than an +immortal gesture of despair, of despair of a world which he has not been +content to love. His work is beautiful with the beauty of the mountains, +of the mountains in which he alone has found the spirit of man. His +figures, half unveiled from the living rock, are like some terrible +indictment of the world he lived in, and in a sort of rage at its +uselessness he leaves them unfinished, and it but half expressed;--an +indictment of himself too, of his own heart, of his contempt for things +as they are. Yet in his youth he had been content with beauty--in the +lovely Pieta of S. Pietro, for instance, where, on the robe of Mary, +alone in all his work he has placed his name; or in the statue of +Bacchus, now here in the Bargello, sleepy, half drunken with wine or +with visions, the eyelids heavy with dreams, the cup still in his hand. +But already in the David his trouble is come upon him; the sorrow that +embittered his life has been foreseen, and in a sort of protest against +the enslavement of Florence, that nest where he was born, he creates +this hero, who seems to be waiting for some tyranny to declare itself. +The Brutus, unfinished as we say, to-day in the Bargello, he refused to +touch again, since that city which was made for a thousand lovers, as he +said, had been enjoyed by one only, some Medici against whom, as we +know, he was ready to fight. If in the beautiful relief of Madonna we +find a sweetness and strength that is altogether without bitterness or +indignation, it is not any religious consolation we find there, but such +comfort rather as life may give when in a moment of inward tragedy we +look on the stars or watch a mother with her little son. What secret and +immortal sorrow and resentment are expressed in those strange and +beautiful figures of the tombs in the Sacristy of S. Lorenzo! The names +we have, given them are, as Pater has said, too definite for them; they +suggest more than we know how to express of our thoughts concerning +life, so that for once the soul of man seems there to have taken form +and turned to stone. The unfinished Pieta in the Duomo, it is said, he +carved for his own grave: like so much of his great, tragical work, it +is unfinished, unfinished though everything he did was complete from the +beginning. For he is like the dawn that brings with it noon and evening, +he is like the day which will pass into the night. In him the spirit of +man has stammered the syllables of eternity, and in its agony of longing +or sorrow has failed to speak only the word love. All things particular +to the individual, all that is small or of little account, that endures +but for a moment, have been purged away, so that Life itself may make, +as it were, an immortal gesticulation, almost monstrous in its +passionate intensity--a mirage seen on the mountains, a shadow on the +snow. And after him, and long before his death, there came Baccio +Bandinelli and the rest, Cellini the goldsmith, Giovanni da Bologna, and +the sculptors of the decadence that has lasted till our own day. With +him Italian art seems to have been hurled out of heaven; henceforth his +followers stand on the brink of Pandemonium, making the frantic gestures +of fallen gods. + +[Illustration: "LA NOTTE" + +_From Tomb of Giulinto de' Medici. Michelangelo_ + +_Anderson_] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[115] It seems necessary to note that probably Arnolfo Fiorentino and +Arnolfo di Cambio are not the same person. Cf. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, +_op. cit._ vol. i. p. 127, note 4. + +[116] Eccellenza della Statua di S. Giorgio di Donatello: Marescotti, +1684. + + + + +XXII. FLORENCE + +ACCADEMIA + + +Florentine art, that had expressed itself so charmingly, and at last so +passionately and profoundly, in sculpture, where design, drawing, that +integrity of the plastic artist, is everything, and colour almost +nothing at all, shows itself in painting, where it is most +characteristic, either as the work of those who were sculptors +themselves, or had at least learned from them--Giotto, Orcagna, +Masaccio, the Pollaiuoli, Verrocchio, and Michelangelo--or in such work +as that of Fra Angelico, Fra Lippo Lippi, Botticelli, and Leonardo, +where painting seems to pass into poetry, into a canticle or a hymn, a +Trionfo or some strange, far-away, sweet music. The whole impulse of +this art lies in the intellect rather than in the senses, is busied +continually in discussing life rather than in creating it, in discussing +one by one the secrets of movement, of expression; always more eager to +find new forms for ideas than to create just life itself in all its +splendour and shadow, as Venice was content to do. Thus, while Florence +was the most influential school of art in Italy, her greatest sons do +not seem altogether to belong to her: Leonardo, a wanderer all his life, +founds his school in Milan, and dies at last in France; Michelangelo +becomes almost a Roman painter, the sculptor, the architect in paint of +the Sistine Chapel; while Andrea del Sarto appears from the first as a +foreigner, the one colourist of the school, only a Florentine in this, +that much of his work is, as it were, monumental, composing itself +really--as with the Madonna delle Arpie or the great Madonna and Saints +of the Pitti, for instance--into statuesque groups, into sculpture. So +if we admit that Leonardo and Michelangelo were rather universal than +Florentine, the most characteristic work of the school lies in the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in the work of Giotto, so full of +great, simple thoughts of life; in that of the Pollaiuoli, so full of +movement; but most of all perhaps in the work of Angelico, Lippo Lippi, +and Botticelli, where the significance of life has passed into beauty, +into music. + +The rise of this school, so full of importance for Italy, for the world, +is very happily illustrated in the Accademia della Belle Arti; and if +the galleries of the Uffizi can show a greater number of the best works +of the Florentine painters, together with much else that is foreign to +them; if the Pitti Palace is richer in masterpieces, and possesses some +works of Raphael's Florentine period and the pictures of Fra Bartolomeo +and Andrea del Sarto, as well as a great collection of the work of the +other Italian schools, it is really in the Accademia we may study best +the rise of the Florentine school itself, finding there not only the +work of Giotto, his predecessors and disciples, but the pictures of Fra +Angelico, of Verrocchio, of Filippo Lippi, of Botticelli, the painters +of that fifteenth century which, as Pater has told us, "can hardly be +studied too much, not merely for its positive results in the things of +the intellect and the imagination, its concrete works of art, its +special and prominent personalities with their profound aesthetic charm, +but for its general spirit and character, for the ethical qualities of +which it is a consummate type." + +The art of the Sculptors had been able to free itself from the beautiful +but sterile convention of the Byzantine masters earlier than the art of +Painting, because it had found certain fragments of antiquity scattered +up and down Southern Italy, and in such a place as the Campo Santo of +Pisa, to which it might turn for guidance and inspiration. No such +forlorn beauty remained in exile to renew the art of painting. All the +pictures of antiquity had been destroyed, and though in such work as +that of the Cavallini and their school at Assisi there may be found a +faint memory of the splendour that had so unfortunately passed away, it +is rather the shadow of the statues we find there--in the Abraham of the +upper church of S. Francesco, for instance--than the more lyrical and +mortal loveliness of the unknown painters of Imperial Rome. Yet it is +there, in that lonely and beautiful church full of the soft sweet light +of Umbria, that Giotto perhaps learned all that was needed to enable him +not only to recreate the art of painting, but to decide its future in +Italy. + +Here in the Accademia in the Sala dei Maestri Toscani you may see an +altarpiece that has perhaps come to us from his hands, amid much +beautiful languid work that is still in the shadow of the Middle Age, or +that, coming after him, has almost failed to understand his message, the +words of life which may everywhere be found in his frescoes in Assisi, +in Florence, in Padua, spoiled though they be by the intervention of +fools, the spoliation of the vandals. + +Those strange and lovely altarpieces ruthlessly torn from the convents +and churches of Tuscany still keep inviolate the secret of those who, +not without tears, made them for the love of God: once for sure they +made a sunshine in some shadowy place. Hung here to-day in a museum, +just so many specimens that we number and set in order, they seem rude +and fantastic enough, and in the cold light of this salone, crowded +together like so much furniture, they have lost all meaning or +intention. They are dead, and we gaze at them almost with contempt; they +will never move us again. That rude and almost terrible picture of +Madonna and Saints with its little scenes from the life of our Lord, +stolen from the Franciscan convent of S. Chiara at Lucca, what is it to +us who pass by? Yet once it listened for the prayers of the little nuns +of S. Francis, and, who knows, may have heard the very voice of Il +Poverello. That passionate and dreadful picture of St. Mary Magdalen +covered by her hair as with a robe of red gold, does it move us at all? +Will it explain to us the rise of Florentine painting? And you, O +learned archaeologist, you, O scientific critic, you, O careless and +curious tourist, will it bring you any comfort to read (if you can) the +inscription-- + + "Ne desperetis, vos qui peccare soletis + Exemploque meo vos reperate Deo." + +Those small pictures of the life of St. Mary, which surround her still +with their beauty, do you even know what they mean? And if you do, are +they any more to you than an idle tale, a legend, which has lost even +its meaning? No, we look at these faint and far-off things merely with +curiosity as a botanist looks through his albums, like one who does not +know flowers. + +Then there is the great Ancona (102) from S. Trinita attributed to +Cimabue about which the critics have been so eloquent, till under their +hands Cimabue has vanished into a mere legend; and Madonna too, is she +now any more than a tale that is told? Beside it you find another +Madonna (103) from Ognissanti which they agree together is really from +the hand of Giotto, though with how much intervention and repainting; +but they confess too that there is little to be learnt from it, since +Giotto may be seen to better advantage and more truly himself in his +frescoes, which yet remain in the churches as of old. And it is for this +we have robbed the lowly and stolen away the images of their gods. + +It is a lesser because a merely imitative art that you see in the work +of Taddeo Gaddi and the Madonna and Child with six saints of his son +Agnolo, or the Entombment ascribed to Taddeo but really the work of an +inferior painter, Niccolo di Pietro Gerini from Or San Michele. Yet +those twelve scenes from the lives of Christ and St. Francis are lovely +enough; and in the Crucifixion there (112) we seem to see the work of a +master. A host of painters, "the Giottesques," as we may call them, +followed: Puccio Capanna, Buffalmacco, Francesco da Volterra, Stefano +Fiorentino, the grandson of Giotto, Giottino, and Spinello Aretino, all +of whom were painting about the middle of the fourteenth century in +Giotto's manner but without his genius, or any true understanding of his +art. The gradual passing of this derivative work, the prophecy of such +painters as Masolino, Masaccio, and Fra Angelico may be found in the +work of Orcagna, of Antonio Veneziano, and Starnina, and possibly too in +the better-preserved paintings of Lorenzo Monaco of the order of S. +Romuald of Camaldoli, in the Annunciation (143), for instance, here in +this very room. + +Andrea Orcagna was born about 1308. He was a man of almost universal +genius, but his altarpiece in S. Maria Novella is nearly all that +remains to us of his painting, and splendid though it be, has been +perhaps spoiled by a later hand than his. In the Accademia here there is +a Vision of St. Bernard (No. 138), faint, it is true, but still soft and +charming in colour, while in the Uffizi there is in the corridor an +altarpiece with St. Matthew in the midst that is certainly partially his +own. Nothing at all remains to us of the work of Starnina, the master of +Masolino, and thus we lose the link which should connect the art of +Giotto and the Giottesques with the art of Masolino and Angelico.[117] +It was about the same time as Starnina was painting in the chapel of S. +Girolamo at the Carmine that Lorenzo Monaco was working in the manner of +Agnolo Gaddi. His work is beautiful by reason of its delicacy and +gentleness, but it is so completely in the old manner that Vasari gives +his altarpiece of the Annunciation now here in the Accademia (No. 143) +to Giotto, praising that master for the tremulous sweetness of Madonna +as she shrinks before the Announcing Angel just about to alight from +heaven. It is a very different scene you come upon in his altarpiece in +S. Trinita, where Gabriel, his beautiful wings furled, has already +fallen on his knees, and our Lord Himself, still among the Cherubim, +speeds the Dove to Mary, who has looked up from her book suddenly in an +ecstasy. + +[Illustration: THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS + +_By Domenico Ghirlandajo, Accademia_ + +_Anderson_] + +No work that we possess of the fourteenth century, save Giotto's, +prepares us for the frescoes of Masolino: they must be sought in the +Brancacci Chapel of the Carmine. But of the work of Masaccio his pupil, +though his best work remains in the same place, there may be found here +in the Accademia an early altarpiece of Madonna and Child with St. +Anne (Sala III, No. 70). Born in 1401, dying when he was but +twenty-seven years of age, he recreated for himself that reality in +painting which it had been the chief business of Giotto to discover. +Influenced by Donatello, his work is almost as immediate as that of +sculpture. Impressive and full of an energy that seems to be life +itself, his figures have almost the sense of reality. "I feel," says Mr. +Berenson, "that I could touch every figure, that it would yield a +definite resistance ... that I could walk round it." There follow Paolo +Uccello, whose work will be found in the Uffizi, and Andrea del +Castagno, who painted the equestrian portrait of Niccolo da Tolentino in +the Duomo, and the frescoes in S. Apollonia. + +Thus we come really into the midst of the fifteenth century, to the work +of Fra Angelico, Fra Lippo Lippi, and Botticelli, which we have loved so +much. + +It is really the Middle Age, quite expressed for once, by one who, +standing a little way off perhaps, could almost scorn it, that we come +upon in Gentile da Fabriano's picture, on an easel here, of the +Adoration of the Shepherds. It is one of the loveliest of all early +Umbrian pictures, full of a new kind of happiness that is about to +discover the world. And if with Gentile we seem to look back on the +Middle Age from the very dawn of the Renaissance, it is the Renaissance +itself, the most simple and divine work it achieved in its earliest and +best days, that we see in the work of Fra Angelico. One beautiful and +splendid picture, the Descent from the Cross, alas! repainted, stands +near Gentile's Adoration, among several later pictures, of which +certainly the loveliest is a gentle and serene work by Domenico +Ghirlandajo, an Adoration of the Shepherds; but the greater part of +Angelico's work to be found here is in another room. There, in many +little pictures, you may see the world as Paradise, the very garden +where God talked with Adam. Or he will tell us the story of S. Cosmas +and S. Damian, those good saints who despised gold, so that with their +brethren they were cast into a furnace, but the beautiful bright flames +curled and leaped away from them as at the breath of God, licking +feverishly at the persecutors, who with iron forks try to thrust the +faggots nearer, while one hides from the heat of the fire behind his +shield, and another, already dead, is consumed by the flames. Above in a +gallery of marble, decked with beautiful rugs and hangings of +needlework, the sultan looks on astonished amid his courtiers. Or it is +the story of our Lord he tells us: how in the evening Mary set out from +Nazareth mounted on a mule, her little son in her arms, Joseph following +afoot, with a pipkin for the fire in the wilderness, and a _fiasco_ of +wine lest they be thirsty, a great stick over his shoulder for the +difficult way, and a cloak too, for our Lady. Or it is the Annunciation +he shows us: how in the dawn of that day of days, his bright wings still +tremulous with flight, Gabriel fell like a snowflake in the garden, in +the silence of the cypresses between two little loggias, light and fair, +where Madonna was praying; far and far away in the faint clear sky the +Dove hovers, that is the Spirit of God, the Desire of all Nations. Or it +is Hosanna he sings, when Christ rides under the stripped palms into +Jerusalem, while the people strew the way with branches. Or again he +will tell us of Paradise, beneath whose towers, in a garden of wild +flowers, the saints dance with the angels, crowned with garlands, in the +light that streams through the gates of heaven from the throne of God. + +How may we rightly speak of such a man, who in his simplicity has seen +angels on the hills of Tuscany, the flowers and trees of our world +scattered in heaven? Truly his master is unknown, for, as perhaps he was +too simple to say, St. Luke taught him in an idle hour, after the vision +of the Annunciation, when he was tired of writing the Magnificat of +Mary: and Angelico was his only pupil. That such things as these could +come out of the cloister is not so marvellous as that, since they grew +there, we should have suppressed the convents and turned the friars +away. For just as the lily of art towered first and broke into blossom +on the grave of St. Francis, so here in the convent of S. Marco of the +Dominicans was one who for the first time seems to have seen the world, +the very byways and hills of Tuscany, and dreamed of them as heaven. + +It was another friar who was, as it were, to people that world, a little +more human perhaps, a little less than Paradise, which Angelico had +seen; to people it at least with children, little laughing rascals from +the street corner, caught with a soldo and turned into angels. Another +friar, but how different. The story, so romantic, so full of laughter +and tears, that Vasari has told us of Fra Lippo Lippi, is one of his +best known pages; I shall not tell it again. Four little panels painted +by him are here in this room, beside the work of Fra Angelico. While not +far away you come upon two splendid studies by Perugino of two monks of +the Vallombrosa, Dom Biagio Milanesi and Dom Baldassare, the finest +portraits he ever painted, and in some sort his most living work.[118] +Four other works by Perugino may also be found here,--the Assumption of +the Blessed Virgin, a Pieta, and the Agony in the Garden in the Sala di +Perugino, a Crucifixion in the Sala di Botticelli. The Assumption was +painted at Vallombrosa late in the year 1500, and is a fine piece of +work in Perugino's more mannered style. Above, God the Father, in a +glory of cherubim with a worshipping angel on either side, blesses +Madonna, who in mid-heaven gazes upward, seated on a cloud, in a +mandorla of cherubs, surrounded by four angels playing musical +instruments, while two others are at her feet following her in her +flight; below, three saints, with St. Michael, stand disconsolate. In +the Pieta, painted much earlier, where the dead Christ lies on His +Mother's knees, while an angel holds the head of the Prince of Life on +his shoulders, and Mary Magdalen weeps at his feet, and two saints, St. +John and St. Joseph, perhaps, watch beside Him, there might seem to be +little to hold us or to interest us at all; the picture is really +without life, just because everything is so unreal, and if we gather any +emotion there, it will come to us from the soft sky, full of air and +light, that we see through a splendid archway, or from a tiny glimpse of +the valley that peeps from behind Madonna's robe. And surely it was in +this valley, on a little hill, that, as we may see in another picture +here, Christ knelt; yes, in the garden of the world, while the disciples +slept, and the angel brought Him the bitter cup. Not far away is +Jerusalem, and certain Roman soldiers and the priests; but it is not +these dream-like figures that attract us, but the world that remains +amid all interior changes still the same, and, for once in his work, +those tired men, really wearied out, who sleep so profoundly while +Christ prays. In the Crucifixion all the glamour, the religious +impression that, in Perugino's work at least, space the infinite heaven +of Italy, the largeness of her evening earth, make on one, is wanting, +and we find instead a mere insistence upon the subject. The world is +dark under the eclipsed sun and moon, and the figures are full of +affectation. Painted for the convent of St. Jerome, it was necessary to +include that saint and his lion, that strangely pathetic and sentimental +beast, so full of embarrassment, that looks at one so wearily from many +an old picture in the galleries of the world. If something of that +clairvoyance which created his best work is wanting here, it has +vanished altogether in that Deposition which Filippino Lippi finished, +and instead of a lovely dream of heaven and earth, one finds a laboured +picture full of feats of painting, of cleverness, and calculated +arrangement. This soft Umbrian world of dreamy landscape, which we find +in Perugino's pictures, is like a clearer vision of the land we already +descry far off with Fra Angelico, where his angels sing and his saints +dance for gladness. + +It is a different and a more real life that you see in the work of Fra +Lippo Lippi. Realism, it is the very thought of all Florentine work of +the fifteenth century. Seven pictures by the Frate have been gathered in +this gallery,--the Madonna and Child Enthroned, the St. Jerome in the +Desert, a Nativity, a Madonna adoring Her Son, and the great Coronation +of the Virgin, the Archangel Gabriel and the Baptist, and a Madonna and +St. Anthony. + +Here in the Accademia you may see Lucrezia Buti, that pale beauty whom +he loved, very fair and full of languor and sweetness. She looks at you +out of the crowd of saints and angels gathered round the feet of +Madonna, whom God crowns from His throne of jasper. Behind her, looking +at her always, Lippo himself comes--_iste perfecit opus_,--up the steps +into that choir where the angels crowned with roses lift the lilies, as +they wait in some divine interval to sing again Alleluia. And for this +too he should be remembered, for his son was Filippino Lippo and his +pupil Sandro Botticelli. + +The Accademia possesses some five pictures by Botticelli,--the +Coronation of the Virgin and its predella (Nos. 73, 74), the Madonna +with saints and angels (No. 85), the Dead Christ (No. 157), the Salome +(No. 161), and the Primavera (No. 80). The Coronation is from the +Convent of S. Marco, and seems to have been painted after Botticelli had +fallen under the strange, unhappy influence of Savonarola; much the same +might be said of the Madonna with saints and angels, where his +expressiveness, that quality which in him was genius, seems to have +fallen almost into a mannerism, a sort of preconceived attitude; and +certainly here, where such a perfect thing awaits us, it is rather to +the Spring we shall turn at once than to anything less splendid. + +The so-called Primavera was painted for Lorenzo de' Medici, and in some +vague way seems to have been inspired by Poliziano's verses in praise of +Giuliano de' Medici and Bella Simonetta-- + + "Candida e ella, e Candida la vesta, + Ma pur di rose e fior dipinta e d'erba: + Lo innanellato crin dell' aurea testa + Scende in la fronte umilmente superba. + Ridele attorno tutta la foresta, + E quanto puo sue cure disacerba. + Nell' atto regalmente e mansueta; + E pur col ciglio le tempeste acqueta."[119] + +Here at last we see the greatest, the most personal artist of the +fifteenth century really at his best, in that fortunate moment of +half-pensive joy which was so soon to pass away. How far has he +wandered, and through what secret forbidden ways, from the simple +thoughts of Angelico, the gay worldly laughter of Lippo Lippi. On that +strange adventurous journey of the soul he has discovered the modern +world, just our way of looking at things, as it were, with a sort of +gift for seeing in even the most simple things some new and subtle +meaning. And then, in that shadowy and yet so real kingdom in which, not +without a certain timidity, he has ventured so far, he has come upon the +very gods in exile, and for him Venus is born again from the foam of the +sea, and Mars sleeping in a valley will awake to find her beside him, +not as of old full of laughter, disdain, and joy; but half reconciled, +as it were, to sorrow, to that change which has come upon her so that +men now call her Mary, that name in which bitter and sweet are mingled +together. With how subtly pensive a mien she comes through the spring +woods here in the Primavera, her delicate hand lifted half in protest, +half in blessing of that gay and yet thoughtful company,--Flora, her +gown full of roses, Spring herself caught in the arms of Aeolus, the +Graces dancing a little wistfully together, where Mercurius touches +indifferently the unripe fruit with the tip of his caducaeus, and Amor +blindfold points his dart, yes almost like a prophecy of death.... What +is this scene that rises so strangely before our eyes, that are filled +with the paradise of Angelico, the heaven of Lippo Lippi. It is the new +heaven, the ancient and beloved earth, filled with spring and peopled +with those we have loved, beside whose altars long ago we have hushed +our voices. It is the dream of the Renaissance. The names we have given +these shadowy beautiful figures are but names, that Grace who looks so +longingly and sadly at Hermes is but the loveliest among the lovely, +though we call her Simonetta and him Giuliano. Here in the garden of the +world is Venus's pleasure-house, and there the gods in exile dream of +their holy thrones. Shall we forgive them, and forget that since our +hearts are changed they are changed also? They have looked from +Olympus upon Calvary; Dionysus, who has borne the youngest lamb on his +shoulders, has wandered alone in the wilderness and understood the +sorrow of the world; even that lovely, indifferent god has been +crucified, and she, Venus Aphrodite, has been born again, not from the +salt sea, but in the bitterness of her own tears, the tears of Madonna +Mary. It is thus Botticelli, with a rare and personal art, expresses the +very thought of his time, of his own heart, which half in love with Pico +of Mirandola would reconcile Plato with Moses, and since man's +allegiance is divided reconcile the gods. You may discern something, +perhaps, of the same thought, but already a little cold, a little +indifferent in its appeal, in the Adoration of the Shepherds which Luca +Signorelli painted, now in the Uffizi, where the shepherds are fair and +naked youths, the very gods of Greece come to worship the Desire of all +Nations. But with Botticelli that divine thought is altogether fresh and +sincere. It is strange that one so full of the Hellenic spirit should +later have fallen under the influence of a man so singularly wanting in +temperance or sweetness as Savonarola. One pictures him in his sorrowful +old age bending over the _Divina Commedia_ of Dante, continually +questioning himself as to that doctrine of the Epicureans, to wit, that +the soul dies with the body; at least, one reads that he abandoned all +labour at his art, and was like to have died of hunger but for the +Medici, who supported him.[120] + +[Illustration: "THE THREE GRACES FROM THE PRIMAVERA" + +_By Sandro Botticelli. Accademia_ + +_Anderson_] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[117] Cf. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _History of Painting in Italy_, 1903, +vol. ii. p. 290. + +[118] For a full consideration of these and other works of Perugino, +Gentile da Fabriano, and the Umbrian masters, see my _Cities of Umbria_. + +[119] Poliziano, Stanza I, str. 43, 44, 46, 47 68, 72, 85, 94; and +Alberti, Opere Volgari, _Della Pittura_, Lib. III (Firenze, 1847). + +[120] Of the work of Verrocchio in this gallery, the Baptism of Christ, +in which Leonardo is said, I think mistakenly, to have painted an angel +in the left hand kneeling at the feet of Jesus, I speak in the chapter +on the Uffizi. + + + + +XXIII. FLORENCE + +THE UFFIZI + + +If it is difficult to speak with justice and a sense of proportion of +the Accademia delle Belle Arti, how may I hope to succeed with the +Uffizi Gallery, where the pictures are infinitely more varied and +numerous. It might seem impossible to do more than to give a catalogue +of the various works here gathered from royal and ducal collections, +from many churches, convents, and monasteries, forming, certainly, with +the gallery of the Pitti Palace, the finest collection of the Italian +schools of painting in the world. And then in this palace, built for +Cosimo I, by Giorgio Vasari, the delightful historian of the Italian +painters, you may find not only paintings but a great collection of +sculpture also, a magnificent collection of drawings and jewels, +together with the Archives, the Biblioteca Nazionale, which includes the +Palatine and the Magliabecchian Libraries. It will be best, then, seeing +that a whole lifetime were not enough in which to number such treasures, +to confine ourselves to a short examination of the sculpture, which is +certainly less valuable to us than to our fathers, and to a brief +review, hardly more than a personal impression, of the Italian pictures, +which are its chiefest treasure. + +Of the rooms in which are hung the portraits of painters, those +unfortunate self-portraits in which some of the greatest painters have +not without agony realised their own ugliness, exhibiting themselves in +the pose that they have hoped the world would mistake for the very +truth, I say nothing. It is true, the older men, less concerned perhaps +at staring the word in the face, are not altogether unfortunate in their +self-revelation; but consider the portrait of Lord Leighton by +himself,--it must have been painted originally as a signboard for +Burlington House, for the summer exhibition of the Academy there, as who +should say to a discerning public: Here you may have your fill of the +impudent and blatant commonplace you love so much. And if such a thing +is really without its fellow in these embarrassing rooms, where Raphael, +Leonardo, Titian, and Velasquez are shouted down by some forgotten +German, some too well remembered English painter, it is but the perfect +essence of the whole collection, as though for once Leighton had really +understood what was required of him and had done his marvellous best. + +It is on the top floor of this palace of Cosimo I, after passing the +busts of the lords and dukes of the Medici family, that one enters the +gallery itself, which, running round three sides of a parallelogram, +opens into various rooms of all shapes and sizes. It was Francesco I, +second Grand Duke of Tuscany, who began to collect here the various +works of art which his predecessors had gathered in their villas and +palaces. To this collection Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, his brother, +added, on his succession to the Grand-Dukedom, the treasures he had +collected in the villa which he had built in Rome, and which still bears +the name of his house. To Cosimo II, it might seem, we owe the covered +way from this Palazzo degli Uffizi across Ponte Vecchio to the Palazzo +Pitti, while Ferdinand II began the collection of those self-portraits +of the painters of which I have spoken. Inheriting, as he did through +his wife, Vittoria della Rovere, the treasures of Urbino, he brought +them here, while it is to his son, Cosimo III, that we owe the presence +of Venus de' Medici, which had been dug up in the gardens of Hadrian's +villa, and bought by Ferdinando I when he was Cardinal. Most of the +Flemish pictures were brought here by Anna, the sister of Gian Gastone, +and daughter of Cosimo III, when she returned a widow to Florence from +the North. The house of Lorraine also continued to enrich the gallery, +which did not escape Napoleon's generals. They took away many priceless +pictures, all of which we were not able to force them to restore, though +we spent some L30,000 in the attempt. We were, however, able to send +back to Italy the Venus de' Medici, which Napoleon had thought to marry +to the Apollo Belvedere. + +As may be supposed, the Gallery of the Uffizi, gathered as it has thus +been from so many sources, is as various as it is splendid. It is true +that it possesses no work by Velasquez, and if we compare it with such +collections as those of the National Gallery or the Louvre, we shall +find it a little lacking in proportion as a gallery of universal art. It +is really as the chief storehouses of Italian painting that we must +consider both it and the Pitti Palace. And both for this reason, and +because under its director, Signor Corrado Ricci, a new and clearer +arrangement of its contents is being carried out, I have thought it +better to speak of the pictures in no haphazard fashion, but, as is now +becoming easy, under their respective schools, as the Florentine, the +Sienese, the Umbrian, the Venetian, thus suggesting an unity which till +now has been lacking in the gallery itself. + +I. THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL + +Florentine painting in the fourteenth century may be seen to best +advantage in the churches of Florence and in the Accademia delle Belle +Arti, for here in the Uffizi there is nothing from Giotto's or Orcagna's +hand, though the work of their schools is plentiful. In the first long +gallery, among certain Sienese pictures of which I speak elsewhere, you +may find these works; and there, too, like antique jewels slumbering in +the accustomed sunlight, you come upon the tabernacles and altar-pieces +of Don Lorenzo Monaco, monk of the Angeli of Florence, as Vasari calls +him, the pupil of Agnolo Gaddi, who has most loved the work of the +Sienese. Lorenzo was of the Order of Camaldoli, and belonged to the +monastery of the Angeli, which was founded in 1295 by Fra Guittone +d'Arezzo, himself of the Military Order of the Virgin Mother of Jesus, +whose monks were called Frati Gaudenti, the Joyous Brothers. Born about +1370, seventeen years before Angelico, and dying in 1425, his works, +full of an ideal beauty that belongs to some holy place, are altogether +lost in the corridors of a gallery. Those works of his, the Virgin and +St. John, both kneeling and holding the body of our Lord (40), dated +1404; the Adoration of the Magi (39), or the triptych (41), where +Madonna is in the midst with her little Son standing in her lap, while +two angels stand in adoration, and St. John Baptist and St. Bartholemew, +St. Thaddeus and St. Benedict, wait on either side, was painted in 1410, +and was brought here from the subterranean crypt of S. Maria of Monte +Oliveto, not far away. Another triptych (1309), the Coronation of the +Virgin, in the Sala di Lorenzo Monaco, is perhaps his masterpiece. In +the midst is the Coronation of our Lady, surrounded by a glory of +angels, while on either side stand ten saints, and on the frames are +angels, cherubs, saints, and martyrs, scattered like flowers. Painted in +1413 for the high altar of the Monastery of the Angels, it was lost on +the suppression of the Order, and only found about 1830 at the Badia di +S. Pietro at Cerreto, in Val d'Elsa. Though it has doubtless suffered +from repainting, for we read of a restoration in 1866, it remains, +lovely and exquisite beyond any other work of the master. + +Fra Angelico may well have been the pupil of Lorenzo Monaco. Here in the +Uffizi are two of his works, the great Tabernacle (17), with its +predella (1294), and the great Coronation of the Virgin (1290), with its +predelle (1162 and 1178). The Tabernacle was painted in 1433 for the +Arte de' Linaioli, which paid a hundred and ninety gold florins for it. +It is an early work, but such an one as in Florence at any rate, only +Fra Angelico could have achieved. Within the doors is the Virgin +herself, with Christ standing on her knee between two saints, surrounded +by twelve angels of heavenly beauty playing on various instruments of +music In the doors themselves are St. John Baptist and St. Mark while +outside are St. Peter and St. Jerome. In the predella St. Peter preaches +at Rome, St. Mark writes his Gospel, the Kings come to adore Jesus in +Bethlehem, and St. Mark is martyred. The whole is like some marvellous +introit for St. Mark's day, in which the name of Mary has passed by. + +The Coronation of the Virgin (1290) is like a litany of the saints and +of the Virgin herself, chanted in antiphon, ending in the simpler +splendour of Magnificat, sung to some Gregorian tone full of gold, of +faint blues as of a far-away sky, of pale rose-colours as of roses +fading on an altar in the sunlight, and the candles of white are more +spotless than the lily is. Amidst a glory of angels, the piping voices +of children, she in whose name all the flowers are hidden is crowned +Queen of Angels by the Prince of Life. This marvellous dead picture +lived once in S. Maria Nuova; its predelle have been torn away from it, +but may be found here, nevertheless, in the Birth of St. John Baptist +(1162) and the Spozalizio (1178). + +It is to a painter less mystical, but not less visionary, that we come +in the work of Paolo Uccello, the great "Battle" (52), of which two +variants exist, one in the Louvre, the other, the most beautiful of the +three, in the National Gallery. It is, as some have thought, a picture +of the Battle of S. Egidio, where Braccio da Montone made Carlo +Malatesta and his nephew Galeotto prisoners in 1416. Splendid as it is, +something has been lost to us by restoration. Paola Uccello, the friend +of Donatello and of Brunellesco, was all his life devoted to the study +of perspective. Many marvellous drawings in which he traced that +baffling vista, of which he was wont to exclaim when, labouring far into +the night, his wife poor soul, would entreat him to take rest and +sleep: "Ah, what a delightful thing is this perspective." And then, much +beautiful work of his has perished. It was on this art he staked his +life. "What have you there that you are shutting up so close?" Donatello +said to him one day when he found him alone at work on the Christ and +St. Thomas, which he had been commissioned to paint over the door of the +church dedicated to that saint in the Mercato Vecchio. "Thou shalt see +it some day,--let that suffice thee," Uccello answered. "And it +chanced," says Vasari, "that Donato was in the Mercato Vecchio buying +fruit one morning when he saw Paolo Uccello, who was uncovering his +picture." Saluting him courteously, therefore, his opinion was instantly +demanded by Paolo, who was anxiously curious to know what he would say +of the work. But when Donato had examined it very minutely, he turned to +Paolo and said: "Why, Paolo, thou art uncovering thy picture just at the +very time when thou shouldst be shutting it up from the sight of all." +These words wounded Paolo so grievously that he would no more leave his +house, but shut himself up, devoting himself only the more to the study +of perspective, which kept him in poverty and depression to the day of +his death. + +Paolo had been influenced, it is said, by Domenico Veneziano, who in his +turn was influenced by the work of Masolino and Masaccio. Nothing is +known of the birthplace of this painter, who appears first at Perugia, +and was the master of Piero della Francesca. His work is very rare; in +Florence there are two heads of saints in the Pitti, and Mr. Berenson +speaks of a fresco of the Baptist and St. Francis in S. Croce. Here in +the Uffizi, however, we have a Madonna and four Saints (1305) from his +hand, formerly in the Church of S. Lucia de' Magnoli in the Via de' +Bardi. It is a very splendid work, and certainly his masterpiece; +something of Piero della Francesca's later work may perhaps be discerned +there, in a certain force and energy, a sort of dry sweetness in the +faint colouring that he seems to have loved. The Virgin is enthroned, +and in her lap she holds our Lord; on the left stands St. John Baptist +and S. Francis, on the right St. Nicholas and S. Lucia. + +In the only work by Filippo Lippi in the Uffizi, the beautiful Madonna +and Child (1307) that has been so much beloved, we come again to a +painter who has been influenced by Masaccio, and thought at least to +understand and perhaps transform the work of Lorenzo Monaco and Fra +Angelico It is once more in the work of his pupil, Botticelli, that we +find some of the chief treasures of the gallery. There are some nine +works here by Sandro,--the Birth of Venus (39), the Madonna of the +Magnificat (1269 bis), the Madonna of the Pomegranate (1269), the Judith +and Holofernes (1158), the Calumny (1182), the Adoration of the Magi +(1286), and a Madonna and Child, a Portrait of Piero de' Medici (1154), +and St. Augustine (1179). + +Painted for Pierfrancesco de' Medici, the Birth of Venus is perhaps the +most beautiful, the most expressive, and the most human picture of the +Quattrocento. She is younger than the roses which the south-west wind +fling at her feet, the roses of earth to the Rose of the sea. Not yet +has the Shepherd of Ida praised her, nor Adon refused the honey of her +throat; not yet has Psyche stolen away her joy, nor Mars rolled her on a +soldier's couch amid the spears and bucklers; for now she is but a maid, +and she cometh in the dawn to her kingdom dreaming over the sea. If we +compare her for a moment with the Madonna of the Magnificat, with the +Mary of the Pomegranate, she seems to us more virgin than the Virgin +herself; less troubled by a love in which all the sorrow and desire of +the world have found expression, less weary of the prayers that will be +hers no less than Mary's. How wearily and with what sadness Madonna +writes Magnificat, or dreams of the love that even now is come into her +arms! Is it that, as Pater has thought, the honour is too great for her, +that she would have preferred a humbler destiny, the joy of any other +mother of Israel? Who is she, this woman of divine and troubling beauty +that masquerades as Venus, and with Christ in her arms is so sad and +unhappy. Tradition tells us that he was Simonetta, the mistress of +Giuliano de' Medici, who, dying still in her youth, was borne through +Florence with uncovered face to her grave under the cypresses. Whoever +she may be, she haunts all the work of Botticelli, who, it might seem, +loved her as one who had studied Dante, and, one of the company of the +Platonists of Lorenzo's court, might well love a woman altogether remote +from him. As Venus she is a maid about to step for the first time upon +the shores of Cypris, and her eyes are like violets, wet with dew that +have not looked on the sun; her bright locks heavy with gold her maid +has caught about her, and the pale anemones have kissed her breasts, and +the scarlet weeds have kissed her on the mouth. As Mary, her destiny is +too great for her, and her lips tremble under the beauty of the words +she is about to utter; the mystical veils about her head have blinded +her, her eyelids have fallen over her eyes, and in her heart she seems +to be weeping. But it is another woman not less mysterious who, as +Judith, trips homeward so lightly in the morning after the terrible +night, her dreadful burden on her head and in her soul some too brutal +accusation. Again you may see her as Madonna in a picture brought here +from S. Maria Nuova, where she would let Love fall, she is so weary, but +that an angel's arm enfolds Him. + +[Illustration: THE BIRTH OF VENUS + +_By Sandro Botticelli. Uffizi Gallery_ + +_Anderson_] + +In the Calumny you see a picture painted from the description Alberti +had given in his treatise on painting of the work of Apelles. "There was +in this picture," says Alberti, "a man with very large ears, and beside +him stood two women; one was called Ignorance, the other Superstition. +Towards him came Calumny. This was a woman very beautiful to look upon, +but with a double countenance (_ma parea nel viso troppo astuta_). She +held in her right hand a lighted torch, and with the other hand she +dragged by the hair a young man (_uno garzonotto_), who lifted his hands +towards heaven. There was also a man, pale, _brutto_, and gross, ... he +was guide to Calumny, and was called Envy. Two other women accompanied +Calumny, and arranged her hair and her ornaments, and one was Perfidy +and the other Fraud. Behind them came Penitence, a woman dressed in +mourning, all ragged. She was followed by a girl, modest and sensitive, +called Truth."[121] + +The Birth of Venus was the first study of the nude that any painter had +dared to paint; but profound as is its significance, Florentine painting +was moving forward by means less personal than the genius, the great +personal art of Botticelli. Here in the Uffizi you may see an +Annunciation (56) of Baldovinetti (1427-99), in which something of that +strangeness and beauty of landscape which owed much to Angelico, and +more perhaps in its contrivance to Paolo Uccello, was to come to such +splendour in the work of Verrocchio and Leonardo. Baldovinetti's pupil, +Piero Pollaiuoli (1443-96), the younger brother of Antonio (1429-98), +whose work in sculpture is so full of life, was, with his brother's help +and guidance, giving to painting some of the power and reality of +movement which we look for in vain till his time. In a picture of St. +James, with St. Vincent and St. Eustace on either side (1301), you may +see Piero's work, the fine, rather powerful than beautiful people he +loved. It is, however, in the work of one whom he influenced, Andrea +Verrocchio, the pupil of Donatello and Baldovinetti, that, as it seems +to me, what was best worth having in his work comes to its own, +expressed with a real genius that is always passionate and really +expressive. The Baptism in the Accademia, a beautiful but not very +charming work, perhaps of his old age, received, Vasari tells us, some +touches from the brush of Leonardo, and for long the Annunciation of the +Uffizi (1286) passed as Leonardo's work. Repainted though it is, in +almost every part (the angel's wings retain something of their original +brightness), this Annunciation remains one of the loveliest pictures in +the gallery, full of the eagerness and ardour of Verrocchio. In a garden +at sunset, behind the curiously trimmed cypresses under a portico of +marble, Madonna sits at her _prie dieu_, a marvellously carved +sarcophagus of marble, while before her Gabriel kneels, holding the +lilies, lifting his right hand in blessing. The picture comes from the +Church of Monte Oliveto, not far away. + +[Illustration: THE ANNUNCIATION + +_By Andrea Verrocchio, Uffizi Gallery_ + +_Anderson_] + +Verrocchio was the master of Lorenzo di Credi and of Leonardo, while, +as it is said, Perugino passed through his bottega. There are many works +here given to Lorenzo, who seems to have been a better painter than he +was a sculptor: the Madonna and Child (24), the Annunciation (1160), the +Noli me Tangere (1311), and above all, the Venus (3452), are beautiful, +but less living than one might expect from the pupil of Verrocchio. +Verrocchio's true pupil, if we may call him a pupil of any master at all +who was an universal genius, wayward and altogether personal in +everything he did, was Leonardo da Vinci. Of Leonardo's rare work (Mr. +Berenson finds but nine paintings that may pass as his in all Europe) +there is but one example in the Uffizi, and that is unfinished. It is +the Adoration of the Magi (1252), scarcely more than a shadow, begun in +1478. Leonardo was a wanderer all his life, an engineer, a musician, a +sculptor, an architect, a mathematician, as well as a painter. This +Adoration is the only work of his left in Tuscany, and there are but +three other paintings from his hand in all Italy. Of these, the fresco +of the Last Supper, at Milan, has been restored eight times, and is +about to suffer another repainting; while of the two pictures in Rome, +the St. Jerome of the Vatican is unfinished, and the Profile of a Girl, +in the possession of Donna Laura Minghetti, is "not quite finished" +either, Mr. Berenson tells us. It is to the Louvre that we must go to +see Leonardo's work as a painter. + +Tuscan painting at its best, its most expressive, in the work of +Botticelli, fails to convince us of sincerity in the work of his pupil +Filippino Lippi, the son of Fra Filippo. Of all his pictures here in the +Uffizi, the two frescoes--the portrait of himself (286), the portrait of +an old man (1167), the Adoration of the Magi (1217), painted in 1496, +the Madonna and Saints (1268), painted in 1485, it is rather the little +picture of Madonna adoring her Son (1549) that I prefer, for a certain +sweetness and beauty of colour, before any of his more ambitious works. +Ghirlandajo too, that sweet and serene master, is not so lovely here as +in the Adoration of the Shepherds at the Accademia. In his so-called +Portrait of Perugino (1163),[122] the Adoration of the Magi (1295), and +the Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels (1297), his work seems to +lack sincerity, in all but the first, at any rate, to be the facile work +of one not sufficiently convinced of the necessity for just that without +which there is no profound beauty. + +But the age was full of misfortune; it was necessary, perhaps, to +pretend a happiness one did not feel. Certainly in the strangely +fantastic work of Pier di Cosimo, the Rescue of Andromeda (1312), for +instance, there is nothing of the touching sincerity and beauty of his +Death of Procris, now in the National Gallery, which remains his one +splendid work. His pupil Fra Bartolommeo, who was later so unfortunately +influenced by Michelangelo, may be seen here at his best in a small +diptych (1161); in his early manner, his Isaiah (1126) and Job (1130), +we see mere studies in drapery and anatomy. His most characteristic work +is, however, in the Pitti Gallery, where we shall consider it. + +Much the same might be said of his partner Albertinelli, and his friend +Andrea del Sarto, whom again we shall consider later in the Pitti +Palace. It will be sufficient here to point out his beautiful early Noli +me Tangere (93), The Portrait of his Wife (188), the Portrait of Himself +(280), the Portrait of a Lady, with a Petrarch in her hands (1230), and +the Madonna dell' Arpie (1112), that statuesque and too grandiose +failure that is so near to success. + +Michelangelo, that Roman painter--for out of Rome there are but two of +his works, and one of these, the Deposition in the National Gallery, is +unfinished--has here in the Uffizi a very splendid Holy Family (1139), +splendid perhaps rather than beautiful, where in the background we may +see the graceful nude figures which Luca Signorelli had taught him to +paint there. Luca Signorelli, born in Cortona, the pupil of Piero della +Francesca, passes as an Umbrian painter, and indeed his best work may +be found there. But he was much influenced by Antonio Pollaiuolo, and is +altogether out of sympathy with the mystical art of Umbria. Here in the +Uffizi are two of his early works, the Holy Family (1291) and a Madonna +and Child (74), where, behind the Virgin holding her divine Son in her +lap, you may see four naked shepherds, really the first of their race. +This picture was painted for Lorenzo de' Medici, and doubtless +influenced Michelangelo when he painted his Holy Family for Messer +Angelo Doni, who haggled so badly over his bargain. + +It is really the decadence, certainly prophesied in the later work of +Andrea del Sarto, that we come to in the work of that pupil of his, who +was influenced by what he could understand of the work of Michelangelo. +Jacopo Pontormo's work almost fails to interest us to-day save in his +portraits. The Cosimo I (1270), the Cosimo dei Medici (1267), painted +from some older portrait, the Portrait of a Man (1220), have a certain +splendour, that we find more attenuated but still living in the work of +his pupil Bronzino, who also failed to understand Michelangelo. Fine +though his portraits are, his various insincere and badly coloured +compositions merely serve to show how low the taste of the time--the +time of the end of the Republic--had fallen. + +Thus we have followed very cursorily, but with a certain faithfulness +nevertheless, the course of Florentine Art. With the other schools of +Italy we shall deal more shortly. + +II. THE SIENESE SCHOOL + +It is as a divine decoration that Sienese art comes to us in the +profound and splendid work of Duccio di Buoninsegna, the delicate and +lovely work of Simone Martini, the patient work of the Lorenzetti. The +masterpiece, perhaps, of Duccio is the great Rucellai Madonna of S. +Maria Novella. There is none of his work in the Uffizi; but one of the +most beautiful paintings in the world, the Annunciation of Simone +Martini (23), from the Church of S. Ansano in Castelvecchio, is in the +first Long Gallery here. On a gold ground under three beautiful arches, +in the midst of which the Dove hovers amid the Cherubim, Gabriel +whispers to the Virgin the mysterious words of Annunciation. In his hand +is a branch of olive, and on his brow an olive crown. Madonna, a little +overwhelmed by the marvel of these tidings, draws back, pale in her +beauty, the half-closed book of prayer in her hands, catching her robe +about her; between them is a vase of campanulas still and sweet. Who may +describe the colour and the delicate glory of this work? The hand of man +can do no more; it is the most beautiful of all religious paintings, +subtle and full of grace. Simone was the greatest follower of Duccio. +Born in 1284, in 1324 he married Vanna di Memmo, and his brother, Lippo +Memmi, sometimes assisted him in his work. Lippo's hand cannot be +discerned in the Annunciation--none but Simone himself could have +achieved it; but the two saints, who stand one on either side, are his +work, as well as the four little figures in the frame. + +Of the other early Sienese painters, only Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti +are represented in the Uffizi. The first, by a Madonna (15) and a +Thebaid; the second (16), in the two predella pictures for the +altar-piece of S. Procolo, Sassetta, the best of the Sienese +Quattrocento painters, is absent, and Vecchietta is only represented by +a predella picture (47); it is not till we came to Sodoma, whose famous +St. Sebastian (1279) suggests altogether another kind of art, a sensuous +and sometimes an almost hysterical sort of ecstasy, as in the Swooning +Virgin or the Swoon of St. Catherine at Siena, that we find Sienese +painting again. + +III. THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL[123] + +Influenced in the beginning by the Sienese, the Umbrian school of +painting remained almost entirely religious. The Renaissance passed it +by as in a dream, and although in the work of Perugino you find a +wonderful and original painter, a painter of landscape too, it is rather +in the earlier men, Ottaviano Nelli, whose beautiful work at Gubbio is +like a sunshine on the wall of S. Maria Nuova; Gentile da Fabriano, +whose Adoration of the Magi is one of the treasures of the Accademia +delle Belle Arti; of Niccolo da Foligno, and of Bonfigli whose +flower-like pictures are for the most part in the Pinacoteca at Perugia, +than in Perugino, or Pinturicchio, or Raphael, that you come upon the +most characteristic work of the school. + +There was no Giotto, no Duccio even, in Umbria. Painting for its own +sake, or for the sake of beauty or life, never seems to have taken root +in that mystical soil; it is ever with a message of the Church that she +comes to us, very simply and sweetly for the most part, it is true, but +except in the work of Piero della Francesca, who was not really an +Umbrian at all, and in that of his pupil Melozzo da Forli, the work of +the school is sentimental and illustrative, passionately beautiful for a +moment with Gentile da Fabriano; clairvoyant almost in the best work of +Perugino; most beloved, though maybe not most lovely, in the marvellous +work of Raphael, who, Umbrian though he be, is really a Roman painter, +full of the thoughts of a world he had made his own. + +Here, in the Uffizi, Gentile da Fabriano is represented by parts of an +altar-piece, four isolated saints, St. Mary Magdalen, St. Nicholas of +Bari, St. John Baptist, and St. George. It is rather in the beautiful +work of Piero della Francesca, and of Signorelli, in the rare and lovely +work of Melozzo da Forli, in the sweet and holy work of Perugino, the +perfect work of Raphael, that Umbria is represented in the Uffizi, than +in the mutilated altar-piece of Gentile da Fabriano. + +Piero della Francesca was born about 1416 at the little town of Borgo +San Sepolcro, just within the borders of Tuscany towards Arezzo.[124] He +was a great student of perspective, a friend of mathematicians, of Fra +Luca Paccioli, for instance, who later became the friend of Leonardo da +Vinci. His work has force, and is always full of the significance of +life. Influenced by Paolo Uccello, founding his work on a really +scientific understanding of certain laws of vision, of drawing, his work +seems to have been responsible for much that is so splendid in the work +of Signorelli and Perugino. Nor is he without a faint and simple beauty, +which is altogether delightful in his pictures in the National Gallery, +for instance the Nativity and the Baptism of our Lord. Here, in the +Uffizi, are two portraits from his hand--Count Federigo of Urbino, and +his wife Battista Sforza (1300), painted in 1465. Splendid and full of +confidence, they are the work of a man who is a consummate draughtsman, +and whose drawing here, at any rate, is a thing of life. On the back of +these panels Piero has painted an allegory, or a trionfo, whose meaning +no one has yet read. The Uffizi has lately been enriched by a work of +his pupil, that rare painter, Melozzo da Forli. Two panels of the +Annunciation, very beautiful in Colour and full of something that seems +strange, coming from that Umbrian country, so mystical and simple, hang +now with the portraits of Piero. Nor is the work of Melozzo da Forli's +pupil, Marco Palmezzano, whose facile work litters the Gallery of Forli, +wanting, for here is a Crucifixion (1095) from his hand, certainly one +of his more important pictures. + +Pietro Vanucci, called Il Perugino, was born about 1446 at Castel della +Pieve, some twenty-six miles from Perugia. The greatest master of the +Umbrian School, for we are content to call Raphael a Roman painter, his +work, so sweet and lovely at its best, is at its worst little better +than a repetition of his own mannerisms. Here, in the Uffizi, however, +we have four of his best works--the three great portraits, Francesco +delle Opere (287), Alessandro Braccesi (1217), and the Portrait of a +Lady (1120), long given to Raphael, but which Mr. Berenson assures us is +Perugino's; and the Madonna and Child of the Tribuna, painted in 1493. +The Francesco delle Opere was perhaps his first portrait, full of +virility beyond anything else in his work, save his own portrait at +Perugia. For many years this picture, owing, it might seem, to a mistake +of the Chevalier Montalvo, was supposed to represent Perugino himself, +so that the picture was hung in the Gallery of the Portraits of +Painters. At last an inscription was discovered on the back of the +picture, which reads as follows: _1494, D'Luglio Pietro Perugino Pinse +Franco Delopa_. + +Francesco delle Opere was a Florentine painter, the brother of Giovanni +delle Corniole. He died at Venice, and it may well be that it was at +Venice that Perugino first met him. Perugino's picture shows us +Francesco, a clean-shaven and young person, holding a scroll on which is +written, "Trineta Deum;" the portrait is a half-length, and the hands +are visible. In the background is a characteristic country of hill and +valley under the deep serene sky, the light and clear golden air that we +see in so much of his work. The Portrait of a Lady (1120), long given to +Raphael, comes to the Uffizi from the Grand Ducal Villa of Poggio a +Caiano; it was supposed to be the portrait of Maddalena Strozzi, wife of +Angela Doni. The portrait shows us a young woman, in a Florentine dress +of the period, while around her neck is a gold chain, from which hangs a +little cross. The Portrait of a Young Man (1217) is painted on wood, and +is life size. + +The Madonna and Child, with two Saints, was painted in 1493 for the +Church of S. Domenico at Fiesole, and was placed in the Uffizi by the +Grand Duke Peter Leopold in 1756. Madonna sits a little indifferent on a +throne under an archway, holding the Child, who turns towards St. John +Baptist as he gazes languidly on the ground; while St. Sebastian, a +beautiful youth, stands on the other side, looking upwards, and though +the arrows have pierced his flesh, he is still full of affected grace, +and is so occupied with his prayers that he has not noticed them. On the +base of the throne, Perugino has written his name, _Petrus Perusinus +Pinxit, An. 1493_. It is in such a work as this that Perugino is really +least great. Painted to order, as we may think, it is so full of +affectation, of a kind of religiosity, that there is no room left for +sincerity. And yet how well he has composed this picture after all, so +that there is no sense of crowding, and the sun and sky are not so far +away. Is it perhaps that in an age that has become suspicious of any +religious emotion we are spoiled for such a picture as this, finding in +what it may be was just a natural expression of worship to the simple +Friars of S. Domenico long ago, all the ritualism and affectation in +which we should find it necessary to hide ourselves before we might +approach her, as she seemed to them, a Queen enthroned, _causa nostrae +Laetitiae_, between two saints whose very names we find it difficult to +remember? How often in our day has Perugino been accused of insincerity, +yet it was not so long ago when he lived. Almost all his life he was +engaged in painting for the Church those things which were most precious +in her remembrance. If men found him insincere, it is strange that among +so much that was eager and full of sincerity his work was able to hold +its own. His pupil Raphael, that most beloved name, is represented here +in the Uffizi only by the Madonna del Cardellino (1129); for the other +works attributed to him in the Tribuna are not his. The picture is in +his early manner, and was painted about 1548. It has, like so much of +Raphael's work, suffered restoration; and indeed these compositions from +his hand no longer hold us as they used to do, whether because of that +repainting or no, I know not. It is as a portrait painter we think of +Raphael to-day, and as the painter of the Stanze at Rome; and therefore +I prefer to speak of him with regard to his work in the Pitti Gallery +rather than here. With him the Umbrian School passed into the world. + +IV. THE VENETIAN SCHOOL + +Nearly all the Venetian pictures were bought in 1654 by Cardinal +Leopoldo de' Medici from Messer Paolo del Sera, a Florentine merchant in +Venice. More truly representative of the Renaissance, its humanism and +splendour, than any other school of painting in Italy, the earlier works +of that great Venetian School are not seen to advantage in the Uffizi. +There is nothing here by Jacopo Bellini, nothing by his son Gentile; nor +any work from the hands of Antonio or Bartolommeo Vivarini, or Antonello +da Messina, who apparently introduced oil painting into Venice. It is +not till we come to Giovanni Bellini, born about 1430, that we find a +work of the Quattrocento in the delightful but puzzling Allegory (631), +where Our Lady sits enthroned beside a lagoon in a strange and lovely +landscape of rocks and trees; while beside her kneels St. Catherine of +Alexandria, and again, St. Catherine of Siena; farther away stand St. +Peter and St. Paul, while below children are playing with fruit and a +curious tree; on the other side are Job and St. Sebastian, while in the +background you may see the story of the life of St. Anthony. This +mysterious picture certainly stands alone in Giovanni Bellini's work, +and suggests the thoughts at least of Mantegna; and while it is true +that Giovanni had worked at Padua, one is surprised to come upon its +influence so late in his life.[125] + +The influence of the Bellini is to be found in almost all the great +painters of Venice in the Cinquecento. We come upon it first in the work +of Vittore Carpaccio, of which there is but a fragment here, the +delicate little picture, the Finding of the True Cross (583 _bis_); +while in two works attributed to Bissolo and Cima da Conegliano (584, +564 _bis_), we see too the influence of Bellini. + +If Carpaccio was the greatest pupil of Gentile Bellini, in Giorgione we +see the first of those marvellous painters who were taught their art by +his brother Giovanni. Giorgio Barbarelli, called Giorgione, was born at +Castelfranco, a little town in the hills not far from Padua, in 1478. +Three of his rare works--there are scarcely more than some fifteen in +the world--are here in the Uffizi, the two very early pictures--but all +his works were early, for he died in 1510--the Trial of Moses (621), and +the Judgment of Solomon (630), and the beautiful portrait of a Knight of +Malta (622). Giorgione was the dayspring of the Renaissance in Venice. +His work, as Pater foretold of it, has attained to the condition of +Music. And though in the portrait of the Knight of Malta, for instance, +we have to admit much repainting, something of the original glamour +still lingers, so that in looking on it even to-day we may see to how +great a place the painters of Venice had been called. It is in the work +of his fellow-pupil and Titian that the great Venetian treasure of the +Uffizi lies. In the Madonna with St. Anthony (633) we have a picture in +Giorgione's early manner, and a later, but still early work, in the +Flora (626). The two portraits, Eleonora Gonzaga and Francesco Maria +della Rovere, Duke and Duchess of Urbino, were painted in Venice in 1536 +or 1538, and came into the Uffizi with the other Urbino pictures, with +the Venus of Urbino (1117), for instance, where Titian has painted the +Bella of the Pitti Palace naked on a couch, a little dog at her feet, +and in her hand a chaplet of roses. In the background two maids search +for a gown in a great chest under a loggia. This picture, first +mentioned in a letter of 1538, was painted for Duke Guidobaldo della +Rovere. The Venus with the little Amor (1108) appears to have been +painted about 1545. It is not from Urbino. Dr. Gronau thinks it may be +identical with the Venus "shortly described in a book of the Guardaroba +of Grand Duke Cosimo II in the year 1621." The Portrait of Bishop +Beccadelli (1116) was painted in July 1552, and is signed by Titian. It +was bought, with the other Venetian pictures, by Cardinal Leopoldo de' +Medici in 1654. I say nothing of Titian here: preferring to speak of him +in dealing with his more various and numerous work in the Pitti Palace. +Other pupils of Giovanni Bellini, beside Giorgione and Titian, are found +here--Palma Vecchio for instance--in a poor picture of Judith with the +Head of Holofernes (619); Rondinelli in a Portrait of a Man (354) and a +Madonna and two Saints (384); Sebastiano del Piombo in the Farnesina +(1123), long given to Raphael, and the Death of Adonis (592). All these +men, whose work is so full of splendour, came under the influence of +Giorgione after passing through Bellini's bottega. Nor did Lorenzo +Lotto, the pupil of Alvise Vivarini, escape the authority of that serene +and perfect work, whose beauty lingered so quietly over the youth of the +greatest painter of Italy, Tiziano Vecelli: his Holy Family (575) seems +to be a work of Giorgione himself almost, that has suffered some change; +that change was Lotto. + +Titian's own pupils, Paris Bordone, Tintoretto, and Schiavone, may also +be found here; the first in a Portrait of a Young Man (607), full of +confidence and force. Tintoretto has five works here, beside the +portrait of himself (378): the Bust of a Young Man (577), the Portrait +of Admiral Vernier (601), the Portrait of an Old Man (615), the Portrait +of Jacopo Sansovino (638), and a Portrait of a Man (649). His portraits +are full of an immense splendour; they sum up often rhetorically enough +all that was superficial in the subject, representing him as we may +suppose he hardly hoped to see himself. Without the subtle distinction +of Titian's art, or the marvellous power of characterisation and +expression that he possessed with the earlier men, Tintoretto's work is +noble, and almost lyrical in its confidence and beauty. In his day +Venice seems to have been the capital of the world, peopled by a race of +men splendid and strong, beside whom the men of our time, even the best +of them, seem a little vulgar, a little wanting in dignity and life. + +Two pictures by Paolo Veronese, the early Martyrdom of S. Giustina +(589), and the Holy Family and St. Catherine (1136), bring the period +to a close. It is a different school of painting altogether that we see +in the Piazzetta of Canaletto (1064), perhaps the last picture painted +by a Venetian in the gallery. + +THE NORTHERN SCHOOLS + +Andrea Mantegna was born, not at Padua, where his greatest work is to be +found--three frescoes in the Eremitani--but at Vicenza. Here in the +Uffizi, however, we have two works of his middle period, certainly among +the best, if not the most beautiful, of his easel pictures. In one we +see Madonna and Child in a rocky landscape, where there are trees and +flowers (1025); the other is a triptych (1111), one of the many +priceless things to be found here. In the midst you may see the Three +Kings at the feet of Jesus Parvulus in his Mother's arms, while on one +side Mantegna has painted the Presentation in the Temple, and on the +other the Resurrection. Long ago this marvellous miniature, that even +to-day seems to shine like a precious stone, was in the possession of +the Gonzagas of Mantua, from whom it is supposed the Medici bought it. + +Five male portraits by the Bergamesque master Moroni are to be found +here. One (360) is said to be a portrait of himself, though it certainly +bears no resemblance to the portrait at Bergamo. I cannot forbear from +mentioning the Portrait of a Scholar, which seems to me one of his best +works. Moroni was born at Bondo, not far from Albino, in 1525. It is +probable that Moretto, who, as Morelli suggests, was a Brescian by +birth, though his parents originally came from the same valley as +Moroni, Valle del Serio, was his master. Moretto is, I think, a greater +painter than Moroni, though perhaps we are only beginning to appreciate +the latter. + +Three pictures here are from the hand of Correggio: the early small +panel of Madonna and Child with Angels (1002), once ascribed to Titian, +a naive and charming little work; the Repose in Egypt (1118), grave and +beautiful enough, but in some way I cannot explain a little +disappointing; and the Madonna adoring her little Son (1134), which is +rather commonplace in colour, though delightful in conception. + +It might seem impossible within the covers of one book to do more than +touch upon the enormous wealth of ancient art in the possession of +almost every city in Italy; and here in Florence, more than anywhere +else, I know my feebleness. If these few notes, for indeed they are +nothing more, serve to group the pictures hung in the Uffizi into +Schools, to win a certain order out of what is already less a chaos than +of old, to give to the reader some idea almost at a glance of what the +Uffizi really possesses of the various schools of Italian painting, they +will have served their purpose.[126] + +Of the sculpture, too, I say nothing. Vastly more important and beloved +of old than to-day, when the work of the Greeks themselves has come into +our hands, and above all the Greek work of the fifth century B.C., there +is not to be found in the Uffizi a single marble of Greek workmanship, +and but few Roman works that are still untampered with. For myself, I +cannot look with pleasure on a Roman Venus patched by the Renaissance, +for I have seen the beauty of the Melian Aphrodite; and there are +certain things in Rome, in Athens, in London, which make it for ever +impossible for us to be sincere in our worship at this shrine. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[121] Alberti, _Opere Volgari_ (Firenze, 1847), vol. iv. p. 75. + +[122] Mr. Berenson calls it a Portrait of Perugino, though for long it +passed as a Portrait of Verrocchio by Lorenzo di Credi. + +[123] For a full account of the Umbrian school see my _Cities of +Umbria_. + +[124] In 1416, Borgo S. Sepolcro was not just within the borders of +Tuscany of course, as it is to-day, but just without: it was part of the +Papal State till Eugenius IV sold it to Florence. + +[125] Mr. Berenson calls the picture An Allegory of the Tree of Life, +and adds that it is certainly a late work of Giovanni. + +[126] Of the Flemish, Dutch, German, and French pictures here I intend +to say no more than to name a few among them. The most valuable foreign +picture in Florence for the student of Italian art is Van der Goes' +(1425-82) great triptych (1525) of the Adoration of the Shepherds, with +the Family of the donor Messer Portinari, agent of the Medici in Bruges. +In the same sala are two Memlings (703, 778), and a Roger van der Weyden +(795). Two Holbeins, the Richard Southwell (765), and Sir Thomas More +(799), are in the German room; while Duerer's noble and lovely Adoration +of the Magi (1141) is still in the Tribuna, and his portrait of his +Father (766) is with the other German pictures in the German room. Some +too eloquent works of Rubens hang apart, while here and there you may +see a Vandyck--Lord John and Lord Bernard Stuart (1523), for instance, +or Jean de Montfort (1115), a little pensive and proud amid the +splendour of Italy. + + + + +XXIV. FLORENCE + +THE PITTI GALLERY + + +During the last years of Cosimo de' Medici, Luca Pitti, that rare old +knight, sometime Gonfaloniere of Justice, thought to possess himself of +the state of Florence, and to this end, besides creating a new Balia +against the wishes of Cosimo, distributed, as it is said, some 20,000 +ducats in one day, so that the whole city came after him in flocks, and +not Cosimo, but he, was looked upon as the governor of Florence. "So +foolish was he in his own conceit, that he began two stately and +magnificent houses," Machiavelli tells us, "one in Florence, the other +at Rusciano, not more than a mile away: but that in Florence was greater +and more splendid than the house of any other private citizen +whatsoever. To finish this latter, he baulked no extraordinary way, for +not only the citizens and better sort presented him and furnished him +with what was necessary for it, but the common people gave him all of +their assistance; besides, all that were banished or guilty of murder, +felony, or any other thing which exposed them to punishment, had +sanctuary at that house provided they would give him their labour." + +Now, when Cosimo was dead, and Piero de' Medici the head of that family, +Niccolo Soderini was made Gonfaloniere of Justice, and thinking to +secure the liberty of the city he began many good things, but perfected +nothing, so that he left that office with less honour than he entered +into it. This fortified Piero's party exceedingly, so that his enemies +began to resent it and work together to consider how they might kill +him, for in supporting Galeazzo Maria Sforza to the Dukedom of +Milan--which his father Francesco, just dead, had stolen for +himself--they saw, or thought they saw, the way in which Piero would +deal if he could with Florence. Thus the Mountain, as the party of his +enemies was called, leaned threatening to crush him more surely every +day. But Piero, who lay sick at Careggi, armed himself, as did his +friends, who were not few in the city. Now the leaders of his enemies +were Luca Pitti, Dietosalvi Neroni, Agnolo Acciaiuoli, and most +courageous of all, Niccolo Soderini. He, taking arms, as Piero had done, +and followed by most of the people of his quarter, went one morning to +Luca's house, entreating him to mount and ride with him to Palazzo +Vecchio for the security of the Senate, who, as he said, were of his +side. "To do this," said he, "is victory." But Luca had no mind for this +game, for many reasons,--for one, he had already received promises and +rewards from Piero; for another, he had married one of his nieces to +Giovanni Tornabuoni,--so that, instead of joining him, he admonished +Soderini to lay aside his arms and return quietly to his house. In the +meantime the Senate, with the magistrates, had closed the doors of +Palazzo Vecchio without appearing for either side, though the whole city +was in tumult. After much discussion, they agreed, since Piero could not +be present, for he was sick, to go to him in his palace, but Soderini +would not. So they set out without him; and arrived, one was deputed to +speak of the tumult, and to declare that they who first took arms were +responsible; and that understanding Piero was the man, they came to be +informed of his design, and to know whether it were for the advantage of +the city. Piero made answer that not they who first took arms were +blameworthy, but they who gave occasion for it: that if they considered +their behaviour towards him, their meetings at night, their +subscriptions and practices to defeat him, they would not wonder at what +he had done; that he desired nothing but his own security, and that +Cosimo and his sons knew how to live honourably in Florence, either with +or without a Balia. Then, turning on Dietosalvi and his brothers, who +were all present, he reproached them severely for the favours they had +received from Cosimo, and the great ingratitude which they had returned; +which reprimand was delivered with so much zeal, that, had not Piero +himself restrained them, there were some present who would certainly +have killed them. So he had it his own way, and presently new senators +being chosen and another gonfaloniere, the people were called together +in the Piazza and a new Balia was created, all of Piero's creatures. +This so terrified "the Mountain" that they fled out of the city, but +Luca Pitti remained, trusting in Giovanni Tornabuoni and the promises of +Piero. Now mark his fall. He quickly learned the difference betwixt +victory and misfortune, betwixt honour and disgrace. His house, which +formerly was thronged with visitors and the better sort of citizens, was +now grown solitary and unfrequented. When he appeared abroad in the +streets, his friends and relations were not only afraid to accompany +him, but even to own or salute him, for some of them had lost their +honours for doing it, some their estates, and all of them were +threatened. The noble structures which he had begun were given over by +the workmen, the good deeds requited with contumely, the honours he had +conferred with infamy and disgrace. For many persons, who in the day of +his authority had loaded him with presents, required them again in his +distress, pretending they were but loans and no more. Those who before +had cried him to the skies, cursed him down as fast for his ingratitude +and violence; so that now, when it was too late, he began to repent +himself that he had not taken Soderini's advice and died honourably, +seeing that he must now live with dishonour. + +So far Machiavelli. The unfinished, half-ruinous palace, designed in +1444 by Brunellesco, was a century later sold by the Pitti, quite ruined +now, to Eleonora, the wife of Grand Duke Cosimo, and was finished by +Ammanati. The great wings were added later. In May 1550, Cosimo I +entered Palazzo Pitti as his Grand-Ducal residence. To-day it is the +King of Italy's Palace in Florence. + +The Galleria Palatina is a gallery of the masterpieces of the high +Renaissance, formed by the Grand Dukes, who brought here from their own +villas and from the Uffizi the greatest works in their possession. Like +other Italian galleries, it suffered from Napoleon's generals; but +though sixty or more pictures were taken to Paris, they all seem to have +been returned. Here the Grand Dukes gathered ten pictures by Titian +eight by Raphael, as well as two, the Madonna del Baldacchino and the +Vision of Ezekiel, which he designed, ten by Andrea del Sarto, six by +Fra Bartolommeo, two lovely Peruginos, two splendid portraits by Ridolfo +Ghirlandajo, four portraits by Tintoretto, several pictures by Rubens, +two portraits, one of himself, by Rembrandt, a magnificent Vandyck, and +many lesser pictures. In the royal apartments, among other interesting +or beautiful things, is Botticelli's Pallas and the Centaur, painted, as +some have thought, to celebrate Lorenzo's return from Naples in 1480. It +is, then, rather as a royal gallery than as a museum that we must +consider the Galleria Palatina, a more splendid if less catholic Salon +Carre, the Tribuna of Italian painting. It is strange that, among all +the beautiful and splendid pictures with which the Grand Dukes +surrounded themselves, there is not one from the hand of Leonardo, nor +one that Michelangelo has painted. And then, of the many here that pass +under the name of Botticelli, only the Pallas and the Centaur in the +royal apartments seems to be really his; so that when we look for the +greatest pictures of the Florentine school, we must be content with the +strangely unsatisfactory work of Andrea del Sarto, often lovely enough +it is true, but as often insincere, shallow, not at one with itself, and +certainly a stranger here in Florence. + +The work of Andrea del Sarto, as we are assured, might but for his +tragic story have been so splendid; but in truth that sentimental and +pathetic tale neither excuses nor explains his failure, if failure it +be. He is the first artist who has worked badly because he loved a +woman. He was born in 1456, and became the pupil of Piero di Cosimo. +There in that fantastic bottega he must have met Fra Bartolommeo, who +later influenced him so deeply. Nor was Michelangelo, or at least his +grand and tremendous art, without its effect upon one so easily moved, +so subject to every passing mood, as Andrea. Yet he never seems to have +expressed just himself, save in those tragic portraits of himself and of +his wife, of which there are three here in the Pitti (188, 280, 1176). +He has been called the faultless painter, and indeed he seems to be +incapable of fault, to be really a little effeminate, a little vague, +bewildered by the sculpture of Michelangelo, the confusion of art in +Florence, the advent of the colourists, of whom here in Tuscany he is +perhaps the chief. It is no intellectual passion you find in that soft, +troubled work, where from every picture Lucrezia del Fede looks out at +you, posing as Madonna or Magdalen or just herself, and even so, +discontented, unhappy, unsatisfactory because she is too stupid to be +happy at all. If she were Andrea's tragedy, one might think that even +without her his life could scarcely have been different. If we compare, +here in the Pitti Gallery, the two pictures of the Annunciation from his +hand, we shall see how completely the enthusiasm of his early work is +wanting in his later pictures. Something, some divine energy, seems to +have gone out of his life, and ever after he is but trying to revive or +to counterfeit it. Now and then, as in the Disputa (172), which marks +the very zenith of his art, he is almost a great painter, but the +Madonna with six Saints (123), painted in 1524, is already full of +repetitions,--the kneeling figures in the foreground, for instance, that +we find again in the Deposition (58) painted in the same year. Nor in +the Assumption (225) painted in 1526, nor in the later picture (191) of +1531, is there any significance, energy, or beauty: they are +arrangements of draperies, splendid luxurious pictures without sincerity +or emotion. It is not fair to judge him by the St. John Baptist, which +has suffered too much from restoration to be any longer his work. Thus +it is at last as the painter of the Annunziata and the Scalzo that we +must think of him, which, full of grandiose and heavy forms and +draperies though they are, still please us better than anything else he +achieved, save the great Last Supper of S. Salvi and the portraits of +himself and his wife. As a Florentine painter he seems ever among +strangers: it is as an exiled Venetian, one who had been forced by some +irony of circumstances to forego his birthright in that invigorating and +worldly city, which might have revealed to him just the significance of +life which we miss in his pictures, that he appears to us; a failure +difficult to explain, a weak but beautiful nature spoiled by mediocrity. + +Fra Bartolommeo was another Florentine who seems, for a moment at any +rate, to have been bewildered by the influence of Michelangelo, but as a +profound conviction saved him from insincerity, so his splendid +sensuality preserved his work from sentimentalism. Born about 1475 at +Savignano, not far from Prato, his father sent him to Florence, placing +him in the care of Cosimo Rosselli, according to Vasari, but more +probably, as we may think, under Piero di Cosimo. Here he seems to have +come under the influence of Leonardo, and to have been friends with +Mariotto Albertinelli. The great influence of his life, however, was Fra +Girolamo Savonarola, whom he would often go to S. Marco to hear. +Savonarola was preaching as ever against vanities,--that is to say, +pictures, statues, verses, books: things doubtless anathema to one whose +whole future depended upon the amount of interest he could awaken in +himself. At this time, it seems, Savonarola was asserting his conviction +that "in houses where young maidens dwelt it was dangerous and improper +to retain pictures wherein there were undraped figures." It seems to +have been the custom in Florence at the time of the Carnival to build +cabins of wood and furze, and on the night of Shrove Tuesday to set them +ablaze, while the people danced around them, joining hands, according to +ancient custom, amid laughter and songs. This Savonarola had denounced, +and, winning the ear of the people for the moment, he persuaded those +who were wont to dance to bring "pictures and works of sculpture, many +by the most excellent masters," and to cast them into the fire, with +books, musical instruments, and such. To this pile, Vasari tells us, +Bartolommeo brought all his studies and drawings which he had made from +the nude, and threw them into the flames; so also did Lorenzo di Credi +and many others, who were called Piagnoni, among them, no doubt, Sandro +Botticelli. The people soon tired, however, of their new vanity, as they +had done of the beautiful things they had destroyed at his bidding, and, +the party opposed to Savonarola growing dangerous, Bartolommeo with +others shut themselves up in S. Marco to guard Savonarola. Fra +Girolamo's excommunication, torture, and death, which followed soon +after, seem finally to have decided the gentle Bartolommeo to assume the +religious habit, which he did not long after at S. Domenico in Prato. +Later we find him back in Florence in the Convent of S. Marco, where he +is said to have met Raphael and to have learned much from him of the art +of perspective. However that may be, he continued to paint there in S. +Marco really--saving a journey to Rome where he came under the influence +of Michelangelo, a visit to S. Martino in Lucca, and his journey to +Venice in 1506--for the rest of his life, being buried there at last in +1517. + +Six pictures from his hand hang to-day in the Pitti,--a Holy Family +(256), the beautiful Deposition (64), an Ecce Homo in fresco (377), the +Marriage of St. Catherine, painted in 1512 (208), a St. Mark, painted in +1514 (125), and Christ and the Four Evangelists, painted in 1516 (159). +The unpleasing "Madonna appearing to St. Bernard," painted in 1506, now +in the Accademia, was his first work after he became a friar. + +Here, in the Pitti, Bartolommeo is not at his best; for his earlier and +more delicate manner, so full of charm and a sort of daintiness, one +must go to Lucca, where his picture of Madonna with St. Stephen and St. +John Baptist hangs in the Duomo. The grand and almost pompous works in +Florence, splendid though they may be in painting, in composition, in +colour, scarcely move us at all, so that it might almost seem that in +following Savonarola he lost not the world only but his art also, that +refined and delicate art which comes to us so gently in his earliest +pictures. Something passionate and pathetic, truly, may be found in the +Pieta here, together with a certain dramatic effectiveness that is rare +in his work. With what an effort, for instance, has St. John lifted the +body of his Master from the great cross in the background, how +passionately Mary Magdalen has flung herself at His feet; yet the +picture seems to be without any real significance, without spirituality +certainly, only another colossal group of figures that even Michelangelo +has refused to carve. + +[Illustration: PIETA + +_By Fra Bartolomeo. Pitti Gallery_ + +_Anderson_] + +On coming to the work of Raphael, to the work of Titian, we find the +great treasure of the Pitti Gallery, beside which the rest is but a +background: it is for them really, after all, that we have come here. + +Raphael Sanzio, the "most beloved name in the history of painting," was +born at Urbino in 1483. The pupil first of his father maybe, though +Giovanni died when his son was but eleven years old, and later of +Timoteo Viti, we hear of Raphael first in the bottega of the greatest of +the Umbrian painters, Perugino, at Perugia. Two works of Perugino hang +to-day in the Pitti Gallery, the Madonna and Child (219) and the +Entombment (164), painted in 1495, for the nuns of S. Chiara. Vasari has +much to say of the latter, relating how Francesco del Pugliare offered +to give them three times as much as they had paid Perugino for the +picture, and to cause another exactly like it to be executed for them by +the same hand; but they would not consent, because Pietro had told them +he did not think he could equal the one they possessed. It is really +Umbria itself we see in that lovely work, which has impressed +Bartolommeo so profoundly, the Lake of Trasimeno, surrounded by villages +that climb the hills just as Perugino has painted the little city in +this picture. And it is in this mystical and smiling country, where the +light is so soft and tender, softer than on any Tuscan hills, that the +most perfect if not the greatest painter of the Renaissance grew up. +You may find some memory of that beautiful land of hills and quiet +valleys even in his latest work, after he had learned from every master, +and summed up, as it were, the whole Renaissance in his achievement. But +in four pictures here in the Pitti, it is the influence of Florence you +find imposing itself upon the art of Umbria, transforming it, +strengthening it, and suggesting it may be, the way of advance. +Something of the art of Pietro you see in the portraits of Madallena +Doni (59), Angelo Doni (61), and La Donna Gravida (229), something so +akin to the Francesco delle Opere of the Uffizi that it would not be +surprising to find the Madallena Doni, at any rate, attributed to +Perugino. Yet superficial though they be in comparison with the later +portraits, they mark the patient endeavour of his work in Florence, the +realism that this city, so scornful of _forestieri_, was forcing upon +him as it had already done on Perugino, who in the Francesco, the +Bracessi, and the two monks of the Accademia, touches life itself, +perhaps, only there in all his work. It is the influence of Florence we +seem to find too in the simplicity of the Madonna del Granduca (178). +Here is a picture certainly in the manner of Perugino, but with +something lost, some light, some beatitude, yet with something gained +also, if only in a certain measure of restraint, a real simplicity that +is foreign to that master. And then, if we compare it with the Madonna +della Sedia (151), which is said to have been painted on the lid of a +wine cask, we shall find, I think, that however many new secrets he may +learn Raphael never forgot a lesson. It is Perugino who has taught him +to compose so perfectly, that the space, small or large, of the picture +itself becomes a means of beauty. How perfectly he has placed Madonna +with her little Son, and St. John praying beside them, so that until you +begin to take thought you are not aware how difficult that composition +must have been, and indeed you never remember how small that _tondo_ +really is. How eagerly these easel pictures of Madonna have been loved, +and yet to-day how little they mean to us; some virtue seems to have +gone out of them, so that they move us no longer, and we are indeed a +little impatient at their fame, and ready to accuse Raphael of I know +not what insincerity or dreadful facility. Yet we have only to look at +the portraits to know we are face to face with one of the greatest and +most universal of painters. Consider, then, La Donna Velata (245), or +the Pope Julius II (79), or the Leo X with the two Cardinals (40), how +splendid they are, how absolutely characterised and full of life, life +seen in the tranquillity of the artist, who has understood everything, +and with whom truth has become beauty. In the Leo X with the Cardinals, +Giulio de' Medici and Lorenzo dei Rossi, how tactfully Raphael has +contrived the light and shadow so that the fat heavy face of the Pope is +not over emphasised, and you discern perfectly the beauty of the head, +the delicacy of the nostrils, the clever, sensual, pathetic, witty +mouth. And the hands seem to be about to move, to be a little tremulous +with life, to be on the verge of a gesture, to have only just become +motionless on the edge of the book. It is in these portraits that the +art of Raphael is at its greatest, becomes universal, achieves +immortality. + +There remains to be considered the splendid ever-living work of Titian. +The early work of the greatest painter of Italy, of the world, greatest +in the variety, number, and splendour of his pictures, is represented in +the Pitti, happily enough by one of the most lovely of all Italian +paintings, the Concert (185), so long given to Giorgone. A monk in cowl +and tonsure touches the keys of a harpsichord, while beside him stands +an older man, a clerk and perhaps a monk too, who grasps the handle of a +viol; in the background, a youthful, ambiguous figure, with a cap and +plume, waits, perhaps on some interval, to begin a song. Yet, indeed, +that is not the picture, which, whatever its subject may be, would seem +to be more expressive than any other in the world. Some great joy, some +great sorrow, seems about to declare itself. What music does he hear, +that monk with the beautiful sensitive hands, who turns away towards his +companion? Something has awakened in his soul, and he is transfigured. +Perhaps for the first time, in some rhythm of the music, he has +understood everything, the beauty of life which passeth like a sunshine, +now that it is too late, that his youth is over and middle age is upon +him. His companion, on the threshold of old age, divines his trouble and +lays a hand on his shoulder quietly, as though to still the tumult of +his heart. Like a vision youth itself, ambiguous, about to possess +everything, waits, like a stranger, as though invoked by the music, on +an interval that will never come again, that is already passed. + +If Titian is really the sole painter of this picture, how loyal he has +been to his friend, to that new spirit which lighted Venetian art as the +sun makes beautiful the world. But indeed one might think that, even +with Morelli, Crowe, and Cavalcaselle, and Berenson against us, not to +name others who have done much for the history of painting in Italy, we +might still believe, not altogether without reason, that Giorgone had +some part in the Concert, which, after all, passed as his altogether for +two hundred and fifty years; was bought, indeed, as his in 1654, only +seventy-eight years after Titian's death, by Cardinal Leopoldo de' +Medici from Paolo del Sera, the Florentine collector in Venice. That +figure of a youth, ambiguous in its beauty--could any other hand than +Giorgone's have painted it; does it ever appear in Titian's innumerable +masterpieces at all? Dying as he did at the age of thirty-three, +Giorgone must have left many pictures unfinished, which Titian, his +friend and disciple almost, may well have completed, and even signed, in +an age when works, almost wholly untouched by a master, were certainly +sold as his. + +Titian's other pictures here, with the exception of the Head of Christ +(228) and the Magdalen (67), are portraits, all, save the so-called +Tommaso Mosti, painted certainly before 1526, of his great middle +period. The Magdalen comes from Urbino, where Vasari saw it in the +Guardaroba of the great palace. The quality of the picture is one of +sheer colour; there is here no other "subject" than a beautiful nude +woman,--it is called a Magdalen because it is not called a Venus. +Consider, then, the harmony of the gold hair and the fair flesh and the +blue of the sky: it is a harmony in gold and rose and blue. + +The earliest of the great portraits is the Ippolito de' Medici (201); it +was painted in Venice in October 1532.[127] Vasari saw this picture in +the Guardaroba of Cosimo I. It is a half-length portrait of a +distinguished man, still very young, that we see. The Cardinal is not +dressed as a Churchman, but as a grandee of Hungary. In the sad and +cunning face we seem to foresee the fate that awaited him at Gaeta +scarcely three years later, where he was imprisoned and poisoned. The +beautiful dull red of the tunic reminds one of the unforgetable red of +the cloth on the table beside which Philip II stands in the picture in +the Prado. From this profound and almost touching portrait we come to +the joy of the Bella (18). It is a hymn to Physical Beauty. There is +nothing in the world more splendid or more glad than this portrait, +perhaps of Eleonora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino. How often Titian has +painted her!--once as it might seem as the Venus of the Tribune (1117), +and again in her own character in the portrait now in the Uffizi (599), +where certainly she is not so fair as she we see here as Bella and there +as Venus. If this, indeed, be the Duchess of Urbino, then the Venus is +also her portrait, for the Bella is described in the list of fine +pictures which were brought to Florence in 1631 as a portrait of the +same person we know as the Venus of the Tribune. But the first we hear +of the Bella is in a letter of the Duke of Urbino in 1536, while the +portrait in the Uffizi of Eleonora Gonzaga was painted in Venice in that +year; and since the Duchess is certainly an older woman than the Bella, +we must conclude either that the Bella was painted many years earlier, +which seems impossible, or that it is not a portrait of Eleonora +Gonzaga. And, indeed, the latter conclusion seems likely, for who can +believe that the Duke would have cared for a nude portrait of his wife +as Venus? It seems probable that the Bella is a portrait of his mistress +rather than his wife, a mistress whom, since she was so fair, he did not +scruple to ask Titian to paint as Venus herself. A harmony in blue and +gold, Dr. Gronau calls the picture; adding that, "in spite of its faults +or of the restorations which have made it a mere shadow of its former +splendour, it remains an immortal example of what the art of the +Renaissance at its zenith regarded as the ideal of feminine beauty." + +If it is beauty and joy we find in the Bella, it is a profound force and +confidence that we come upon in the portrait of Aretino painted before +1545,--and life above all. Here is one of the greatest blackguards of +history, the "Scourge of Princes," the blackmailer of Popes, the +sensualist of the Sonnetti Lussuriosi, the witty author of the +_Ragionamenti_. We seem to see his vulgarity, his immense ability, his +splendour, and his baseness, and to understand why Titian was wise +enough to take him for his friend. What energy, almost bestial in its +brutality, you find in those coarse features and over-eloquent lips, and +yet the head is powerful, really intellectual too, though without any +delicacy or fineness. Aretino himself presented this portrait to Cosimo +I in October 1545, inexplicably explaining that the rendering of the +dress was not perfect.[128] + +In another portrait of about the same time, the Young Englishman (92), +we have Titian at his best. The extraordinarily beautiful English face, +fulfilled with some incalculable romance, is to me at least by far the +most delightful portrait in Florence. One seems to understand England, +her charm, her fascination, her extraordinary pride and persistence, in +looking at this picture of one of her sons. All the tragedy of her +kings, the adventure to be met with on her seas, the beauty and culture +of Oxford, and the serenity of her country places, come back to one +fresh and unsullied by memories of the defiling and trumpery cities +that so lately have begun to destroy her. Who this beautiful figure may +be we know not, nor, indeed, where the picture may have come from; for +if it comes from Urbino it is not well described in the inventory of +1631. + +After looking upon such a work as this, the Philip II (200), fine though +it is, and only less splendid than the Madrid picture, the Portrait of a +Man (215), both painted in Augsburg in 1548, and even the lovely +portrait of Giulia Varana, Duchess of Urbino, in the royal apartments, +seem to lose something of their splendour. Yet if we compare them with +the work of Raphael or Tintoretto, they assuredly possess an energy and +a vitality that even those masters were seldom able to express. For +Titian seems to have created life with something of the ease and +facility of a natural force; to have desired always Beauty as the only +perfect flower of life; and while he was not content with the mere +truth, and never with beauty divorced from life, he has created life in +such abundance that his work may well be larger than the achievement of +any two other men, even the greatest in painting; yet in his work, in +the work that is really his, you will find nothing that is not living, +nothing that is not an impassioned gesture reaching above and beyond our +vision into the realm of that force which seems to be eternal. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[127] Gronau, _Titian_ (London, 1904), p. 291, where Dr. Gronau suggests +it may belong to the following year; see also p. 104. + +[128] Cf. _Lettere di Pietro Aretino_ (1609), vol. iii. p. 238. + + + + +XXV. TO FIESOLE AND SETTIGNANO + + +How weary one grows of the ways of a city,--yes, even in Florence, where +every street runs into the country and one may always see the hills and +the sky! But even in Athens, when they built the Parthenon, often, I +think, I should have found my way into the olive gardens and vineyards +about Kephisos: so to-day, leaving the dead beauty littered in the +churches, the palaces, the museums, the streets of Florence, very often +I seek the living beauty of the country, the whisper of the poplars +beside Arno, the little lovely songs of streams. And then Florence is a +city almost without suburbs;[129] at the gate you find the hills, the +olive gardens bordered with iris, the vineyards hedged with the rose. + +Many and fair are the ways to Fiesole: you may go like a burgess in the +tram, or like a lord in a coach, but for me I will go like a young man +by the bye ways, like a poor man on my feet, and the dew will be yet on +the roses when I set out, and in the vineyards they will be singing +among the corn-- + + "Fiorin fiorello, + La mi' Rosina ha il labbro di corallo + E l'occhiettino suo sembra un gioiello." + +And then, who knows what awaits one on the way? + + "E quando ti riscontro per la via + Abbassi gli occhi e rassembri una dea, + E la fai consumar la vita mia." + +Of the ways to Fiesole, one goes by Mugnone and one by S. Gervasio, but +it will not be by them that I shall go, but out of Barriera delle Cure; +and I shall pass behind the gardens of Villa Palmieri, whither after the +second day of the _Decamerone_ Boccaccio's fair ladies and gay lords +passed from Poggio Gherardo by a little path "but little used, which was +covered with herbs and flowers, that opened under the rising sun, while +they listened to the song of the nightingales and other birds." Thus +between the garden walls I shall come to S. Domenico. + +S. Domenico di Fiesole is a tiny village half way up the hill of +Fiesole, and on one side of the way is the Dominican convent, and on the +other the Villa Medici, while in the valley of Mugnone is an abbey of +Benedictines, the Badia di Fiesole, founded in 1028. The convent of +Dominican friars, where Fra Angelico and S. Antonino, who was the first +novice here, lived, and Cosimo de' Medici walked so often, looking down +on Florence and Arno there in the evening, was founded in 1405. +Suppressed in the early part of the nineteenth century, the convent was +despoiled of its frescoes, but in 1880 it was bought back by the +Dominicans, so that to-day it is fulfilling its original purpose as a +religious house. The church too has suffered many violations, and to-day +there are but two frescoes left of all the work Angelico did here,--a +triptych in a chapel, a Madonna and Saints restored by Lorenzo di Credi, +and a Crucifixion in the sacristy. Of old, Perugino's Baptism now in the +Uffizi hung here, but that was taken by Grand Duke Leopold, who gave in +exchange Lorenzo di Credi's picture; but the French stole Angelico's +Coronation of the Virgin, now in the Louvre, and gave nothing in return, +so that of all the riches of this little place almost nothing remains, +only (and this is rare about Florence at any rate) the original owners +are in possession, and you may hear Mass here very sweetly. + +It is down a lane, again between garden walls, that you must go to the +Badia, once the great shrine of the Fiesolans, but since the eleventh +century an abbey of Benedictines, where S. Romolo once upon a time lay +in peace, till, indeed, the oratory not far from the church was +stupidly destroyed. The Badia itself was rebuilt in the fifteenth +century for Cosimo de' Medici, by the hand, as it is said, of +Brunellesco. Here in the loggia that looks over the city the Platonic +Academy often met, so that these very pillars must have heard the gentle +voice of Marsilio Ficino, the witty speech of the young Lorenzo, the +beautiful words of Pico della Mirandola, the laughter of Simonetta, the +footsteps of Vanna Tornabuoni. It was, however, not for the Benedictines +but for the Augustinians that Cosimo rebuilt the place, giving them, +indeed, one of the most beautiful convents in Italy, and one of the +loveliest churches too, a great nave with a transept under a circular +vaulting, while the facade is part really of the earlier building, older +it may be than S. Miniato or the Baptistery itself, as we now see it; +and there the pupils of Desiderio da Settignano have worked and Giovanni +di S. Giovanni has painted, while Brunellesco is said to have designed +the lectern in the sacristy. Later, Inghirami set up his printing press +here, while in the church Giovanni de' Medici in 1452 was made Cardinal, +and in the convent Giuliano, the Due de Nemours, died in 1516. Returning +from this quiet and beautiful retreat to S. Domenico, one may go very +well on foot, though not otherwise, by the old road to Fiesole, still +between the garden walls; but then, who would go by the new way, noisy +with the shrieking of the trams, while by the old way you may tread in +the footsteps of the Bishops of Fiesole? They would rest on the way from +Florence at Riposo de' Vescovi, and leave their coach at S. Domenico. By +the old way, too, you pass Le Tre Pulzelle, the hostel of the Three +Maidens, or at least the place where it stood, and where Leo X stayed in +1516. Farther, too, is the little church of S. Ansano, where there is a +host of fair pictures, and then suddenly you are in the great Piazza, +littered with the booths of the straw-plaiters, in the keen air of +Fiesole, among a ruder and more virile people, who look down on Florence +all day long. + +[Illustration: COSTA S. GEORGIO] + +And indeed, whatever the historians may say, scorning wise tales of +old Villani, the Fiesolani are a very different people from the +Florentines; and whether Atlas, with Electra his wife, born in the fifth +degree from Japhet son of Noah, built this city upon this rock by the +counsel of Apollinus, midway between the sea of Pisa and Rome and the +Gulf of Venice, matters little. The Fiesolani are not Florentines, +people of the valley, but Etruscans, people of the hills, and that you +may see in half an hour any day in their windy piazzas and narrow +climbing ways. Rough, outspoken, stark men little women keen and full of +salt, they have not the assured urbanity of the Florentine, who, while +he scorns you in his soul as a barbarian, will trade with you, eat with +you, and humour you, certainly without betraying his contempt. But the +Fiesolano is otherwise; quarrelsome he is, and a little aloof, he will +not concern himself overmuch about you, and will do his business whether +you come or go. And I think, indeed, he still hates the Fiorentino, as +the Pisan does, as the Sienese does, with an immortal, cold, everlasting +hatred, that maybe nothing will altogether wipe out or cause him to +forget. All these people have suffered too much from Florence, who +understood the art of victory as little as she understood the art of +empire. From the earliest times, as it might seem, Florence, a Roman +foundation after all, hated Fiesole, which once certainly was an +Etruscan city. Time after time she destroyed it, generally in +self-defence. In 1010, for instance, Villani tells us that "the +Florentines, perceiving that their city of Florence had no power to rise +much while they had overhead so strong a fortress as the city of +Fiesole, one night secretly and subtly set an ambush of armed men in +divers parts of Fiesole. The Fiesolani, feeling secure as to the +Florentines, and not being on their guard against them, on the morning +of their chief festival of S. Romolo, when the gates were open and the +Fiesolani unarmed, the Florentines entered into the city under cover of +coming to the festa; and when a good number were within, the other armed +Florentines which were in ambush secured the gates; and on a signal made +to Florence, as had been arranged, all the host and power of the +Florentines came on horse and on foot to the hill, and entered into the +city of Fiesole, and traversed it, slaying scarce any man nor doing any +harm, save to those who opposed them. And when the Fiesolani saw +themselves to be suddenly and unexpectedly surprised by the Florentines, +part of them which were able fled to the fortress, which was very +strong, and long time maintained themselves there. The city at the foot +of the fortress having been taken and over run by the Florentines, and +the strongholds and they which opposed themselves being likewise taken, +the common people surrendered themselves on condition that they should +not be slain nor robbed of their goods; the Florentines working their +will to destroy the city, and keeping possession of the bishop's palace. +Then the Florentines made a covenant, that whosoever desired to leave +the city of Fiesole and come and dwell in Florence might come safe and +sound with all his goods and possessions, or might go to any place which +pleased him, for the which thing they came down in great numbers to +dwell in Florence, whereof there were and are great families in +Florence. And when this was done, and the city was without inhabitants +and goods, the Florentines caused it to be pulled down and destroyed, +all save the bishop's palace and certain other churches and the +fortress, which still held out, and did not surrender under the said +conditions." Fifteen years later we read again: "In the year of Christ +1125 the Florentines came with an army to the fortress of Fiesole, which +was still standing and very strong, and it was held by certain gentlemen +_cattani_ which had been of the city of Fiesole, and thither resorted +highwaymen and refugees and evil men, which sometimes infested the roads +and country of Florence; and the Florentines carried on the siege so +long that for lack of victuals the fortress surrendered, albeit they +would never have taken it by storm, and they caused it to be all cast +down and destroyed to the foundations, and they made a decree that none +should ever dare to build a fortress again at Fiesole."[130] + +Now whether Villani is strictly right in his chronicle matters little +or nothing. We know that Fiesole was an Etruscan city, that with the +rise of Rome, like the rest, she became a Roman colony; all this too her +ruins confirm. With the fall of Rome, and the barbarian invasions, she +was perfectly suited to the needs of the Teutonic invader. What hatred +Florence had for her was probably due to the fact that she was a +stronghold of the barbarian nobles, and the fact that in 1010, as +Villani says, the Fiesolani were content to leave the city and descend +to Florence, while the citadel held out and had to be dealt with later, +goes to prove that the fight was rather between the Latin commune of +Florence and the pirate nobles of Fiesole than between Florence and +Fiesole itself. Certainly with the destruction of the alien power at +Fiesole the city of Florence gained every immediate security; the last +great fortress in her neighbourhood was destroyed. + +To-day Fiesole consists of a windy Piazza, in which a campanile towers +between two hills covered with houses and churches and a host of narrow +lanes. In the Piazza stands the Duomo, founded in 1028 by Bishop Jacopo +Bavaro, who no doubt wished to bring his throne up the hill from the +Badia, where of old it was established. Restored though it is, the +church keeps something of its old severity and beauty, standing there +like a fortress between the hills and between the valleys. It is of +basilica form, with a nave and aisles flanked by sixteen columns of +sandstone. As at S. Miniato, the choir is raised over a lofty crypt. +There is not perhaps much of interest in the church, but over the west +door you may see a statue of S. Romolo, while in the choir in the +Salutati Chapel there is the masterpiece of Mino da Fiesole, the tomb of +Bishop Salutati, who died in 1465, and opposite a marble reredos of +Madonna between S. Antonio and S. Leonardo, by the same master. The +beautiful bust of Bishop Leonardo over his tomb is an early work, and +the tomb itself is certainly among the most original and charming works +of the master. If the reredos is not so fine, it is perhaps only that +with so splendid a work before us we are content only with the best of +all. + +But it is not to see a church that we have wandered up to Fiesole, for +in the country certainly the churches are less than an olive garden, and +the pictures are shamed by the flowers that run over the hills. Lounging +about this old fortress of a city, one is caught rather by the aspect of +natural things--Val d'Arno, far and far away, and at last a glimpse of +the Apennines; Val di Mugnone towards Monte Senario, the night of +cypresses about Vincigliata, the olives of Maiano--than by the churches +scattered among the trees or hidden in the narrow ways that everywhere +climb the hills to lose themselves at last in the woodland or in the +cornlands among the vines. You wander behind the Duomo into the Scavi, +and it is not the Roman Baths you go to see or the Etruscan walls and +the well-preserved Roman theatre: you watch the clouds on the mountains, +the sun in the valley, the shadows on the hills, listen to a boy singing +to his goats, play with a little girl who has slipped her hand in yours +looking for soldi, or wonder at the host of flowers that has run even +among these ruins. Even from the windows of the Palazzo Pretorio, which +for some foolish reason you have entered on your way to the hills, you +do not really see the statues and weapons of these forgotten Etruscan +people, but you watch the sun that has perhaps suddenly lighted up the +Duomo, or the wind that, like a beautiful thought, for a moment has +turned the hills to silver. Or if it be up to S. Francesco you climb, +the old acropolis of Fiesole, above the palace of the bishop and the +Seminary, it will surely be rather to look over the valley to the +farthest hills, where Val di Greve winds towards Siena, than to enter a +place which, Franciscan though it be, has nothing to show half so fair +as this laughing country, or that Tuscan cypress on the edge of that +grove of olives. + +That love of country life, no longer characteristic of the Florentines, +which we are too apt to consider almost wholly English, was long ago +certainly one of the most delightful traits of the Tuscan character; for +Siena was not behind Florence in her delight in the life of the +villa.[131] It is perhaps in the Commentaries of Pius II that a love of +country byways, the lanes and valleys about his home, through which, +gouty and old, he would have himself carried in a litter, is expressed +for the first time with a true understanding and appreciation of things +which for us have come to mean a good half of life. No such lovely +descriptions of scenery may be found perhaps in any Florentine writer +before Lorenzo Magnifico, unless indeed it be in the verse of Sacchetti. +Yet the Florentine burgess of the fifteenth century, the very man whose +simple and hard common-sense got him wealth, or at least a fine +competence, and, as he has told us, a good housewife, and made him one +of the toughest traders in Europe, would become almost a poet in his +country house. Old Agnolo Pandolfini, talking to his sons, and teaching +them his somewhat narrow yet wholesome and delightful wisdom, +continually reminds himself of those villas near Florence, some like +palaces,--Poggio Gherardo for instance,--some like castles,--Vincigliata +perhaps,--"in the purest air, in a laughing country of lovely views, +where there are no fogs nor bitter winds, but always fresh water and +everything pure and healthy." Certainly Cosimo de' Medici was not the +first Florentine to retire from the city perhaps to Careggi, perhaps to +S. Domenico, perhaps farther still; for already in Boccaccio's day we +hear the praise of country life,--his description of Villa Palmieri, for +instance, when at the end of the second day of the _Decamerone_ those +seven ladies and their three comrades leave Poggio Gherardo for that +palace "about two miles westward," whither they came at six o'clock of a +Sunday morning in the year 1348. "When they had entered and inspected +everything, and seen that the halls and rooms had been cleaned and +decorated, and plentifully supplied with all that was needed for sweet +living, they praised its beauty and good order, and admired the owner's +magnificence. And on descending, even more delighted were they with the +pleasant and spacious courts, the cellars filled with choice wines, and +the beautifully fresh water which was everywhere round about.... Then +they went into the garden, which was on one side of the palace and was +surrounded by a wall, and the beauty and magnificence of it at first +sight made them eager to examine it more closely. It was crossed in all +directions by long, broad, and straight walks, over which the vines, +which that year made a great show of giving many grapes, hung gracefully +in arched festoons, and being then in full blossom, filled the whole +garden with their sweet smell, and this, mingled with the odours of the +other flowers, made so sweet a perfume that they seemed to be in the +spicy gardens of the East. The sides of the walks were almost closed +with red and white roses and with jessamine so that they gave sweet +odours and shade not only in the morning but when the sun was high, so +that one might walk there all day without fear. What flowers there were +there how various and how ordered, it would take too long to tell, but +there was not one which in our climate is to be praised, which was not +to be found there abundantly. Perhaps the most delightful thing therein +was a meadow in the midst, of the finest grass and all so green that it +seemed almost black, all sprinkled with a thousand various flowers, shut +in by oranges and cedars, the which bore the ripe fruit and the young +fruit too and the blossom, offering a shade most grateful to the eyes +and also a delicious perfume. In the midst of this meadow there was a +fountain of the whitest marble marvellously carved, and within--I do not +know whether artificially or from a natural spring--it threw so much +water and so high towards the sky through a statue which stood there on +a pedestal, that it would not have needed more to turn a mill. The water +fell back again with a delicious sound into the clear waters of the +basin, and the surplus was carried away through a subterranean way into +little waterways most beautifully and artfully made about the meadow, +and afterwards ran into others round about, and so watered every part of +the garden; it collected at length in one place, whence it had entered +the beautiful garden, turning two mills, much to the profit, as you may +suppose, of the signore, and pouring down at last in a stream clear and +sweet into the valley." + +If this should seem a mere pleasaunce of delight, the vision of a poet, +the garden of a dream, we have only to remember how realistically and +simply Boccaccio has described for us that plague-stricken city, +scarcely more than a mile away, to be assured of its truthfulness: and +then listen to Alberti--or old Agnolo Pandolfini, is it?--in his +_Trattato del Governo della Famiglia_, one of the most delightful books +of the fifteenth century. He certainly was no poet, yet with what +enthusiasm and happiness he speaks of his villa, how comely and useful +it is, so that while everything else brings labour, danger, suspicion, +harm, fear, and repentance, the villa will bring none of these, but a +pure happiness, a real consolation. Yes, it is really as an escape from +all the care and anxiety of business, of the wool or silk trade, which +he praised so much, that he loves the country. "_La Villa_, the country, +one soon finds, is always gracious, faithful, and true; if you govern it +with diligence and love, it will never be satisfied with what it does +for you, always it will add [**Transcriber's Note: undecipherable] to +recompense. In the spring the villa gives you continual delight; green +leaves, flowers, odours, songs and in every way makes you happy and +jocund: all smiles on you and promises a fine harvest, filling you with +good hope, delight, and pleasure. Yes indeed, how courteous is the +villa! She gives you now one fruit, now another, never leaving you +without some of her own joy. For in autumn she pays you for all your +trouble, fruit out of all proportion to your merit, recompense, and +thanks; and how willingly and with what abundance--twelve for one: for a +little sweat, many barrels of wine, and for what is old in the house, +the villa will give you new, seasoned, clear, and good. She fills the +house the winter long with grapes, both fresh and dry, with plums, +walnuts, pears, apples, almonds, filberts, giuggiole, pomegranates, and +other wholesome fruits, and apples fragrant and beautiful. Nor in winter +will she forget to be liberal; she sends you wood, oil, vine branches, +laurels, junipers to keep out snow and wind, and then she comforts you +with the sun, offering you the hare and the roe, and the field to follow +them...." Nor are the joys of summer less, for you may read Greek and +Latin in the shadow of the courtyard where the fountains splash, while +your girls are learning songs and your boys are busy with the contadini, +in the vineyards or beside the stream. It is a spirit of pure delight, +we find there in that old townsman, in country life, simple and quiet, +after the noise and sharpness of the market-place. And certainly, as we +pass from Fiesole down the new road where the tram runs, turning into +the lanes again just by Villa Galetta, on our way to Maiano, we may +fancy we see many places where such a life as that has always been +lived, and, as I know, in some is lived to-day. Everywhere on these +hills you find villas, and every villa has a garden, and every garden +has a fountain, where all day long the sun plays with the slim dancing +water and the contadine sing of love in the vineyards. + +Maiano itself is but a group of such places, among them a great villa +painted in the manner of the seventeenth century, spoiled a little by +modernity. You can leave it behind, passing into a lane behind Poggio +Gherardo, where it is roses, roses all the way, for the podere is hedged +with a hedge of roses pink and white, where the iris towers too, +streaming its violet banners. Presently, as you pass slowly on your +way--for in a garden who would go quickly?--you come upon the little +church of S. Martino a Mensola, built, as I think indeed, so lovely it +is, by Brunellesco, on a little rising ground above a shrunken stream, +and that is Mensola on her way to Arno. She lags for sure, because, lost +in Arno, she will see nothing again so fair as her own hills. + +[Illustration: OUTSIDE THE GATE] + +S. Martino a Mensola is very old, for it is said that in the year 800 an +oratory stood here, dedicated to S. Martino, and that il Beato Andrea di +Scozia, Blessed Andrew of Scotland, then archdeacon to the bishopric of +Fiesole, rebuilt it and endowed a little monastery, where he went to +live with a few companions, taking the rule of St. Benedict. Carocci +tells us that about 1550 it passed from the Benedictines to certain +monks who already had a house at S. Andrea in Mercato Vecchio of +Florence. In 1450 the monastery returned to Benedictines, coming into +the possession of the monks of the Badia. Restored many times, the +church was rebuilt in the fifteenth century, it may well be by +Brunellesco; the portico, restored in 1857, was added in the sixteenth +century. Within, the church is charming, having a nave and two aisles, +with four small chapels and a great one, which belonged to the Zati +family. And then, not without a certain surprise, you come here upon +many pictures still in their own place, over the altars of what is now a +village church. Over the high altar is a great ancona divided into many +compartments: the Virgin with our Lord, S. Maria Maddalena, S. Niccolo, +St. Catharine of Alexandria, S. Giuliano, S. Amerigo of Hungary, S. +Martino, S. Gregorio, S. Antonio, and the donor, Amerigo Zati. Carocci +suggests Bernardo Orcagna as the painter; whoever he may have been, this +altarpiece is beautiful, and the more beautiful too since it is in its +own place. In the Gherardi Chapel there is an Annunciation given to +Giusto d'Andrea, while in another is a Madonna and Saints by Neri di +Bicci. In the chapel of the Cecchini there is a fine fifteenth-century +work attributed to Cosimo Rosselli. The old monastery is to-day partly +the canonica and partly a villa. Following the stream upwards, we pass +under and then round the beautiful Villa I Tatti that of old belonged to +the Zati family whose altarpiece is in S. Martino, and winding up the +road to Vincigliata, you soon enter the cypress woods. All the way to +your left Poggio Gherardo has towered over you, Poggio Gherardo where +the two first days of the _Decamerone_ were passed. How well Boccaccio +describes the place: "On the top of a hill there stood a palace which +was surrounded by beautiful gardens, delightful meadows, and cool +springs, and in the midst was a great and beautiful court with +galleries, halls, and rooms which were adorned with paintings...." Not +far away, Boccaccio himself lived on the podere of his father. You come +to it if you pass out of the Vincigliata road by a pathway down to +Frassignaja, a little stream which, in its hurry to reach Mensola, its +sister here, leaps sheer down the rocks in a tiny waterfall. This is the +"shady valley" perhaps where in the evening the ladies of the +_Decamerone_ walked "between steep rocks to a crystal brook which poured +down from a little hill, and there they splashed about with bare hands +and feet, and talked merrily with one another." Crossing this brook and +following the path round the hillside, where so often the nightingale +sings, you pass under a little villa by a stony way to Corbignano, and +there, in what may well be the oldest house in the place, at the end of +the street, past the miraculous orange tree, just where the hill turns +out of sight, you see Boccaccio's house, Casa di Boccaccio, as it is +written; and though the old tower has become a loggia, and much has been +rebuilt, you may still see the very ancient stones of the place jutting +into the lane, where the water sings so after the rain, and the olives +whisper softly all night long, and God walks always among the vines. + +Turning then uphill, you come at last to a group of houses, and where +the way turns suddenly there is the Oratorio del Vannella, in the parish +of Settignano: it is truly just an old wayside tabernacle, but within is +one of the earliest works, a Madonna and Child, of Botticelli, whose +father had a podere hereabout. If you follow where the road leads, and +turn at last where you may, past the cemetery, you come to Settignano, +founded by Septimus Severus or by the Settimia family, it matters little +which, for its glory now lies with Desiderio the sculptor, who was born, +it seems, at Corbignano, and Antonio and Bernardo Rossellino, who were +born here. There is no other village near Florence that has so smiling a +face as Settignano among the gardens. There is little or nothing to see, +though the church of S. Maria has a lovely terra-cotta of Madonna with +Our Lord between two angels in the manner of the della Robbia; but the +little town is delightful, full of stonecutters and sculptors, still at +work in their shops as they were in the great days of Michelangelo. Far +away behind the hill of cypresses Vincigliata still stands on guard, on +the hilltop Castel di Poggio looks into the valley of Ontignano and +guards the road to Arezzo and Rome. Here there is peace; not too far +from the city nor too near the gate, as I said: and so to Firenze in the +twilight. + +NOTE.--_I have said little of the country places about Florence, +Settimo, the Certosa in Val d'Ema, the Incontro and such, because there +seemed to be too much to say, and I wanted to treat of them in a book +that should be theirs only. See my_ Country Walks Round Florence +(_Methuen_, 1908). + +FOOTNOTES: + +[129] This perhaps is open to criticism: there is a huge suburb of +course towards Prato, the other barriere are still fairly in the +country. + +[130] Villani, _Cronica_, translated by R.E. Selfe (London, 1906), pp. +71-3, 97. + +[131] Cf. Fortini and Sermini for instance. See Symonds' _New Italian +Sketches_ (Tauchnitz Ed.), p. 37. + + + + +XXVI. VALLOMBROSA AND THE CASENTINO, CAMALDOLI AND LA VERNA + +I. VALLOMBROSA + + +There are many ways that lead from Florence to Vallombrosa--by the +hills, by the valley, and by rail--and the best of these is by the +valley, but the shortest is by rail, for by that way you may leave +Florence at noon and be in your inn by three; but if you go by road you +must set out at dawn, so that when evening falls you may hear the +whispering woods of the rainy valley Vallis Imbrosa at your journey's +end. That is a pleasant way that takes you first to Settignano out of +the dust of Via Aretina by the river. Thence you may go by the byways to +Compiobbi, past Villa Gamberaja and Terenzano, among the terraced vines +and the old olives, coming to the river at last at Compiobbi, as I said, +just under Montacuto with its old castle, now a tiny village, on the +road to the Incontro, that convent on the hilltop where, as it is said, +St. Francis met St. Dominic on the way to Rome. The Via Aretina, deep in +dust that has already whitened the cypresses, passes through Compiobbi +on its way southward and west; but for me I will cross the river, and go +once more by the byways through the valley now, where the wind whispers +in the poplars beside Arno, and the river passes singing gently on its +way. It is a long road full of the quiet life of the country--here a +little farm, there a village full of children; a vineyard heavy with +grapes, where a man walks leisurely, talking to his dog, the hose on his +shoulders; a little copse that runs down to the stones of Arno, where a +little girl sits spinning with her few goats, singing softly some +endless chant; a golden olive garden among the corn, where there is no +sound but the song of the cicale that sing all day long. And there are +so many windings, and though the road leaves the river, it seems always +to be returning, always to be bidding good-bye: sometimes it climbs high +up above the stream, which just there is very still, sleeping in the +shadow under the trees; sometimes it dips quite down to the river bank, +a great stretch of dusty shingle across which the stream passes like a +road of silver. Slowly in front of me a great flat-bottomed boat crossed +the river with two great white oxen. And then at a turning of the way a +flock of sheep were coming on in a cloud of dust, when suddenly, at a +word from the shepherd who led them, they crossed the wide beach to +drink at the river, while he waited under the trees by the roadside. +There were trees full of cherries too, so full that in the sunshine they +seemed to dance for joy, clothed all in scarlet, so red, so ripe was the +fruit. Presently I came upon an old man high up in a tree gathering them +in a great basket, and since I was thirsty I asked him for drink, and +since I was hungry I asked him for food. He climbed down the great +ladder, coming towards me kindly enough, and drew me into the shadow. +"Eat as you will, signore, and quench your thirst," said he, as he +lifted a handful of the shining fruit, a handful running over, and +offered it to me. And he stayed with me and gave me his conversation. So +I dined, and when I had finished, "Open that great sack of yours," said +he, "and I will send you on your way," but I would not. Just then four +others came along in the sun, and on their heads were great bags of +leaves, and he bade them come and eat in the shade. Then said I, "What +are those leaves that you have there, and what are you going to do with +them?" And they laughed, making answer that they were silk. "Silk?" said +I. "Silk truly," said they, "since they are the leaves of the mulberry +on which the little worm lives that presently will make it." So I went +on my way with thanks, thinking in my heart: Are we too then but leaves +for worms, out of which, as by a miracle will pass the endless thread of +an immortal life? + +So I came to Pontassieve, crossing the river again where the road begins +to leave it. There is nothing good to say of Pontassieve, which has no +beauty in itself, and where folk are rough and given to robbery. A +glance at the inn--for so they call it--and I passed on, glad in my +heart that I had dined in the fields. A mile beyond the town, on the Via +Aretina, the road of the Consuma Pass leaves the highway on the left, +and by this way it is good to go into Casentino; for any of the inns in +the towns of the valley will send to Pontassieve to meet you, and it is +better to enter thus than by railway from Arezzo. However, I was for +Vallombrosa; so I kept to the Aretine way. I left it at last at S. +Ellero, whence the little railway climbs up to Saltino, passing first +through the olives and vines, then through the chestnuts, the oaks, and +the beeches, till at last the high lawns appeared, and evening fell at +the last turn of the mule path over the hill as I came out of the forest +before the monastery itself, almost like a village or a stronghold, with +square towers and vast buildings too, fallen, alas! from their high +office, to serve as a school of forestry, an inn for the summer visitor +who has fled from the heat of the valleys. And there I slept. + +It is best always to come to any place for the first time at evening or +even at night, and then in the morning to return a little on your way +and come to it again. Wandering there, out of the sunshine, in the +stillness of the forest itself, with the ruin of a thousand winters +under my feet, how could I be but angry that modern Italy--ah, so small +a thing!--has chased out the great and ancient order that had dwelt here +so long in quietness, and has established after our pattern a +utilitarian school, and thus what was once a guest-house is now a +pension of tourists. But in the abbey itself I forgot my anger, I was +ashamed of my contempt of those who could do so small a thing. This +place was founded because a young man refused to hate his enemy; every +stone here is a part of the mountain, every beam a tree of the forest, +the forest that has been renewed and destroyed a thousand times, that +has never known resentment, because it thinks only of life. Yes, this is +no place for hatred; since he who founded it loved his enemies, I also +will let them pass by, and since I too am of that company which thinks +only of life, what is the modern world to me with its denial, its doubt, +its contemptible materialism, its destruction, its misery? Like winter, +it will flee away before the first footsteps of our spring. + +It was S. Giovanni Gualberto who founded the Vallombrosan Order and +established here an abbey, whose daughter we now see. Born about the +year 1000, he was the son of Gualberto dei Visdomini, Signore of Petroio +in Val di Pesa, of the great family who lived in St. Peter's Gate in +Florence, and were, according to Villani, the patrons of the bishopric. +In those days murder daily walked the streets of every Tuscan city, and +so it came to pass that before Giovanni was eighteen years old his +brother Ugo had been murdered by one of that branch of his own house +which was at feud with Gualberto. Urged on by his father, who, we may be +sure, did not spare himself or his friends in seeking revenge, Giovanni +was ever on the watch for his enemy, his brother's murderer; and it +chanced that as he came into Florence on Good Friday morning in 1018, +just before he got to S. Miniato al Monte, at a turning of that steep +way he came upon him face to face suddenly in the sunlight. Surely God +had delivered him into his hands! Giovanni was on horseback with his +servant, and then the hill was in his favour; the other was alone. +Seeing he had no chance, for the steel was already cold on his jumping +throat, he sank on his knees, and, crossing his arms in the form of Holy +Cross, he prayed hard to the Lord Jesus to save his soul alive. Hearing +that blessed, beautiful name in the stillness of that morning, when all +the bells are silent and the very earth hushed for Christ's death, +Giovanni could not strike, but instead lifted up his enemy and embraced +him, saying, "I give you not your life only, but my love too for ever. +Pray for me that God may pardon my sin." So they went on their way; but +Giovanni, when he came to the monastery of S. Miniato of the +Benedictines, stole into the church and prayed before the great +Crucifix,[132] begging God to pardon him; and while he prayed thus, the +Christ miraculously bowed his head, "as it were to give him a token how +acceptable was this sacrifice of his resentment." + +How little that sacrifice seems to us! But it was a great, an unheard-of +thing in those days. And for this cause, maybe, Giovanni proposed to +remain with the monks, to be received as a novice among them, and to +forsake the world for ever. And they received him. Now when Gualberto +heard it, he was first very much astonished and then more angry, so that +he went presently to take Giovanni out of that place; but he would not, +for before his father he cut off his hair and clothed himself in a habit +which he borrowed. Then, seeing his purpose, his father let him alone. +So for some four years Giovanni lived a monk at S. Miniato; when, the +old Abbot dying, his companions wished to make him their Abbot, but he +would not, setting out immediately with one companion to search for a +closer solitude. And to this end he went to Camaldoli to consult with S. +Romualdo; but even there, in that quiet and ordered place, he did not +seem to have found what he sought. So he set out again, not without +tears, coming at last, on this side of Casentino, upon this high valley, +Acqua Bella, as it was then called, because of its brooks. It belonged, +with all the forest, to the Contessa Itta dei Guidi, the Abbess of S. +Ellero, who gladly presented Giovanni with land for his monastery, and +that he built of timber. Nor was he alone, for he had found there +already two hermits, who agreed to join him; so under the rule of St. +Benedict the Vallombrosan Order was founded.[133] Of S. Giovanni's work +in Florence, of his fight with Simony and Nicolaitanism, this is no +place to speak. He became the hero of that country; yet such was his +humility that he never proceeded further than minor orders, and, though +Abbot of Vallombrosa, was never a priest. He founded many houses, S. +Salvi among them, while his monks were to be found at Moscetta, +Passignano, and elsewhere in Tuscany and Umbria; while his Order was the +first to receive lay brothers who, while exempt from choir and silence, +were employed in "external offices." It was in July 1073 that he fell +sick at Passignano, and on the 12th of that month he died there. Pope +Celestine III enrolled him among the saints in 1193. After S. Giovanni's +death the Order seems to have flourished by reason of the bequests of +the Countess Matilda. + +There is but little of interest in the present buildings at Vallombrosa, +which date from the seventeenth century; nor does the church itself +possess anything of importance, unless it be the relic of S. Giovanni +enshrined in a casquet of the sixteenth century, a work of Paolo +Soliano. + +About three hundred feet above the monastery is the old Hermitage--the +_Celle_--now an hotel. Here those who sought solitude and silence found +their way, and indeed it seems to have been a spot greatly beloved, for +a certain Pietro Migliorotti of Poppi passed many years there, and +refused to think of it as anything but a little paradise; thus it was +called Paradisino, the name which it bears to-day. Far and far away lies +Florence, with her beautiful domes and towers, and around you are the +valleys, Val d'Arno, Val di Sieve, while behind you lies the strangest +and loveliest of all, Val di Casentino, hidden in the hills at the foot +of the great mountain, scattered with castles, holy with convents; and +there Dante has passed by and St. Francis, and Arno is continually born +in the hills. And indeed, delightful as the woods of Vallombrosa are, +with their ruined shrines and chapels, their great delicious solitude, +their unchangeable silence under everything but the wind, that +valley-enclosed Clusendinum calls you every day; perhaps in some strange +smile you catch for a moment in the sunshine on the woods, or in the +aspect of the clouds; it will not be long before you are compelled to +set out on your way to seek + + "Li ruscelletti, che dei verdi colli + Del Casentin discendon giuso in Arno." + +II. OF THE WAY TO THE CASENTINO + +And the path lies through the woods. You make your way under the +mountain towards S. Miniato in Alpe, leaving it at Villa del Lago for a +mule-track, which leads you at last to Consuma and the road from +Pontassieve. The way is beautiful, and not too hard to find, the world +about you a continual joy. If you start early, you may breakfast at +Consuma (though it were better, perhaps, to carry provisions), for it is +but two and a half hours from Vallombrosa. Once at Consuma, the way is +easy and good. You climb into the pass, and in another three hours you +may be in Romena, Pratovecchio, or Stia. But there are other ways, too, +of which the shortest is that by the mountains from Vallombrosa to +Montemignajo--that lofty, ruined place; and the loveliest, that from +Vallombrosa to Raggiola of the forests; but there be rambles, +pilgrimages, paths of delight unknown to any but those who hide for long +in the forests of Vallombrosa. Your tourist knows them not; he will go +by rail from S. Ellero to Arezzo, and make his way by train up the +valley to Stia; your traveller will walk from Vallombrosa to Consuma, +where Giuseppe Marari of Stia will send a _vettura_ to meet him. For +myself I go afoot, and take a lift when I can, and a talk with it, and +this is the happiest way of all to travel. Thus those who are young and +wise will set out, putting Dante in their knapsack and Signor Beni's +little book[134] in their pocket, and with these two, a good stick, a +light heart, and a companion to your liking, the Casentino is yours. And +truly there is no more delightful place in which to spend a Tuscan +summer. The Pistojese mountains are fine; the air is pure there, the +woods lovely with flowers; but they lack the sentimental charm of +Casentino. The Garfagnana, again, cannot be bettered if you avoid such +touristry as Bagni di Lucca; but then Castelnuovo is bare, and though +Barga is fine enough, Piazza al Serchio is a mere huddle of houses, +and it is not till you reach Fivizzano on the other side of the +pass that you find what you want. In Casentino alone there is +everything--mountains, rivers, woods, and footways, convents and +castles. And then where is there a better inn than Albergo Amorosi of +Bibbiena, unless, indeed, it be the unmatched hostelry at Fivizzano? + +As for inns, in general they are fair enough; though none, I think, so +good as the Amorosi. You may sleep and eat comfortably at Stia, either +at Albergo Falterona or Albergo della Stazione Alpina. At Pratovecchio +there is Albergo Bastieri; at Poppi the Gelati pension; at Bibbiena the +Amorosi, as I say. These will be your centres, as it were. At La Verna +you may sleep for one night--not well, but bearably; at Camaldoli, very +well indeed in summer; and then, wherever you may be, you will find a +fine courtesy, for rough though they seem, these peasants and such, are +of the Latin race, they understand the amenities. Saints have been here, +and poets: these be no Teutons, but the good Latin people of the Faith; +they will give you greeting and welcome. + +III. STIA AND MONTE FALTERONA + +Stia is a picturesque little city with a curious arcaded Piazza, a +church that within is almost beautiful; yet it is certainly not for +anything to be found there that one comes to so ancient and yet so +disappointing a place, but because from thence one may go most easily to +Falterona to see the sun rise or to find out the springs of Arno, or to +visit Porciano, S. Maria delle Grazie, Papiano, and the rest in the +hills that shut in this little town at the head of the long valley. + +Through the great endless sheepfolds you go to Falterona where the girls +are singing their endless chants all day long guarded by great +sheep-dogs, not the most peacable of companions. All the summer long +these pastures nourish the sheep, poor enough beasts at the best. One +recalls that in the great days the Guild of Wool got its material from +Flanders and from England, because the Tuscan fleece was too hard and +poor. Through these lonely pastures you climb with your guide, through +forests of oak and chestnut, by many a winding path, not without +difficulty, to the steeper sides of the mountain covered with brushwood, +into the silence where there is no voice but the voice of the streams. +Here in a cleft, under the very summit of Falterona, Arno rises, gushing +endlessly from the rock in seven springs of water, that will presently +gather to themselves a thousand other streams and spread through +Casentino: + + "Botoli trova poi, venendo giuso + Ringhiosi piu che non chiede lor possa + Ed, a lor, disdegnosa, torce il muso" + +at the end of the valley. + +Climbing above that sacred source to the summit of Falterona itself, you +may see, if the dawn be clear, the Tyrrhene sea and the Adriatic, the +one but a tremor of light far and far away, the other a sheet of silver +beyond the famous cities of Romagna. It is from this summit that your +way through Casentino should begin. + +It was there I waited the dawn. For long in the soft darkness and +silence I had watched the mountains sleeping under the few summer stars. +Suddenly the earth seemed to stir in her sleep, in every valley the dew +was falling, in all forests there was a rumour, and among the rocks +where I lay I caught a flutter of wings. The east grew rosy; out of the +mysterious sea rose a golden ghost hidden in glory, till suddenly across +the world a sunbeam fell. It touched the mountains one by one; higher +and higher crept the tremulous joy of light, confident and ever more +confident, opening like a flower, filling the world with gladness and +light. It was the dawn: out of the east once more had crept the beauty +of the world. + +Then in that clear and joyful hour God spread out all the breadth of +Italy before me: the plains, the valleys, and the mountains. Far and far +away, shining in the sun, Ravenna lay, and lean Rimini and bartered +Pesaro. There, the mountains rose over Siena, in that valley Gubbio +slept, on that hill stood S. Marino, and there, like a golden angel +bearing the Annunciation of Day, S. Leo folded her wings on her +mountain. Southward, Arezzo smiled like a flower, Monte Amiata was +already glorious; northward lay a sea of mountains, named and nameless, +restless with light, about to break in the sun. While to the west +Florence lay sleeping yet in the cusp of her hills, her towers, her +domes, perfect and fresh in the purity of dawn that had renewed her +beauty. + +It was an altogether different impression, an impression of sadness, of +some tragic thing, that I received when at evening I stood above the +Castle of Porciano on a hill a little way off, and looked down the +valley. It was not any joyful thing that I saw, splendid though it was, +but the ruined castles, blind and broken, of the Counts Guidi: Porciano +itself, line a jagged menace, rises across Arno, which is heard but not +seen; farther, on the crest of a blue hill, round which evening gathers +out of the woods, rises the great ruin of Romena like a broken oath; +while farther still, far away on its hill in a fold of the valley, Poppi +thrusts its fierce tower into the sky, a cruel boast that came to +nothing. They are but the ghosts of a forgotten barbarism these gaunt +towers of war; they are nothing now, less than nothing, unreconciled +though they be with the hills; they have been crumbling for hundreds of +years: one day the last stone will fall. For around them is life; the +children of Stia, laughing about the fountain, will never know that +their ancestors went in fear of some barbarian who held Porciano by +murder and took toll of the weak. These shepherd girls, these +_contadini_ and their wives and children, they have outlived the Conti +Guidi, they have outlasted the greatest of the lords; like the flowers, +they run among the stones without a thought of that brutal greatness +that would have enslaved them if it could. Not by violence have they +conquered, but by love; not by death, but by life. It is just this which +I see round every ruin in the Casentino. Force, brute force, is the only +futile thing in the world. Why has La Verna remained when Romena is +swept away, that strong place, when Porciano is a ruin, when the castle +of Poppi is brought low, but that life which is love has beaten hate, +and that a kiss is more terrible than a thousand blows. + +Yes, as one wanders about these hills where life itself is so hard a +master, it is just that which one understands in almost every village. +You go to S. Maria delle Grazie--Vallombrosella, they call it, since it +was a daughter of the monastery of Vallombrosa--and there in that +beautiful fifteenth-century church you still find the simple things of +life, of love; work of the della Robbia; pictures, too, cheerful +flowerlike things, with Madonna like a rose in the midst. Well, not far +away across Arno, where it is little, the ruins of Castel Castagnajo and +of Campo Lombardo are huddled, though Vallucciole, that tiny village, is +laughing with children. It is the same at Romena, where the church still +lives, though the castle is ruined. You pass to Pratovecchio; it is the +same story, ruins of the Guidi towers, walls, fortifications; but in the +convent church of the Dominican sisters they still sing Magnificat: + + Deposuit potentes de sede: et exaltavit humiles. + +So on the road to Poppi you come to Campaldino, where Dante fought, +where Corso Donati saved the day, where Buonconte fell, and died with +the fog in his throat in the still morning air after the battle. Well, +that famous field is now a vineyard; you may see the girls gathering the +grapes there any morning in early October. Where the horses of the +Aretines thundered away, the great patient oxen draw the plough; or a +man walks, singing beside his wife, her first-born in her arms. It is +the victory of the meek; here, at least, they have inherited the earth. +And Certomondo, as of old, sings of our sister the earth. Poppi +again--ah, but that fierce old place, how splendid it is, it and its +daughter! Like all the rest of these Guidi strongholds, the Rocca of +Poppi stands on a hill; it can be seen for miles up and down the valley: +and indeed the whole town is like a fortress on a hill, subject only to +the ever-changing sky, the great tide of light ebbing and flowing in the +valley between the mountains. Poppi is the greatest of the Guidi +fortresses; built by Arnolfo, it has much of the nobility of its +daughter the Palazzo Vecchio of Florence. Of all these castles it is the +only one that is not a ruin. It is true it has been restored, But you +may still find frescoes on its walls in the chapel and in the great +hall, work, it is said, of Jacopo da Casentino: and then it has one of +the loveliest courtyards in Italy. + +It is from Poppi one may go very easily in a summer day to Camaldoli, +some eight miles or so to the north-west, where the valley comes up in a +long arm into the mountains. On that lovely road you pass many an old +ruin of the Guidi before you come at last to that monastery of the +Camaldolese Order "so beloved of Dante," which was confiscated with the +rest in 1866. The monks now hire their own house from the Government, +which has let out their hospice for an hotel. About an hour above the +monastery, among the pine trees, is the Sacro Eremo, the Holy Hermitage, +where in some twenty separate cells the Hermits of Camaldoli live; for, +as their arms go to show, the Order is divided into two parts, +consisting of monks who live in community, and hermits who live alone. + +S. Romuald, the founder of the Order, of the family of the Dukes of +Ravenna called Honesti, was born in that city in 956. He seems to have +grown up amid a certain splendour, and to have been caught by it, but by +a love of nature no less; so that often when he was hunting, and found a +beautiful or lonely place in the woods away from his companions, he +would almost cry out, "How happy were the old hermits, who lived always +in such places!" The romance of just that: it seems to have struck him +from the first. Not long after, when he was but twenty years old, his +father, deciding a dispute with a relation by fighting, fell, and +Romuald, who had been compelled to witness this dreadful scene, was so +overwhelmed by the result that he retired for a time to the Benedictine +Monastery at Classis, not far from Ravenna. After some difficulties had +been disposed of, for he was his father's heir, he spent seven years in +that monastery; but his sincerity does not appear to have pleased +certain of the fathers, so that we find him at last obliged to retire to +Venice, where, in fulfilment of his earliest wishes, he placed himself +under the guidance of Marinus, a hermit. After many years, in which he +seems to have gone to Spain, he returned at last, and took up his hermit +life in a marsh near Classis, where the monks of his old monastery +sought him, and with the help of Otho III made him their Abbot. This +office, however, he did not long retain, for he found it useless to try +to reform them. He seems to have wandered about, famous all over Italy, +founding many houses, but the most famous of all is this house of +Camaldoli, which he founded in 1009. The land was given him by a certain +Conte Maldolo, it is said, an Aretine, by whose name the place was ever +after known, Campus Maldoli; while another gift, Campus Arrabile, the +gift of the same man, is that place where the Hermitage stands. There, +in Camaldoli, Romuald built a monastery, "and by several observances he +added to St. Benedict's rule, gave birth to a new Order, in which he +united the cenobite and eremetical life." It is said that it was after a +vision, in which he saw his monks mounting up into heaven dressed in +white, that he changed their habit from black to white--the habit they +still wear. + +Whether it be that the hills and valley are indeed more lovely here +than anywhere else in Casentino, and that the monks and the hermits lure +some indefinable sweet charm to the place, I know not; yet I know that +I, who came for a day, stayed a month, returning here again and again +from less lovely, less quiet places. Camaldoli is one of the loveliest +places in Tuscany in which to spend a summer. Here are mountains, woods, +streams, valleys, a monastery, and a hermitage; to desire more might +seem churlish, to be content with less when these may be had in quiet, +stupid. + +IV. BIBBIENA, LA VERNA + +Some eight miles away down the valley, enclosed above a coil of Arno, +stands Bibbiena, just a little Tuscan hill city with a windy towered +Piazza in which a great fountain plays, and all about the tall cypresses +tower in the sun among the vineyards and the corn. Here Cardinal +Bibbiena, the greatest ornament of the court of Urbino, was born, of no +famous family, but of the Divizi. It is not, however, any memory of so +famous and splendid a person that haunts you in these stony streets, but +the remembrance rather of a greater if humbler humanist, St. Francis of +Assisi. You may see work of the della Robbia in the Franciscan church of +S. Lorenzo in the little city, but it is La Verna which to-day +overshadows Bibbiena, La Verna where St. Francis nearly seven hundred +years ago received the Stigmata from Our Lord, and whence he was carried +down to Assisi to die. The way thither is difficult but beautiful: you +climb quite into the mountains, and there in a lonely and stony place +rises the strange rock, set with cypress and with fir, backed by +marvellous great hills. + + "Mons in quo beneplacitum est Deo habitare in eo." + +It was on the morning of the 14th September 1224, in the Feast of the +Exaltation of the Holy Cross, that Francesco Bernadone received the +Stigmata of Christ's passion while keeping the Lent of St. Michael +Archangel on this strange and beautiful mountain. "Ye must needs know," +says the author of the _Fioretti_, "that St. Francis, being forty and +three years of age in the year 1224, being inspired of God, set out from +the valley of Spoleto for to go into Romagna with brother Leo his +companion: and as they went they passed by the foot of the castle of +Montefeltro; in the which castle there was at that time a great company +of gentlefolk.... Among them a wealthy gentleman of Tuscany, by name +Orlando da Chiusi of Casentino, who by reason of the marvellous things +which he had heard of St. Francis, bore him great devotion and felt an +exceeding strong desire to see him and to hear him preach. Coming to the +castle St. Francis entered in and came to the courtyard, where all that +great company of gentlefolk was gathered together, and in fervour of +spirit stood up upon a parapet and began to preach.... And Orlando, +touched in the heart by God through the marvellous preaching of St. +Francis ... drew him aside and said, 'O Father, I would converse with +thee touching the salvation of my soul.' Replied St. Francis: 'It +pleaseth me right well; but go this morning and do honour to thy friends +who have called thee to the feast, and dine with them, and after we will +speak together as much as thou wilt.' So Orlando got him to the dinner; +and after he returned to St. Francis and ... set him forth fully the +state of his soul. And at the end this Orlando said to St. Francis, 'I +have in Tuscany a mountain most proper for devotion, the which is called +the Mount La Verna, and is very lonely and right well fitted for whoso +may wish to do penance in a place remote from man, or whoso may desire +to live a solitary life; if it should please thee, right willingly would +I give it to thee and thy companions for the salvation of my soul.' St. +Francis hearing this liberal offer of the thing that he so much desired, +rejoiced with exceeding great joy; and praising and giving thanks first +to God and then to Orlando, he spake thus: 'Orlando, when you have +returned to your house, I will send you certain of my companions, and +you shall show them that mountain; and if it shall seem to them well +fitted for prayer and penitence, I accept your loving offer even now.' +So Orlando returned to Chiusi, the which was but a mile distant from La +Verna. + +"Whenas St. Francis had returned to St. Mary of the Angels, he sent one +of his companions to the said Orlando ... who, desiring to show them the +Mount of La Verna, sent with them full fifty men-at-arms to defend them +from the wild beasts of the forest; and thus accompanied, these brothers +climbed up the mountain and searched diligently, and at last they came +to a part of the mountain that was well fitted for devotion and +contemplation, for in that part there was some level ground, and this +place they chose out for them and for St. Francis to dwell therein; and +with the help of the men-at-arms that bore them company, they made a +little cell of branches of trees; and so they accepted, in the name of +God, and took possession of, the Mount of La Verna, and of the +dwelling-place of the brothers on the mountain, and departed and +returned to St. Francis. And when they were come unto him, they told him +how, and in what manner, they had taken a place on the mountain ... and, +hearing these tidings, St. Francis was right glad, and praising and +giving thanks to God, he spake to these brothers with joyful +countenance, and said, 'My sons, our forty days' fast of St. Michael the +Archangel draweth near: I firmly believe that it is the will of God that +we keep this fast on the Mount of Alvernia, which, by divine decree, +hath been made ready for us to the end, that to the honour and glory of +God, and of His mother, the glorious Virgin Mary, and of the holy +Angels, we may, through penance, merit at the hands of Christ the +consolation of consecrating this blessed mountain.' Thus saying, St. +Francis took with him Brother Masseo da Marignano of Assisi ... and +Brother Angelo Tancredi da Rieti, the which was a man of very gentle +birth, and in the world had been a knight; and Brother Leo, a man of +exceeding great simplicity and purity, for the which cause St. Francis +loved him much. So they set out. 'And on the first night they came to a +house of the brothers, and lodged there. On the second night, by reason +of the bad weather, and because they were tired, not being able to reach +any house of the brothers, or any walled town or village, when the night +overtook them and bad weather, they took refuge in a deserted and +dismantled church, and there laid them down to rest.' But St. Francis +spent the night in prayer. 'And in the morning his companions, being +aware that, through the fatigues of the night which he had passed +without sleep, St. Francis was much weakened in body and could but ill +go on his way afoot, went to a poor peasant of these parts, and begged +him, for the love of God, to lend his ass for Brother Francis, their +Father, that could not go afoot. Hearing them make mention of Brother +Francis, he asked them: 'Are ye of the brethren of the brother of +Assisi, of whom so much good is spoken?' The brothers answered 'Yes,' +and that in very truth it was for him that they asked for the sumpter +beast. Then the good man, with great diligence and devotion, made ready +the ass and brought it to St. Francis, and with great reverence let him +mount thereon, and they went on their way, and he with them behind his +ass. And when they had gone on a little way, the peasant said to St. +Francis, 'Tell me, art thou Brother Francis of Assisi?' Replied St. +Francis, 'Yes.' 'Try, then,' said the peasant, 'to be as good as thou +art by all folk held to be, seeing that many have great faith in thee; +and therefore I admonish thee, that in thee there be naught save what +men hope to find therein.' Hearing these words, St. Francis thought no +scorn to be admonished by a peasant, and said not within himself, 'What +beast is this doth admonish me?' as many would say nowadays that wear +the habit, but straightway threw himself from off the ass upon the +ground, and kneeled down before him and kissed his feet, and then humbly +thanked him for that he had deigned thus lovingly to admonish him. Then +the peasant, together with the companions of St. Francis, with great +devotion lifted him from the ground and set him on the ass again, and +they went on their way.... As they drew near to the foot of the rock of +Alvernia itself, it pleased St. Francis to rest a little under the oak +that was by the way, and is there to this day; and as he stood under it, +St. Francis began to take note of the situation of the place and the +country around. And as he was thus gazing, lo! there came a great +multitude of birds from divers parts, the which, with singing and +flapping of their wings, all showed joy and gladness exceeding great, +and came about St. Francis in such fashion, some settled on his head, +some on his shoulders, and some on his arms, some in his lap and some +round his feet. When his companions and the peasant marvelled, beholding +this, St. Francis, all joyful in spirit, spake thus unto them: 'I +believe, brethren most dear, that it is pleasing unto Our Lord Jesus +Christ that we should dwell in this lonely mountain, seeing that our +little sisters and brothers, the birds, show such joy at our coming.' So +they went on their way and came to the place the companions had first +chosen." + +It is not in any other words than those of the writer of the _Fioretti_ +that we should care to read of that journey. + +"Arrived there not long after, Orlando and his company came to visit +Francis, bringing with them bread and wine and other victuals; and St. +Francis met him gladly and gave him thanks for the holy mountain. Then +Orlando built a little cell there, and that done, 'as it was drawing +near to evening and it was time for them to depart, St. Francis preached +unto them a little before they took leave of him.' Ah, what would we not +give just for a moment to hear his voice in that place to-day? There, in +this very spot, angels visited him, which said, when he, thinking upon +his death, wondered what would become of 'Thy poor little family' after +his death, 'I tell thee, in the name of God, that the profession of the +Order will never fail until the Day of Judgment, and there will be no +sinner so great as not to find mercy with God if, with his whole heart, +he love thine Order.' + +"Thereafter, as the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady drew near, St. +Francis sought how he might find a place more solitary and secret, +wherein he might the more solitary keep the forty days' fast of St. +Michael the Archangel, which beginneth with the said Feast of the +Assumption.... And as they searched, they found, on the side of the +mountain that looks towards the south, a lonely place, and very proper +for his purpose; but they could not win there because in front there was +a horrid and fearful cleft in a huge rock; wherefore with great pains +they laid a piece of wood over it as a bridge, and got across to the +other side. Then St. Francis sent for the other brothers and told them +how he was minded to keep the forty days' fast of St. Michael in that +lonely place; and therefore he besought them to make him a little cell +there, so that no cry of his could be heard of them. And when the cell +was made, St. Francis said to them: 'Go ye to your own place and leave +me here alone, for, with the help of God, I am minded to keep the fast +here without disturbance or distraction, and therefore let none of you +come unto me, nor suffer any lay folk to come to me. But Brother Leo, +thou alone shalt come to me once a day with a little bread and water, +and at night once again at the hour of Matins; and then shalt thou come +to me in silence, and when thou art at the bridgehead thou shalt say: +"Domine, labia mea operies," and if I answer thee, cross over and come +to the cell, and we will say Matins together; and if I answer thee not, +then depart straightway.' And so it was. But there came a morning when +St. Francis made him no answer, and, contrary to St. Francis's desire, +but with the very best of intentions, dear little brother Leo crossed +the bridge over the chasm, which you may see to this day, and entered +into St. Francis's cell. There he found him in ecstasy, saying, 'Who art +Thou, O most sweet, my God? What am I, most vile worm, and Thine +unprofitable servant?' Again and again brother Leo heard him repeat +these words, and wondering thereat, he lifted his eyes to the sky, and +saw there among the stars, for it was dark, a torch of flame very +beautiful and bright, which, coming down from the sky, rested on St. +Francis's head. So, thinking himself unworthy to behold so sweet a +vision, he softly turned away for to go to his cell again. And as he +was going softly, deeming himself unseen, St. Francis was aware of him +by the rustling of the leaves under his feet. Surely, even to the most +doubtful, that sound of the rustling leaves must bring conviction. Then +St. Francis explains to brother Leo all that this might mean. + +"And as he thus continued a long time in prayer, he came to know that +God would hear him, and that so far as was possible for the mere +creature, so far would it be granted him to feel the things +aforesaid.... And as he was thus set on fire in his contemplation on +that same morn, he saw descend from heaven a Seraph with six wings +resplendent and aflame, and as with swift flight the Seraph drew nigh +unto St. Francis so that he could discern him, he clearly saw that he +bore in him the image of a man crucified; and his wings were in such +guise displayed that two wings were spread above his head, and two were +spread out to fly, and other two covered all his body. Seeing this, St. +Francis was sore adread, and was filled at once with joy and grief and +marvel. He felt glad at the gracious look of Christ, who appeared to him +so lovingly, and gazed on him so graciously; but, on the other hand, +seeing Him crucified upon the cross, he felt immeasurable grief for +pity's sake.... Then the whole mount of Alvernia appeared as though it +burned with bright shining flames that lit up all the mountains and +valleys round as though it had been the sun upon the earth; whereby the +shepherds that were keeping watch in these parts, seeing the mountains +aflame, and so great a light around, had exceeding great fear, according +as they afterwards told unto the brothers, declaring that this flame +rested upon the mount of Alvernia for the space of an hour and more. In +like manner at the bright shining of this light, which through the +windows lit up the hostels of the country round, certain muleteers that +were going into Romagna arose, believing that the day had dawned, and +saddled and laded their beasts; and going on their way, they saw the +said light die out and the material sun arise. In the seraphic vision, +Christ, the which appeared to him, spake to St. Francis certain high +and secret things, the which St. Francis in his lifetime desired not to +reveal to any man; but after his life was done he did reveal them, as it +set forth below; and the words were these: 'Knowest thou,' said Christ, +'what it is that I have done unto thee? I have given thee the Stigmata +that are the signs of My Passion, to the end that thou mayest be My +standard-bearer. And even as in the day of My death I descended into +hell and brought out thence all souls that I found there by reason of +these My Stigmata: even so do I grant to thee that every year on the day +of thy death thou shalt go to Purgatory, and in virtue of thy Stigmata +shalt bring out thence all the souls of thy three Orders,--to wit, +Minors, Sisters, Continents,--and likewise others that shall have had a +great devotion for thee, and shalt lead them unto the glory of Paradise, +to the end that thou mayest be confirmed to Me in death as thou art in +life.' Then this marvellous image vanished away, and left in the heart +of St. Francis a burning ardour and flame of love divine, and in his +flesh a marvellous image and copy of the Passion of Christ. For +straightway in the hands and feet of St. Francis began to appear the +marks of the nails in such wise as he had seen them in the body of Jesus +Christ the crucified, the which had shown Himself to him in the likeness +of a Seraph; and thus his hands and feet appeared to be pierced through +the middle with nails, and the heads of them were in the palms of his +hands and the soles of his feet outside the flesh, and their points came +out in the back of his hands and of his feet, so that they seemed bent +back and rivetted in such a fashion that under the bend and rivetting +which all stood out above the flesh might easily be put a finger of the +hand as a ring; and the heads of the nails were round and black. +Likewise in the right side appeared the image of a wound made by a +lance, unhealed, and red and bleeding, the which afterwards oftentimes +dropped blood from the sacred breast of St. Francis, and stained with +blood his tunic and his hose. Wherefore his companions, before they knew +it of his own lips, perceiving nevertheless that he uncovered not his +hands and feet, and that he could not put the soles of his feet to the +ground ... knew of a surety that in his hands and feet, and likewise in +his side, he bore the express image and similitude of Our Lord Jesus +Christ crucified." On the day after the feast of St. Michael, St. +Francis left La Verna never to return. + + * * * * * + +It was with a certain hesitation that I first came to La Verna, as +though something divine that was hidden in the life of the Apostle of +Humanity might be lost for me in the mere realism of his sacred places. +But it was not so. In Italy, it might seem even to-day, St. Francis is +not a stranger, and, in fact, I had got no farther than the Cappella +degli Uccelli before I seemed to understand everything, and in a place +so lonely as this to have found again, yes, that Jesus whom I had lost +in the city. + +On a high precipitous rock on the top of the mountain you come to the +convent itself, through a great court, il Quadrante, under a low +gateway. The buildings are of the end of the fifteenth century, simple, +and with a certain country beauty about them, strong and engaging. In +the dim corridors the friars pass you on their way to church at all +hours of the day, smiling faintly at you, whom they, in their simple +way, receive without question as a friend. It is for St. Francis you +have come: it is enough. You pass into the Cappella della Maddalena, +where the angel appeared to S. Francesco promising such great things, +and it is with a certain confidence you remind yourself, yes, it is +true, the Order still lives, here men still speak S. Francesco's name +and pray to God. And there, as it is said, Jesus Himself spoke with him, +and he wrote the blessing for Frate Leone. Then you enter the Chiesina, +the first little church of the Mountain that St. Francis may have built +with his own hands, and that S. Bonaventura certainly enlarged; and thus +into the great Church of S. Maria Assunta, built in 1348 by the Conte di +Pietramala, with its beautiful della Robbias. Coming out again, you +pass along the covered way into the Cappella della Stigmata, built in +1263 by the Conte Simone da Battifolle, where behind the high altar is +the great Crucifixion by one of the della Robbia. Next to this chapel is +the Cappella della Croce, where of old the cell stood in which St. +Francis kept the Lent of St. Michael. Close by are the Oratories of S. +Antonio di Padua and S. Bonaventura, where they prayed and worked. Below +the Chapel of the Stigmata is the Sasso Spicco, whence the devil hurled +one of the brethren. For during that Lent, "Francis leaving his cell one +day in fervour of spirit, and going aside a little to pray in a hollow +of the rock, from which down to the ground is an exceeding deep descent +and a horrible and fearful precipice, suddenly the devil came in +terrible shape, with a tempest and exceeding loud roar, and struck at +him for to push him down thence. St. Francis, not having where to flee, +and not being able to endure the grim aspect of the demon, he turned him +quickly with hands and face and all his body pressed to the rock, +commending himself to God and groping with his hands, if perchance he +might find aught to cling to. But as it pleased God, who suffereth not +His servants to be tempted above that they are able to bear, suddenly by +a miracle the rock to which he clung hollowed itself out in fashion as +the shape of his body.... But that which the demon could not do then +unto St. Francis ... he did a good while after the death of St. Francis +unto one of his dear and pious brothers, who was setting in order some +pieces of wood in the self-same place, to the end that it might be +possible to cross there without peril, out of devotion to St. Francis +and the miracle that was wrought there. On a day the demon pushed him, +while he had on his head a great log that he wished to set there, and +made him fall down thence with the log upon his head. But God, that had +preserved and delivered St. Francis from falling, through his merits +delivered and preserved his pious brother from the peril of his fall; +for the brother, as he fell, with exceeding great devotion commanded +himself in a loud voice to St. Francis, and straightway he appeared +unto him, and, catching him, set him down upon the rocks without +suffering him to feel a shock or any hurt." Can it have been this "pious +brother" who wrote the _Fioretti_? Everywhere you go in La Verna you +feel that S. Francesco has been before you; and where there is no +tradition to help you, surely you will make one for yourself. Can he who +loved everything that had life have failed to love, too, that world he +saw from La Penna-- + + "Nel crudo sasso, intra Tevere ed Amo" + +--Casentino and its woods and streams, Val d'Arno, Val di Tevere, the +hills of Perugia, the valleys of Umbria, the lean, wolfish country of +the Marche, the rugged mountains of Romagna. There, on the summit of La +Verna, you look down on the broken fortresses of countless wars, the +passes through which army after army, company upon company, has marched +to victory or fled in defeat; every hill-top seems to bear some ruined +Rocca, every valley to be a forgotten battlefield, every stream has run +red with blood. All is forgotten, all is over, all is done with. The +victories led to nothing; the defeats are out of mind. In the midst of +the battle the peasant went on ploughing his field; somewhere not far +away the girls gathered the grapes. All this violence was of no account; +it achieved nothing, and every victory was but the tombstone of an idea. +Here, on La Verna, is the only fortress that is yet living in all +Tuscany of that time so long ago. It is a fortress of love. The man who +built it had flung away his dagger, and already his sword rusted in its +scabbard in that little house in Assisi; he conquered the world by love. +His was the irresistible and lovely force, the immortal, indestructible +confidence of the Idea, the Idea which cannot die. If he prayed in +Latin, he wrote the first verses of Italian poetry. Out of his tomb grew +the rose of the Renaissance, and filled the world with its sweetness. He +was the son of a burgess in Assisi, and is now the greatest saint in our +heaven. With the sun he loved his name has shone round the world, and +there is no land so far off that it has not heard it. And we, who loot +upon the ruined castles of the Conti Guidi, are here because of him, and +speak with his brothers as we gaze. + +V. A RIVEDERLA + +Slowly, as the summer waned, I made my way up through the Casentino, +once more past the strongholds and the little towns. Now and then on my +way I met the herds, already setting out for the winter pastures of +Maremma. The grapes were plucking or gathered in, and everywhere there +were songs. + + "Come volete faccia che non pianga, + Sapendo che da voi devo partire? + E tu, bello, in Maremma, ed io 'n montagna! + Chesta partenza mi fara morire." + +So I came once more over Falterona, down to Castagno, that mountain +village where Andrea del Castagno, the follower of Masaccio, was born, +to S. Godenzo, between two streams, where Dante knew the castle of the +Guidi, and where Conte Tegrimo of Porciano received Henry VII. Here, at +last, I was in the very footsteps of Dante; for in the church there, in +the choir set high above the old crypt, he signed the deed of alliance +between the Guidi and the Ubaldini on 8th June 1302, "Actum in choro +Sancti Gaudentii de pede Alpium." + +Nothing remains of the place as it was in those days, I suppose, save +the church, and that has been for the most part rebuilt; but the choir +stands, so that we may say here, on 8th June 1302, Dante took quill and +signed and spoke with his fellow-exiles. + +Thence I followed the way to Dicomano by Sieve, at the foot of the +Consuma, and then up stream to Borgo S. Lorenzo, the capital of the +Mugello, and so by the winding road above the valley under the hills to +Fiesole, to Florence, wrapped in rain, through which an evening sun was +breaking. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[132] Now in S. Trinita in Firenze. + +[133] Mr. Montgomery Carmichael (_On the Old Road_, etc., p. 293), +quoting from Don Diego de' Franchi (_Historia del Patriarcha S. +Giovangualberto_, p. 77: Firenze, 1640), says that S. Romuald and S. +Giovanni Gualberto vowed eternal friendship between their Orders, "and +for a long time, if a Camaldolese was visiting Vallombrosa, he would +take off his own and put on a Vallombrosan habit as a symbol that the +monks of the two Orders were brothers." + +[134] _Guida Illustrata del Casentino da C. Beni_: Firenze, 1889. This +perhaps the best guide-book in the Tuscan language, is certainly the +best for the Casentino. Those who cannot read it must fall back on the +charming and delightful book by Miss Noyes, _The Casentino and its +Story_: Dent, 1905. It is too good a book to be left useless in its +heavy bulky form. Perhaps Miss Noyes will give us a pocket edition. + + + + +XXVII. PRATO + + +Prato is like a flower that has fallen by the wayside that has faded in +the dust of the way. She is a little rosy city, scarcely more than a +castello, full of ruined churches; and in the churches are ruined +frescoes, ruined statues, broken pillars, spoiled altars. You pass from +one church to another--from S. Francesco, with its facade of green and +white, its pleasant cloister and old frescoes, to La Madonna delle +Carceri, to S. Niccolo da Tolentino, to S. Domenico--and you ask +yourself, as you pass from one to another, what you have come to see: +only this flower fallen by the wayside. + +But in truth Prato is the child of Florence, a rosy child among the +flowers--in the country, too, as children should be. Her churches are +small. What could be more like a child's dream of a church than La +Madonna delle Carceri? And the Palazzo Pretorio--it is a toy palace +wonderfully carved and contrived, a toy that has been thrown aside. In +the Palazzo Comunale the little daughter of Florence has gathered all +her broken treasures: here a discarded Madonna, there a Bambino long +since forgotten; flowers, too, flowers of the wayside, faded now, such +as a little country girl will gather and toss into your vettura at any +village corner in Tuscany; a terra-cotta of Luca della Robbia, and that +would be a lily; a Madonna by Nero di Bicci, and that might have been a +rose; a few panels by Lippo Lippi, and they were from the convent +garden. In Via S. Margherita you come still upon a nosegay of such +country blossoms, growing still by the wayside--Madonna with St. +Anthony, S. Margherita, S. Costanza, and S. Stefano about her, painted +by Filippino Lippo, a very lovely shrine, such as you cannot find in +Florence, but which Prato seems glad to possess, on the way to the +country itself. + +And since Prato is a child, there are about her many children; +mischievous, shy, joyful little people, who lurk round the coppersmiths, +or play in the old churches, or hide about the corridors of Palazzo +Comunale. And so it is not surprising that the greatest treasures of +Prato are either the work of children--the frescoes, for instance, of +Lippo Lippi and Lucrezia Buti in the Duomo--or the presentment of them, +yes, in their happiest moments; some dancing, while others play on +pipes, or with cymbals full of surprising sweetness, in the open-air +pulpit of Donatello; a pulpit from which five times every year a +delightful and wonderful thing is shown, not without its significance, +too, in this child-city of children--Madonna's Girdle, the Girdle of the +Mother of them all, shown in the open air, so that even the tiniest may +see. + +The Duomo itself, simple and small, so that you may not lose your way +there, however little you may be, was built in 1317, though a church has +stood there apparently since about 750, while the facade, all in ivory +and green, is a work of the fifteenth century. Donatello's pulpit, for +which a contract was made in 1425 which named Michelozzo with him as one +of those _industriosi maestri_ intent on the work, is built into the +south-west corner of the church overlooking the Piazza. Almost a +complete circle in form, it is separated, unfortunately we may think, +into seven panels divided by twin pilasters, where on a mosaic ground +groups, crowds almost, of children dance and play and sing. It is the +very spirit of childhood you see there, a naive impetuosity that +occasionally almost stumbles or forgets which way to turn; and if these +panels have not the subtler rhythm of the Cantoria at Florence, they are +more frankly just children's work, so that any day you may see some +little maid of Prato gazing at those laughing babies, babies who dance +really not without a certain awkwardness and simplicity, as though they +were her own brothers, as indeed they are. Under the pulpit, Michelozzo +has forged in bronze a relief of one face of a capital, where other +children gaze with all the serious innocence of childhood at the +pleasant world of the Piazza. + +Passing under the terra-cotta of Madonna with St. Stephen and St. +Laurence, made by Andrea della Robbia in 1489, you enter the church +itself, a little dim and mysterious, and full of wonderful or precious +things, those pillars, for instance, of green serpentine or the Sacra +Cintola, the very Girdle of Madonna herself, in its own chapel there on +the left behind the beautiful bronze screen of Bruno di Ser Lapo. There, +too, you will always find a group of children, and surely it was for +them that Agnolo Gaddi painted those frescoes of the life of Madonna and +the gift of her Girdle to St. Thomas. For it seems that doubting Thomas +was doubting to the last; he alone of all the saints was the least a +child. How they wonder at him now, for first he could not believe that +Jesus was risen from the dead, when the flowers rise, when the spring +like Mary wanders to-day in tears in the garden. Was she not, indeed, +the spring, who at break of day stood trembling on the verge of the +garden, looking for the sun, the sun that had been dead all winter long? +"They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." +After all, is it not the cry of our very hearts often enough at Easter, +when the summer for which we have waited too long seems never to be +coming at all? It came at last, and St. Thomas, like to us maybe, but +unlike the children, would not believe it till he had touched the very +dayspring with his hands, and felt the old sweetness of the sunshine. +And so, when the sun was set and the world desolate, Madonna too came to +die, and was received into heaven amid a great company of angels, and +they were the flowers, and there she is eternally. Now, when all this +came to pass, St. Thomas was not by, and when he came and saw Winter in +the world he would not believe that Madonna was dead, nor would he be +persuaded that she was crowned Queen of Angels in heaven. And Mary, in +pity of his sorrow, sent him by the hands of children "the girdle with +which her body was girt,"--just a strip of the blue sky sprinkled with +stars,--"and therefore he understood that she was assumpt into heaven." +And if you ask how comes this precious thing in Prato, I ask where else, +then, could it be but in this little city among the children, where the +promise of Spring abides continually, and the Sun is ever in their +hearts. Ah, Rose of the world, dear Lily of the fields, you will return; +like Spring you will come from that heaven where you are, and in every +valley the flowers will run before you and the poppies will stray among +the corn, and the proud gladiolus will bow its violet head; then on the +hillside I shall hear again the silver laughter of the olives, and in +the wide valleys I shall hear all the rivers running to the sea, and the +sweet wind will wander in the villages, and in the walled cities I shall +find the flowers, and I too, with the children, shall wait on the hills +at dawn to see you pass by with the Sun in your arms because it is +spring--Stella Matutina, Causa nostrae laetitiae. + +It was a certain lad of Prato, Michele by name, who, wandering in the +wake of the great army in Palestine in 1096 at evening, by one of the +wells of the desert, kissed the little daughter of a great priest, who +gave him the Girdle of Madonna for love. Returning to Prato with this +precious thing, and having nowhere to hide it, he put it, as a child +might do, under his bed, and every night the angels for fear mounted +guard about it. He died, and it came into the hands of a certain Uberto, +a priest of the city; then, one tried to steal it, but he was put to +death, and after, the Girdle was placed in the Duomo in a casket of +ivory in a chapel of marble between the pillars of serpentine and lamps +of gold. And Andrea Pisano carved a statue of Madonna, and they dressed +her in silk and placed her on an altar, in which lay hidden the promise +of spring. Then Ridolfo Ghirlandajo painted a fresco over the west door, +of Madonna with her Girdle, and indeed they did all they knew in honour +of their treasure: so that Mino da Fiesole and Rossellino made a pulpit +and set it there in the nave, and there, too, you may see Madonna +giving her Girdle to St. Thomas, and St. Stephen, the boy martyr, stoned +to death, and other remembrances. In the south transept Benedetto da +Maiano carved a Madonna and Child, while his brothers carved a Pieta; +but it is not such work as this which calls you to the Duomo to-day, but +certainly the Girdle itself, which, however, you can only see on certain +occasions.[135] And then there is the work of those two children, Fra +Lippo Lippi and the little girl who ran away from her convent for love +of him, Lucrezia Buti; for though it was Lippo Lippi who painted, it was +Lucrezia who served him for model, and since with him painting, for the +first time perhaps, came to need life to inspire it, Lucrezia has her +part in his work which it would be ungenerous to ignore. + +Filippo Lippi was born in 1406 in a by-street of Florence called +Ardiglione, behind the convent of the Carmelites, where he painted his +first frescoes. His mother, poor soul, died in giving him life, and his +father died too before he was three years old. For some time he lived in +the care of a certain Mona Lapaccia, his aunt, who hardly brought him up +till he was eight years old, when, as Vasari tells us, no longer able to +support the burden of his maintenance, she took him to the Carmelites, +who promised to make a friar of him. Florence was at the moment of its +all too brief spring, in which painting and sculpture were to grow +almost like flowers at every street corner, with a delicate beauty that +is characteristic of wild flowers, which yet are hardy enough in +reality. Reality, it is just that which is so touching in the work of +this naive, observant painter, whose work has much of the beauty of a +folk-song, one of those rispetti which on every Tuscan hill you may hear +any summer day above the song of the cicale. He went about, like the +child he was his whole life long, looking at things out of curiosity, +and remembering them for love. His adventures, those marvellous +adventures of his childhood so carefully related by Vasari,--his capture +by pirates on the beach of Ancona, his sojourn in Barbary, his escape +hardly won by the astonishment of his art, are tales which, whether true +or not, have a real value for us because they are indicative of his +life, his view of the world: his life was in itself so daring, so +delightful an adventure, that nothing that could have happened to him +can seem marvellous beside it. For he has for the first time in Italy +seen the things we have seen, and loved them: the children at the street +corner, the flowers by the wayside, the girls grouped in a doorway +looking sideways up the street, a mother nursing her little struggling +son. In 1421 he had taken the habit, and then Masaccio had come to the +convent to paint in the Brancacci Chapel, and Fra Filippo watched him, +helping him perhaps, certainly fired by his work, till he who had played +in the streets of Florence decided that he must be a painter. It is +characteristic of his whole method that from the very beginning the +cloister was too strait for him; he had the passion for seeing things, +people, the life of the city, of strange cities too, for we hear of him +vaguely in Naples, but soon in Florence again, where he painted in S. +Ambrogio for the nuns the Coronation of the Virgin, now in the +Accademia. It was this picture which Cosimo came upon, and, finding the +painter, took him into his house. And truly, it was something very +different from the holy work of Angelico, a painter Cosimo loved so +well, that he found in that picture of the Coronation. That Virgin, was +she Queen of Angels or some Florentine girl?--and then those angels, are +they not the very children of the City of Flowers? But Lippo was not +content; he who had found the convent too narrow for him in his +insatiable desire for life, was not likely to be content with any +burgher's palace. Cosimo ordered pictures, Lippo laughed in the streets, +so they locked him in, and he knotted the sheets of the bed together and +let himself out of the window, and for days he lived in the streets. So +Cosimo let him alone, "labouring to keep him at his work by kindness," +understanding, perhaps that it was a child with whom he had to deal, a +child full of the wayward impulses of children, the naive genius of +youth, the happiness of all that;--the passions, too, a passion, in +Filippo's case, for kisses. He was never far from a girl's arms; and +then how he has painted them, shy, roguish, wanton daughters of +Florence, with their laughing, obstinate, kicking babies, half laughing, +half smiling, altogether serious too, while Lippo paints them with a +kiss for payment. + +He spent some months in Prato with his friend Fra Diamante, who had been +his companion in novitiate. The nuns of S. Margherita commissioned him +to paint a picture for their high altar, and it was while at work there +that he caught sight of Lucrezia Buti. "Fra Filippo," says Vasari, +"having had a glance at the girl, who was very beautiful and graceful, +so persuaded the nuns that he prevailed upon them to permit him to make +a likeness of her for the figure of their Virgin." The picture, now in +Paris, was finished, not before Filippo had fallen in love with Lucrezia +and she with him, so that he led her away from the nuns; and on a +certain day, when she had gone forth to do honour to the Cintola, he +bore her from their keeping. "Take us the foxes, the little foxes that +spoil the vineyards; for our vineyards have tender grapes." + +Vasari tells us that Lucrezia never returned, but remained with Filippo, +bearing him a son,--that Filippino "who eventually became a most +excellent and very famous painter like his father." + +And it is said that not Lucrezia alone was involved in that adventure, +for she had a sister not less lovely than herself, called Spinetta; she +also fled away, and this again brought disgrace on the nuns, so that the +Pope himself was compelled to interfere, for they were all living in +Prato, not in disgrace but happily, children in a city of children. +Cosimo, however, befriended them, and would laugh till the tears came in +telling the tale, till Pius II, not altogether himself guiltless of the +love of women, at his request unfrocked Filippo and authorised his union +with Lucrezia. However this may be, and however strange it may seem, +this wolf, who had stolen the lamb from the fold of Holy Church, was +engaged by the Duomo authorities in this very city of the theft to +paint in fresco there in the choir the story of St. John Baptist and of +St. Stephen. It is a masterpiece. As we look to-day on the faded beauty +of his work, it is with surprise we ask ourselves why he has signed the +fresco of the death of St. Stephen, for instance, Frater Filippus; +surely he was frater no longer, but Sponsus. He worked for four years at +those frescoes, Fra Diamante coming from Florence to help him. He was a +child, and the children of Prato understood him--the Medici too; for +when the work in Prato was finished, Piero de' Medici roused himself to +find him work, again in a church, the Duomo of Spoleto, where he has +painted very sweetly the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Shepherds, +the Coronation of the Virgin. Could these things have happened in any +other city save Prato, or to any other than a child in the days not so +long before Savonarola was burned? No; Fra Lippo played among the +children of Italy, and has told us of them with simplicity and +sweetness,--little stumbling fellows of the house doors, the laughing +children about the fountains, the slim, pale girls who walk arm-in-arm, +smiling faintly, in every Tuscan city at sunset, the flowers by the +wayside, the shepherds of the hills. And he has made Jesus in the image +of his little son; and Madonna is but Lucrezia Buti, whom he kissed into +the world. You may see them to-day if you will go to Prato. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[135] The occasions are Christmas Day, Easter Day, May 1, August 15, and +September 8. + + + + +XXVIII. PISTOJA + + +If St. Francis of Assisi dreamed his whole life long of the resurrection +of love among men, and in the valleys of Umbria went about like a second +Jesus doing good, with an immense love in his heart singing his Laudes +Creaturarum by the wayside; Dante Alighieri, the greatest poet of his +country, might almost seem to have been overwhelmed with hatred, a +hatred which is perhaps but the terrible reverse of an intolerable love, +but which is an impeachment, nevertheless, not only of his own time, of +the cities of his country, but of himself too, for while he thus sums up +the Middle Age and judges it, he is himself its most marvellous child, +losing himself at last in one of its ideals. St. Francis of Assisi, +concerned only with humanity, has by love contrived the Renaissance of +man, assured as he was by the love of God, His delight in us His +creatures. But for Dante, bitter with loneliness, wandering in the Hell, +the Purgatory, the Paradise of his own heart, any such wide and +overwhelming love might seem to have been impossible. Imprisoned in the +adamant of his personality, he has little but hatred and contempt for +the world he knew so well. How scornful he is! Some secret sorrow seems +to have burnt up the wells of sweetness in his nature, from which he +once drew a love for all mankind. He seems to have gone about hating +people, so that if he speaks of Florence it is with a passionate enmity, +if of Siena with scorn, Pisa has only his contempt, Arezzo is to him +abominable and beastly. He has judged his country as God Himself will +not judge it, and he kept his anger for ever. And since the great +Florentine can bring himself to bid Florence + + "Godi, Fiorenza poi che sei si grande + Che per mare, e per terra batti l'ali, + E per l'Inferno il tuo nome si spande," + +it is not wonderful that Pistoja is lost in his scorn. Coming upon Vanni +Fucci continually consumed by the adder, he hears him say + + "Ahi Pistoja, Pistoja, che non stanzi + D'incenerarti, si che piu non duri + Poi che in mal far lo seme tuo avanzi?" + +"O Giustizia di Dio, quanto e severa,..." yet Dante's will beggar it. + +The origin of Pistoja is obscure. Some ascribe its foundation to the +Boian Gauls, some to the Romans; however that may be, it was here in +Pistoria, as the city was then called, that the army of the Republic +came up with Cataline, and defeated him and slew him in B.C. 62. There +follows an impenetrable silence, unbroken till, by the will of the +Countess Matilda, Tuscany passed, not without protest as we know, to the +Pope, when Pistoja seems to have vindicated its liberty in 1117, its +commune contriving her celebrated municipal statutes. In 1198 she made +one of the Tuscan League against the empire, and in the first year of +the thirteenth century she had extended her power over the neighbouring +strongholds from Fucecchio to the Arno. After the death of Frederic II, +in 1250, she became Guelph with the greater part of Tuscany, and in 1266 +took part with Charles of Anjou and fought on his side at Benevento +under the Pistojese captains, Giovanni and Corrado da Montemagno. About +this time we first hear the name Cancellieri, Cialdo de' Cancellieri +being Potesta. At Campaldino the Pistojese fought under Corso Donati, +and turned the battle against the Aretines; and it was under the Potesta +Giano della Bella in 1294[136] that the Priore of the twelve _anziani_, +established after Campaldino, was named Gonfaloniere of Justice. +Villani gives us a vivid picture of Pistoja in 1300. "In these times," +says the prince of Florentine chroniclers, "the city of Pistoja being in +happy and great and good estate, among the other citizens there was one +family very noble and puissant, not, however, of very ancient lineage, +which was called Cancellieri, born of Ser Cancelliere, which was a +merchant and gained much wealth, and by his two wives had many sons, +which, by reason of their riches, all became knights and men of worth +and substance, and from them were born many sons and grandsons, so that +at this time they numbered more than one hundred men in arms, rich and +puissant and of many affairs; and indeed, not only were they the leading +citizens of Pistoja, but they were among the more puissant families of +Tuscany. There arose among them, through their exceeding prosperity, and +through the suggestion of the devil, contempt and enmity, between them +which were born of one wife and them which were born of the other; and +the one took the name of the Black Cancellieri, and the other of the +White, and this grew until they fought together, but it was not any +great affair. And one of those on the side of the White Cancellieri, +having been wounded, they on the side of the Black Cancellieri, to the +end they might be at peace and concord with them, sent him which had +done the injury and handed him over to the mercy of them which had +received it, that they should take amend, and vengeance for it at their +will; they on the side of the White Cancellieri, ungrateful and proud, +having neither pity nor love, cut off the hand of him which had been +commended to their mercy on a horse-manger. By which sinful beginning +not only was the house of Cancellieri divided, but many violent deaths +arose thereupon, and all the city of Pistoja was divided, for some held +with one part and some with the other, and they called themselves the +Whites and the Blacks, forgetting among themselves the Guelph and +Ghibelline parties; and many civil strifes and much peril and loss of +life arose therefore in Pistoja...." The Whites seem to have been +little more than Ghibellines, to which party they presently allied +themselves, when Andrea Gherardini was captain. This party soon got the +upper hand in Pistoja, thus bringing down the hatred of the Lucchesi and +the Fiorentini; a cruel siege and pillage--touchingly described by Dino +Campagni--following in 1305. Exiled, the Whites thronged to the banner +of Uguccione, and helped to win the battle of Montecatini in 1305. This +done, Uguccione became tyrant of Pistoja till Castruccio Castracani +flung him out, and by the will of Lewis of Bavaria became himself tyrant +of the city, defeating the Florentines again in 1325. In his absence the +Florentines besieged Pistoja again three years later, and took it; the +fortunate death of Castruccio confirming them in their conquest, which +thus became the vassal of the Lily. + +Such in brief is the story of Pistoja; but if we look a little more +closely into the mere confusion of those wars, two facts will perhaps +emerge clearly, and help us to understand the position. + +Florence, a city of merchants, was the last power in Italy to make war +for the pleasure of fighting, yet in turn she conquered every city in +Tuscany, save Lucca alone.[137] What can have been the overmastering +necessity that drove her on so bloody a path? Certainly not a love of +empire, for she, who was so unfortunate in the art of government, was +not likely to lust for dominion. Like all the Florentine wars, that +which at last brought Pisa under her yoke was a war on behalf of the +guilds of Florence, a war of merchants. Florence humbled Pisa because +Pisa held the way to the sea, she brought Arezzo and Siena low and +bought Cortona because they stood on the roads to Rome, whose banker she +was.[138] And did not Pistoja guard the way to the north, to Bologna, to +Milan, to Flanders, and England, whence came the wool that was her +wealth?[139] Thus in those days as to-day, war was not a game which one +might play or not as one pleased, but the inexorable result of the +circumstances of life. When Bologna closed the passes, Florence was +compelled to fight or to die; when Pisa taxed Florentine merchandise she +signed her own death. + +On the other hand, the passionate desire of Pistoja was to be free. +Liberty--it was the dream of her life; not the liberty of the people, +but the essential liberty of the State, of the city. So she was +Ghibelline because Florence was Guelph. All her life long she feared +lest Florence should eat her up: that death was ever before her eyes. +This and this alone is the cause of the hate of the great Florentine: he +hated Florence with an intolerable love because she thrust him out; he +hated Pisa, Arezzo, Siena, and Pistoja because they feared or rivalled +Florence, and would not be reconciled. His dream of an Italy united +under a foreign Emperor, the ghost of the Roman Empire, remained a +dream, noble and yet ignoble too. For it is for this that we may accuse +him of a lack of clairvoyance, a real failure to appreciate the future, +which in the innumerable variety of her cities gave Italy an +intellectual life less sustained and clear than the intellectual life of +Greece, but more spiritual and more various. In Italy Antiquity and +Hebraism became friends, to our undoubted benefit, to the gain of the +whole world. + +But little is left in the smiling, gracious city to-day to recall those +bitter quarrels so long ago. Pistoja, beyond any other Tuscan town +perhaps, is full of grace, and gives one always, as it were, a smiling +salutation. La Ferrignosa she was called of old, but it is the last +title that fits her now, for the clank of her irons has long been +silent, and nothing any longer disturbs the quiet of her days. S. Atto +is her saint, and it is by his street that you enter the city, walled +still, coming at last into the Piazza Cino, Cino da Pistoja, one of the +sweetest and least fortunate of Tuscan poets. Turning thence into Via +Cavour, you come to S. Giovanni Evangelista, once without the walls, but +now not far from the middle of the city, really the earliest of her +churches, a Lombard building of about 1160, the facade decorated +somewhat in the Pisan manner with rows of pillars, while over the gates +is a relief of the Last Supper, by Gruamonte, whom some have thought to +be the architect of the church. Within is the beautiful pulpit of Fra +Guglielmo, disciple of Niccolo Pisano, and there on the east he has +carved the Annunciation and the Birth of Jesus; on the north, the +Washing of the Disciples' Feet, the Crucifixion, the Deposition, and +Christ in Hades; while on the west is the Ascension and the Death of the +Virgin. And just as at Bologna, in the tomb of St. Dominic, Fra +Guglielmo's work is but an inferior copy of the style of his master, so +here in this pulpit, built most probably in 1270, we find just Niccolo's +work spoiled, in a mere repetition, feeble, and without any of the +devotional spirit we might expect in the work of a friar. Beside it, +near the next altar, is a very beautiful group in glazed terra-cotta, in +the manner of the della Robbia, by Fra Paolino. The holy water basin +supported by figures of the Virtues is a much-injured work by Giovanni +Pisano. + +Following Via Cavour, past Palazzo Panciatichi-Cellesi, through Via +Francesco Magni, into Piazza del Duomo, you are in the midst of all that +was most splendid in Pistoja of old: the Duomo, with its old fortified +tower, Torre del Potesta, which still carries the arms of those +captains; the Baptistery, high above the way, designed by Andrea Pisano, +with its open-air pulpit and broken sculptures; the magnificent Palazzo +del Comune; and opposite, the not less splendid Palazzo Pretorio, the +palace of the Podesta. Of old the Piazza was less spacious, but in 1312 +it was enlarged, and later, too, the palace of the Capitano, on the +north, was destroyed. Here every Wednesday they still hold the +corn-market, and every Saturday a market of stuffs, silks, and tissues. + +It was S. Romolo who first brought the gospel to Pistoja, and the +tradition is that he converted a temple built by the Romans to the God +Mars into a church, on the spot where now the Duomo stands,[140] and +indeed in 1599 certain inscriptions were found, and the capitals of some +Roman columns. It is generally thought that a church was built here in +the early part of the fifth century, dedicated to St. Martin of Tours, +on whose day Stilicho, that Roman general who was by birth a Vandal, +gained a victory over Radaugasius and his army of some 400,000 Goths, +who had ravaged the country as far as Florence in 406. However this may +be, in 589 the church was finally rebuilt, and certainly re-dedicated to +S. Zenone, the Bishop of Verona, who, so it was said, had saved the +Pistojese from the floods by breaking through the Gonfolina Pass, that +narrow defile beyond Signa through which the Arno flows, with the +Ombrone in her bosom, into the Empolese. After being dedicated at +various times to many saints, in 1443 it was given to S. Zenone, whose +name it still bears. The present church is for the most part a work of +the twelfth century, and certainly not the work of Niccolo Pisano. The +facade, like the rest of the church, has suffered an unfortunate +restoration. The marble loggia is a work of the fifteenth century, and +the two statues are, one of S. Jacopo, by Scarpellino, the other of S. +Zenone, by Andrea Vacca. The beautiful terra-cotta over the great door +of Madonna and Child with Angels, and the roof above, are the work of +Andrea della Robbia. The frescoes of the story of S. Jacopo are +fourteenth-century work of Giovanni Balducci the Pisan. + +The splendid and fierce Campanile, still called Torre del Potesta, stood +till about the year 1200, alone, a stronghold of the city. Giovanni +Pisano converted it to its present form in 1301. + +Within, the church has been greatly spoiled. The monument to Cino da +Pistoja, poet and professor, was decreed in 1337 by the Popolo +Pistojese, and was moved about the church from one place to another, +till in 1839 it was erected in its present position. There you may see +him lecturing to his students, and one of them is a woman; can it be +that Selvaggia whom he loved? + + "Ay me, alas! the beautiful bright hair ..." + +"Weep, Pistoja," says Petrarch, in not the least musical of his perfect +sonnets, in celebrating the death of his master-- + + "Pianga Pistoia e i cittadin perversi + Che perdut' hanno si dolce vicino; + E rallegres' il ciel or' ello e gito." + +Dante, who exchanged sonnets with Cino and rallied him about his +inconstancy, calls the Pistojese worthy of the Beast[141] who dwelt +among them; Petrarch calls them _i cittadin perversi_; the truth being +that the Neri were in power and had exiled "il nostro amoroso messer +Cino." + +Close by, against the west wall, is the great font of Andrea Ferrucci, +the disciple of Bernardo Rossellino, with five reliefs of the story of +St. John Baptist. Opposite Cino's monument is the tomb of Cardinal +Fortiguerra. For long this disappointing monument, so full of +gesticulation, passed as the work of Verrocchio; it is to-day attributed +rather to Lorenzetto, his disciple. + +Passing up the north aisle, we enter at last the Cappella del +Sacramento, under whose altar St. Felix, the Pistojese, sleeps, while on +the south wall hangs one of the best works of Lorenzo di Credi, Madonna +with Jesus in her arms, and St. John Baptist and S. Zenone on either +side. Opposite is the bust of Bishop Donato de' Medici, by Antonio +Rossellino. The little crypt under the high altar is scarcely worth a +visit, but the great treasure of the church, the silver frontal of the +high altar, is now to be found in the Cappella della Citta, and over it, +in a chest within the reredos, is the body, still uncorrupted, of S. +Atto, Bishop of Pistoja, who died in 1155. The silver frontal, certainly +the finest in Italy, with its wings and reredos of silver and enamel, +was removed from the high altar in 1786. It is the work of Andrea di +Puccio di Ognibene, the Pistojese goldsmith: it was finished in 1316. It +is carved with fifteen stories from the New Testament, and with many +statues of prophets and pictures of saints. Of the two wings, that on +the left, consisting of stories from the Old Testament, with the +Nativity, the Presentation and the Marriage of the Virgin, is the work +of Pietro of Florence--it was finished about 1357; that on the right, +carved in 1371 by Leonardo di Ser Giovanni, consists of the story of St. +James and the finding of his body at Campostella. All the guide-books +tell you that it was this treasure that Vanni Fucci stole on Shrove +Tuesday in 1292, but, as I suppose, since this altar was not begun till +1314, it must have been the earlier treasure which this replaced. Vanni +Fucci is famous because of his encounter with Dante in Hell. + + "Vanni Fucci am I called, + Not long since rained down from Tuscany + To this dire gullet. Me the bestial life + And not the human pleased, mule that I was, + Who in Pistoja found my worthy den." + +Dante tell us-- + + "I did not mark + Through all the gloomy circles of the abyss, + Spirit that swelled so proudly 'gainst his God."[142] + +It is in Pistoja better almost than anywhere else in Italy that these +early sculptors--men who were at work here before Niccolo Pisano came +from Apulia--may be studied. Rude enough as we may think, they are yet +in their subtle beauty, if we will but look at them, the marvellous +product of a time which many have thought altogether barbarous. +Consider, then, the reliefs over the door of S. Giovanni Fuorcivitas, or +the sculptures on the fagade of S. Bartolommeo in Pantano, the work of +Rodolfinus and Guido Bigarelli of Como: they are all works of the +twelfth century, and it is, as I think, no naive beginning we see, but +the last hours of an art that is already thousands of years old, about +to be born again in the work of Pisano. And indeed we may trace very +happily the rise of Tuscan sculpture in Pistoja. Though she possesses no +work of Niccolo himself, his influence is supreme in the pulpit of S. +Giovanni Fuorcivitas, and it is the beautiful work of his son Giovanni +we see in the great pulpit of S. Andrea, where you enter by a door +carved in 1166 by Gruamonte with the Adoration of the Magi. Unlike the +work of Fra Guglielmo in S. Giovanni, the pulpit of S. Andrea is +hexagonal, and there Giovanni has carved in high relief the Birth of Our +Lord, the Adoration of the Magi, the Murder of the Innocents, the +Crucifixion, and the Last Judgment. They were carved in 1301, before +Giovanni began the Pisan pulpit now in the Museo in that city. And if we +see here the first impulse of the Gothic, the Romantic spirit, in +Italian art, as in Niccolo's work we have seen the classic inspiration, +it is the far result of these panels that we may discover in the +terra-cotta frieze on the vestibule of the Ospedale del Ceppo. That is a +work of the sixteenth century, and thus the fifteenth-century work, ever +present with us in Florence, is missing here. It is not, however, to any +member of the della Robbia clan that we owe this beautiful work, I +think, but to some unknown sculptor with whom Buglioni may have worked. +For the seven reliefs representing works of Charity and divided by +figures of the Virtues are of a surprising splendour, a really classic +beauty, and Burckhardt wishes to compare them with the frescoes of +Andrea del Sarto and his companions rather than with the sculpture of +that time. + +One wanders about this quiet, alluring city, where the sculptures are +scattered like flowers on every church porch and municipal building, +without the weariness of the sightseer. One day you go by chance to S. +Francesco al Prato, a beautiful and spacious church in a wilderness of +Piazza, built in 1294. And there suddenly you come upon the little +flowers of St. Francis, faded and fallen--here a brown rose, there a +withered petal; here a lily broken short, there a nosegay drooped and +dead: and you realise that here you are face to face with something real +which has passed away, and so it is with joy you hurry out into the +sun, which will always shine with splendour and life, the one thing +perhaps that, if these dead might rise from their tombs in S. Francesco, +they would recognise as a friend, the same yesterday, to-day, and for +ever. + +Other churches too there are in Pistoja: S. Piero Maggiore, where, as in +Florence, so here, the Bishop, coming to the city, was wedded in a +lovely symbol to the Benedictine Abbess--there too are the works of +Maestro Bono the sculptor; S. Salvadore, which stands in the place +where, as it is said, they buried Cataline; S. Domenico, where you may +find the beautiful tombs of Andrea Franchi and of Filippo Lazzeri the +humanist--this made by Rossellino in 1494. Pistoja is a city of +churches; one wanders into them and out again always with new delight; +and indeed, they lend a sort of gravity to a place that is light-hearted +and alluring beyond almost any other in this part of Tuscany certainly. +Thinking thus of her present sweetness, one is glad to find that one +poet at least has thought Dante too hard with men. It is strange that it +should be Cino who sings-- + + "This book of Dante's, very sooth to say, + Is just a poet's lovely heresy, + Which by a lure as sweet as sweet can be + Draws other men's concerns beneath its sway; + While, among stars' and comets' dazzling play, + It beats the right down, let's the wrong go free, + Shows some abased, and others in great glee, + Much as with lovers is Love's ancient way. + Therefore his vain decrees, wherein he lied, + Fixing folks' nearness to the Fiend their foe, + Must be like empty nutshells flung aside. + Yet through the vast false witness set to grow, + French and Italian vengeance on such pride + May fall, like Antony's on Cicero."[143] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[136] Cf. Dino Campagni, _Cronica Fiorentina_, Book 1, p. 62. When +appointed Podesta of Pistoja, Giano rather raised strife than pacified +the factions. Cf. also Villari, _History of Florence_, p. 445. + +[137] Strictly speaking, she never conquered Siena; Charles V did that. + +[138] In the Middle Age, Cortona and Arezzo were not on the road to +Rome, but so far as Florence was concerned, Siena, her holding that she +acquired these cities to keep Via Aretina open. Cf. Repetti, v. 715. + +[139] That Pistoja was not on the great Via Francesca goes for nothing, +she threatened it. + +[140] There is a most excellent little book, _Nuova Guida di Pistoja_, +by Cav. Prof. Giuseppe Tigri (Pistoja, 1896), which I strongly recommend +to the reader's notice. I wish to acknowledge my debt to it. Unlike so +many guides, it is full of life itself, and makes the city live for us +also. + +[141] Bestia, probably a nickname of Vanni Fucci's; cf. _Inferno_, xxiv, +125. + +[142] _Inferno_, xxiv. 125, 126; xxv. 13, 14. + +[143] "Cino impugns the verdicts of Dante's _Commedia_," a sonnet +translated by D.G. Rossetti. + +_Note_.--No English writers have written well of Pistoja, for first they +always write from a Florentine point of view, and then they quit too +soon. I plead guilty too. The key-note to Pistoja is given in that +saying of Macchiavelli's, that the Florentine people "per fuggire il +nome di crudele lascio distruggere Pistoia." Il Principe, cap. xvii. Cf. +also Discorsi iii. 27. It is, of course, all a matter of Panciatichi and +Cancellieri. Cf. Zdekauer Statuti Pistoiesi dei Secoli xii. e xiii. + + + + +XXIX. LUCCA + + +Who that has ever seen the Pistojese the Val di Lima, the country of S. +Marcello, the Val di Reno, the country about Pracchia, does not love +it--the silent ways through the chestnut woods, the temperance of the +hill country after the heat of the cities, the country ways after the +ways of the town? And there are songs there too. But to-day my way lies +through the valley, Val di Nievole, towards Lucca, lost in the plain at +the gate of the Garfagnana. Serravalle, with its old gateway and high +Rocca, which fell to Castruccio Castracani; Monsummano, far on the left, +with its old church in the valley; Montecatini, with its mineral +springs; Buggiano, and Pescia with its mulberries, where the Church of +S. Francesco hides and keeps its marvellous portrait of S. +Francesco--these are the towns at the foot of the mountains that I shall +pass before I turn into the plain between the island hills and come at +last to Lucca, Lucca l'Ombrosa, round whose high ramparts that have +stood a thousand sieges now in whispering ranks there stand the cool +planes of the valley, the shadowy trees that girdle the city with a +cintola of green and gold. + +Lucca is the city of a great soldier, of one of the most charming of +Tuscan sculptors, and of Santa Zita. Lucca l'Ombrosa I call her, but she +is the city of light too--Luce, light; it is the patriotic derivation of +her name. For One came to her with a star in His bosom, the Star of +Bethlehem, that heralded the sweet dawn which crept through the valleys +and filled them with morning; so Lucca was the first city in Italy, as +they say, to receive the light of the gospel. + +The foundation of this city, which alone of all the cities of Tuscany +was to keep in some sort her independence till Napoleon wrested it from +her, is obscure. She was not Etruscan, but possibly a Ligurian +settlement that came into the power of Rome about 200 B.C., and by 56 +B.C. we have certain news of her, for it was here that Caesar, Pompeius, +and Crassus formed the triumvirate. Overwhelmed by the disasters that +befell the Empire, we hear something of her in the sixth century, when +S. Frediano came from Ireland, from Galway, and after a sojourn in Rome +became a hermit in the Monti Pisani, till in 565 John III made him +Bishop of Lucca. It seems to have been about this time that Lucca began +to be of importance, after the fall of the Lombard rule, governed by her +own Dukes. And then the Bishops of Lucca, those Bishop Counts who +governed her so long, had a jurisdiction which extended to the confines +of the Patrimony of St. Peter. The same drama no doubt was played in +Lucca as in Pisa or Florence, a struggle betwixt nobles of foreign +descent and the young commune of the Latin population. We find Lucca on +the papal side in 1064, but in 1081 she joins the Emperor with Siena and +Ferrara; but for the most part after Pisa became Ghibelline Lucca was +Guelph, for her friends were the enemies of Pisa. Thus the fight went +on, a fight really of self-preservation, of civic liberty as it were, +each city prizing its ego above every consideration of justice or unity. + +It was the fourteenth century that gave Lucca her great captain, +Castruccio Castracani, the hero of Machiavelli's remarkable sketch, the +sketch perhaps for the Prince. It is strange that Machiavelli should +have cared to write of the only two men who might in more favourable +circumstances have forged a kingdom out of various Republics, Lordships, +Duchies, and Marquisates of the peninsula, Castruccio degli Intelminelli +and Cesare Borgia. + +It seems, to follow the virile yet subtle tale of Machiavelli, that at +the end of the thirteenth century there was born out of the family of +Castracani one Antonio, who, entering himself into Orders, was made a +Canon of S. Michele in Lucca, and was even called Messer Antonio. He had +for sister a widow of Buonaccorso Cinami, who at the death of her +husband had come to live with him, resolved to marry no more. Now behind +the house where he lived, Messer Antonio, good man, had a vineyard, and +it happened one morning about sunrise that Donna Dianora (for that was +the sister's name) walking in the vineyard to gather herbs for a salad +(as women frequently do), heard a rustling under the leaves, and turning +toward it she fancied it cried, and going towards it she saw the hands +and face of a child, which, tumbling up and down in the leaves, seemed +to call for relief. Donna Dianora, partly astonished and partly afraid, +took it up very tenderly, carried it home, washed it, and having put it +in clean clothes, presented it to Messer Antonio. "_Eccololi_!" says +she, "and what will Messere do with this?" "Dianora," says he, with a +gasp, "Dianora...!" "No, it is not," says she, fluttering suddenly with +rage, "and I'll thank you, Messer Antonio," and that she said for spite, +"I'll thank you to keep your lewd thoughts to yourself," says she, "and +for the fine ladies, fine ladies," says she, "that come to see you at S. +Michele," and she fell to weeping, holding the child in her arms. "I +that might have had little hands (_manine_) under my chin many's the +time if Buonaccorso had not died so old." And she carried the child out +of his sight. Then Messer Antonio later, when he understood the case, +being no less affected with wonder and compassion than his sister before +him, debated with himself what to do, and presently concluded to bring +the little fellow up; for, as he said, "I, Antonio, am a priest, and my +sister hath no children." So he christened the child Castruccio after +his own father, and Dianora looked to him as carefully as if he had been +her own. Now Castruccio's graces increased with his years, and therefore +in his heart Messer Antonio designed him for a priest; but Dianora would +not have it so, and indeed he showed as yet but little inclination to +that kind of life, which was not to be wondered at, his natural +disposition, as Dianora said, tending quite another way. For though he +followed his studies, when he was scarce fourteen years old he began to +run after the soldiers and knights, and always to be wrestling and +running, and soon he troubled himself very little with reading, unless +it were such things as might instruct him for war. And Messer Antonio +was sore afflicted. + +Now the great house in Lucca at that time was Guinigi, and Francesco was +then head of it. Ah! a handsome gentleman, rich too, who had borne arms +all his life long under the Visconti of Milan. With them he had fought +for the Ghibellines till the Lucchesi looked upon him as the very life +of that party. This Francesco was used to walk in Piazza S. Michele, +where one day he watched Castruccio playing among his companions. Seeing +his strength and confidence, he called him to him, and asked him if he +did not prefer a gentleman's family, where he could learn to ride the +great horse and exercise his arms, before the cloister of a churchman. +Guinigi had only to look at him to see which way his heart jumped, so +not long after he made a visit to Antonio and begged Castruccio of him +in so pressing and yet so civil a manner, that Antonio, finding he could +not master the natural inclinations of the lad, let him go. + +Often after that, Dianora and Antonio too, seeing him ride by in +attendance on Francesco, would admire with what address he sat his +horse, with what grace he managed his lance, with what comeliness his +sword; and indeed scarce any of his age dare meet him at the _Barriere_. +He was about eighteen years old when he made his first campaign. For the +Guelphs had driven the Ghibellines out of Pavia, and Visconti sought the +help of his friends, among them of Francesco Guinigi. Francesco gave +Castruccio a company of foot, and marched with him to help Visconti: and +Castruccio won such reputation in that fight, that his name galloped +through Lombardy, and when he returned to Lucca the whole city had him +in respect. + +Not long after, Guinigi fell sick; in truth he was about to die. Seeing, +then, that he had a son scarcely thirteen years old, called Pagolo, he +gave him into Castruccio's charge, begging him to show the same +generosity to his son as he had received from him. And all this +Castruccio promised. + +Now the head of the Guelph party in Lucca was a certain Signor Giorgio +Opizi, who hoped when Francesco was dead to get the city into his power, +so that when he saw Castruccio so well thought of and so strong, he +began to speak secretly of a new tyranny, by which he meant the growing +favour of Castruccio. Pisa at this time was under the government of +Uguccione della Faggiuola of Arezzo, whom the Pisans had chosen as their +captain, but who had made himself their lord. He had befriended certain +Ghibellines banished from Lucca, and therefore Castruccio entered into +secret treaty with him in order that these exiles might be restored. So +he furnished in Lucca the Tower of Honour, which was in his charge, in +case he might have to defend it. He met Uguccione on the night +appointed, between Lucca and the hills towards Pisa, and, agreeing with +him, Uguccione marched on the city to St. Peter's Gate and set fire to +it, while he attacked another on the other side of the town. Meanwhile, +his friends within the city ran about in the night calling _To your +arms_, and filled the streets with confusion; so that Uguccione easily +entered, and, having seized the city, caused all the Opizi to be +murdered as well as all the Guelphs he could find. Nor did he stop +there, for he exiled one hundred of the best families, who immediately +fled to Florence and Pistoja. The Florentines, seeing the Guelph power +tottering, put an army in the field, and met the Pisans and Lucchesi at +Montecatini. There followed the memorable battle called after that +place, in which the Florentines lost some ten thousand men.[144] This +was in 1315. Now whether, as Villani says, Uguccione won that battle, +or, as Machiavelli asserts, was sick, so that the honour fell to +Castruccio, there was already of necessity much jealousy between the two +captains; for certainly Castruccio had not called on Uguccione to make +him Lord of Lucca, nor had Uguccione obeyed that call for mere love of +Castruccio. He therefore, being returned to Pisa, sent his son Nerli to +seize Lucca and kill Castruccio, but the lad bungled it: when Uguccione +himself set out to repair this, he found the city ready, demanding the +release of Castruccio, whom Nerli had imprisoned. Seeing, then, the mood +of the city, and that he had but four hundred horse with him, he was +compelled to agree to this. And at once Castruccio, who was in no wise +daunted, assembled his friends and flung Uguccione out of Lucca. +Meantime the Pisans had themselves revolted, so that this tyrant was +compelled to retire into Lombardy. + +It was now that Castruccio saw his opportunity. He got himself chosen +Captain-General of all the Lucchese forces for a twelvemonth, and began +to reduce the surrounding places near and far which had come under the +rule of Uguccione. The first of these to be attacked was Sarzana in +Lunigiana. But first he agreed with Pisa, who in hatred of Uguccione +sent him men and stores. Sarzana proved very strong, so that before he +won it he was compelled to build a fortress beyond the walls, which we +may see to this day. Thus Sarzana was taken, and later Massa, Carrara, +and Avenza easily enough, until the whole of Lunigiana was in his power, +even Fosdinovo, and later Remoli, and that was to secure his way to +Lombardy. Then he returned to Lucca, and was received with every sort of +joy. + +About this time Ludovic of Bavaria came into Italy seeking the Imperial +Crown, and Castruccio went to meet him with 500 horse, leaving Pagolo +Guinigi his Deputy in Lucca. Ludovic received him with much kindness, +making him Lord of Pisa and his vicar in all Tuscany: and thus +Castruccio became the head of the Ghibelline party both in Lombardy and +Tuscany. But Castruccio's aim went higher yet, for he hoped not only to +be vicar but master indeed of Tuscany, and to this end he made a league +with Matteo Visconti of Milan; and seeing that Lucca had five gates, he +divided the country into five parts, and to every part he set a captain, +so that presently he could march with 20,000 men beside the Pisans. Now +the Florentines were already busy in Lombardy against Visconti, who +besought Castruccio to make a diversion. This he readily did, taking +Fucecchio and S. Miniato al Tedesco. Then hearing of trouble in Lucca, +he returned and imprisoned the Poggi, who had risen against him; an old +and notable family, but he spared them not. Meanwhile Florence retook S. +Miniato; and Castruccio, not caring to fight while he was insecure at +home, made a truce carefully enough, that lasted two years. + +He now set himself first to make Lucca secure, and for this he built a +fortress in the city; and then to possess himself of Pistoja--for he +even thought thereby to gain a foothold in Florence herself--and for +this he entered into correspondence secretly with both the Neri and the +Bianchi there. These two factions did not hesitate to use the enemy of +their city to help their ambitions, so that while the Bianchi expected +him at one gate, the Neri waited at the other, the one receiving Guinigi +and the other Castruccio himself with their men into the city. Not +content with thus winning Pistoja, he thought to control the city of +Rome also, which he did in the name of the Emperor, the Pope being in +Avignon; and this done, he went through the city with two devices +embroidered on his coat: the one before read, "He is as pleaseth God," +and that behind, "And shall be what God will have him." Now the +Florentines were furious at the cunning breach of their truce by which +Castruccio had got himself Pistoja; so, while he was in Rome, they +determined to capture the place: which they did one night by a ruse, +destroying all Castruccio's party. And when he heard it, Castruccio came +north in great anger. But at first the Florentines were too quick for +him: they got together all of the Guelph league, and before Castruccio +was back again, held Val di Nievole. Seeing their greatness--for they +were 40,000 in number, while he on his return could muster but 12,000 +men at most--he would not meet them in the plain, nor in the Val di +Pescia, but resolved to draw that great army into the narrow ways of +Serravalle, where he could deal with them. Now Serravalle is a Rocca not +on the road but on the hillside above, and the way down into the valley +is rather strait than steep till you come to the place where the waters +divide: so strait that twenty men abreast take up all the way. That +Rocca belonged to a German lord called Manfredi, whose throat Castruccio +cheerfully cut. The Florentines, who were eager not only to hold all Val +di Nievole but to carry the war away from Pistoja towards Lucca, knew +nothing of Serravalle having fallen to Castruccio, so on they came in +haste, and encamped above it, hoping to pass the straits next day. There +Castruccio fell upon them about midnight, putting all to confusion. +Horse and foot fell foul upon one another, and both upon the baggage. +There was no way left for them but to run, which they did helter-skelter +in the plain of Pistoja, where each man shifted for himself. But +Castruccio followed them even to Peretola at the gates of Florence, +carrying Pistoja and Prato on the way; there he coined money under their +walls,[145] while his soldiers insulted over the conquered; and to make +his triumph more remarkable, nothing would serve the turn but naked +women must run Corsi on horseback under the very walls of the city. And +to deliver their city from Castruccio, the Florentines were compelled to +send to the King of Naples, and to pay him annual tribute. + +But Castruccio's business was always spoiled by revolt, and this time it +was Pistoja which rose, and later Pisa. Then the Guelphs raised a great +army--30,000 foot and 10,000 horse it was--and after a little, while +Castruccio was busy with Pisa, they seized Lastra, Signa, Montelupo, +Empoli, and laid siege to S. Miniato: this in May 1328. Castruccio, in +no wise discomposed, thought at last Tuscany was in his grasp; therefore +he went to Fucecchio and entrenched himself with 20,000 foot and 4000 +horse, leaving 5000 foot in Pisa with Guinigi. Fucecchio is a walled +city on the other side of Arno opposite S. Miniato. There Castruccio +waited; nor could he have chosen better, for the Florentines could not +attack him without fording the river from S. Miniato, which they had +taken, and dividing their forces. This they were compelled to do, and +Castruccio fell upon and beat them, leaving some 20,000 of them dead in +the field, while he lost but fifteen hundred. Nevertheless, that proved +to be his last fight, for death found him at the top of his fortune; +riding into Fucecchio after the battle, he waited a-horseback to greet +his men at the great gate of the place which is still called after him. +Heated as he was with the fight, it was the evening wind that slew him; +for he fell into an ague, and, neglecting it, believing himself +sufficiently hardened, it presently killed him, and Pagolo Guinigi ruled +in his stead, but without his fortune. + +Following that strangely successful career, that for Macchiavelli at any +rate seemed like a promise of the Deliverer that was to come, the first +of modern historians gives us many of Castruccio's sayings set down at +haphazard, which bring the man vividly before us. Thus when a friend of +his, seeing him engaged in an amour with a very pretty lass, blamed him +that he suffered himself to be so taken by a woman--"You are deceived, +signore," says Castruccio, "she is taken by me." Another desiring a +favour of him with a thousand impertinent and superfluous words--"Hark +you, friend," says Castruccio, "when you would have anything of me, for +the future send another man to ask it." Something of his dream of +dominion may be found in that saying of his when one asked him, seeing +his ambition, how Caesar died, and he answered, "Would I might die like +him!" Blamed for his severity, perhaps over the Poggi affair, one said +to him that he dealt severely with an old friend--"No," says he, "you +are mistaken; it was with a new foe." Something of his love for +Uguccione--who certainly hated him, but whom he held in great +veneration--may be found in his answer to that man who asked him if for +the salvation of his soul he never thought to turn monk. "No," says he, +"for to me it will be strange if Fra Nazarene should go to Paradise and +Ugguccione della Faggiuola to Hell." And Macchiavelli says that what was +most remarkable was that, "having equalled the great actions of +Scipio and Philip, the father of Alexander, he died as they did, in the +forty-fourth year of his age, and doubtless he would have surpassed them +both had he found as favourable dispositions at Lucca as one of them did +in Macedon and the other in Rome." Just there we seem to find the desire +of the sixteenth century for unity that found expression in the deeds of +Cesare Borgia, the Discorsi of Niccolo Macchiavelli. + +[Illustration: THE TOMB OF ILARIA DEL CARETTO + +_By Jacopo della Quercia. Duomo, Lucca_ + +_Brogi_] + +The rest of the history of Lucca is a sort of unhappy silence, out of +which from time to time rise the cry of Burlamacchi, a fool, yes, but a +hero, the howling of the traitors, the whisper of feeble conspiracies, +the purr of an ignoble prosperity, till in 1805 Napoleon came and made +her his prey. + +II + +But to-day Lucca is like a shadowy pool hidden behind the Pisan hills, +like a forgotten oasis in the great plain at the foot of the mountains, +a pallid autumn rose, smiling subtly among the gardens that girdle her +round about with a sad garland of green, a cincture of silver, a tossing +sea of olives. However you come to her, you must pass through those +delicate ways, where always the olives whisper together, and their +million leaves, that do not mark the seasons, flutter one by one to the +ground; where the cicale die in the midst of their song, and the flowers +of Tuscany scatter the shade with the colours of their beauty. In the +midst of this half-real world, so languidly joyful, in which the sky +counts for so much, it is always with surprise you come upon the +tremendous perfect walls of this city--walls planted all round with +plane-trees, so that Lucca herself is hidden by her crown--a crown that +changes as the year changes, mourning all the winter long, but in spring +is set with living emeralds, a thousand and a thousand points of green +fire that burst into summer's own coronet of flame-like leaves, that +fades at last into the dead and sumptuous gold of autumn. + +It is by Porta S. Pietro that we enter Lucca, coming by rail from +Pistoja, and from Pisa too, then crossing La Madonnina and Corso +Garibaldi by Via Nazionale, we come almost at once into Piazza Giglio, +where the old Palazzo Arnolfi stands--a building of the sixteenth +century that is now Albergo Universo. Thence by the Via del Duomo, past +S. Giovanni, we enter the Piazza S. Martino, that silent, empty square +before the Duomo. The little Church of S. Giovanni that we pass on the +way is the old cathedral, standing on the site of a pagan temple, and +rebuilt by S. Frediano in 573, after the Lombards had destroyed the +first Christian building. The present church dates, in part at least, +from the eleventh century, and the three white pillars of the nave are +from the Roman building; but the real interest of the church lies in its +Baptistery--Lombard work dug out of the earth which had covered it, the +floor set in a waved pattern of black and white marble, while in the +midst is the great square font in which the people of Lucca were +immersed for baptism. Little else remains of interest in this the most +ancient church in Lucca--only a fresco of Madonna with St. Nicholas and +others, a fifteenth-century work in the north transept, and a beautiful +window of the end of the sixteenth century in the Baptistery itself. + +All that is best in Lucca, all that is sweetest and most naive, may be +found in the beautiful Duomo, which Pope Alexander II consecrated in +1070,--Pope Alexander II, who had once been Bishop of Lucca. _Non e +finito_, the sacristan, himself one of the most delightful and simple +souls in this little forgotten city, will tell you--it is not finished; +and indeed, the alteration that was made in the church in the early part +of the fourteenth century--when the nave was lengthened and the roof +raised--was never completed; and you may still see where, through so +many centuries, that which was so well begun has awaited a second S. +Frediano. + +It is, however, the facade that takes you at once by its ancient smiling +aspect, its three great unequal arches, over which, in three tiers, +various with beautiful columns, rise the open galleries we have so loved +at Pisa. Built, as it is said, in 1204 by Guidetto, much work remains +in that beautiful frontispiece to one of the most beautiful churches in +Italy that is far older than itself: the statue of S. Martino, the +patron, for instance; that labyrinth, too, on the great pier to the +right; and perhaps the acts of St. Martin carved between the doors, and +below them three reliefs of the months, where in January you see man +sitting beside the fire; in February, as is most right, fishing in the +Serchio; in March, wisely pruning his trees; in April, sowing his seed; +in May, plucking the spring flowers; in June, cutting the corn; in July, +beating it out with the flail--the flail that is used to-day in every +country place in Tuscany; in August, plucking the fruits; in September, +treading the wine-press; in October, storing the wine; in November, +ploughing; and in December, for the festa killing a pig. Over the door +to the left is the earliest work, as it is said, of Nicolo Pisano, and +beneath it an Adoration of the Magi, in which some have found the hand +of Giovanni, his son; while above the great door itself Our Lord is in +glory, with the Twelve Apostles beneath, and Madonna herself in the +midst. Not far away, to the north beside the church, the rosy Campanile +towers over Lucca, calling city and country too, to pray at dawn and at +noon and at evening. + +Within, the church is of a great and simple beauty; in the form of a +Latin cross, divided into three naves by columns supporting round +arches, over which the triforium passes across the transepts, lighted by +beautiful Gothic windows: the glass is certainly dreadful, but far away +in the choir the windows are filled still with the work of the old +masters. + +The most beautiful and the most wonderful treasure that the church +holds, that Lucca itself can boast of, is the great tomb in the north +transept, carved to hold for ever the beautiful Ilaria del Caretto, the +wife of Paolo Guinigi, whose tower still blossoms in the spring, since +she has sat there. It is the everlasting work of Jacopo della Quercia, +the Sienese. On her bed of marble the young Ilaria lies, like a lily +fallen on a rock of marble, and in her face is the sweet gravity of all +the springs that have gone by, and in her hand the melody of all the +songs that have been sung; her mouth seems about to speak some lovely +affirmation, and her body is a tower of ivory. Can you wonder that the +sun lingers here softly, softly, as it steps westward, or that night +creeps over her, kissing her from head to foot slowly like a lover? Who +was the vandal who robbed so great and noble a thing as this of the +relief of dancing children which was found in the Bargello in 1829, and +returned here only in 1887? + +It is, however, the work of another man, a Lucchese too, that fills the +Duomo and Lucca itself with a sort, of lyric sweetness in the delicate +and almost fragile sculpture of Matteo Civitali. In the south transept +he has carved the monument to Pietro da Noceto, the pupil of Pope +Nicholas V, and close by, the tomb of Domenico Bertini, his patron, +while in the Cappella del Sacramento are two angels from his hands, +kneeling on either side the tabernacle. It was he who built the marble +parapet, all of red and white, round the choir, the pulpit, and the +Tempietto in the nave, gilded and covered with ornaments to hold the +Volto Santo, setting there the beautiful statue of St. Sebastian, which +we look at to-day with joy while we turn away from that strange and +marvellous shrine of the holy face of Jesus which we no longer care to +see. Yet one might think that crucifix strange and curious enough for a +pilgrimage, beautiful, too, as it is, with the lost beauty of an art as +subtle and lovely as the work of the Japanese. "It is really," says +Murray, "a work of the eleventh century"; but the Lucchesi will not have +it so, for they tell you that it was carved at the bidding of an angel +by Nicodemus, and that he, unable to finish his work, since his memory +was too full of the wonder of the reality, returning to it one day, +perhaps to try again, found it miraculously perfect. At his death it +passed into the hands of certain holy men, who, to escape from the fury +of the iconoclasts, hid it, till in 782 a Piedmontese bishop found it by +means of a vision, and put it aboard ship and abandoned it to the sea. +So the tale runs. Cast hither and thither in the waves, the ship at last +came ashore at Luna, where the Bishop of Lucca was staying in the +summer heat. So, led by God, he would have borne it to Lucca; but the +people of Luna, who had heard of its sanctity, objecting, it was placed +in a cart drawn by two white oxen, and, as it had been abandoned to the +sea, so now it was given to the world. But the oxen, which in fact came +from the fields of Lucca, returned thither, to the disgust of the people +of Luna, and to the great and holy joy of the Bishop of Lucca, as we may +imagine. Such is the tale; but the treasure itself is a crucifix of +cedar wood of a real and strange beauty. Whether it be European work or +Asiatic I know not, nor does it matter much, since it is beautiful. +Dante, who spent some time in Lucca, and there loved the gentle +Gentucca, whose name so fortunately chimed with that of the city, speaks +of the Volto Santo in _Inferno_, xxi. 48, when in the eighth circle of +Hell, over the lake of boiling pitch, the devils cry-- + + "... Qui non ha luogo il Santo Volto: + Qui si nuota altrimenti che nel Serchio." + +Matteo Civitali, the one artist of importance that Lucca produced, was +born in 1435. He remains really the one artist, not of the territory of +Florence, who has worked in the manner of the fifteenth-century +sculptors of that city. His work is everywhere in Lucca,--here in the +Duomo, in S. Romano, in S. Michele, in S. Frediano, and in the Museo in +Palazzo Mansi. Certainly without the strength, the constructive ability +that sustains even the most delicate work of the Florentines, he has yet +a certain flower-like beauty, a beauty that seems ever about to pass +away, to share its life with the sunlight that ebbs so swiftly out of +the great churches where it is; and concerned as it is for the most part +with the tomb, to rob death itself of a sort of immortality, to suggest +in some faint and subtle way that death itself will pass away and be +lost, as the sun is lost at evening in the strength of the sea. The +sentiment that his work conveys to us of a beauty fragile at best, and +rather exquisite than splendid, lacks, perhaps, a certain originality +and even freshness; yet it preserves very happily just the beauty of +flowers, of the flowers that grow everywhere about his home in the +slowly closing valleys, the tender hills that lead to Castelnuovo of the +Garfagnana, to Barga above the Bagni di Lucca. More and more as you +linger in Lucca it is his work you seek out, caught by its sweetness, +its delicate and melancholy joy, its strangeness too, as though he had +desired to express some long thought-out, recondite beauty, and, half +afraid to express himself after all, had let his thoughts pass over the +marble as the wind passes over the sand between the Pineta and the sea. +It is a beauty gone while we try to apprehend it that we find in his +work, and though at last we may tire of this wayward and delicate +spirit, while we shall ever return with new joy to the great and noble +figure of the young Ilaria del Caretto or to the serene Madonna of +Ghirlandajo, hidden in the Sacristy, yet we shall find ourselves seeking +for the work of Matteo Civitali as for the first violets of the spring, +without a thought of the beauty that belongs to the roses that lord it +all the summer long. + +It is a Madonna of Civitali that greets you at the corner of the most +characteristic church of Lucca, S. Michele. There, under the great +bronze S. Michele, whose wings seem to brood over the city, you come +upon that strange fantastic and yet beautiful fagade which Guidetto +built in 1188. Just Pisan work you think, but lacking a certain +simplicity and sincerity even, that you find certainly in the Duomo. But +if it be true that this fagade was built in 1188, and that the fagade of +the Duomo of Pisa was built in 1250, and even that of S. Paolo a Ripa +d'Arno there, in 1194, Guidetto's work here in Lucca is the older, and +the Pisan master has made but a difficult simplification, perhaps, of +this very work. A difficult simplification!--simplicity being really the +most difficult achievement in any art, so that though it seem so easy it +is really hard to win. Guidetto seems to have built here at S. Michele +as a sort of trial for the Duomo, which is already less like an +apparition. And if the facade of S. Michele has not the strength or +the naturalness of that, leading as it does to nothing but poverty in +the midst of which still abides a mutilated work by a great Florentine, +Fra Lippo Lippi, it is because Guidetto has gradually won to that +difficult simplicity from such a strange and fantastic dream as this. + +[Illustration: THE TOMB OF THE MARTYR S. ROMANO IN S. ROMANO, LUCCA + +_Matteo Civitali_ + +_Alinari_] + +It is quite another sort of beauty we see when, passing through the +deserted, quiet streets, we come to S. Frediano, just within the Porta +S. Maria, on the north side of the city. Begun by Perharlt, the Lombard, +in 671, with the stones of the amphitheatre, whose ruins are still to be +seen hard by, it stood without the city till the great wall was built in +the twelfth century, the apse being set where formerly the great door +had stood, and the marvellously impressive fagade taking the place of +the old apse. Ruined though it be by time and restoration, that mosaic +of Our Lord amid the Apostles and Angels still surprises us with a +sudden glory, while the Campanile that rises still where of old the door +stood is one of the most beautiful in Italy. Within, the church has +suffered too from change and restoration. Once of basilical form, it is +now spoiled by the chapels that thrust themselves into the nave, but +cannot altogether hide the nobility of those ancient pillars or the +simplicity of the roof. A few beautiful ancient things may still be +found there. The font, for instance, with its rude sculptures, that has +been forsaken for a later work by Niccolo Civitali, the nephew of +Matteo; the Assumption, carved in wood by that master behind the pulpit; +the lovely reliefs of Madonna and Child with Saints, by Jacopo della +Quercia, in the Cappella del Sacramento; or the great stone which, as it +is said, S. Frediano, that Irishman, lifted into a cart. + +But it is not of S. Frediano we think in this dark and splendid place, +though the stone of his miracle lies before us, but of little S. Zita, +patron of housemaids, little S. Zita of Lucca, born in 1211. "Anziani di +Santa Zita," the devil calls the elders of Lucca in the eighth circle of +Hell; but in her day, indeed, she had no such fame as that. She was +born at Montesegradi, a village of the Lucchese, and was put to service +at twelve years of age, in the family of the Fantinelli, whose house was +close to this church, where now she has a chapel to herself at the west +end of the south aisle, with a fine Annunciation of the della Robbia. To +think of it!--but in those days it was different; it would puzzle Our +Lord to find a S. Zita among our housemaids of to-day. For hear and +consider well the virtues of this pearl above price, whose daughters, +alas! are so sadly to seek while she dusts the Apostles' chairs in +heaven. She was persuaded that labour was according to the will of God, +nor did she ever harbour any complaint under contradictions, poverty, +hardships; still less did she ever entertain the least idle, inordinate, +or worldly desire! She blessed God for placing her in a station where +she was ever busy, and where she must perpetually submit her will to +that of others. "She was even very sensible of the advantages of her +state, which afforded all necessaries of life without engaging her in +anxious cares, ... she obeyed her master and mistress in all things, ... +she rose always hours before the rest of the family, ... she took care +to hear Mass every morning before she was called upon by the duties of +her station, in which she employed the whole day with such diligence and +fidelity that she seemed to be carried to them on wings, and studied to +anticipate them!" Is it any wonder her fellow-servants hated her, called +her modesty simplicity, her want of spirit servility? Ah, we know that +spirit, we know that pride, S. Zita, and for those wings that bore you, +for that thoughtfulness and care, S. Zita, we should be willing to pay +you quite an inordinate wage! Nor would your mistress to-day be +prepossessed against you as yours was, neither would your master be +"passionate," and he would see you, S. Zita, without "transports of +rage." Your biographer tells us that it is not to be conceived how much +you had continually to suffer in that situation. Unjustly despised, +overburdened, reviled, and often beaten, you never repined nor lost +patience, but always preserved the same sweetness in your countenance, +and abated nothing of your application to your duties. Moreover, you +were willing to respect your fellow-servants as your superiors. And if +you were sent on a commission a mile or two, in the greatest storms, you +set out without delay, executed your business punctually, and returned +often almost drowned, without showing any sign of murmuring. And at +last, S. Zita, they found you out, they began to treat you better, they +even thought so well of you that a single word from you would often +suffice to check the greatest transports of your master's rage; and you +would cast yourself at the feet of that terrific man, to appease him in +favour of others. And all these and more were your virgin virtues, lost, +gone, forgotten out of mind, by a world that dreams of no heavenly +housemaid save in Lucca where you lived, and where they still keep your +April festa, and lay their nosegays on your grave. + +So I passed in Lucca from church to church, finding here the body of a +little saint, there the tomb of a soldier, or the monument of some dear +dead woman. In S. Francesco, that desecrated great mausoleum that lies +at the end of the Via di S. Francesco not far from the garden tower of +Paolo Guinigi, I came upon the humble grave of Castruccio Castracani. In +S. Romano, at the other end of the city behind the Palazzo Provinciale, +it was the shrine of that S. Romano who was the gaoler of S. Lorenzo I +found, a tomb with the delicate flowerlike body of the murdered saint +carved there in gilded alabaster by Matteo Civitali. + +It is chiefly Civitali's work you seek in the Museo in Palazzo +Provinciale, for, fine as the work of Bartolommeo is in two pictures to +be found there, it is for something more of the country than that you +are to come to Lucca. There, in a Madonna Assunta carved in wood and +plaster, and daintily painted as it seems he loved to do, you have +perhaps the most charming work that has come from his bottega. He was +not a great sculptor, but he had seen the vineyards round about, he had +wandered in the little woods at the city gates, he had watched the dawn +run down the valleys, and the wind that plays with the olives was his +friend. He has loved all that is delicate and lovely, the wings of +angels, the hands of children, the long blown hair of St. John in his +Death of the Virgin, the eyelids that have fallen over the eyes. He is +full of grace, and his virtues seem to me to be just those which Lucca +herself possesses. Hidden away between the mountains, between the plains +and the sea, she achieved nothing, or almost nothing. Castracani for a +moment forced her into the pell-mell of awakened Italy, but with his +death, and certainly with the fall of the House of Guinigi, she returned +to herself, to her own quiet heart, which was enough for her. This one +sculptor is almost her sole contribution to Italian art, but she was +content that his works should scatter her ways, and that hidden away in +her churches his shy flowers should blossom. Civitali and S. Zita, they +are the two typical Lucchesi; they sum up a city composed of such as +Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife, whom Van Eyck painted, that great +bourgeoisie which made Italy without knowing it, and, unconcerned while +the great men and the rabble fought in the wars or lost their lives in a +petty revolution, were eager only to be let alone, that they might +continue their labour and gather in wealth. And of them history is +silent, for they made her. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[144] See p. 94 et seq. + +[145] This coining of money was as much as to prove that he had a sort +of sovereign right over their territory. + + + + +XXX. OVER THE GARFAGNANA + + +So in the long August days, that are so fierce in the city, I sought +once more the hills, the hills that are full of songs, those songs which +in Italy have grown with the flowers and are full of just their wistful +beauty, their expectancy and sweetness. + + "Fiorin di grano, + Lasciatemi cantar, che allegra sono, + Ho rifatto la pace col mio damo." + +There in the Garfagnana, as I wandered up past Castelnuovo to the little +village of Piazza al Serchio, and then through the hills to Fivizanno, +that wonderful old town in a cup of the mountains, I heard the whole +drama of love sung by the "vaghe montanine pastorelle" in the chestnut +woods or on the high lawns where summer is an eternal spring. + + "O rosa! O rosa! O rosa gentillina! + Quanto bella t'ha fatta la tua mamma! + T'ha fatto bella, poi t'ha messo un fiore; + T'ha messo alla finestra a far l'amore. + T'ha fatto bella e t'ha messo una rosa: + T'ha messo alla finestra a far la sposa." + +sings the young man one morning as he passes the cottage of his beloved, +and she, scarcely fourteen, goes to her mother, weeping perhaps-- + + "Mamma, se non mi date il mio Beppino, + Vo' andar pel mondo, e mai piu vo' tornare. + Se lo vedessi quanto gli e bellino, + O mamma, vi farebbe innamorare. + E' porta un giubboncin di tre colori, + E si chiama Beppino Ruba--cori: + E' porta un giubboncin rosso incarnato, + E si chiama Beppino innamorato: + E' porta un giubboncin di mezza lana; + Quest' e Beppino, ed io son la sua dama." + +Then the _damo_ comes to serenade his mistress-- + + "Vengo di notte e vengo appassionato, + Vengo nell'ora del tuo bel dormire. + Se ti risveglio, faccio un gran peccato + Perche non dormo, e manco fo dormire. + Se ti risveglio, un gran peccato faccio: + Amor non dorme, e manco dormir lascia." + +And she, who doubtless has heard it all in her little bed, sings on the +morrow-- + + "Oh, quanto tempo l'ho desiderato + Un damo aver che fosse sonatore! + Eccolo qua che Dio me l'ha mandato + Tutto coperto di rose e viole; + Eccolo qua che vien pianin pianino, + A capo basso, e suona il violino." + +Then they sing of Saturday and Sunday-- + + "Quando sara sabato sera, quando? + Quando sara domenica mattina, + Che vedro l'amor mio spasseggiando, + Che vedro quella faccia pellegrina, + Che vedro quel bel volto, e quel bel viso, + O fior d'arancio colto in paradiso! + Che vedro quel bel viso e quel bel volto, + O fior d'arancio in paradiso colto!" + +So all the summer long they play at love; but with October Beppino must +go to the Maremma with the herds, and she thinks over this as the time +draws near-- + + "E quando io penso a quelle tante miglia, + E che voi, amor mio, l'avete a fare, + Nelle mie vene il sangue si rappiglia, + Tutti li sensi miei sento mancare; + E li sento mancare a poco a poco, + Come la cera in sull'ardente foco: + E li sento mancare a dramma, a dramma, + Come la cera in sull'ardente fiamma." + +Or again, with half a sob-- + + "Come volete faccia che non pianga + Sapendo che da voi devo partire? + E tu bello in Maremma ed io 'n montagna! + Chesta partenza mi fara morire...." + +And at last she watches him depart, winding down the long roads-- + + "E vedo e vedo e non vedo chi voglio, + Vedo le foglie di lontan tremare. + E vedo lo mio amore in su quel poggio, + E al piano mai lo vedo calare. + O poggio traditor, che ne farete? + O vivo o morto me lo renderete. + O poggio traditor, che ne farai? + O vivo o morto me lo renderai." + +Then she dreams of sending a letter in verses, which recall, how +closely, the Swallow song of "The Princess"-- + + "O Rondinella che passi monti e colli, + Se trovi l'amor mio, digli che venga; + E digli: son rimasta in questi poggi + Come rimane la smarrita agnella. + E digli: son rimasta senza nimo + Come l'albero secco senza 'l cimo. + E digli: son rimasta senza damo, + Come l'albero secco senza il ramo. + E digli: son rimasta abbandonata + Come l'erbetta secca in sulle prata." + +At length she sends a letter with the help of the village scrivener, and +in time gets an answer-- + + "Salutatemi, bella, lo scrivano; + Non lo conosco e non so chi si sia. + A me mi pare un poeta sovrano + Tanto gli e sperto nella poesia ..." + +Signor Tigri in his excellent collection of _Canti Toscani_, from which +I have quoted, gives some examples too of these letters and their +replies, but they are too long to set down here. + +With spring the lover returns. You may see the girls watching for the +lads any day of spring in those high far woods through which the roads +wind down to the plains. + + "Eccomi, bella, che son gia venuto + Che li sospiri tuoi m'hanno chiamato, + E tu credevi d'avermi perduto, + Dal ben che ti volevo son tornato. + Quando son morto, mi farai un gran pianto; + Dirai: e morto chi mi amava tanto! + Quando son morto, un gran pianto farai, + Padrona del mio cor sempre sarai." + +Then in the early summer days the promises are given, and long and long +before autumn the good priest marries Beppino to his Annuziatina, and +doubtless they live happy ever after in those quiet and holy places. + +It is into this country of happiness you come, a happiness so vaguely +musical, when, leaving Lucca in the summer heat, you climb into the +Garfagnana. For to your right Bagni di Lucca lies under Barga, with its +church and great pulpit; and indeed, the first town you enter is Borgo a +Mozzano by Serchio; then, following still the river, you come to +Gallicano, and then by a short steep road to Castelnuovo di Garfagnana +at the foot of the great pass. The mountains have clustered round you, +bare and threatening, and though you be still in the woods it is their +tragic nudity you see all day long, full of the disastrous gestures of +death, that can never change or be modified or recalled. It is under +these lonely and desolate peaks that the road winds to Piazza al +Serchio. + +Castelnuovo is a little city caught in a bend of Serchio, which it spans +by a fantastic high bridge that leaps across the shrunken torrent. A +mere huddle of mediaeval streets and piazzas in an amphitheatre of +mountains, its one claim on our notice is that here is a good inn, kept +by a strange tragical sort of man with a beautiful wife, the only +sunshine in that forbidding place. She lies there like a jewel among the +inhuman rocks, and Serchio for ever whispers her name. Here too, +doubtless, came Ariosto, most serene of poets, when in 1522 he was sent +to suppress an insurrection in the Garfagnana. But even Ariosto will not +keep you long in Castelnuovo, since she whom he would certainly have +sung, and whose name you will find in his poem, cannot hold you there. +So you follow the country road up stream, a laughing, leaping torrent in +September, full of stones longing for rain, towards Camporgiano. + +It is very early in the morning maybe, as you climb out of the shadow +and receive suddenly the kiss of the morning sun over a shoulder of the +great mountains, a kiss like the kiss of the beloved. From the village +of Piazza al Serchio, where the inn is rough truly but _pulito_, it is a +climb of some six chilometri into the pass, where you leave the river, +then the road, always winding about the hills, runs level for four +miles, and at last drops for five miles into Fivizzano. All the way the +mountains stand over you frighteningly motionless and threatening, till +the woods of Fivizzano, that magical town, hide you in their shadow, and +evening comes as you climb the last hill that ends in the Piazza before +the door of the inn. + +Here are hospitality, kindness, and a welcome; you will get a great room +for your rest, and the salone of the palace, for palace it is, for your +sojourn, and an old-fashioned host whose pleasure is your comfort, who +is, as it were, a daily miracle. He it will be who will make your bed in +the chamber where Grand Duke Leopold slept, he will wait upon you at +dinner as though you were the Duke's Grace herself, and if your sojourn +be long he will make you happy, and if your stay be short you will go +with regret. For his pride is your delight, and he, unlike too many more +famous Tuscans, has not forgotten the past. Certainly he thinks it not +altogether without glory, for he has carved in marble over your bed one +of those things which befell in his father's time. Here it is-- + + "Qui stette per tre giorni + Nel Settembre del MDCCCXXXII + Leopoldo Il Granduca di Toscana + E i fratelli Cojari da Fivizzano + L'imagine dell' Ottimo Principi vi possero + Perche rimanesse ai posteri memoria + Che la loro casa fu nobilitata + Dalle presenza dell' ospite augusto." + +But nature had ennobled the House of Cojari already. There all day long +in the pleasant heat the fountain of Cosimo in plays in the Piazza +outside your window, cooling your room with its song. And, indeed, in +all Tuscany it would be hard to find a place more delightful or more +lovely in which to spend the long summer that is so loath to go here in +the south. Too soon, too soon the road called me from those meadows and +shadowy ways, the never-ending whisper of the woods, the sound of +streams, the song of the mountain shepherd girls, the quiet ways of the +hills. + +It was an hour after sunrise when I set out for Fosdinovo of the +Malaspina, for Sarzana, for Spezia, for England. The way lies over the +rivers Aulella and Bardine, through Soliero in the valley, through +Ceserano of the hills. Thence by a way steep and dangerous I came into +the valley of Bardine, only to mount again to Tendola and at last to +Foce Cuccu, where on all sides the valleys filled with woods fell away +from me, and suddenly at a turning of the way I spied out Fosdinovo, +lordly still on its bastion of rock, guarding Val di Magra, looking +towards Luna and the sea. + +Little more than an eyrie for eagles, Fosdinovo is an almost perfect +fortress of the Middle Age. It glowers in the sun like a threat over the +ways that now are so quiet, where only the bullocks dragging the marble +from Carrara pass all day long from Massa to Spezia, from the valley to +the sea. + +It was thence for the first time for many months I looked on a land that +was not Tuscany. Already autumn was come in that high place; a flutter +of leaves and the wind of the mountains made a sad music round about the +old walls, which had heard the voice of Castruccio Castracani, whose +gates he had opened by force. And then, as I sat there above the woods +towards evening, from some bird passing overhead there fell a tiny +feather, whiter than snow, that came straight into my hand. Was it a +bird, or my angel, whose beautiful, anxious wings trembled lest I should +fall in a land less simple than this? + + + + +INDEX + + +Adeodatus +Agostino di Duccio +Alberti, Leon +Albertinelli +Alessi, Galeazzo +Angelico, Beato +Apuan Alps +Arcola +Arnolfo di Cambio +Arnolfo Fiorentino +Avenza + +Bagni di Lucca +Baldovinetti +Bandinelli +Barga +Bartolommeo, Frate +Bellini, Giovanni +Benedetto da Maiano +Benedetto da Rovezzano +Benozzo, Gozzoli +Bertoldo di Giovanni +Bibbiena +Biduino +Boccaccio +Bonannus +Borgo a Mozzano +Borgo S. Lorenzo +Botticelli +Bracco, Passo di +Brunellesco +Buggiano +Byron + +Calci +Camaldoli +Camogli +Campaldino +Capraja +Carpaccio +Carrara + S. Andrea + Quarries +Cascina +Casentino + Bibbiena + Camaldoli + Campaldino + Campo Lombardo + Castel Castagnajo + Falterona + La Verna + Poppi + Porciano + Pratovecchio + Romena + Stia + The way to + Vallombrosella + Vallucciole +Castagno +Castagno, Andrea del +Castel del Bosco +Castelfranco +Castelnuovo di Garfagnana +Castelnuovo di Magra +Castracani, Castruccio +Cellini, Benvenuto +Cervara +Chiavari +Children in Italy +Cimabue +Cino da Pistoja +Ciuffagni +Civitali, Matteo +Columbus +Consuma Pass +Corbignano +Correggio +Corsica +Country Life, Love of +Crusades + +Dante +Desiderio da Settignano +Dicomano +Donatello +Doria, the +Duccio of Siena + +Empoli +Evelyn's approach to Genoa + +Faggiuola, Uguccione della +Falterona +Ferrucci, Andrea +Fiesole + S. Ansano + Badia + S. Domenico + Duomo + S. Francesco + Palazzo Pretorio + Scavi + The way to + View from +Fivizzano +Florence + Albizzi, the + S. Antonino + Beata Villana + Boboli gardens + Bocca degli Abati + Bridges + Buondelmonti + Campaldino + Campanile, the + Capponi, Piero + Charles VIII. in + Churches-- + S. Ambrogio + SS. Annunziata + SS. Apostoli + S. Appolonia + Badia + Baptistery + Carmine + S. Caterina + Chiostro dello Scalzo + S. Croce + Chapels + Choir + Cloisters + Museo + Sacristy + S. Donato a Torri + Duomo + Best aspect of + Character of + Nave, aspect of + S. Felice + S. Frediano in Castello + S. Jacopo + S. Lorenzo + Laurentian library + New Sacristy + Old Sacristy + S. Lucia sul Prato + S. Marco + S. Maria degli Angioli + S. Maria degli Innocenti + S. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi + S. Maria Novella + Chapels + Facade + S. Miniato + Misericordia + Ognissanti + S. Onofrio + Or San Michele + S. Piero Maggiore + S. Piero Scheraggio + S. Salvatore + S. Salvi + S. Simone + S. Spirito + S. Stefano + S. Trinita + Corso Donati + Duke of Athens + Farinata degli Uberti + Gates-- + Porta Alla Croce + S. Frediano + S. Giorgio + S. Miniato + S. Niccola + Romana + Guilds + Humiliati + Laudesi + Liberty in Florence + Loggia de' Lanzi + Lung'Arno + Marsilio Ficino + Medici, the-- + Alessandro + Cosimo + Cosimo I. + Ferdinando II. + Gian Gastone + Giovanni + Giovanni di Bicci + Giulio + Guiliano + Ippolito + Lorenzino + Lorenzo + Piero + Piero the exile + Salvestro + Mercato Nuovo + Montaperti + Monte Senario + Museums-- + Accademia + Bargello, the + Opera del Duomo + Pitti Palace + Uffizi + The curse of + Neri and Bianchi + Niccolo Uzzano + Oltr'Arno + Ospedale degli Innocenti + Palazzi-- + Albizzi + Altoviti + Antinori + Bargello, _see_ Museums + Bartolini Salimbeni + Buondelmonte + Corsini + Davanzati + Falconieri, _see_ Opera del Duomo, under Museums + Frescobaldi + Guadagni + Nonfinito + Pazzi + del Podesta, _see_ Bargello + Riccardi + Cappella + Ricasoli + Spini + Strozzi + Torrigiani + Uffizi, _see_ under Museums + Uguccione + Vecchio + Pazzi + Piazzas-- + SS. Annunziata + S. Croce + Duomo + Limbo + S. Lorenzo + S. Maria Novella + S. Piero + Signoria + S. Trinita + Vittorio Emanuele + Pico della Mirandola + Pitti, the family of + Savonarola + Soderini + Streets-- + delle Belle Donne + Borgo Allegri + Borgo degli Albizzi + Borgo SS. Apostoli + Borgo S. Jacopo + Borgo S. Lorenzo + Calzaioli + Cerretani + Corso + Lambertesca + Maggio + Por S. Maria + Porta Rossa + Proconsolo + dei Serpi + Tornabuoni + Viale dei Colli +Foce La (di Spezia) +Foce La (di Carrara) +Fosdinovo + +Gaddi, Agnolo +Gaddi, Taddeo +Garfagnana Pass +Genoa + A living city + Acqua Sole + Alfonso of Aragon + Approach to + Arcades + Bank of S. George + Boccanegra, Doge + Guglielmo + Boucicault + Briglia, the + Castelletto, the + Catino, the + Cemetery + Charles V and + Churches-- + S. Agostino + S. Ambrogio + Duomo (S. Lorenzo) + S. Fruttuoso + S. Giovanni di Pre + S. Maria di Castello + S. Matteo + S. Siro + S. Stefano + Columbus + Cross of S. George + Crusades + Doria, the + Doria, Andrea + Embriaco + Tower of + Godfrey of Bouillon + Grimaldi + History of + Libro d'Oro + Loggia dei Banchi + Moors, expedition against + Palaces-- + Adorno + Balbi + Bianco + Cambiaso + Carega + della Casa + Doria + Doria, Giorgio + Ducale + Durazzo Pallavicini + Gambaro + Giorgio Doria + Municipale + Negrone + Pallavicini + Parodi + Rosso + Serra + Spinola (via Garibaldi) + Spinola (S. di S. Catrina) + della Universita + Piazzas-- + Banchi + Deferrari + Fontane Marose + Sarzana + Pictures in Genoa-- + Botticelli(?) + David (Gerard) + Domenichino + Guido Reni + Luca Cambiasi + Moretto + Murillo + Ribera + Rubens + Ruysdael + Tintoretto + Vandyck + Veronese + Zurbaran + Porta S. Andrea + Ramparts + Sforza, the + Slums of + Streets-- + Arcades + Balbi + Cairoli + Garibaldi + Salita di S. Caterina + Strada degli Orefici + Towers + Vandyck in + Visconti in + War with Pisa + War with Venice +Gentile da Fabriano +Gerini Niccola di Pietro +Gherardesca Conte Ugolino della +Ghiberti +Ghirlandajo +Giorgione +Giotto +Giovanni da Bologna +Gruamone +Guelph and Ghibelline +Guglielmo, Fra +Guidi, Conti +Guido da Como + +Humiliati + +Inghirami +Italy, approach to + +Jacopo della Quercia +Janus + +Lastra +Laudesi +Laurentian Library +La Verna +Leonardo +Lerici +Lippi (Fra Lippo) +Lippi, Filippino +Livorno + Monte Nero +Lorenzetti, the +Lorenzo di Credi +Lucca + Castruccio Castracane + Churches-- + Duomo + S. Francesco + S. Frediano + S. Giovanni + S. Michele in Borgo + S. Romano + Matteo Civitali + Museo + Walls + S. Zita +Luna +Lunigiana + +Magni, Villa +Magra, the +Maiano +Malaspina +Manetti, Gianozzo +Mantegna +Marco Polo +Martini, Simone +Masaccio +Masolino +Massa +Matilda Contessa +Meloria, battle of +Melozzo da Forli +Michelangelo +Michelozzo +Mino da Fiesole +Monaco, Lorenzo +Monsummano +Montecatini +Montenero +Montelupo +Montignoso +Moretto +Moroni + +Nanni di Banco +Neri and Bianchi +Nervi +Niccola +Niccolo d'Arezzo +Nicholas V + +Ognibene +Oratorio della Vannella +Orcagna + +Pandolfini, Agnolo +Paris Bordone +Perugino, Pietro +Pescia +Piazza al Serchio +Piero della Francesco +Piero di Cosimo +Piero di Giovanni Tedesco +Pietro a Grado, S. +Pineta di Pisa +Pineta di Viareggio +Ponocchio +Pisa + Agnello, Doge + Amalfi + Archbishop Peter + Assumption, Feast of, in + Balearic Islands + Benozzo Gozzoli + Bergolini and Raspanti + S. Bernard in + Borgo, The + Campagnia di S. Michele + Campanile + Campo Santo + Casa dei Trovatelli + Castruccio Castracane + Churches-- + S. Anna + Baptistery + S. Caterina + Duomo + S. Francesco + S. Frediano + Madonna della Spina + S. Maria Maddalena + S. Martino + S. Michele in Borgo + S. Niccola + S. Paolo al Orto + S. Paolo a Ripa + S. Pierino + S. Pietro a Grado + S. Ranieri + S. Sepolcro + S. Sisto + S. Stefano + Cintola del Duomo + Corsica + Cosimo I + Crusades + Divisions in Twelfth Century + Donatello + Etruscan Pisa + Florence + Galileo + Gambacorti + Genoa + Gentile da Fabriano + Gherardesca, Ugolino della + Guelph and Ghibelline + Guglielmo, Frate + History of + Knights of S. Stephen + Loggia dei Banchi + Lucca + Lung' Arno + Martini, Simone + Meloria + Montaperti + Montecatini + Montefeltro, Guido di + Museo + Palaces-- + Agostini + Anziani + dei Cavalieri + del Comune + del Consiglio + Conventuale + Gambacorti + del Granduca + Lanfreducci + del Podesta + Palermo + Palio and Ponte + Piazzas-- + dei Cavalieri + del Duomo + di S. Francesco + di S. Paolo + Pisano Giovanni + Pisano, Giunta + Pisano, Niccolo + Ponte di Mezzo + Ponte Solferino + Porta Aurea + Porto Pisano + Roman Pisa + Salerno + Torre Guelfa + Tower of Hunger + "Triumph of Death" + Uguccione della Faggiuola + University + Visconti +Pistoia + Churches-- + S. Andrea + Baptistery + S. Bartolommeo + S. Domenico + Duomo + S. Francesco al Prato + S. Giovanni Evangelista + S. Piero Maggiore + S. Salvatore + Origin of Pistoia + Palazzo del Comune + Palazzo Pretorio + Torre del Podesta +Poggio Gherardo +Pollaiuolo, Ant. +Pontassieve +Pontedera +Pontevola +Pontormo +Poppi +Porciano +Porto Pisano +Portofino +Portovenere +Prisons, position of + +Rapallo +Raphael +Recco +Riviera di Levante +Robbia della +Robbia Luca della +Romena +Rossellino, Antonio +Rossellino, Bernardo +Rotta +Ruta + +S. Domenico di Fiesole +S. Ellero +S. Francesco +S. Fruttuoso +S. Giovanni Gualberto +S. Godenzo +S. Marcello +S. Margherita +S. Martino a Mensola +S. Michele di Pagana +S. Miniato al Tedesco +S. Romano +S. Romualdo +S. Terenzano +Sacchetti +Saltino +Sansovino, Andrea +Sarto, Andrea del +Sarzana +Savonarola +Schiavone +Serchio +Serravalle +Sestri Levante +Settignano +Shelley +Simone Martini +South, Praise of the +Spezia +Stagi, Stagio +Starnina +Stia + +Tintoretto +Titian +Torano +Tuscany, entrance to +Tuscany, the road to + +Uccello, Paolo + +Val di Lima +Val di Nievole +Val di Reno +Vallombrosa +Vallombrosella +Vandyck +Vasari +Veronese +Verrocchio +Verruca +Viareggio +Vicopisano +Villa Palmieri +Vincigliata + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Florence and Northern Tuscany with +Genoa, by Edward Hutton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLORENCE *** + +***** This file should be named 16477.txt or 16477.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/4/7/16477/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |