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diff --git a/37793.txt b/37793.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..420a6f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/37793.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13372 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of Florence, by Edmund G. Gardner + +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: The Story of Florence + +Author: Edmund G. Gardner + +Illustrator: Nelly Erichsen + +Release Date: October 18, 2011 [EBook #37793] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF FLORENCE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa McDaniel and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation in the original + document have been preserved. + + + + + The Story of Florence + + + + + All rights reserved + + First Edition, September 1900. + Second Edition, December 1900. + + [Illustration: _Pallas taming a Centaur, by Botticelli._ + (THE TRIUMPH OF LORENZO.)] + + + + + The Story of Florence + + by Edmund G. Gardner + + Illustrated by Nelly Erichsen + + London: J. M. Dent & Co. + Aldine House, 29 and 30 Bedford Street + Covent Garden W.C. 1900 + + + + + To + MY SISTER + MONICA MARY GARDNER + + + + +PREFACE + + +The present volume is intended to supply a popular history of the +Florentine Republic, in such a form that it can also be used as a +guide-book. It has been my endeavour, while keeping within the +necessary limits of this series of _Mediaeval Towns_, to point out +briefly the most salient features in the story of Florence, to tell +again the tale of those of her streets and buildings, and indicate +those of her artistic treasures, which are either most intimately +connected with that story or most beautiful in themselves. Those who +know best what an intensely fascinating and many-sided history that of +Florence has been, who have studied most closely the work and +characters of those strange and wonderful personalities who have lived +within (and, in the case of the greatest, died without) her walls, +will best appreciate my difficulty in compressing even a portion of +all this wealth and profusion into the narrow bounds enjoined by the +aim and scope of this book. Much has necessarily been curtailed over +which it would have been tempting to linger, much inevitably omitted +which the historian could not have passed over, nor the compiler of a +guide-book failed to mention. In what I have selected for treatment +and what omitted, I have usually let myself be guided by the +remembrance of my own needs when I first commenced to visit Florence +and to study her arts and history. + +It is needless to say that the number of books, old and new, is very +considerable indeed, to which anyone venturing in these days to write +yet another book on Florence must have had recourse, and to whose +authors he is bound to be indebted--from the earliest Florentine +chroniclers down to the most recent biographers of Lorenzo the +Magnificent, of Savonarola, of Michelangelo--from Vasari down to our +modern scientific art critics--from Richa and Moreni down to the +Misses Horner. My obligations can hardly be acknowledged here in +detail; but, to mention a few modern works alone, I am most largely +indebted to Capponi's _Storia della Repubblica di Firenze_, to various +writings of Professor Pasquale Villari, and to Mr Armstrong's _Lorenzo +de' Medici_; to the works of Ruskin and J. A. Symonds, of M. Reymond +and Mr Berenson; and, in the domains of topography, to Baedeker's +_Hand Book_. In judging of the merits and the authorship of individual +pictures and statues, I have usually given more weight to the results +of modern criticism than to the pleasantness of old tradition. + +Carlyle's translation of the _Inferno_ and Mr Wicksteed's of the +_Paradiso_ are usually quoted. + +If this little book should be found helpful in initiating the +English-speaking visitor to the City of Flowers into more of the +historical atmosphere of Florence and her monuments than guide-books +and catalogues can supply, it will amply have fulfilled its object. + + E. G. G. + + ROEHAMPTON, May 1900. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I PAGE + + _The Commune and People of Florence_ 1 + + CHAPTER II + + _The Times of Dante and Boccaccio_ 32 + + CHAPTER III + + _The Medici and the Quattrocento_ 71 + + CHAPTER IV + + _From Fra Girolamo to Duke Cosimo_ 111 + + CHAPTER V + + _The Palazzo Vecchio--The Piazza della Signoria--The + Uffizi_ 146 + + CHAPTER VI + + _Or San Michele and the Sesto di San Piero_ 184 + + CHAPTER VII + + _From the Bargello past Santa Croce_ 214 + + CHAPTER VIII + + _The Baptistery, the Campanile, and the Duomo_ 246 + + CHAPTER IX + + _The Palazzo Riccardi--San Lorenzo--San + Marco_ 283 + + CHAPTER X + + _The Accademia delle Belle Arti--The Santissima + Annunziata, and other Buildings_ 314 + + CHAPTER XI + + _The Bridges--The Quarter of Santa Maria + Novella_ 340 + + CHAPTER XII + + _Across the Arno_ 374 + + CHAPTER XIII + + _Conclusion_ 409 + + * * * * * + + _Genealogical Table of the Medici_ 423 + + _Chronological Index of Architects, Sculptors and + Painters_ 424 + + _General Index_ 430 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + _Pallas taming a Centaur (Photogravure)_[1] Frontispiece + + _Florence from the Boboli Gardens_ 3 + + _The Buondelmonte Tower_ 20 + + _The Palace of the Parte Guelfa_ 29 + + _Arms of Parte Guelfa_ 31 + + _Florentine Families_ 33 + + _Corso Donati's Tower_ 40 + + _Across the Ponte Vecchio_ 47 + + _Mercato Nuovo, the Flower Market_ 51 + + _The Campanile_ 63 + + _Cross of the Florentine People_ 70 + + _Florence in the Days of Lorenzo the Magnificent_ 80 + + _The Badia of Fiesole_ 83 + + "_In the Sculptor's Work-shop_" (_Nanni di + Banco_) 97 + + _Arms of the Pazzi_ 110 + + _The Death of Savonarola_ 135 + + "_The Dawn_" (_Michelangelo_) 144 + + _The Palazzo Vecchio_ 147 + + _Looking through Vasari's Loggia, Uffizi_ 161 + + "_Venus_" (_Sandro Botticelli_) 178 + + _Orcagna's Tabernacle, Or San Michele_ 185 + + _Window of Or San Michele_ 191 + + _Tower of the Arte della Lana_ 201 + + _House of Dante_ 207 + + _Arms of the Sesto di San Piero_ 213 + + _Bargello Courtyard and Staircase_ 217 + + _Santa Croce_ 233 + + _Old Houses on the Arno_ 245 + + _The Baptistery_ 251 + + _The Bigallo_ 264 + + _Porta della Mandorla, Duomo_ 267 + + _Statue of Boniface VIII_ 270 + + _Arms of the Medici from the Badia at Fiesole_ 283 + + _Tomb of Giovanni and Piero dei Medici_ 288 + + _The Well of S. Marco_ 299 + + _The Cloister of the Innocenti_ 331 + + _A Florentine Suburb_ 337 + + _The Ponte Vecchio_ 343 + + _The Tower of S. Zanobi_ 347 + + _Arms of the Strozzi_ 353 + + _In the Green Cloisters, S. Maria Novella_ 357 + + _In the Boboli Gardens_ 374 + + _The Fortifications of Michelangelo_ 399 + + _Porta San Giorgio_ 403 + + _Map of Florence facing_ 422 + + [1] "_The Frontispiece and the Illustrations facing pages 97, 135, + 144, 178 and 288 are reproduced, by permission, from photographs by + Messrs Alinari of Florence._" + + + + +The Story of Florence + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_The People and Commune of Florence_ + + "La bellissima e famosissima figlia di Roma, Fiorenza." + --_Dante._ + + +Before the imagination of a thirteenth century poet, one of the +sweetest singers of the _dolce stil novo_, there rose a phantasy of a +transfigured city, transformed into a capital of Fairyland, with his +lady and himself as fairy queen and king: + + "Amor, eo chero mea donna in domino, + l'Arno balsamo fino, + le mura di Fiorenza inargentate, + le rughe di cristallo lastricate, + fortezze alte e merlate, + mio fedel fosse ciaschedun Latino."[2] + + [2] "Love, I demand to have my lady in fee, + Fine balm let Arno be, + The walls of Florence all of silver rear'd, + And crystal pavements in the public way; + With castles make me fear'd, + Till every Latin soul have owned my sway." + --LAPO GIANNI (_Rossetti_). + +But is not the reality even more beautiful than the dreamland Florence +of Lapo Gianni's fancy? We stand on the heights of San Miniato, either +in front of the Basilica itself or lower down in the Piazzale +Michelangelo. Below us, on either bank of the silvery Arno, lies +outstretched Dante's "most famous and most beauteous daughter of +Rome," once the Queen of Etruria and centre of the most wonderful +culture that the world has known since Athens, later the first capital +of United Italy, and still, though shorn of much of her former +splendour and beauty, one of the loveliest cities of Christendom. +Opposite to us, to the north, rises the hill upon which stands +Etruscan Fiesole, from which the people of Florence originally came: +"that ungrateful and malignant people," Dante once called them, "who +of old came down from Fiesole." Behind us stand the fortifications +which mark the death of the Republic, thrown up or at least +strengthened by Michelangelo in the city's last agony, when she barred +her gates and defied the united power of Pope and Emperor to take the +State that had once chosen Christ for her king. + + "O foster-nurse of man's abandoned glory + Since Athens, its great mother, sunk in splendour; + Thou shadowest forth that mighty shape in story, + As ocean its wrecked fanes, severe yet tender: + The light-invested angel Poesy + Was drawn from the dim world to welcome thee. + + "And thou in painting didst transcribe all taught + By loftiest meditations; marble knew + The sculptor's fearless soul--and as he wrought, + The grace of his own power and freedom grew." + +Between Fiesole and San Miniato, then, the story of the Florentine +Republic may be said to be written. + +The beginnings of Florence are lost in cloudy legend, and her early +chroniclers on the slenderest foundations have reared for her an +unsubstantial, if imposing, fabric of fables--the tales which the +women of old Florence, in the _Paradiso_, told to their house-holds-- + + "dei Troiani, di Fiesole, e di Roma." + + [Illustration: FLORENCE FROM THE BOBOLI GARDENS] + +Setting aside the Trojans ("Priam" was mediaeval for "Adam," as a +modern novelist has remarked), there is no doubt that both Etruscan +Fiesole and Imperial Rome united to found the "great city on the banks +of the Arno." Fiesole or Faesulae upon its hill was an important +Etruscan city, and a place of consequence in the days of the Roman +Republic; fallen though it now is, traces of its old greatness remain. +Behind the Romanesque cathedral are considerable remains of Etruscan +walls and of a Roman theatre. Opposite it to the west we may ascend to +enjoy the glorious view from the Convent of the Franciscans, where +once the old citadel of Faesulae stood. Faesulae was ever the centre +of Italian and democratic discontent against Rome and her Senate +(_sempre ribelli di Roma_, says Villani of its inhabitants); and it +was here, in October B.C. 62, that Caius Manlius planted the Eagle of +revolt--an eagle which Marius had borne in the war against the +Cimbri--and thus commenced the Catilinarian war, which resulted in the +annihilation of Catiline's army near Pistoia. + +This, according to Villani, was the origin of Florence. According to +him, Fiesole, after enduring the stupendous siege, was forced to +surrender to the Romans under Julius Caesar, and utterly razed to the +ground. In the second sphere of Paradise, Justinian reminds Dante of +how the Roman Eagle "seemed bitter to that hill beneath which thou +wast born." Then, in order that Fiesole might never raise its head +again, the Senate ordained that the greatest lords of Rome, who had +been at the siege, should join with Caesar in building a new city on +the banks of the Arno. Florence, thus founded by Caesar, was populated +by the noblest citizens of Rome, who received into their number those +of the inhabitants of fallen Fiesole who wished to live there. "Note +then," says the old chronicler, "that it is not wonderful that the +Florentines are always at war and in dissensions among themselves, +being drawn and born from two peoples, so contrary and hostile and +diverse in habits, as were the noble and virtuous Romans, and the +savage and contentious folk of Fiesole." Dante similarly, in Canto XV. +of the _Inferno_, ascribes the injustice of the Florentines towards +himself to this mingling of the people of Fiesole with the true Roman +nobility (with special reference, however, to the union of Florence +with conquered Fiesole in the twelfth century):-- + + "che tra li lazzi sorbi + si disconvien fruttare al dolce fico."[3] + + [3] "For amongst the tart sorbs, it befits not the sweet fig to + fructify." + +And Brunetto Latini bids him keep himself free from their pollution:-- + + "Faccian le bestie Fiesolane strame + di lor medesme, e non tocchin la pianta, + s'alcuna surge ancor nel lor letame, + in cui riviva la semente santa + di quei Roman che vi rimaser quando + fu fatto il nido di malizia tanta." [4] + + [4] "Let the beasts of Fiesole make litter of themselves, and not + touch the plant, if any yet springs up amid their rankness, in which + the holy seed revives of those Romans who remained there when it + became the nest of so much malice." + +The truth appears to be that Florence was originally founded by +Etruscans from Fiesole, who came down from their mountain to the plain +by the Arno for commercial purposes. This Etruscan colony was probably +destroyed during the wars between Marius and Sulla, and a Roman +military colony established here--probably in the time of Sulla, and +augmented later by Caesar and by Augustus. It has, indeed, been urged +of late that the old Florentine story has some truth in it, and that +Caesar, not only in legend but in fact, may be regarded as the true +first founder of Florence. Thus the Roman colony of Florentia +gradually grew into a little city--_come una altra piccola Roma_, +declares her patriotic chronicler. It had its capitol and its forum in +the centre of the city, where the Mercato Vecchio once stood; it had +an amphitheatre outside the walls, somewhere near where the Borgo dei +Greci and the Piazza Peruzzi are to-day. It had baths and temples, +though doubtless on a small scale. It had the shape and form of a +Roman camp, which (together with the Roman walls in which it was +inclosed) it may be said to have retained down to the middle of the +twelfth century, in spite of legendary demolitions by Attila and +Totila, and equally legendary reconstructions by Charlemagne. Above +all, it had a grand temple to Mars, which almost certainly occupied +the site of the present Baptistery, if not actually identical with it. +Giovanni Villani tells us--and we shall have to return to his +statement--that the wonderful octagonal building, now known as the +Baptistery or the Church of St John, was consecrated as a temple by +the Romans in honour of Mars, for their victory over the Fiesolans, +and that Mars was the patron of the Florentines as long as paganism +lasted. Round the equestrian statue that was supposed to have once +stood in the midst of this temple, numberless legends have gathered. +Dante refers to it again and again. In Santa Maria Novella you shall +see how a great painter of the early Renaissance, Filippino Lippi, +conceived of his city's first patron. When Florence changed him for +the Baptist, and the people of Mars became the sheepfold of St John, +this statue was removed from the temple and set upon a tower by the +side of the Arno:-- + +"The Florentines took up their idol which they called the God Mars, +and set him upon a high tower near the river Arno; and they would not +break or shatter it, seeing that in their ancient records they found +that the said idol of Mars had been consecrated under the ascendency +of such a planet, that if it should be broken or put in a +dishonourable place, the city would suffer danger and damage and great +mutation. And although the Florentines had newly become Christians, +they still retained many customs of paganism, and retained them for a +long time; and they greatly feared their ancient idol of Mars; so +little perfect were they as yet in the Holy Faith." + +This tower is said to have been destroyed like the rest of Florence by +the Goths, the statue falling into the Arno, where it lurked in hiding +all the time that the city lay in ruins. On the legendary rebuilding +of Florence by Charlemagne, the statue, too--or rather the mutilated +fragment that remained--was restored to light and honour. Thus +Villani:-- + +"It is said that the ancients held the opinion that there was no power +to rebuild the city, if that marble image, consecrated by necromancy +to Mars by the first Pagan builders, was not first found again and +drawn out of the Arno, in which it had been from the destruction of +Florence down to that time. And, when found, they set it upon a pillar +on the bank of the said river, where is now the head of the Ponte +Vecchio. This we neither affirm nor believe, inasmuch as it appeareth +to us to be the opinion of augurers and pagans, and not reasonable, +but great folly, to hold that a statue so made could work thus; but +commonly it was said by the ancients that, if it were changed, our +city would needs suffer great mutation." + +Thus it became _quella pietra scema che guarda il ponte_, in Dantesque +phrase; and we shall see what terrible sacrifice its clients +unconsciously paid to it. Here it remained, much honoured by the +Florentines; street boys were solemnly warned of the fearful +judgments that fell on all who dared to throw mud or stones at it; +until at last, in 1333, a great flood carried away bridge and statue +alike, and it was seen no more. It has recently been suggested that +the statue was, in reality, an equestrian monument in honour of some +barbaric king, belonging to the fifth or sixth century. + +Florence, however, seems to have been--in spite of Villani's +describing it as the Chamber of the Empire and the like--a place of +very slight importance under the Empire. Tacitus mentions that a +deputation was sent from Florentia to Tiberius to prevent the Chiana +being turned into the Arno. Christianity is said to have been first +introduced in the days of Nero; the Decian persecution raged here as +elsewhere, and the soil was hallowed with the blood of the martyr, +Miniatus. Christian worship is said to have been first offered up on +the hill where a stately eleventh century Basilica now bears his name. +When the greater peace of the Church was established under +Constantine, a church dedicated to the Baptist on the site of the +Martian temple and a basilica outside the walls, where now stands San +Lorenzo, were among the earliest churches in Tuscany. + +In the year 405, the Goth leader Rhadagaisus, _omnium antiquorum +praesentiumque hostium longe immanissimus_, as Orosius calls him, +suddenly inundated Italy with more than 200,000 Goths, vowing to +sacrifice all the blood of the Romans to his gods. In their terror the +Romans seemed about to return to their old paganism, since Christ had +failed to protect them. _Fervent tota urbe blasphemiae_, writes +Orosius. They advanced towards Rome through the Tuscan Apennines, and +are said to have besieged Florence, though there is no hint of this in +Orosius. On the approach of Stilicho, at the head of thirty legions +with a large force of barbarian auxiliaries, Rhadagaisus and his +hordes--miraculously struck helpless with terror, as Orosius +implies--let themselves be hemmed in in the mountains behind Fiesole, +and all perished, by famine and exhaustion rather than by the sword. +Villani ascribes the salvation of Florence to the prayers of its +bishop, Zenobius, and adds that as this victory of "the Romans and +Florentines" took place on the feast of the virgin martyr Reparata, +her name was given to the church afterwards to become the Cathedral of +Florence. + +Zenobius, now a somewhat misty figure, is the first great Florentine +of history, and an impressive personage in Florentine art. We dimly +discern in him an ideal bishop and father of his people; a man of +great austerity and boundless charity, almost an earlier Antoninus. +Perhaps the fact that some of the intervening Florentine bishops were +anything but edifying, has made these two--almost at the beginning and +end of the Middle Ages--stand forth in a somewhat ideal light. He +appears to have lived a monastic life outside the walls in a small +church on the site of the present San Lorenzo, with two young +ecclesiastics, trained by him and St Ambrose, Eugenius and +Crescentius. They died before him and are commonly united with him by +the painters. Here he was frequently visited by St Ambrose--here he +dispensed his charities and worked his miracles (according to the +legend, he had a special gift of raising children to life)--here at +length he died in the odour of sanctity, A.D. 424. The beautiful +legend of his translation should be familiar to every student of +Italian painting. I give it in the words of a monkish writer of the +fourteenth century:-- + +"About five years after he had been buried, there was made bishop one +named Andrew, and this holy bishop summoned a great chapter of +bishops and clerics, and said in the chapter that it was meet to bear +the body of St Zenobius to the Cathedral Church of San Salvatore; and +so it was ordained. Wherefore, on the 26th of January, he caused him +to be unburied and borne to the Church of San Salvatore by four +bishops; and these bishops bearing the body of St Zenobius were so +pressed upon by the people that they fell near an elm, the which was +close unto the Church of St John the Baptist; and when they fell, the +case where the body of St Zenobius lay was broken, so that the body +touched the elm, and gradually, as the elm was touched, it brought +forth flowers and leaves, and lasted all that year with the flowers +and leaves. The people, seeing the miracle, broke up all the elm, and +with devotion carried the branches away. And the Florentines, +beholding what was done, made a column of marble with a cross where +the elm had been, so that the miracle should ever be remembered by the +people." + +Like the statue of Mars, this column was destroyed by the flood of +1333, and the one now standing to the north of the Baptistery was set +up after that year. It was at one time the custom for the clergy on +the feast of the translation to go in procession and fasten a green +bough to this column. Zenobius now stands with St Reparata on the +cathedral facade. Domenico Ghirlandaio painted him, together with his +pupils Eugenius and Crescentius, in the Sala dei Gigli of the Palazzo +della Signoria; an unknown follower of Orcagna had painted a similar +picture for a pillar in the Duomo. Ghiberti cast his miracles in +bronze for the shrine in the Chapel of the Sacrament; Verrocchio and +Lorenzo di Credi at Pistoia placed him and the Baptist on either side +of Madonna's throne. In a picture by some other follower of +Verrocchio's in the Uffizi he is seen offering up a model of his city +to the Blessed Virgin. Two of the most famous of his miracles, the +raising of a child to life and the flowering of the elm tree at his +translation, are superbly rendered in two pictures by Ridolfo +Ghirlandaio. On May 25th the people still throng the Duomo with +bunches of roses and other flowers, which they press to the reliquary +which contains his head, and so obtain the "benedizione di San +Zenobio." Thus does his memory live fresh and green among the people +to whom he so faithfully ministered. + +Another barbarian king, the last Gothic hero Totila, advancing upon +Rome in 542, took the same shorter but more difficult route across the +Apennines. According to the legend, he utterly destroyed all Florence, +with the exception of the Church of San Giovanni, and rebuilt Fiesole +to oppose Rome and prevent Florence from being restored. The truth +appears to be that he did not personally attack Florence, but sent a +portion of his troops under his lieutenants. They were successfully +resisted by Justin, who commanded the imperial garrison, and, on the +advance of reinforcements from Ravenna, they drew off into the valley +of the Mugello, where they turned upon the pursuing "Romans" (whose +army consisted of worse barbarians than Goths) and completely routed +them. Fiesole, which had apparently recovered from its old +destruction, was probably too difficult to be assailed; but it appears +to have been gradually growing at the expense of Florence--the +citizens of the latter emigrating to it for greater safety. This was +especially the case during the Lombard invasion, when the fortunes of +Florence were at their lowest, and, indeed, in the second half of the +eighth century, Florence almost sank to being a suburb of Fiesole. + +With the advent of Charlemagne and the restoration of the Empire, +brighter days commenced for Florence,--so much so that the story ran +that he had renewed the work of Julius Caesar and founded the city +again. In 786 he wintered here with his court on his third visit to +Rome; and, according to legend, he was here again in great wealth and +pomp in 805, and founded the Church of Santissimi Apostoli--the oldest +existing Florentine building after the Baptistery. Upon its facade you +may still read a pompous inscription concerning the Emperor's +reception in Florence, and how the Church was consecrated by +Archbishop Turpin in the presence of Oliver and Roland, the Paladins! +Florence was becoming a power in Tuscany, or at least beginning to see +more of Popes and Emperors. The Ottos stayed within her walls on their +way to be crowned at Rome; Popes, flying from their rebellious +subjects, found shelter here. In 1055 Victor II. held a council in +Florence. Beautiful Romanesque churches began to rise--notably the SS. +Apostoli and San Miniato, both probably dating from the eleventh +century. Great churchmen appeared among her sons, as San Giovanni +Gualberto--the "merciful knight" of Burne-Jones' unforgettable +picture--the reformer of the Benedictines and the founder of +Vallombrosa. The early reformers, while Hildebrand was still +"Archdeacon of the Roman Church," were specially active in Florence; +and one of them, known as Peter Igneus, in 1068 endured the ordeal of +fire and is said to have passed unhurt through the flames, to convict +the Bishop of Florence of simony. This, with other matters relating to +the times of Giovanni Gualberto and the struggles of the reformers of +the clergy, you may see in the Bargello in a series of noteworthy +marble bas-reliefs (terribly damaged, it is true), from the hand of +Benedetto da Rovezzano. + +Although we already begin to hear of the "Florentine people" and the +"Florentine citizens," Florence was at this time subject to the +Margraves of Tuscany. One of them, Hugh the Great, who is said to have +acted as vicar of the Emperor Otto III., and who died at the beginning +of the eleventh century, lies buried in the Badia which had been +founded by his mother, the Countess Willa, in 978. His tomb, one of +the most noteworthy monuments of the fifteenth century, by Mino da +Fiesole, may still be seen, near Filippino Lippi's Vision of St +Bernard. + +It was while Florence was nominally under the sway of Hugo's most +famous successor, the Countess Matilda of Tuscany, that Dante's +ancestor Cacciaguida was born; and, in the fifteenth and sixteenth +cantos of the _Paradiso_, he draws an ideal picture of that austere +old Florence, _dentro dalla cerchia antica_, still within her Roman +walls. We can still partly trace and partly conjecture the position of +these walls. The city stood a little way back from the river, and had +four master gates; the Porta San Piero on the east, the Porta del +Duomo on the north, the Porta San Pancrazio on the west, the Porta +Santa Maria on the south (towards the Ponte Vecchio). The heart of the +city, the Forum or, as it came to be called, the Mercato Vecchio, has +indeed been destroyed of late years to make way for the cold and +altogether hideous Piazza Vittorio Emanuele; but we can still perceive +that at its south-east corner the two main streets of this old +_Florentia quadrata_ intersected,--Calimara, running from the Porta +Santa Maria to the Porta del Duomo, south to north, and the Corso, +running east to west from the Porta San Piero to the Porta San +Pancrazio, along the lines of the present Corso, Via degli Speziali, +and Via degli Strozzi. The Porta San Piero probably stood about where +the Via del Corso joins the Via del Proconsolo, and there was a suburb +reaching out to the Church of San Piero Maggiore. Then the walls ran +along the lines of the present Via del Proconsolo and Via dei +Balestrieri, inclosing Santa Reparata and the Baptistery, to the Duomo +Gate beyond the Bishop's palace--probably somewhere near the opening +of the modern Borgo San Lorenzo. Then along the Via Cerretani, Piazza +Antinori, Via Tornabuoni, to the Gate of San Pancrazio, which was +somewhere near the present Palazzo Strozzi; and so on to where the +Church of Santa Trinita now stands, near which there was a postern +gate called the Porta Rossa. Then they turned east along the present +Via delle Terme to the Porta Santa Maria, which was somewhere near the +end of the Mercato Nuovo, after which their course back to the Porta +San Piero is more uncertain. Outside the walls were churches and +ever-increasing suburbs, and Florence was already becoming an +important commercial centre. Matilda's beneficent sway left it in +practical independence to work out its own destinies; she protected it +from imperial aggressions, and curbed the nobles of the contrada, who +were of Teutonic descent and who, from their feudal castles round, +looked with hostility upon the rich burgher city of pure Latin blood +that was gradually reducing their power and territorial sway. At +intervals the great Countess entered Florence, and either in person or +by her deputies and judges (members of the chief Florentine families) +administered justice in the Forum. Indeed she played the part of +Dante's ideal Emperor in the _De Monarchia_; made Roman law obeyed +through her dominions; established peace and curbed disorder; and +therefore, in spite of her support of papal claims for political +empire, when the _Divina Commedia_ came to be written, Dante placed +her as guardian of the Earthly Paradise to which the Emperor should +guide man, and made her the type of the glorified active life. Her +praises, _la lauda di Matelda_, were long sung in the Florentine +churches, as may be gathered from a passage in Boccaccio. + +It is from the death of Matilda in 1115 that the history of the +Commune dates. During her lifetime she seems to have gradually, +especially while engaged in her conflicts with the Emperor Henry, +delegated her powers to the chief Florentine citizens themselves; and +in her name they made war upon the aggressive nobility in the country +round, in the interests of their commerce. For Dante the first half of +this twelfth century represents the golden age in which his ancestor +lived, when the great citizen nobles--Bellincion Berti, Ubertino +Donati, and the heads of the Nerli and Vecchietti and the rest--lived +simple and patriotic lives, filled the offices of state and led the +troops against the foes of the Commune. In a grand burst of triumph +that old Florentine crusader, Cacciaguida, closes the sixteenth canto +of the _Paradiso_: + + "Con queste genti, e con altre con esse, + vid'io Fiorenza in si fatto riposo, + che non avea cagion onde piangesse; + con queste genti vid'io glorioso, + e giusto il popol suo tanto, che'l giglio + non era ad asta mai posto a ritroso, + ne per division fatto vermiglio."[5] + + [5] "With these folk, and with others with them, did I see Florence in + such full repose, she had not cause for wailing; + + With these folk I saw her people so glorious and so just, ne'er was + the lily on the shaft reversed, nor yet by faction dyed + vermilion."--Wicksteed's translation. + +When Matilda died, and the Popes and Emperors prepared to struggle for +her legacy (which thus initiated the strifes of Guelfs and +Ghibellines), the Florentine Republic asserted its independence: the +citizen nobles who had been her delegates and judges now became the +Consuls of the Commune and the leaders of the republican forces in +war. In 1119 the Florentines assailed the castle of Monte Cascioli, +and killed the imperial vicar who defended it; in 1125 they took and +destroyed Fiesole, which had always been a refuge for robber nobles +and all who hated the Republic. But already signs of division were +seen in the city itself, though it was a century before it came to a +head; and the great family of the Uberti--who, like the nobles of the +contrada, were of Teutonic descent--were prominently to the front, but +soon to be _disfatti per la lor superbia_. Scarcely was Matilda dead +than they appear to have attempted to seize on the supreme power, and +to have only been defeated with much bloodshed and burning of houses. +Still the Republic pursued its victorious course through the twelfth +century--putting down the feudal barons, forcing them to enter the +city and join the Commune, and extending their commerce and influence +as well as their territory on all sides. And already these nobles +within and without the city were beginning to build their lofty +towers, and to associate themselves into Societies of the Towers; +while the people were grouped into associations which afterwards +became the Greater and Lesser Arts or Guilds. Villani sees the origin +of future contests in the mingling of races, Roman and Fiesolan; +modern writers find it in the distinction, mentioned already, between +the nobles, of partly Teutonic origin and imperial sympathies, and the +burghers, who were the true Italians, the descendants of those over +whom successive tides of barbarian conquest had swept, and to whom the +ascendency of the nobles would mean an alien yoke. This struggle +between a landed military and feudal nobility, waning in power and +authority, and a commercial democracy of more purely Latin descent, +ever increasing in wealth and importance, is what lies at the bottom +of the contest between Florentine Guelfs and Ghibellines; and the +rival claims of Pope and Emperor are of secondary importance, as far +as Tuscany is concerned. + +In 1173 (as the most recent historian of Florence has shown, and not +in the eleventh century as formerly supposed), the second circle of +walls was built, and included a much larger tract of city, though many +of the churches which we have been wont to consider the most essential +things in Florence stand outside them. A new Porta San Piero, just +beyond the present facade of the ruined church of San Piero Maggiore, +enclosed the Borgo di San Piero; thence the walls passed round to the +Porta di Borgo San Lorenzo, just to the north of the present Piazza, +and swept round, with two gates of minor importance, past the chief +western Porta San Pancrazio or Porta San Paolo, beyond which the +present Piazza di Santa Maria Novella stands, down to the Arno where +there was a Porta alla Carraia, at the point where the bridge was +built later. Hence a lower wall ran along the Arno, taking in the +parts excluded from the older circuit down to the Ponte Vecchio. About +half-way between this and the Ponte Rubaconte, the walls turned up +from the Arno, with several small gates, until they reached the place +where the present Piazza di Santa Croce lies--which was outside. Here, +just beyond the old site of the Amphitheatre, there was a gate, after +which they ran straight without gate or postern to San Piero, where +they had commenced. + +Instead of the old Quarters, named from the gates, the city was now +divided into six corresponding Sesti or sextaries; the Sesto di Porta +San Piero, the Sesto still called from the old Porta del Duomo, the +Sesto di Porta Pancrazio, the Sesto di San Piero Scheraggio (a church +near the Palazzo Vecchio, but now totally destroyed), and the Sesto di +Borgo Santissimi Apostoli--these two replacing the old Quarter of +Porta Santa Maria. Across the river lay the Sesto d'Oltrarno--then +for the most part unfortified. At that time the inhabitants of +Oltrarno were mostly the poor and the lower classes, but not a few +noble families settled there later on. The Consuls, the supreme +officers of the state, were elected annually, two for each sesto, +usually nobles of popular tendencies; there was a council of a +hundred, elected every year, its members being mainly chosen from the +Guilds as the Consuls from the Towers; and a Parliament of the people +could be summoned in the Piazza. Thus the popular government was +constituted. + +Hardly had the new walls risen when the Uberti in 1177 attempted to +overthrow the Consuls and seize the government of the city; they were +partially successful, in that they managed to make the administration +more aristocratic, after a prolonged civil struggle of two years' +duration. In 1185 Frederick Barbarossa took away the privileges of the +Republic and deprived it of its contrada; but his son, Henry VI., +apparently gave it back. With the beginning of the thirteenth century +we find the Consuls replaced by a Podesta, a foreign noble elected by +the citizens themselves; and the Florentines, not content with having +back their contrada, beginning to make wars of conquest upon their +neighbours, especially the Sienese, from whom they exacted a cession +of territory in 1208. + + [Illustration: THE BUONDELMONTE TOWER] + +In 1215 there was enacted a deed in which poets and chroniclers have +seen a turning point in the history of Florence. Buondelmonte dei +Buondelmonti, "a right winsome and comely knight," as Villani calls +him, had pledged himself for political reasons to marry a maiden of +the Amidei family--the kinsmen of the proud Uberti and Fifanti. But, +at the instigation of Gualdrada Donati, he deserted his betrothed and +married Gualdrada's own daughter, a girl of great beauty. Upon this +the nobles of the kindred of the deserted girl held a council +together to decide what vengeance to take, in which "Mosca dei +Lamberti spoke the evil word: _Cosa fatta, capo ha_; to wit, that he +should be slain; and so it was done." On Easter Sunday the Amidei and +their associates assembled, after hearing mass in San Stefano, in a +palace of the Amidei, which was on the Lungarno at the opening of the +present Via Por Santa Maria; and they watched young Buondelmonte +coming from Oltrarno, riding over the Ponte Vecchio "dressed nobly in +a new robe all white and on a white palfrey," crowned with a garland, +making his way towards the palaces of his kindred in Borgo Santissimi +Apostoli. As soon as he had reached this side, at the foot of the +pillar on which stood the statue of Mars, they rushed out upon him. +Schiatta degli Uberti struck him from his horse with a mace, and Mosca +dei Lamberti, Lambertuccio degli Amidei, Oderigo Fifanti, and one of +the Gangalandi, stabbed him to death with their daggers at the foot of +the statue. "Verily is it shown," writes Villani, "that the enemy of +human nature by reason of the sins of the Florentines had power in +this idol of Mars, which the pagan Florentines adored of old; for at +the foot of his figure was this murder committed, whence such great +evil followed to the city of Florence." The body was placed upon a +bier, and, with the young bride supporting the dead head of her +bridegroom, carried through the streets to urge the people to +vengeance. Headed by the Uberti, the older and more aristocratic +families took up the cause of the Amidei; the burghers and the +democratically inclined nobles supported the Buondelmonti, and from +this the chronicler dates the beginning of the Guelfs and Ghibellines +in Florence. + +But it was only the names that were then introduced, to intensify a +struggle which had in reality commenced a century before this, in +1115, on the death of Matilda. As far as Guelf and Ghibelline meant a +struggle of the commune of burghers and traders with a military +aristocracy of Teutonic descent and feudal imperial tendencies, the +thing is already clearly defined in the old contest between the Uberti +and the Consuls. This, however, precipitated matters, and initiated +fifty years of perpetual conflict. Dante, through Cacciaguida, touches +upon the tragedy in his great way in _Paradiso_ XVI., where he calls +it the ruin of old Florence. + + "La casa di che nacque il vostro fleto, + per lo giusto disdegno che v'ha morti + e posto fine al vostro viver lieto, + era onorata ed essa e suoi consorti. + O Buondelmonte, quanto mal fuggisti + le nozze sue per gli altrui conforti! + Molti sarebbon lieti, che son tristi, + se Dio t'avesse conceduto ad Ema + la prima volta che a citta venisti. + Ma conveniasi a quella pietra scema + che guarda il ponte, che Fiorenza fesse + vittima nella sua pace postrema."[6] + + [6] "The house from which your wailing sprang, because of the just + anger which hath slain you and placed a term upon your joyous life, + + "was honoured, it and its associates. Oh Buondelmonte, how ill didst + thou flee its nuptials at the prompting of another! + + "Joyous had many been who now are sad, had God committed thee unto the + Ema the first time that thou camest to the city. + + "But to that mutilated stone which guardeth the bridge 'twas meet that + Florence should give a victim in her last time of peace." + +And again, in the Hell of the sowers of discord, where they are +horribly mutilated by the devil's sword, he meets the miserable Mosca. + + "Ed un, ch'avea l'una e l'altra man mozza, + levando i moncherin per l'aura fosca, + si che il sangue facea la faccia sozza, + grido: Ricorderaiti anche del Mosca, + che dissi, lasso! 'Capo ha cosa fatta,' + che fu il mal seme per la gente tosca."[7] + + [7] "And one who had both hands cut off, raising the stumps through + the dim air so that their blood defiled his face, cried: 'Thou wilt + recollect the Mosca too, ah me! who said, "A thing done has an end!" + which was the seed of evil to the Tuscan people.'" (_Inf._ xxviii.) + +For a time the Commune remained Guelf and powerful, in spite of +dissensions; it adhered to the Pope against Frederick II., and waged +successful wars with its Ghibelline rivals, Pisa and Siena. Of the +other Tuscan cities Lucca was Guelf, Pistoia Ghibelline. A religious +feud mingled with the political dissensions; heretics, the Paterini, +Epicureans and other sects, were multiplying in Italy, favoured by +Frederick II. and patronised by the Ghibellines. Fra Pietro of Verona, +better known as St Peter Martyr, organised a crusade, and, with his +white-robed captains of the Faith, hunted them in arms through the +streets of Florence; at the Croce al Trebbio, near Santa Maria +Novella, and in the Piazza di Santa Felicita over the Arno, columns +still mark the place where he fell furiously upon them, _con l'uficio +apostolico_. But in 1249, at the instigation of Frederick II., the +Uberti and Ghibelline nobles rose in arms; and, after a desperate +conflict with the Guelf magnates and the people, gained possession of +the city, with the aid of the Emperor's German troops. And, on the +night of February 2nd, the Guelf leaders with a great following of +people armed and bearing torches buried Rustico Marignolli, who had +fallen in defending the banner of the Lily, with military honours in +San Lorenzo, and then sternly passed into exile. Their palaces and +towers were destroyed, while the Uberti and their allies with the +Emperor's German troops held the city. This lasted not two years. In +1250, on the death of Frederick II., the Republic threw off the yoke, +and the first democratic constitution of Florence was established, the +_Primo Popolo_, in which the People were for the first time regularly +organised both for peace and for war under a new officer, the Captain +of the People, whose appointment was intended to outweigh the Podesta, +the head of the Commune and the leader of the nobles. The Captain was +intrusted with the white and red Gonfalon of the People, and +associated with the central government of the Ancients of the people, +who to some extent corresponded to the Consuls of olden time. + +This _Primo Popolo_ ran a victorious course of ten years, years of +internal prosperity and almost continuous external victory. It was +under it that the banner of the Commune was changed from a white lily +on a red field to a red lily on a white field--_per division fatto +vermiglio_, as Dante puts it--after the Uberti and Lamberti with the +turbulent Ghibellines had been expelled. Pisa was humbled; Pistoia and +Volterra forced to submit. But it came to a terrible end, illuminated +only by the heroism of one of its conquerors. A conspiracy on the part +of the Uberti to take the government from the people and subject the +city to the great Ghibelline prince, Manfredi, King of Apulia and +Sicily, son of Frederick II., was discovered and severely punished. +Headed by Farinata degli Uberti and aided by King Manfredi's German +mercenaries, the exiles gathered at Siena, against which the +Florentine Republic declared war. In 1260 the Florentine army +approached Siena. A preliminary skirmish, in which a band of German +horsemen was cut to pieces and the royal banner captured, only led a +few months later to the disastrous defeat of Montaperti, _che fece +l'Arbia colorata in rosso_; in which, after enormous slaughter and +loss of the Carroccio, or battle car of the Republic, "the ancient +people of Florence was broken and annihilated" on September 4th, 1260. +Without waiting for the armies of the conqueror, the Guelf nobles with +their families and many of the burghers fled the city, mainly to +Lucca; and, on the 16th of September, the Germans under Count +Giordano, Manfredi's vicar, with Farinata and the exiles, entered +Florence as conquerors. All liberty was destroyed, the houses of +Guelfs razed to the ground, the Count Guido Novello--the lord of Poppi +and a ruthless Ghibelline--made Podesta. The Via Ghibellina is his +record. It was finally proposed in a great Ghibelline council at +Empoli to raze Florence to the ground; but the fiery eloquence of +Farinata degli Uberti, who declared that, even if he stood alone, he +would defend her sword in hand as long as life lasted, saved his city. +Marked out with all his house for the relentless hate of the +Florentine people, Dante has secured to him a lurid crown of glory +even in Hell. Out of the burning tombs of the heretics he rises, _come +avesse l'inferno in gran dispitto_, still the unvanquished hero who, +when all consented to destroy Florence, "alone with open face defended +her." + +For nearly six years the life of the Florentine people was suspended, +and lay crushed beneath an oppressive despotism of Ghibelline nobles +and German soldiery under Guido Novello, the vicar of King Manfredi. +Excluded from all political interests, the people imperceptibly +organised their greater and lesser guilds, and waited the event. +During this gloom Farinata degli Uberti died in 1264, and in the +following year, 1265, Dante Alighieri was born. That same year, 1265, +Charles of Anjou, the champion of the Church, invited by Clement IV. +to take the crown of the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, entered Italy, +and in February 1266 annihilated the army of Manfredi at the battle of +Benevento. Foremost in the ranks of the crusaders--for as such the +French were regarded--fought the Guelf exiles from Florence, under the +Papal banner specially granted them by Pope Clement--a red eagle +clutching a green dragon on a white field. This, with the addition of +a red lily over the eagle's head, became the arms of the society known +as the Parte Guelfa; you may see it on the Porta San Niccolo and in +other parts of the city between the cross of the People and the red +lily of the Commune. Many of the noble Florentines were knighted by +the hand of King Charles before the battle, and did great deeds of +valour upon the field. "These men cannot lose to-day," exclaimed +Manfredi, as he watched their advance; and when the silver eagle of +the house of Suabia fell from Manfredi's helmet and he died in the +melee crying _Hoc est signum Dei_, the triumph of the Guelfs was +complete and German rule at an end in Italy. Of Manfredi's heroic +death and the dishonour done by the Pope's legate to his body, Dante +has sung in the _Purgatorio_. + +When the news reached Florence, the Ghibellines trembled for their +safety, and the people prepared to win back their own. An attempt at +compromise was first made, under the auspices of Pope Clement. Two +_Frati Gaudenti_ or "Cavalieri di Maria," members of an order of +warrior monks from Bologna, were made Podestas, one a Guelf and one a +Ghibelline, to come to terms with the burghers. You may still trace +the place where the Bottega and court of the Calimala stood in Mercato +Nuovo (the Calimala being the Guild of dressers of foreign +cloth--panni franceschi, as Villani calls it), near where the Via +Porta Rossa now enters the present Via Calzaioli. Here the new council +of thirty-six of the best citizens, burghers and artizans, with a few +trusted members of the nobility, met every day to settle the affairs +of the State. Dante has branded these two warrior monks as hypocrites, +but, as Capponi says, from this Bottega issued at once and almost +spontaneously the Republic of Florence. Their great achievement was +the thorough organisation of the seven greater Guilds, of which more +presently, to each of which were given consuls and rectors, and a +gonfalon or ensign of its own, around which its followers might +assemble in arms in defence of People and Commune. To counteract this, +Guido Novello brought in more troops from the Ghibelline cities of +Tuscany, and increased the taxes to pay his Germans; until he had +fifteen hundred horsemen in the city under his command. With their aid +the nobles, headed by the Lamberti, rushed to arms. The people rose +_en masse_ and, headed by a Ghibelline noble, Gianni dei Soldanieri, +who apparently had deserted his party in order to get control of the +State (and who is placed by Dante in the Hell of traitors), raised +barricades in the Piazza di Santa Trinita and in the Borgo SS. +Apostoli, at the foot of the Tower of the Girolami, which still +stands. The Ghibellines and Germans gathered in the Piazza di San +Giovanni, held all the north-east of the town, and swept down upon +the people's barricades under a heavy fire of darts and stones from +towers and windows. But the street fighting put the horsemen at a +hopeless disadvantage, and, repulsed in the assault, the Count and his +followers evacuated the town. This was on St Martin's day, November +11th, 1266. The next day a half-hearted attempt to re-enter the city +at the gate near the Ponte alla Carraia was made, but easily driven +off; and for two centuries and more no foreigner set foot as conqueror +in Florence. + +Not that Florence either obtained or desired absolute independence. +The first step was to choose Charles of Anjou, the new King of Naples +and Sicily, for their suzerain for ten years; but, cruel tyrant as he +was elsewhere, he showed himself a true friend to the Florentines, and +his suzerainty seldom weighed upon them oppressively. The Uberti and +others were expelled, and some, who held out among the castles, were +put to death at his orders. But the government became truly +democratic. There was a central administration of twelve Ancients, +elected annually, two for each sesto; with a council of one hundred +"good men of the People, without whose deliberation no great thing or +expense could be done"; and, nominally at least, a parliament. Next +came the Captain of the People (usually an alien noble of democratic +sympathies), with a special council or _credenza_, called the Council +of the Captain and Capetudini (the Capetudini composed of the consuls +of the Guilds), of 80 members; and a general council of 300 (including +the 80), all _popolani_ and Guelfs. Next came the Podesta, always an +alien noble (appointed at first by King Charles), with the Council of +the Podesta of 90 members, and the general Council of the Commune of +300--in both of which nobles could sit as well as popolani. Measures +presented by the 12 to the 100 were then submitted successively to +the two councils of the Captain, and then, on the next day, to the +councils of the Podesta and the Commune. Occasionally measures were +concerted between the magistrates and a specially summoned council of +_richiesti_, without the formalities and delays of these various +councils. Each of the seven greater Arts[8] was further organised with +its own officers and councils and banners, like a miniature republic, +and its consuls (forming the Capetudini) always sat in the Captain's +council and usually in that of the Podesta likewise. + + [8] The Arte di Calimala, or of the Mercatanti di Calimala, the + dressers of foreign cloth; the Arte della Lana, or wool; the Arte dei + Giudici e Notai, judges and notaries, also called the Arte del + Proconsolo; the Arte del Cambio or dei Cambiatori, money-changers; the + Arte dei Medici e Speziali, physicians and apothecaries; the Arte + della Seta, or silk, also called the Arte di Por Santa Maria; and the + Arte dei Vaiai e Pellicciai, the furriers. The Minor Arts were + organised later. + + [Illustration: THE PALACE OF THE PARTE GUELFA] + +There was one dark spot. A new organisation was set on foot, under the +auspices of Pope Clement and King Charles, known as the Parte +Guelfa--another miniature republic within the republic--with six +captains (three nobles and three popolani) and two councils, mainly to +persecute the Ghibellines, to manage confiscated goods, and uphold +Guelf principles in the State. In later days these Captains of the +Guelf Party became exceedingly powerful and oppressive, and were the +cause of much dissension. They met at first in the Church of S. Maria +sopra la Porta (now the Church of S. Biagio), and later had a special +palace of their own--which still stands, partly in the Via delle +Terme, as you pass up it from the Via Por Santa Maria on the right, +and partly in the Piazza di San Biagio. It is an imposing and somewhat +threatening mass, partly of the fourteenth and partly of the early +fifteenth century. The church, which retains in part its structure of +the thirteenth century, had been a place of secret meeting for the +Guelfs during Guido Novello's rule; it still stands, but converted +into a barracks for the firemen of Florence. + +Thus was the greatest and most triumphant Republic of the Middle Ages +organised--the constitution under which the most glorious culture and +art of the modern world was to flourish. The great Guilds were +henceforth a power in the State, and the _Secondo Popolo_ had +arisen--the democracy that Dante and Boccaccio were to know. + + [Illustration: ARMS OF PARTE GUELFA] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_The Times of Dante and Boccaccio_ + + "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." + --_Dante._ + + +The century that passed from the birth of Dante in 1265 to the deaths +of Petrarch and Boccaccio, in 1374 and 1375 respectively, may be +styled the _Trecento_, although it includes the last quarter of the +thirteenth century and excludes the closing years of the fourteenth. +In general Italian history, it runs from the downfall of the German +Imperial power at the battle of Benevento, in 1266, to the return of +the Popes from Avignon in 1377. In art, it is the epoch of the +completion of Italian Gothic in architecture, of the followers and +successors of Niccolo and Giovanni Pisano in sculpture, of the school +of Giotto in painting. In letters, it is the great period of pure +Tuscan prose and verse. Dante and Giovanni Villani, Dino Compagni, +Petrarch, Boccaccio and Sacchetti, paint the age for us in all its +aspects; and a note of mysticism is heard at the close (though not +from a Florentine) in the Epistles of St. Catherine of Siena, of whom +a living Italian poet has written--_Nel Giardino del conoscimento di +se ella e come una rosa di fuoco._ But at the same time it is a +century full of civil war and sanguinary factions, in which every +Italian city was divided against itself; and nowhere were these +divisions more notable or more bitterly fought out than in Florence. +Yet, in spite of it all, the Republic proceeded majestically on its +triumphant course. Machiavelli lays much stress upon this in the Proem +to his _Istorie Fiorentine_. "In Florence," he says, "at first the +nobles were divided against each other, then the people against the +nobles, and lastly the people against the populace; and it ofttimes +happened that when one of these parties got the upper hand, it split +into two. And from these divisions there resulted so many deaths, so +many banishments, so many destructions of families, as never befell in +any other city of which we have record. Verily, in my opinion, nothing +manifests more clearly the power of our city than the result of these +divisions, which would have been able to destroy every great and most +potent city. Nevertheless ours seemed thereby to grow ever greater; +such was the virtue of those citizens, and the power of their genius +and disposition to make themselves and their country great, that those +who remained free from these evils could exalt her with their virtue +more than the malignity of those accidents, which had diminished them, +had been able to cast her down. And without doubt, if only Florence, +after her liberation from the Empire, had had the felicity of adopting +a form of government which would have kept her united, I know not what +republic, whether modern or ancient, would have surpassed her--with +such great virtue in war and in peace would she have been filled." + + [Illustration: FLORENTINE FAMILIES, EARLY THIRTEENTH CENTURY, WITH A + PORTION OF THE SECOND WALLS INDICATED (_Temple Classics: Paradiso_). + (The representation is approximate only: the Cerchi Palace near the + Corso degli Adimari should be more to the right.)] + +The first thirty-four years of this epoch are among the brightest in +Florentine history, the years that ran from the triumph of the Guelfs +to the sequel to the Jubilee of 1300, from the establishment of the +_Secondo Popolo_ to its split into Neri and Bianchi, into Black Guelfs +and White Guelfs. Externally Florence became the chief power of +Tuscany, and all the neighbouring towns gradually, to a greater or +less extent, acknowledged her sway; internally, in spite of growing +friction between the burghers and the new Guelf nobility, between +_popolani_ and _grandi_ or magnates, she was daily advancing in wealth +and prosperity, in beauty and artistic power. The exquisite poetry of +the _dolce stil novo_ was heard. Guido Cavalcanti, a noble Guelf who +had married the daughter of Farinata degli Uberti, and, later, the +notary Lapo Gianni and Dante Alighieri, showed the Italians what true +lyric song was; philosophers like Brunetto Latini served the state; +modern history was born with Giovanni Villani. Great palaces were +built for the officers of the Republic; vast Gothic churches arose. +Women of rare beauty, eternalised as Beatrice, Giovanna, Lagia and the +like, passed through the streets and adorned the social gatherings in +the open loggias of the palaces. Splendid pageants and processions +hailed the Calends of May and the Nativity of the Baptist, and marked +the civil and ecclesiastical festivities and state solemnities. The +people advanced more and more in power and patriotism; while the +magnates, in their towers and palace-fortresses, were partly forced to +enter the life of the guilds, partly held aloof and plotted to recover +their lost authority, but were always ready to officer the burgher +forces in time of war, or to extend Florentine influence by serving as +Podestas and Captains in other Italian cities. + +Dante was born in the Sesto di San Piero Maggiore in May 1265, some +eighteen months before the liberation of the city. He lost his mother +in his infancy, and his father while he was still a boy. This father +appears to have been a notary, and came from a noble but decadent +family, who were probably connected with the Elisei, an aristocratic +house of supposed Roman descent, who had by this time almost entirely +disappeared. The Alighieri, who were Guelfs, do not seem to have +ranked officially as _grandi_ or magnates; one of Dante's uncles had +fought heroically at Montaperti. Almost all the families connected +with the story of Dante's life had their houses in the Sesto di San +Piero Maggiore, and their sites may in some instances still be traced. +Here were the Cerchi, with whom he was to be politically associated in +after years; the Donati, from whom sprung one of his dearest friends, +Forese, with one of his deadliest foes, Messer Corso, and Dante's own +wife, Gemma; and the Portinari, the house according to tradition of +Beatrice, the "giver of blessing" of Dante's _Vita Nuova_, the +mystical lady of the _Paradiso_. Guido Cavalcanti, the first and best +of all his friends, lived a little apart from this Sesto di +Scandali--as St Peter's section of the town came to be called--between +the Mercato Nuovo and San Michele in Orto. Unlike the Alighieri, +though not of such ancient birth as theirs, the Cavalcanti were +exceedingly rich and powerful, and ranked officially among the +_grandi_, the Guelf magnates. At this epoch, as Signor Carocci +observes in his _Firenze scomparsa_, Florence must have presented the +aspect of a vast forest of towers. These towers rose over the houses +of powerful and wealthy families, to be used for offence or defence, +when the faction fights raged, or to be dismantled and cut down when +the people gained the upper hand. The best idea of such a mediaeval +city, on a smaller scale, can still be got at San Gemignano, "the fair +town called of the Fair Towers," where dozens of these _torri_ still +stand; and also, though to a less extent, at Gubbio. A few have been +preserved here in Florence, and there are a number of narrow streets, +on both sides of the Arno, which still retain some of their mediaeval +characteristics. In the Borgo Santissimi Apostoli, for instance, and +in the Via Lambertesca, there are several striking towers of this +kind, with remnants of palaces of the _grandi_; and, on the other side +of the river, especially in the Via dei Bardi and the Borgo San +Jacopo. When one family, or several associated families, had palaces +on either side of a narrow street defended by such towers, and could +throw chains and barricades across at a moment's notice, it will +readily be understood that in times of popular tumult Florence +bristled with fortresses in every direction. + +In 1282, the year before that in which Dante received the "most sweet +salutation," _dolcissimo salutare_, of "the glorious lady of my mind +who was called by many Beatrice, that knew not how she was called," +and saw the vision of the Lord of terrible aspect in the mist of the +colour of fire (the vision which inspired the first of his sonnets +which has been preserved to us), the democratic government of the +_Secondo Popolo_ was confirmed by being placed entirely in the hands +of the _Arti Maggiori_ or Greater Guilds. The Signoria was henceforth +to be composed of the Priors of the Arts, chosen from the chief +members of the Greater Guilds, who now became the supreme magistrates +of the State. They were, at this epoch of Florentine history, six in +number, one to represent each Sesto, and held office for two months +only; on leaving office, they joined with the Capetudini, and other +citizens summoned for the purpose, to elect their successors. At a +later period this was done, ostensibly at least, by lot instead of +election. The glorious Palazzo Vecchio had not yet been built, and the +Priors met at first in a house belonging to the monks of the Badia, +defended by the Torre della Castagna; and afterwards in a palace +belonging to the Cerchi (both tower and palace are still standing). Of +the seven Greater Arts--the _Calimala_, the Money-changers, the +Wool-merchants, the Silk-merchants, the Physicians and Apothecaries, +the traders in furs and skins, the Judges and Notaries--the latter +alone do not seem at first to have been represented in the Priorate; +but to a certain extent they exercised control over all the Guilds, +sat in all their tribunals, and had a Proconsul, who came next to the +Signoria in all state processions, and had a certain jurisdiction over +all the Arts. It was thus essentially a government of those who were +actually engaged in industry and commerce. "Henceforth," writes +Pasquale Villari, "the Republic is properly a republic of merchants, +and only he who is ascribed to the Arts can govern it: every grade of +nobility, ancient or new, is more a loss than a privilege." The double +organisation of the People under the Captain with his two councils, +and the Commune under the Podesta with his special council and the +general council (in these two latter alone, it will be remembered, +could nobles sit and vote) still remained; but the authority of the +Podesta was naturally diminished. + + [Illustration: CORSO DONATI'S TOWER] + +Florence was now the predominant power in central Italy; the cities of +Tuscany looked to her as the head of the Guelfic League, although, +says Dino Compagni, "they love her more in discord than in peace, and +obey her more for fear than for love." A protracted war against Pisa +and Arezzo, carried on from 1287 to 1292, drew even Dante from his +poetry and his study; it is believed that he took part in the great +battle of Campaldino in 1289, in which the last efforts of the old +Tuscan Ghibellinism were shattered by the Florentines and their +allies, fighting under the royal banner of the House of Anjou. Amerigo +di Narbona, one of the captains of King Charles II. of Naples, was in +command of the Guelfic forces. From many points of view, this is one +of the more interesting battles of the Middle Ages. It is said to have +been almost the last Italian battle in which the burgher forces, and +not the mercenary soldiery of the Condottieri, carried the day. Corso +Donati and Vieri dei Cerchi, soon to be in deadly feud in the +political arena, were among the captains of the Florentine host; and +Dante himself is said to have served in the front rank of the cavalry. +In a fragment of a letter ascribed to him by one of his earlier +biographers, Dante speaks of this battle of Campaldino; "wherein I had +much dread, and at the end the greatest gladness, by reason of the +varying chances of that battle." One of the Ghibelline leaders, +Buonconte da Montefeltro, who was mortally wounded and died in the +rout, meets the divine poet on the shores of the Mountain of +Purgation, and, in lines of almost ineffable pathos, tells him the +whole story of his last moments. Villani, ever mindful of Florence +being the daughter of Rome, assures us that the news of the great +victory was miraculously brought to the Priors in the Cerchi Palace, +in much the same way as the tidings of Lake Regillus to the expectant +Fathers at the gate of Rome. Several of the exiled Uberti had fallen +in the ranks of the enemy, fighting against their own country. In the +cloisters of the Annunziata you will find a contemporary monument of +the battle, let into the west wall of the church near the ground; the +marble figure of an armed knight on horseback, with the golden lilies +of France over his surcoat, charging down upon the foe. It is the tomb +of the French cavalier, Guglielmo Berardi, "balius" of Amerigo di +Narbona, who fell upon the field. + +The eleven years that follow Campaldino, culminating in the Jubilee of +Pope Boniface VIII. and the opening of the fourteenth century, are the +years of Dante's political life. They witnessed the great political +reforms which confirmed the democratic character of the government, +and the marvellous artistic embellishment of the city under Arnolfo di +Cambio and his contemporaries. During these years the Palazzo Vecchio, +the Duomo, and the grandest churches of Florence were founded; and the +Third Walls, whose gates and some scanty remnants are with us to-day, +were begun. Favoured by the Popes and the Angevin sovereigns of +Naples, now that the old Ghibelline nobility, save in a few valleys +and mountain fortresses, was almost extinct, the new nobles, the +_grandi_ or Guelf magnates, proud of their exploits at Campaldino, and +chafing against the burgher rule, began to adopt an overbearing line +of conduct towards the people, and to be more factious than ever among +themselves. Strong measures were adopted against them, such as the +complete enfranchisement of the peasants of the contrada in +1289--measures which culminated in the famous Ordinances of Justice, +passed in 1293, by which the magnates were completely excluded from +the administration, severe laws made to restrain their rough usage of +the people, and a special magistrate, the _Gonfaloniere_ or +"Standard-bearer of Justice," added to the Priors, to hold office like +them for two months in rotation from each sesto of the city, and to +rigidly enforce the laws against the magnates. This Gonfaloniere +became practically the head of the Signoria, and was destined to +become the supreme head of the State in the latter days of the +Florentine Republic; to him was publicly assigned the great Gonfalon +of the People, with its red cross on a white field; and he had a large +force of armed popolani under his command to execute these ordinances, +against which there was no appeal allowed.[9] These Ordinances also +fixed the number of the Guilds at twenty-one--seven Arti Maggiori, +mainly engaged in wholesale commerce, exportation and importation, +fourteen Arti Minori, which carried on the retail traffic and internal +trade of the city--and renewed their statutes. + + [9] Some years later a new officer, the Executor of Justice, was + instituted to carry out these ordinances instead of leaving them to + the Gonfaloniere. This Executor of Justice was associated with the + Captain, but was usually a foreign Guelf burgher; later he developed + into the Bargello, head of police and governor of the gaol. It will, + of course, be seen that while Podesta, Captain, Executore (the + _Rettori_), were aliens, the Gonfaloniere and Priors (the _Signori_) + were necessarily Florentines and popolani. + +The hero of this Magna Charta of Florence is a certain Giano della +Bella, a noble who had fought at Campaldino and had now joined the +people; a man of untractable temper, who knew not how to make +concessions; somewhat anti-clerical and obnoxious to the Pope, but +consumed by an intense and savage thirst for justice, upon which the +craftier politicians of both sides played. "Let the State perish, +rather than such things be tolerated," was his constant political +formula: _Perisca innanzi la citta, che tante opere rie si +sostengano._ But the magnates, from whom he was endeavouring to snatch +their last political refuge, the Parte Guelfa, muttered, "Let us smite +the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered"; and at length, after +an ineffectual conspiracy against his life, Giano was driven out of +the city, on March 5th, 1295, by a temporary alliance of the burghers +and magnates against him. The _popolo minuto_ and artizans, upon whom +he had mainly relied and whose interests he had sustained, deserted +him; and the government remained henceforth in the hands of the +wealthy burghers, the _popolo grosso_. Already a cleavage was becoming +visible between these Arti Maggiori, who ruled the State, and the Arti +Minori whose gains lay in local merchandise and traffic, partly +dependent upon the magnates. And a butcher, nicknamed Pecora, or, as +we may call him, Lambkin, appears prominently as a would-be +politician; he cuts a quaintly fierce figure in Dino Compagni's +chronicle. In this same year, 1295, Dante Alighieri entered public +life, and, on July 6th, he spoke in the General Council of the Commune +in support of certain modifications in the Ordinances of Justice, +whereby nobles, by leaving their order and matriculating in one or +other of the Arts, even without exercising it, could be free from +their disabilities, and could share in the government of the State, +and hold office in the Signoria. He himself, in this same year, +matriculated in the Arte dei Medici e Speziali, the great guild which +included the painters and the book-sellers. + +The growing dissensions in the Guelf Republic came to a head in 1300, +the famous year of jubilee in which the Pope was said to have declared +that the Florentines were the "fifth element." The rival factions of +Bianchi and Neri, White Guelfs and Black Guelfs, which were now to +divide the whole city, arose partly from the deadly hostility of two +families each with a large following, the Cerchi and the Donati, +headed respectively by Vieri dei Cerchi and Corso Donati, the two +heroes of Campaldino; partly from an analogous feud in Pistoia, which +was governed from Florence; partly from the political discord between +that party in the State that clung to the (modified) Ordinances of +Justice and supported the Signoria, and another party that hated the +Ordinances and loved the tyrannical Parte Guelfa. They were further +complicated by the intrigues of the "black" magnates with Pope +Boniface VIII., who apparently hoped by their means to repress the +burgher government and unite the city in obedience to himself. With +this end in view, he had been endeavouring to obtain from Albert of +Austria the renunciation, in favour of the Holy See, of all rights +claimed by the Emperors over Tuscany. Dante himself, Guido Cavalcanti, +and most of the best men in Florence either directly adhered to, or at +least favoured, the Cerchi and the Whites; the populace, on the other +hand, was taken with the dash and display of the more aristocratic +Blacks, and would gladly have seen Messer Corso--"il Barone," as they +called him--lord of the city. Rioting, in which Guido Cavalcanti +played a wild and fantastic part, was of daily occurrence, especially +in the Sesto di San Piero. The adherents of the Signoria had their +head-quarters in the Cerchi Palace, in the Via della Condotta; the +Blacks found their legal fortress in that of the Captains of the Parte +Guelfa in the Via delle Terme. At last, on May 1st, the two factions +"came to blood" in the Piazza di Santa Trinita on the occasion of a +dance of girls to usher in the May. On June 15th Dante was elected one +of the six Priors, to hold office till August 15th, and he at once +took a strong line in resisting all interference from Rome, and in +maintaining order within the city. In consequence of an assault upon +the officers of the Guilds on St. John's Eve, the Signoria, probably +on Dante's initiative, put under bounds a certain number of factious +magnates, chosen impartially from both parties, including Corso Donati +and Guido Cavalcanti. From his place of banishment at Sarzana, Guido, +sick to death, wrote the most pathetic of all his lyrics:-- + + "Because I think not ever to return, + Ballad, to Tuscany,-- + Go therefore thou for me + Straight to my lady's face, + Who, of her noble grace, + Shall show thee courtesy. + + * * * * * + + "Surely thou knowest, Ballad, how that Death + Assails me, till my life is almost sped: + Thou knowest how my heart still travaileth + Through the sore pangs which in my soul are bred:-- + My body being now so nearly dead, + It cannot suffer more. + Then, going, I implore + That this my soul thou take + (Nay, do so for my sake), + When my heart sets it free."[10] + + [10] Rossetti's translation of the _ripresa_ and second stanza of the + Ballata _Perch'i' no spero di tornar giammai_. + +And at the end of August, when Dante had left office, Guido returned +to Florence with the rest of the Bianchi, only to die. For more than a +year the "white" burghers were supreme, not only in Florence, but +throughout a greater part of Tuscany; and in the following May they +procured the expulsion of the Blacks from Pistoia. But Corso Donati at +Rome was biding his time; and, on November 1st, 1301, Charles of +Valois, brother of King Philip of France, entered Florence with some +1200 horsemen, partly French and partly Italian,--ostensibly as papal +peacemaker, but preparing to "joust with the lance of Judas." In Santa +Maria Novella he solemnly swore, as the son of a king, to preserve the +peace and well-being of the city; and at once armed his followers. +Magnates and burghers alike, seeing themselves betrayed, began to +barricade their houses and streets. On the same day (November 5th) +Corso Donati, acting in unison with the French, appeared in the +suburbs, entered the city by a postern gate in the second walls, near +S. Piero Maggiore, and swept through the streets with an armed force, +burst open the prisons, and drove the Priors out of their new Palace. +For days the French and the Neri sacked the city and the contrada at +their will, Charles being only intent upon securing a large share of +the spoils for himself. But even he did not dare to alter the popular +constitution, and was forced to content himself with substituting +"black" for "white" burghers in the Signoria, and establishing a +Podesta of his own following, Cante de' Gabbrielli of Gubbio, in the +Palace of the Commune. An apparently genuine attempt on the part of +the Pope, by a second "peacemaker," to undo the harm that his first +had done, came to nothing; and the work of proscription commenced, +under the direction of the new Podesta. Dante was one of the first +victims. The two sentences against him (in each case with a few other +names) are dated January 27th, 1302, and March 10th--and there were to +be others later. It is the second decree that contains the famous +clause, condemning him to be burned to death, if ever he fall into the +power of the Commune. At the beginning of April all the leaders of the +"white" faction, who had not already fled or turned "black," with +their chief followers, magnates and burghers alike, were hounded into +exile; and Charles left Florence to enter upon an almost equally +shameful campaign in Sicily. + + [Illustration: ACROSS THE PONTE VECCHIO] + +Dante is believed to have been absent from Florence on an embassy to +the Pope when Charles of Valois came, and to have heard the news of +his ruin at Siena as he hurried homewards--though both embassy and +absence have been questioned by Dante scholars of repute. His +ancestor, Cacciaguida, tells him in the _Paradiso_:-- + + "Tu lascerai ogni cosa diletta + piu caramente, e questo e quello strale + che l'arco dello esilio pria saetta. + Tu proverai si come sa di sale + lo pane altrui, e com'e duro calle + lo scendere e il salir per l'altrui scale."[11] + + [11] "Thou shall abandon everything beloved most dearly; this is the + arrow which the bow of exile shall first shoot. + + "Thou shalt make trial of how salt doth taste another's bread, and how + hard the path to descend and mount upon another's stair." + Wicksteed's translation. + +The rest of Dante's life was passed in exile, and only touches the +story of Florence indirectly at certain points. "Since it was the +pleasure of the citizens of the most beautiful and most famous +daughter of Rome, Florence," he tells us in his _Convivio_, "to cast +me forth from her most sweet bosom (in which I was born and nourished +up to the summit of my life, and in which, with her good will, I +desire with all my heart to rest my weary soul and end the time given +me), I have gone through almost all the parts to which this language +extends, a pilgrim, almost a beggar, showing against my will the wound +of fortune, which is wont unjustly to be ofttimes reputed to the +wounded." + +Attempts of the exiles to win their return to Florence by force of +arms, with aid from the Ubaldini and the Tuscan Ghibellines, were +easily repressed. But the victorious Neri themselves now split into +two factions; the one, headed by Corso Donati and composed mainly of +magnates, had a kind of doubtful support in the favour of the +populace; the other, led by Rosso della Tosa, inclined to the Signoria +and the _popolo grosso_. It was something like the old contest between +Messer Corso and Vieri dei Cerchi, but with more entirely selfish +ends; and there was evidently going to be a hard tussle between Messer +Corso and Messer Rosso for the possession of the State. Civil war was +renewed in the city, and the confusion was heightened by the +restoration of a certain number of Bianchi, who were reconciled to the +Government. The new Pope, Benedict XI., was ardently striving to +pacify Florence and all Italy; and his legate, the Cardinal Niccolo da +Prato, took up the cause of the exiles. Pompous peace-meetings were +held in the Piazza di Santa Maria Novella, for the friars of St +Dominic--to which order the new Pope belonged--had the welfare of the +city deeply at heart; and at one of these meetings the exiled lawyer, +Ser Petracco dall'Ancisa (in a few days to be the father of Italy's +second poet), acted as the representative of his party. Attempts were +made to revive the May-day pageants of brighter days--but they only +resulted in a horrible disaster on the Ponte alla Carraia, of which +more presently. The fiends of faction broke loose again; and in order +to annihilate the Cavalcanti, who were still rich and powerful round +about the Mercato Nuovo, the leaders of the Neri deliberately burned a +large portion of the city. On July 20th, 1304, an attempt by the now +allied Bianchi and Ghibellines to surprise the city proved a +disastrous failure; and, on that very day (Dante being now far away at +Verona, forming a party by himself), Francesco di Petracco--who was to +call himself Petrarca and is called by us Petrarch--was born in exile +at Arezzo. + + [Illustration: MERCATO NUOVO, THE FLOWER MARKET] + +This miserable chapter of Florentine history ended tragically in 1308, +with the death of Corso Donati. In his old age he had married a +daughter of Florence's deadliest foe, the great Ghibelline champion, +Uguccione della Faggiuola; and, in secret understanding with Uguccione +and the Cardinal Napoleone degli Orsini (Pope Clement V. had already +transferred the papal chair to Avignon and commenced the Babylonian +captivity), he was preparing to overthrow the Signoria, abolish the +Ordinances, and make himself Lord of Florence. But the people +anticipated him. On Sunday morning, October 16th, the Priors ordered +their great bell to be sounded; Corso was accused, condemned as a +traitor and rebel, and sentence pronounced in less than an hour; and +with the great Gonfalon of the People displayed, the forces of the +Commune, supported by the swordsmen of the Della Tosa and a band of +Catalan mercenaries in the service of the King of Naples, marched upon +the Piazza di San Piero Maggiore. Over the Corbizzi tower floated the +banner of the Donati, but only a handful of men gathered round the +fierce old noble who, himself unable by reason of his gout to bear +arms, encouraged them by his fiery words to hold out to the last. But +the soldiery of Uguccione never came, and not a single magnate in the +city stirred to aid him. Corso, forced at last to abandon his +position, broke through his enemies, and, hotly pursued, fled through +the Porta alla Croce. He was overtaken, captured, and barbarously +slain by the lances of the hireling soldiery, near the Badia di San +Salvi, at the instigation, as it was whispered, of Rosso della Tosa +and Pazzino dei Pazzi. The monks carried him, as he lay dying, into +the Abbey, where they gave him humble sepulchre for fear of the +people. With all his crimes, there was nothing small in anything that +Messer Corso did; he was a great spirit, one who could have +accomplished mighty things in other circumstances, but who could not +breathe freely in the atmosphere of a mercantile republic. "His life +was perilous," says Dino Compagni sententiously, "and his death was +blame-worthy." + +A brief but glorious chapter follows, though denounced in Dante's +bitterest words. Hardly was Corso dead when, after their long +silence, the imperial trumpets were again heard in the Garden of the +Empire. Henry of Luxemburg, the last hero of the Middle Ages, elected +Emperor as Henry VII., crossed the Alps in September 1310, resolved to +heal the wounds of Italy, and to revive the fading mediaeval dream of +the Holy Roman Empire. In three wild and terrible letters, Dante +announced to the princes and peoples of Italy the advent of this +"peaceful king," this "new Moses"; threatened the Florentines with the +vengeance of the Imperial Eagle; urged Caesar on against the city--"the +sick sheep that infecteth all the flock of the Lord with her +contagion." But the Florentines rose to the occasion, and with the aid +of their ally, the King of Naples, formed what was practically an +Italian confederation to oppose the imperial invader. "It was at this +moment," writes Professor Villari, "that the small merchant republic +initiated a truly national policy, and became a great power in Italy." +From the middle of September till the end of October, 1312, the +imperial army lay round Florence. The Emperor, sick with fever, had +his head-quarters in San Salvi. But he dared not venture upon an +attack, although the fortifications were unfinished; and, in the +following August, the Signoria of Florence could write exultantly to +their allies, and announce "the blessed tidings" that "the most savage +tyrant, Henry, late Count of Luxemburg, whom the rebellious +persecutors of the Church, and treacherous foes of ourselves and you, +called King of the Romans and Emperor of Germany," had died at +Buonconvento. + +But in the Empyrean Heaven of Heavens, in the mystical convent of +white stoles, Beatrice shows Dante the throne of glory prepared for +the soul of the noble-hearted Caesar:-- + + "In quel gran seggio, a che tu gli occhi tieni + per la corona che gia v'e su posta, + prima che tu a queste nozze ceni, + sedera l'alma, che fia giu agosta, + dell'alto Enrico, ch'a drizzare Italia + verra in prima che ella sia disposta." [12] + + [12] "On that great seat where thou dost fix thine eyes, for the + crown's sake already placed above it, ere at this wedding feast + thyself do sup, + + "Shall sit the soul (on earth 'twill be imperial) of the lofty Henry, + who shall come to straighten Italy ere she be ready for it." + +After this, darker days fell upon Florence. Dante, with a renewed +sentence of death upon his head, was finishing his _Divina Commedia_ +at Verona and Ravenna,--until, on September 14th, 1321, he passed away +in the latter city, with the music of the pine-forest in his ears and +the monuments of dead emperors before his dying eyes. Petrarch, after +a childhood spent at Carpentras, was studying law at Montpellier and +Bologna--until, on that famous April morning in Santa Chiara at +Avignon, he saw the golden-haired girl who made him the greatest +lyrist of the Middle Ages. It was in the year 1327 that Laura--if such +was really her name--thus crossed his path. Boccaccio, born at +Certaldo in 1313, the year of the Emperor Henry's death, was growing +up in Florence, a sharp and precocious boy. But the city was in a +woeful plight; harassed still by factious magnates and burghers, +plundered by foreign adventurers, who pretended to serve her, heavily +taxed by the Angevin sovereigns--the _Reali_--of Naples. Florence had +taken first King Robert, and then his son, Charles of Calabria, as +overlord, for defence against external foes (first Henry VII., then +Uguccione della Faggiuola, and then Castruccio Interminelli); and the +vicars of these Neapolitan princes replaced for a while the Podestas; +their marshals robbed and corrupted; their Catalan soldiers clamoured +for pay. The wars with Uguccione and Castruccio were most disastrous +to the Republic; and the fortunate coincidence of the deaths of +Castruccio and Charles of Calabria, in 1328, gave Florence back her +liberty at the very moment when she no longer needed a defender. +Although the Florentines professed to regard this suzerainty of the +Reali di Napoli as an alliance rather than a subjection,--_compagnia e +non servitu_ as Machiavelli puts it--it was an undoubted relief when +it ended. The State was reorganised, and a new constitution confirmed +in a solemn Parliament held in the Piazza. Henceforth the nomination +of the Priors and Gonfaloniere was effected by lot, and controlled by +a complicated process of scrutiny; the old councils were all annulled; +and in future there were to be only two chief councils--the Council of +the People, composed of 300 _popolani_, presided over by the Captain, +and the Council of the Commune, of 250, presided over by the Podesta, +in which latter (as in former councils of the kind) both _popolani_ +and _grandi_ could sit. Measures proposed by the Government were +submitted first to the Council of the People, and then, if approved, +to that of the Commune. + +Within the next few years, in spite of famine, disease, and a terrible +inundation of the Arno in 1333, the Republic largely extended its +sway. Pistoia, Arezzo, and other places of less account owned its +signory; but an attempt to get possession of Lucca--with the +incongruous aid of the Germans--failed. After the flood, the work of +restoration was first directed by Giotto; and to this epoch we owe the +most beautiful building in Florence, the Campanile. The discontent, +excited by the mismanagement of the war against Lucca, threw the +Republic into the arms of a new and peculiarly atrocious tyrant, +Walter de Brienne, Duke of Athens, a French soldier of fortune, +connected by blood with the _Reali_ of Naples. Elected first as war +captain and chief justice, he acquired credit with the populace and +the magnates by his executions of unpopular burghers; and finally, on +September 8th, 1342, in the Piazza della Signoria, he was appointed +Lord of Florence for life, amidst the acclamations of the lowest +sections of the mob and the paid retainers of the treacherous nobles. +The Priors were driven from their palace, the books of the Ordinances +destroyed, and the Duke's banner erected upon the People's tower, +while the church bells rang out the _Te Deum_. Arezzo, Pistoia, Colle +di Val d'Elsa, San Gemignano, and Volterra acknowledged his rule; and +with a curious mixture of hypocrisy, immorality, and revolting +cruelty, he reigned as absolute lord until the following summer, +backed by French and Burgundian soldiers who flocked to him from all +quarters. By that time he had utterly disgusted all classes in the +State, even the magnates by whose favour he had won his throne and the +populace who had acclaimed him; and on the Feast of St. Anne, July +26th, 1343, there was a general rising. The instruments of his cruelty +were literally torn to pieces by the people, and he was besieged in +the Palazzo Vecchio, which he had transformed into a fortress, and at +length capitulated on August 3rd. The Sienese and Count Simone de' +Conti Guidi, who had come to mediate, took him over the Ponte +Rubaconte, through the Porta San Niccolo and thence into the +Casentino, where they made him solemnly ratify his abdication. + +"Note," says Giovanni Villani, who was present at most of these things +and has given us a most vivid picture of them, "that even as the Duke +with fraud and treason took away the liberty of the Republic of +Florence on the day of Our Lady in September,[13] not regarding the +reverence due to her, so, as it were in divine vengeance, God +permitted that the free citizens with armed hand should win it back on +the day of her mother, Madonna Santa Anna, on the 26th day of July +1343; and for this grace it was ordained by the Commune that the Feast +of St. Anne should ever be kept like Easter in Florence, and that +there should be celebrated a solemn office and great offerings by the +Commune and all the Arts of Florence." St. Anne henceforth became the +chief patroness and protectoress of the Republic, as Fra Bartolommeo +painted her in his great unfinished picture in the Uffizi; and the +solemn office and offerings were duly paid and celebrated in Or San +Michele. One of Villani's minor grievances against the Duke is that he +introduced frivolous French fashions of dress into the city, instead +of the stately old Florentine costume, which the republicans +considered to be the authentic garb of ancient Rome. That there was +some ground for this complaint will readily be seen, by comparing the +figure of a French cavalier in the Allegory of the Church in the +Spanish Chapel at Santa Maria Novella (the figure formerly called +Cimabue and now sometimes said to represent Walter de Brienne +himself), with the simple grandeur and dignity of the dress worn by +the burghers on their tombs in Santa Croce, or by Dante in the Duomo +portrait. + + [13] _i.e._ The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. + +Only two months after the expulsion of the Duke of Athens, the great +quarrel between the magnates and the people was fought to a finish, in +September 1343. On the northern side of the Arno, the magnates made +head at the houses of the Adimari near San Giovanni, at the opening of +the present Via Calzaioli, where one of their towers still stands, at +the houses of the Pazzi and Donati in the Piazza di San Pier Maggiore, +and round those of the Cavalcanti in Mercato Nuovo. The people under +their great gonfalon and the standards of the companies, led by the +Medici and Rondinelli, stormed one position after another, forcing the +defenders to surrender. On the other side of the Arno, the magnates +and their retainers held the bridges and the narrow streets beyond. +The Porta San Giorgio was in their hands, and, through it, +reinforcements were hurried up from the country. Repulsed at the Ponte +Vecchio and the Ponte Rubaconte, the forces of the people with their +victorious standards at last carried the Ponte alla Carraia, which was +held by the Nerli; and next, joined by the populace of the Oltrarno, +forced the Rossi and Frescobaldi to yield. The Bardi alone remained; +and, in that narrow street which still bears their name, and on the +Ponte Vecchio and the Ponte Rubaconte, they withstood single-handed +the onslaught of the whole might of the people, until they were +assailed in the rear from the direction of the Via Romana. The +infuriated populace sacked their houses, destroyed and burned the +greater part of their palaces and towers. The long struggle between +_grandi_ and _popolani_ was thus ended at last. "This was the cause," +says Machiavelli, "that Florence was stripped not only of all martial +skill, but also of all generosity." The government was again reformed, +and the minor arts admitted to a larger share; between the _popolo +grosso_ and them, between burghers and populace, lay the struggle now, +which was to end in the Medicean rule. + +But on all these perpetual changes in the form of the government of +Florence the last word had, perhaps, been said in Dante's sarcastic +outburst a quarter of a century before:-- + + "Atene e Lacedemone, che fenno + l'antiche leggi, e furon si civili, + fecero al viver bene un picciol cenno + verso di te, che fai tanto sottili + provvedimenti, che a mezzo novembre + non giunge quel che tu d'ottobre fili. + Quante volte del tempo che rimembre, + legge, moneta, offizio, e costume + hai tu mutato, e rinnovato membre? + E se ben ti ricordi, e vedi lume, + vedrai te simigliante a quella inferma, + che non puo trovar posa in su le piume, + ma con dar volta suo dolore scherma."[14] + + [14] _Purg. VI._-- + "Athens and Lacedaemon, they who made + The ancient laws, and were so civilised, + Made towards living well a little sign + Compared with thee, who makest such fine-spun + Provisions, that to middle of November + Reaches not what thou in October spinnest. + How oft, within the time of thy remembrance, + Laws, money, offices and usages + Hast thou remodelled, and renewed thy members? + And if thou mind thee well, and see the light, + Thou shalt behold thyself like a sick woman, + Who cannot find repose upon her down, + But by her tossing wardeth off her pain." + --_Longfellow._ + +The terrible pestilence, known as the Black Death, swept over Europe +in 1348. During the five months in which it devastated Florence +three-fifths of the population perished, all civic life was suspended, +and the gayest and most beautiful of cities seemed for a while to be +transformed into the dim valley of disease and sin that lies +outstretched at the bottom of Dante's Malebolge. It has been +described, in all its horrors, in one of the most famous passages of +modern prose--that appalling introduction to Boccaccio's _Decameron_. +From the city in her agony, Boccaccio's three noble youths and seven +"honest ladies" fled to the villas of Settignano and Fiesole, where +they strove to drown the horror of the time by their music and +dancing, their feasting and too often sadly obscene stories. Giovanni +Villani was among the victims in Florence, and Petrarch's Laura at +Avignon. The first canto of Petrarch's _Triumph of Death_ appears to +be, in part, an allegorical representation--written many years +later--of this fearful year. + +During the third quarter of this fourteenth century--the years which +still saw the Popes remaining in their Babylonian exile at +Avignon--the Florentines gradually regained their lost supremacy over +the cities of Tuscany: Colle di Val d'Elsa, San Gemignano, Prato, +Pistoia, Volterra, San Miniato dei Tedeschi. They carried on a war +with the formidable tyrant of Milan, the Archbishop Giovanni Visconti, +whose growing power was a perpetual menace to the liberties of the +Tuscan communes. They made good use of the descent of the feeble +emperor, Charles IV., into Italy; waged a new war with their old +rival, Pisa; and readily accommodated themselves to the baser +conditions of warfare that prevailed, now that Italy was the prey of +the companies of mercenaries, ready to be hired by whatever prince or +republic could afford the largest pay, or to fall upon whatever city +seemed most likely to yield the heaviest ransom. Within the State +itself the _popolo minuto_ and the Minor Guilds were advancing in +power; Florence was now divided into four quarters (San Giovanni, +Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce, Santo Spirito), instead of the old +Sesti; and the Signoria was now composed of the Gonfaloniere and +_eight_ Priors, two from each quarter (instead of the former six), of +whom two belonged to the Minor Arts. These, of course, still held +office for only two months. Next came the twelve Buonuomini, who were +the counsellors of the Signoria, and held office for three months; +and the sixteen Gonfaloniers of the city companies, four from each +quarter, holding office for four months. And there were, as before, +the two great Councils of the People and the Commune; and still the +three great officers who carried out their decrees, the Podesta, the +Captain, the Executor of Justice. The feuds of Ricci and Albizzi kept +up the inevitable factions, much as the Buondelmonti and Uberti, +Cerchi and Donati had done of old; and an iniquitous system of +"admonishing" those who were suspected of Ghibelline descent (the +_ammoniti_ being excluded from office under heavy penalties) threw +much power into the hands of the captains of the Parte Guelfa, whose +oppressive conduct earned them deadly hatred. "To such arrogance," +says Machiavelli, "did the captains of the Party mount, that they were +feared more than the members of the Signoria, and less reverence was +paid to the latter than to the former; the palace of the Party was +more esteemed than that of the Signoria, so that no ambassador came to +Florence without having commissions to the captains." + + [Illustration: THE CAMPANILE] + +Pope Gregory XI preceded his return to Rome by an attempted reconquest +of the States of the Church, by means of foreign legates and hireling +soldiers, of whom the worst were Bretons and English; although St. +Catherine of Siena implored him, in the name of Christ, to come with +the Cross in hand, like a meek lamb, and not with armed bands. The +horrible atrocities committed in Romagna by these mercenaries, +especially at Faenza and Cesena, stained what might have been a noble +pontificate. Against Pope Gregory and his legates, the Florentines +carried on a long and disastrous war; round the Otto della Guerra, the +eight magistrates to whom the management of the war was intrusted, +rallied those who hated the Parte Guelfa. The return of Gregory to +Rome in 1377 opens a new epoch in Italian history. Echoes of this +unnatural struggle between Florence and the Pope reach us in the +letters of St Catherine and the canzoni of Franco Sacchetti; in the +latter is some faint sound of Dante's _saeva indignatio_ against the +unworthy pastors of the Church, but in the former we are lifted far +above the miserable realities of a conflict carried on by political +intrigue and foreign mercenaries, into the mystical realms of pure +faith and divine charity. + +In 1376, the Loggia dei Priori, now less pleasantly known as the +Loggia dei Lanzi, was founded; and in 1378 the bulk of the Duomo was +practically completed. This may be taken as the close of the first or +"heroic" epoch of Florentine Art, which runs simultaneously with the +great democratic period of Florentine history, represented in +literature by Dante and Boccaccio. The Duomo, the Palace of the +Podesta, the Palace of the Priors, Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce, +Or San Michele, the Loggia of the Bigallo, and the Third Walls of the +City (of which, on the northern side of the Arno, the gates alone +remain), are its supreme monuments in architecture. Its heroes of +greatest name are Arnolfo di Cambio, Giotto di Bondone, Andrea Pisano, +Andrea di Cione or Orcagna (the "Archangel"), and, lastly and but +recently recognised, Francesco Talenti. + +"No Italian architect," says Addington Symonds, "has enjoyed the proud +privilege of stamping his own individuality more strongly on his +native city than Arnolfo." At present, the walls of the city (or what +remains of them)--_le mura di Fiorenza_ which Lapo Gianni would fain +see _inargentate_--and the bulk of the Palazzo Vecchio and Santa +Croce, alone represent Arnolfo's work. But the Duomo (mainly, in its +present form, due to Francesco Talenti) probably still retains in +part his design; and the glorious Church of Or San Michele, of which +the actual architect is not certainly known, stands on the site of his +Loggia. + +Giovanni Cimabue, the father of Florentine painting as Arnolfo of +Florentine architecture, survives only as a name in Dante's immortal +verse. Not a single authentic work remains from his hand in Florence. +His supposed portrait in the cloisters of Santa Maria Novella is now +held to be that of a French knight; the famous picture of the Madonna +and Child with her angelic ministers, in the Rucellai Chapel, is shown +to be the work of a Sienese master; and the other paintings once +ascribed to him have absolutely no claims to bear his name. But the +Borgo Allegro still bears its title from the rejoicings that hailed +his masterpiece, and perhaps it is best that his achievement should +thus live, only as a holy memory:-- + + "Credette Cimabue nella pittura + tener lo campo, ed ora ha Giotto il grido, + si che la fama di colui e oscura."[15] + + [15] "In painting Cimabue thought that he + Should hold the field, now Giotto has the cry, + So that the other's fame is growing dim." + +Of Cimabue's great pupil, Dante's friend and contemporary, Giotto, we +know and possess much more. Through him mediaeval Italy first spoke out +through painting, and with no uncertain sound. He was born some ten +years later than Dante. Cimabue--or so the legend runs, which is told +by Leonardo da Vinci amongst others--found him among the mountains, +guarding his father's flocks and drawing upon the stones the movements +of the goats committed to his care. He was a typical Florentine +craftsman; favoured by popes, admitted to the familiarity of kings, he +remained to the end the same unspoilt shepherd whom Cimabue had found. +Many choice and piquant tales are told by the novelists about his +ugly presence and rare personality, his perpetual good humour, his +sharp and witty answers to king and rustic alike, his hatred of all +pretentiousness, carried to such an extent that he conceived a rooted +objection to hearing himself called _maestro_. Padua and Assisi +possess some of his very best work; but Florence can still show much. +Two chapels in Santa Croce are painted by his hand; of the smaller +pictures ascribed to him in churches and galleries, there is one +authentic--the Madonna in the Accademia; and, perhaps most beautiful +of all, the Campanile which he designed and commenced still rises in +the midst of the city. Giotto died in 1336; his work was carried on by +Andrea Pisano and practically finished by Francesco Talenti. + +Andrea di Ugolino Pisano (1270-1348), usually simply called Andrea +Pisano, is similarly the father of Florentine sculpture. Vasari's +curiously inaccurate account of him has somewhat blurred his real +figure in the history of art. His great achievements are the casting +of the first gate of the Baptistery in bronze, his work--apparently +from Giotto's designs--in the lower series of marble reliefs round the +Campanile, and his continuation of the Campanile itself after Giotto's +death. He is said by Vasari to have built the Porta di San Frediano. + +There is little individuality in the followers of Giotto, who carried +on his tradition and worked in his manner. They are very much below +their master, and are often surpassed by the contemporary painters of +Siena, such as Simone Martini and Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Taddeo Gaddi +and his son, Agnolo, Giovanni di Milano, Bernardo Daddi, are their +leaders; the chief title to fame of the first-named being the renowned +Ponte Vecchio. But their total achievement, in conjunction with the +Sienese, was of heroic magnitude. They covered the walls of churches +and chapels, especially those connected with the Franciscans and +Dominicans, with the scenes of Scripture, with the lives of Madonna +and her saints; they set forth in all its fullness the whole Gospel +story, for those who could neither read nor write; they conceived vast +allegories of human life and human destinies; they filled the palaces +of the republics with painted parables of good government. "By the +grace of God," says a statute of Sienese painters, "we are the men who +make manifest to the ignorant and unlettered the miraculous things +achieved by the power and virtue of the Faith." At Siena, at Pisa and +at Assisi, are perhaps the greatest works of this school; but here, in +Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella, there is much, and of a very +noble and characteristic kind. Spinello Aretino (1333-1410) may be +regarded as the last of the Giotteschi; you may see his best series of +frescoes in San Miniato, setting forth with much skill and power the +life of the great Italian monk, whose face Dante so earnestly prayed +to behold unveiled in Paradise. + +This heroic age of sculpture and painting culminated in Andrea Orcagna +(1308-1368), Andrea Pisano's great pupil. Painter and sculptor, +architect and poet, Orcagna is at once the inheritor of Niccolo and +Giovanni Pisano, and of Giotto. The famous frescoes in the Pisan Campo +Santo are now known to be the work of some other hand; his paintings +in Santa Croce, with their priceless portraits, have perished; and, +although frequently consulted in the construction of the Duomo, it is +tolerably certain that he was not the architect of any of the +Florentine buildings once ascribed to him. The Strozzi chapel of St +Thomas in Santa Maria Novella, the oratory of the Madonna in San +Michele in Orto, contain all his extant works; and they are +sufficient to prove him, next to Giotto, the greatest painter of his +century, with a feeling for grace and beauty even above Giotto's, and +only less excellent in marble. Several of his poems have been +preserved, mostly of a slightly satirical character; one, a sonnet on +the nature of love, _Molti volendo dir che fosse Amore_, has had the +honour of being ascribed to Dante. + +With the third quarter of the century, the first great epoch of +Italian letters closes also. On the overthrow of the House of Suabia +at Benevento, the centre of culture had shifted from Sicily to +Tuscany, from Palermo to Florence. The prose and poetry of this epoch +is almost entirely Tuscan, although the second of its greatest poets, +Francesco Petrarca, comparatively seldom set foot within its +boundaries. "My old nest is restored to me," he wrote to the Signoria, +when they sent Boccaccio to invite his friend to return to Florence, +"I can fly back to it, and I can fold there my wandering wings." But, +save for a few flying visits, Petrarch had little inclination to +attach himself to one city, when he felt that all Italy was his +country. + +Dante had set forth all that was noblest in mediaeval thought in +imperishable form, supremely in his _Divina Commedia_, but appreciably +and nobly in his various minor works as well, both verse and prose. +Villani had started historical Italian prose on its triumphant course. +Petrarch and Boccaccio, besides their great gifts to Italian +literature, in the ethereal poetry of the one, painting every varying +mood of the human soul, and the licentious prose of the other, hymning +the triumph of the flesh, stand on the threshold of the Renaissance. +Other names crowd in upon us at each stage of this epoch. Apart from +his rare personality, Guido Cavalcanti's _ballate_ are his chief title +to poetic fame, but, even so, less than the monument of glory that +Dante has reared to him in the _Vita Nuova_, in the _De Vulgari +Eloquentia_, in the _Divina Commedia_. Dino Compagni, the chronicler +of the Whites and Blacks, was only less admirable as a patriot than as +a historian. Matteo Villani, the brother of Giovanni, and Matteo's +son, Filippo, carried on the great chronicler's work. Fra Jacopo +Passavanti, the Dominican prior of Santa Maria Novella, in the middle +of the century, showed how the purest Florentine vernacular could be +used for the purpose of simple religious edification. Franco +Sacchetti, politician, novelist and poet, may be taken as the last +Florentine writer of this period; he anticipates the popular lyrism of +the Quattrocento, rather in the same way as a group of scholars who at +the same time gathered round the Augustinian, Luigi Marsili, in his +cell at Santo Spirito heralds the coming of the humanists. It fell to +Franco Sacchetti to sing the dirge of this heroic period of art and +letters, in his elegiac canzoni on the deaths of Petrarch and +Boccaccio:-- + + "Sonati sono i corni + d'ogni parte a ricolta; + la stagione e rivolta: + se tornera non so, ma credo tardi." + + [Illustration: CROSS OF THE FLORENTINE PEOPLE (FROM OLD HOUSE ON NORTH + SIDE OF DUOMO)] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_The Medici and the Quattrocento_ + + "Tiranno e nome di uomo di mala vita, e pessimo fra tutti gli + altri uomini, che per forza sopra tutti vuol regnare, massime + quello che di cittadino e fatto tiranno."--_Savonarola._ + + "The Renaissance of the fifteenth century was in many things + great, rather by what it designed or aspired to do, than by what + it actually achieved."--_Walter Pater._ + + +_Non gia Salvestro ma Salvator mundi_, "thou that with noble wisdom +hast saved thy country." Thus in a sonnet does Franco Sacchetti hail +Salvestro dei Medici, the originator of the greatness of his house. In +1378, while the hatred between the Parte Guelfa and the adherents of +the Otto della Guerra--the rivalry between the Palace of the Party and +the Palace of the Signory--was at its height, the Captains of the +Party conspired to seize upon the Palace of the Priors and take +possession of the State. Their plans were frustrated by Salvestro dei +Medici, a rich merchant and head of his ambitious and rising family, +who was then Gonfaloniere of Justice. He proposed to restore the +Ordinances against the magnates, and, when this petition was rejected +by the Signoria and the Colleges,[16] he appealed to the Council of +the People. The result was a riot, followed by a long series of +tumults throughout the city; the _Arti Minori_ came to the front in +arms; and, finally, the bloody revolution known as the Tumult of the +Ciompi burst over Florence. These Ciompi, the lowest class of artizans +and all those who were not represented in the Arts, headed by those +who were subject to the great Arte della Lana, had been much favoured +by the Duke of Athens, and had been given consuls and a standard with +an angel painted upon it. On the fall of the Duke, these Ciompi, or +_popolo minuto_, had lost these privileges, and were probably much +oppressed by the consuls of the Arte della Lana. Secretly instigated +by Salvestro--who thus initiated the Medicean policy of undermining +the Republic by means of the populace--they rose _en masse_ on July +20th, captured the Palace of the Podesta, burnt the houses of their +enemies and the Bottega of the Arte della Lana, seized the standard of +the people, and, with it and the banners of the Guilds displayed, came +into the Piazza to demand a share in the government. On July 22nd they +burst into the Palace of the Priors, headed by a wool-comber, Michele +di Lando, carrying in his hands the great Gonfalon; him they acclaimed +Gonfaloniere and lord of the city. + + [16] The "Colleges" were the twelve Buonuomini and the sixteen + Gonfaloniers of the Companies. Measures proposed by the Signoria had + to be carried in the Colleges before being submitted to the Council of + the People, and afterwards to the Council of the Commune. + +This rough and half-naked wool-comber, whose mother made pots and pans +and whose wife sold greens, is one of the heroes of Florentine +history; and his noble simplicity throughout the whole affair is in +striking contrast with the self-seeking and intrigues of the rich +aristocratic merchants whose tool, to some extent, he appears to have +been. The pious historian, Jacopo Nardi, likens him to the heroes of +ancient Rome, Curius and Fabricius, and ranks him as a patriot and +deliverer of the city, far above even Farinata degli Uberti. The next +day the Parliament was duly summoned in the Piazza, Michele confirmed +in his office, and a Balia (or commission) given to him, together with +the Eight and the Syndics of the Arts, to reform the State and elect +the new Signoria--in which the newly constituted Guilds of the +populace were to have a third with those of the greater and minor +Arts. But, before Michele's term of office was over, the Ciompi were +in arms again, fiercer than ever and with more outrageous demands, +following the standards of the Angel and some of the minor Arts (who +appear to have in part joined them). From Santa Maria Novella, their +chosen head-quarters, on the last day of August they sent two +representatives to overawe the Signoria. But Michele di Lando, +answering their insolence with violence, rode through the city with +the standard of Justice floating before him, while the great bell of +the Priors' tower called the Guilds to arms; and by evening the +populace had melted away, and the government of the people was +re-established. The new Signoria was greeted in a canzone by +Sacchetti, in which he declares that Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and +Temperance are once more reinstated in the city. + +For the next few years the Minor Arts predominated in the government. +Salvestro dei Medici kept in the background, but was presently +banished. Michele di Lando seemed contented to have saved the State, +and took little further share in the politics of the city. He appears +later on to have been put under bounds at Chioggia; but to have +returned to Florence before his death in 1401, when he was buried in +Santa Croce. There were still tumults and conspiracies, resulting in +frequent executions and banishments; while, without, inglorious wars +were carried on by the companies of mercenary soldiers. This is the +epoch in which the great English captain, Hawkwood, entered the +service of the Florentine State. In 1382, after the execution of +Giorgio Scali and the banishment of Tommaso Strozzi (noble burghers +who headed the populace), the newly constituted Guilds were abolished, +and the government returned to the greater Arts, who now held +two-thirds of the offices--a proportion which was later increased to +three-quarters. + +The period which follows, from 1382 to 1434, sees the close of the +democratic government of Florence. The Republic, nominally still ruled +by the greater Guilds, is in reality sustained and swayed by the +_nobili popolani_ or _Ottimati_, members of wealthy families risen by +riches or talent out of these greater Guilds into a new kind of +burgher aristocracy. The struggle is now no longer between the Palace +of the Signory and the Palace of the Party--for the days of the power +of the Parte Guelfa are at an end--but between the Palace and the +Piazza. The party of the Minor Arts and the Populace is repressed and +ground down with war taxes; but behind them the Medici lurk and +wait--first Vieri, then Giovanni di Averardo, then Cosimo di +Giovanni--ever on the watch to put themselves at their head, and +through them overturn the State. The party of the Ottimati is first +led by Maso degli Albizzi, then by Niccolo da Uzzano, and lastly by +Rinaldo degli Albizzi and his adherents--illustrious citizens not +altogether unworthy of the great Republic that they swayed--the sort +of dignified civic patricians whose figures, a little later, were to +throng the frescoes of Masaccio and Ghirlandaio. But they were divided +among themselves, persecuted their adversaries with proscription and +banishment, thus making the exiles a perpetual source of danger to the +State, and they were hated by the populace because of the war taxes. +These wars were mainly carried on by mercenaries--who were now more +usually Italians than foreigners--and, in spite of frequent defeats, +generally ended well for Florence. Arezzo was purchased in 1384. A +fierce struggle was carried on a few years later (1390-1402) with the +"great serpent," Giovanni Galeazzo Visconti, who hoped to make himself +King of Italy by violence as he had made himself Duke of Milan by +treachery, and intended to be crowned in Florence. Pisa was finally +and cruelly conquered in 1406; Cortona was obtained as the result of a +prolonged war with King Ladislaus of Naples in 1414, in which the +Republic had seemed once more in danger of falling into the hands of a +foreign tyrant; and in 1421 Leghorn was sold to the Florentines by the +Genoese, thus opening the sea to their merchandise. + +The deaths of Giovanni Galeazzo and Ladislaus freed the city from her +most formidable external foes; and for a while she became the seat of +the Papacy, the centre of Christendom. In 1419, after the schism, Pope +Martin V. took up his abode in Florence; the great condottiere, +Braccio, came with his victorious troops to do him honour; and the +deposed John XXIII. humbled himself before the new Pontiff, and was at +last laid to rest among the shadows of the Baptistery. In his _Storia +Florentina_ Guicciardini declares that the government at this epoch +was the wisest, the most glorious and the happiest that the city had +ever had. It was the dawn of the Renaissance, and Florence was already +full of artists and scholars, to whom these _nobili popolani_ were as +generous and as enlightened patrons as their successors, the Medici, +were to be. Even Cosimo's fervent admirer, the librarian Vespasiano +Bisticci, endorses Guicciardini's verdict: "In that time," he says, +"from 1422 to 1433, the city of Florence was in a most blissful state, +abounding with excellent men in every faculty, and it was full of +admirable citizens." + +Maso degli Albizzi died in 1417; and his successors in the +oligarchy--the aged Niccolo da Uzzano, who stood throughout for +moderation, and the fiery but less competent Rinaldo degli +Albizzi--were no match for the rising and unscrupulous Medici. With +the Albizzi was associated the noblest and most generous Florentine of +the century, Palla Strozzi. The war with Filippo Visconti, resulting +in the disastrous rout of Zagonara, and an unjust campaign against +Lucca, in which horrible atrocities were committed by the Florentine +commissioner, Astorre Gianni, shook their government. Giovanni dei +Medici, the richest banker in Italy, was now the acknowledged head of +the opposition; he had been Gonfaloniere in 1421, but would not put +himself actively forward, although urged on by his sons, Cosimo and +Lorenzo. He died in 1429; Niccolo da Uzzano followed him to the grave +in 1432; and the final struggle between the fiercer spirits, Rinaldo +and Cosimo, was at hand. "All these citizens," said Niccolo, shortly +before his death, "some through ignorance, some through malice, are +ready to sell this republic; and, thanks to their good fortune, they +have found the purchaser." + +Shortly before this date, Masaccio painted all the leading spirits of +the time in a fresco in the cloisters of the Carmine. This has been +destroyed, but you may see a fine contemporary portrait of Giovanni in +the Uffizi. The much admired and famous coloured bust in the Bargello, +called the portrait of Niccolo da Uzzano by Donatello, has probably +nothing to do either with Niccolo or with Donatello. Giovanni has the +air of a prosperous and unpretending Florentine tradesman, but with a +certain obvious parade of his lack of pushfulness. + +In 1433 the storm broke. A Signory hostile to Cosimo being elected, he +was summoned to the Palace and imprisoned in an apartment high up in +the Tower, a place known as the Alberghettino. Rinaldo degli Albizzi +held the Piazza with his soldiery, and Cosimo heard the great bell +ringing to call the people to Parliament, to grant a Balia to reform +the government and decide upon his fate. But he was too powerful at +home and abroad; his popularity with those whom he had raised from low +estate, and those whom he had relieved by his wealth, his influence +with the foreign powers, such as Venice and Ferrara, were so great +that his foes dared not take his life; and, indeed, they were hardly +the men to have attempted such a crime. Banished to Padua (his brother +Lorenzo and other members of his family being put under bounds at +different cities), he was received everywhere, not as a fugitive, but +as a prince; and the library of the Benedictines, built by Michelozzo +at his expense, once bore witness to his stay in Venice. Hardly a year +had passed when a new Signory was chosen, favourable to the Medici; +Rinaldo degli Albizzi, after a vain show of resistance, laid down his +arms on the intervention of Pope Eugenius, who was then at Santa Maria +Novella, and was banished for ever from the city with his principal +adherents. And finally, in a triumphant progress from Venice, "carried +back to his country upon the shoulders of all Italy," as he said, +Cosimo and his brother Lorenzo entered Florence on October 6th, 1434, +rode past the deserted palaces of the Albizzi to the Palace of the +Priors, and next day returned in triumph to their own house in the Via +Larga. + +The Republic had practically fallen; the head of the Medici was +virtually prince of the city and of her fair dominion. But Florence +was not Milan or Naples, and Cosimo's part as tyrant was a peculiar +one. The forms of the government were, with modifications, preserved; +but by means of a Balia empowered to elect the chief magistrates for +a period of five years, and then renewed every five years, he secured +that the Signoria should always be in his hands, or in those of his +adherents. The grand Palace of the Priors was still ostensibly the +seat of government; but, in reality, the State was in the firm grasp +of the thin, dark-faced merchant in the Palace in the Via Larga, which +we now know as the Palazzo Riccardi. Although in the earlier part of +his reign he was occasionally elected Gonfaloniere, he otherwise held +no office ostensibly, and affected the republican manner of a mere +wealthy citizen. His personality, combined with the widely ramifying +banking relations of the Medici, gave him an almost European +influence. His popularity among the mountaineers and in the country +districts, from which armed soldiery were ever ready to pour down into +the city in his defence, made him the fitting man for the ever +increasing external sway of Florence. The forms of the Republic were +preserved, but he consolidated his power by a general levelling and +disintegration, by severing the nerves of the State and breaking the +power of the Guilds. He had certain hard and cynical maxims for +guidance: "Better a city ruined than a city lost," "States are not +ruled by Pater-Nosters," "New and worthy citizens can be made by a few +ells of crimson cloth." So he elevated to wealth and power men of low +kind, devoted to and dependent on himself; crushed the families +opposed to him, or citizens who seemed too powerful, by wholesale +banishments, or by ruining them with fines and taxation, although +there was comparatively little blood shed. He was utterly ruthless in +all this, and many of the noblest Florentine citizens fell victims. +One murder must be laid to his charge, and it is one of peculiar, for +him, unusual atrocity. Baldaccio d'Anghiari, a young captain of +infantry, who promised fair to take a high place among the +condottieri of the day, was treacherously invited to speak with the +Gonfaloniere in the Palace of the Priors, and there stabbed to death +by hireling assassins from the hills, and his body flung ignominiously +into the Piazza. Cosimo's motive is said to have been partly jealousy +of a possible rival, Neri Capponi, who had won popularity by his +conquest of the Casentino for Florence in 1440, and who was intimate +with Baldaccio; and partly desire to gratify Francesco Sforza, whose +treacherous designs upon Milan he was furthering by the gold wrung +from his over-taxed Florentines, and to whose plans Baldaccio was +prepared to offer an obstacle. + +Florence was still for a time the seat of the Papacy. In January 1439, +the Patriarch Joseph of Constantinople, and the Emperor of the East, +John Paleologus, came to meet Pope Eugenius for the Council of +Florence, which was intended to unite the Churches of Christendom. The +Patriarch died here, and is buried in Santa Maria Novella. In the +Riccardi Palace you may see him and the Emperor, forced, as it were, +to take part in the triumph of the Medici in Benozzo Gozzoli's +fresco--riding with them in the gorgeous train, that sets out +ostensibly to seek the Babe of Bethlehem, and evidently has no +intention of finding Him. Pope Eugenius returned to Rome in 1444; and +in 1453 Mahomet II. stormed Constantinople, and Greek exiles thronged +to Rome and Florence. In 1459, marvellous pageants greeted Pius II. in +the city, on his way to stir up the Crusade that never went. + +In his foreign policy Cosimo inaugurated a totally new departure for +Florence; he commenced a line of action which was of the utmost +importance in Italian politics, and which his son and grandson carried +still further. The long wars with which the last of the Visconti, +Filippo Maria, harassed Italy and pressed Florence hard (in the last +of these Rinaldo degli Albizzi and the exiles approached near enough +to catch a distant glimpse of the city from which they were +relentlessly shut out), ended with his death in 1447. Cosimo dei +Medici now allied himself with the great condottiere, Francesco +Sforza, and aided him with money to make good his claims upon the +Duchy of Milan. Henceforth this new alliance between Florence and +Milan, between the Medici and the Sforza, although most odious in the +eyes of the Florentine people, became one of the chief factors in the +balance of power in Italy. Soon afterwards Alfonso, the Aragonese +ruler of Naples, entered into this triple alliance; Venice and Rome to +some extent being regarded as a double alliance to counterbalance +this. To these foreign princes Cosimo was almost as much prince of +Florence as they of their dominions; and by what was practically a +_coup d'etat_ in 1459, Cosimo and his son Piero forcibly overthrew the +last attempt of their opponents to get the Signoria out of their +hands, and, by means of the creation of a new and permanent Council of +a hundred of their chief adherents, more firmly than ever secured +their hold upon the State. + + [Illustration: FLORENCE IN THE DAYS OF LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT + (_From an engraving, of about 1490, in the Berlin Museum_)] + +In his private life Cosimo was the simplest and most unpretentious of +tyrants, and lived the life of a wealthy merchant-burgher of the day +in its nobler aspects. He was an ideal father, a perfect man of +business, an apparently kindly fellow-citizen to all. Above all things +he loved the society of artists and men of letters; Brunelleschi and +Michelozzo, Donatello and Fra Lippo Lippi--to name only a few more +intimately connected with him--found in him the most generous and +discerning of patrons; many of the noblest Early Renaissance churches +and convents in Florence and its neighbourhood are due to his +munificence--San Lorenzo and San Marco and the Badia of Fiesole are +the most typical--and he even founded a hospital in Jerusalem. To a +certain extent this was what we should now call "conscience money." +His friend and biographer, Vespasiano Bisticci, writes: "He did these +things because it appeared to him that he held money, not over well +acquired; and he was wont to say that to God he had never given so +much as to find Him on his books a debtor. And likewise he said: I +know the humours of this city; fifty years will not pass before we are +driven out; but the buildings will remain." The Greeks, who came to +the Council of Florence or fled from the in-coming Turk, stimulated +the study of their language and philosophy--though this had really +commenced in the days of the Republic, before the deaths of Petrarch +and Boccaccio--and found in Cosimo an ardent supporter. He founded +great libraries in San Marco and in the Badia of Fiesole, the former +with part of the codices collected by the scholar Niccolo Niccoli; +although he had banished the old Palla Strozzi, the true renovator of +the Florentine University, into hopeless exile. Into the Neo-Platonism +of the Renaissance Cosimo threw himself heart and soul. "To Cosimo," +writes Burckhardt, "belongs the special glory of recognising in the +Platonic philosophy the fairest flower of the ancient world of +thought, of inspiring his friends with the same belief, and thus of +fostering within humanistic circles themselves another and a higher +resuscitation of antiquity." In a youth of Figline, Marsilio Ficino, +the son of a doctor, Cosimo found a future high priest of this new +religion of love and beauty; and bidding him minister to the minds of +men rather than to their bodies, brought him into his palace, and gave +him a house in the city and a beautiful farm near Careggi. Thus was +founded the famous Platonic Academy, the centre of the richest +Italian thought of the century. As his end drew near, Cosimo turned to +the consolations of religion, and would pass long hours in his chosen +cell in San Marco, communing with the Dominican Archbishop, Antonino, +and Fra Angelico, the painter of mediaeval Paradise. And with these +thoughts, mingled with the readings of Marsilio's growing translation +of Plato, he passed away at his villa at Careggi in 1464, on the first +of August. Shortly before his death he had lost his favourite son, +Giovanni; and had been carried through his palace, in the Via Larga, +sighing that it was now too large a house for so small a family. +Entitled by public decree _Pater Patriae_, he was buried at his own +request without any pompous funeral, beneath a simple marble in front +of the high altar of San Lorenzo. + + [Illustration: THE BADIA OF FIESOLE] + +Cosimo was succeeded, not without some opposition from rivals to the +Medici within their own party, by his son Piero. Piero's health was in +a shattered condition--il Gottoso, he was called--and for the most +part he lived in retirement at Careggi, occasionally carried into +Florence in his litter, leaving his brilliant young son Lorenzo to act +as a more ornamental figure-head for the State. The personal +appearance of Piero is very different to that of his father or son; in +his portrait bust by Mino da Fiesole in the Bargello, and in the +picture by Bronzino in the National Gallery, there is less craft and a +certain air of frank and manly resolution. In his daring move in +support of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, when, on the death of Francesco, it +seemed for a moment that the Milanese dynasty was tottering, and his +promptness in crushing the formidable conspiracy of the "mountain" +against himself, Piero showed that sickness had not destroyed his +faculty of energetic action at the critical moment. He completely +followed out his father's policy, drawing still tighter the bonds +which united Florence with Milan and Naples, lavishing money on the +decoration of the city and the corruption of the people. The +opposition was headed by Luca Pitti, Agnolo Acciaiuoli, Dietisalvi +Neroni and others, who had been reckoned as Cosimo's friends, but who +were now intriguing with Venice and Ferrara to overthrow his son. +Hoping to eclipse the Medici in their own special field of artistic +display and wholesale corruption, Luca Pitti commenced that enormous +palace which still bears the name of his family, filled it with bravos +and refugees, resorted to all means fair or foul to get money to build +and corrupt. It seemed for a moment that the adherents of the Mountain +(as the opponents of the Medici were called, from this highly situated +Pitti Palace) and the adherents of the Plain (where the comparatively +modest Medicean palace--now the Palazzo Riccardi--stood in the Via +Larga) might renew the old factions of Blacks and Whites. But in the +late summer of 1466 the party of the Mountain was finally crushed; +they were punished with more mercy than the Medici generally showed, +and Luca Pitti was practically pardoned and left to a dishonourable +old age in the unfinished palace, which was in after years to become +the residence of the successors of his foes. About the same time +Filippo Strozzi and other exiles were allowed to return, and another +great palace began to rear its walls in the Via Tornabuoni, in after +years to be a centre of anti-Medicean intrigue. + +The brilliancy and splendour of Lorenzo's youth--he who was hereafter +to be known in history as the Magnificent--sheds a rich glow of colour +round the closing months of Piero's pain-haunted life. Piero himself +had been content with a Florentine wife, Lucrezia dei Tornabuoni, and +he had married his daughters to Florentine citizens, Guglielmo Pazzi +and Bernardo Rucellai; but Lorenzo must make a great foreign match, +and was therefore given Clarice Orsini, the daughter of a great Roman +noble. The splendid pageant in the Piazza Santa Croce, and the even +more gorgeous marriage festivities in the palace in the Via Larga, +were followed by a triumphal progress of the young bridegroom through +Tuscany and the Riviera to Milan, to the court of that faithful ally +of his house, but most abominable monster, Giovanni Maria Sforza. +Piero died on December 3rd, 1469, and, like Cosimo, desired the simple +burial which his sons piously gave him. His plain but beautiful +monument designed by Verrocchio is in the older sacristy of San +Lorenzo, where he lies with his brother Giovanni. + +"The second day after his death," writes Lorenzo in his diary, +"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."[17] + + [17] From Mr Armstrong's _Lorenzo de' Medici_. + +These two youths, Lorenzo and Giuliano, were now, to all intents and +purposes, lords and masters of Florence. Lorenzo was the ruling +spirit; outwardly, in spite of his singularly harsh and +unprepossessing appearance, devoted to the cult of love and beauty, +delighting in sport and every kind of luxury, he was inwardly as hard +and cruel as tempered steel, and firmly fixed from the outset upon +developing the hardly defined prepotency of his house into a complete +personal despotism. You may see him as a gallant boy in Benozzo +Gozzoli's fresco in the palace of his father and grandfather, riding +under a bay tree, and crowned with roses; and then, in early manhood, +in Botticelli's famous Adoration of the Magi; and lastly, as a fully +developed, omniscient and all-embracing tyrant, in that truly terrible +picture by Vasari in the Uffizi, constructed out of contemporary +materials--surely as eloquent a sermon against the iniquity of tyranny +as the pages of Savonarola's _Reggimento di Firenze_. Giuliano was a +kindlier and gentler soul, completely given up to pleasure and +athletics; he lives for us still in many a picture from the hand of +Sandro Botticelli, sometimes directly portrayed, as in the painting +which Morelli bequeathed to Bergamo, more often idealised as Mars or +as Hermes; his love for the fair Simonetta inspired Botticellian +allegories and the most finished and courtly stanzas of Poliziano. The +sons of both these brothers were destined to sit upon the throne of +the Fisherman. + +A long step in despotism was gained in 1470, when the two great +Councils of the People and the Commune were deprived of all their +functions, which were now invested in the thoroughly Medicean Council +of the Hundred. The next year Lorenzo's friend and ally, Galeazzo +Maria Sforza, with his Duchess and courtiers, came to Florence. They +were sumptuously received in the Medicean palace. The licence and +wantonness of these Milanese scandalised even the lax Florentines, and +largely added to the growing corruption of the city. The accidental +burning of Santo Spirito during the performance of a miracle play was +regarded as a certain sign of divine wrath. During his stay in +Florence the Duke, in contrast with whom the worst of the Medici seems +almost a saint, sat to one of the Pollaiuoli for the portrait still +seen in the Uffizi; by comparison with him even Lorenzo looks +charming; at the back of the picture there is a figure of Charity--but +the Duke has very appropriately driven it to the wall. Unpopular +though this Medicean-Sforza alliance was in Florence, it was +undoubtedly one of the safe-guards of the harmony which, +superficially, still existed between the five great powers of Italy. +When Galeazzo Maria met the fate he so richly deserved, and was +stabbed to death in the Church of San Stefano at Milan on December +20th, 1476, Pope Sixtus gave solemn utterance to the general dismay: +_Oggi e morta la pace d'Italia._ + +But Sixtus and his nephews did not in their hearts desire peace in +Italy, and were plotting against Lorenzo with the Pazzi, who, although +united to the Medici by marriage, had secret and growing grievances +against them. On the morning of Sunday April 26th, 1478, the +conspirators set upon the two brothers at Mass in the Duomo; Giuliano +perished beneath nineteen dagger-stabs; Lorenzo escaped with a slight +wound in the neck. The Archbishop Salviati of Pisa in the meantime +attempted to seize the Palace of the Priors, but was arrested by the +Gonfaloniere, and promptly hung out of the window for his trouble. +Jacopo Pazzi rode madly through the streets with an armed force, +calling the people to arms, with the old shout of _Popolo e Liberta_, +but was only answered by the ringing cries of _Palle, Palle_.[18] The +vengeance taken by the people upon the conspirators was so prompt and +terrible that Lorenzo had little left him to do (though that little he +did to excess, punishing the innocent with the guilty); and the result +of the plot simply was to leave him alone in the government, securely +enthroned above the splash of blood. The Pope appears not to have +been actually privy to the murder, but he promptly took up the cause +of the murderers. It was followed by a general break-up of the Italian +peace and a disastrous war, carried on mainly by mercenary soldiers, +in which all the powers of Italy were more or less engaged; and +Florence was terribly hard pressed by the allied forces of Naples and +Rome. The plague broke out in the city; Lorenzo was practically +deserted by his allies, and on the brink of financial ruin. Then was +it that he did one of the most noteworthy, perhaps the noblest, of the +actions of his life, and saved himself and the State by voluntarily +going to Naples and putting himself in the power of King Ferrante, an +infamous tyrant, who would readily have murdered his guest, if it had +seemed to his advantage to do so. But, like all the Italians of the +Renaissance, Ferrante was open to reason, and the eloquence of the +Magnifico won him over to grant an honourable peace, with which +Lorenzo returned to Florence in March 1480. "If Lorenzo was great when +he left Florence," writes Machiavelli, "he returned much greater than +ever; and he was received with such joy by the city as his great +qualities and his fresh merits deserved, seeing that he had exposed +his own life to restore peace to his country." Botticelli's noble +allegory of the olive-decked Medicean Pallas, taming the Centaur of +war and disorder, appears to have been painted in commemoration of +this event. In the following August the Turks landed in Italy and +stormed Otranto, and the need of union, in the face of "the common +enemy Ottoman," reconciled the Pope to Florence, and secured for the +time an uneasy peace among the powers of Italy. + + [18] The _Palle_, it will be remembered, were the golden balls on the + Medicean arms, and hence the rallying cry of their adherents. + +Lorenzo's power in Florence and influence throughout Italy was now +secure. By the institution in 1480 of a Council of Seventy, a +permanent council to manage and control the election of the Signoria +(with two special committees drawn from the Seventy every six months, +the _Otto di pratica_ for foreign affairs and the _Dodici Procuratori_ +for internal), the State was firmly established in his hands--the +older councils still remaining, as was usual in every Florentine +reformation of government. Ten years later, in 1490, this council +showed signs of independence; and Lorenzo therefore reduced the +authority of electing the Signoria to a small committee with a +reforming Balia of seventeen, of which he was one. Had he lived +longer, he would undoubtedly have crowned his policy either by being +made Gonfaloniere for life, or by obtaining some similar +constitutional confirmation of his position as head of the State. +Externally his influence was thrown into the scale for peace, and, on +the death of Sixtus IV. in 1484, he established friendly relations and +a family alliance with the new Pontiff, Innocent VIII. Sarzana with +Pietrasanta were won back for Florence, and portions of the Sienese +territory which had been lost during the war with Naples and the +Church; a virtual protectorate was established over portions of Umbria +and Romagna, where the daggers of assassins daily emptied the thrones +of minor tyrants. Two attempts on his life failed. In the last years +of his foreign policy and diplomacy he showed himself truly the +magnificent. East and West united to do him honour; the Sultan of the +Turks and the Soldan of Egypt sent ambassadors and presents; the +rulers of France and Germany treated him as an equal. Soon the torrent +of foreign invasion was to sweep over the Alps and inundate all the +"Ausonian" land; Milan and Naples were ready to rend each other; +Ludovico Sforza was plotting his own rise upon the ruin of Italy, and +already intriguing with France; but, for the present, Lorenzo +succeeded in maintaining the balance of power between the five great +Italian states, which seemed as though they might present a united +front for mutual defence against the coming of the barbarians. + +_Sarebbe impossibile avesse avuto un tiranno migliore e piu +piacevole_, writes Guicciardini: "Florence could not have had a better +or more delightful tyrant." The externals of life were splendid and +gorgeous indeed in the city where Lorenzo ruled, but everything was in +his hands and had virtually to proceed from him. His spies were +everywhere; marriages might only be arranged and celebrated according +to his good pleasure; the least sign of independence was promptly and +severely repressed. By perpetual festivities and splendid shows, he +strove to keep the minds of the citizens contented and occupied; +tournaments, pageants, masques and triumphs filled the streets; and +the strains of licentious songs, of which many were Lorenzo's own +composition, helped to sap the morality of that people which Dante had +once dreamed of as _sobria e pudica_. But around the Magnifico were +grouped the greatest artists and scholars of the age, who found in him +an enlightened Maecenas and most charming companion. _Amava +maravigliosamente qualunque era in una arte eccellente_, writes +Machiavelli of him; and that word--_maravigliosamente_--so entirely +characteristic of Lorenzo and his ways, occurs again and again, +repeated with studied persistence, in the chapter which closes +Machiavelli's History. He was said to have sounded the depths of +Platonic philosophy; he was a true poet, within certain limitations; +few men have been more keenly alive to beauty in all its +manifestations, physical and spiritual alike. Though profoundly +immoral, _nelle cose veneree maravigliosamente involto_, he was a +tolerable husband, and the fondest of fathers with his children, whom +he adored. The delight of his closing days was the elevation of his +favourite son, Giovanni, to the Cardinalate at the age of fourteen; it +gave the Medici a voice in the Curia like the other princes of Europe, +and pleased all Florence; but more than half Lorenzo's joy proceeded +from paternal pride and love, and the letter of advice which he wrote +for his son on the occasion shows both father and boy in a very +amiable, even edifying light. And yet this same man had ruined the +happiness of countless homes, and had even seized upon the doweries of +Florentine maidens to fill his own coffers and pay his mercenaries. + +But the _bel viver italiano_ of the Quattrocento, with all its +loveliness and all its immorality--more lovely and far less immoral in +Florence than anywhere else--was drawing to an end. A new prophet had +arisen, and, from the pulpits of San Marco and Santa Maria del Fiore, +the stern Dominican, Fra Girolamo Savonarola, denounced the corruption +of the day and announced that speedy judgment was at hand; the Church +should be chastised, and that speedily, and renovation should follow. +Prodigies were seen. The lions tore and rent each other in their +cages; lightning struck the cupola of the Duomo on the side towards +the Medicean palace; while in his villa at Careggi the Magnifico lay +dying, watched over by his sister Bianca and the poet Poliziano. A +visit from the young Pico della Mirandola cheered his last hours. He +received the Last Sacraments, with every sign of contrition and +humility. Then Savonarola came to his bedside. There are two accounts +of what happened between these two terrible men, the corruptor of +Florence and the prophet of renovation, and they are altogether +inconsistent. The ultimate source of the one is apparently +Savonarola's fellow-martyr, Fra Silvestro, an utterly untrustworthy +witness; that of the other, Lorenzo's intimate, Poliziano. According +to Savonarola's biographers and adherents, Lorenzo, overwhelmed with +remorse and terror, had sent for the Frate to give him the absolution +which his courtly confessor dared not refuse (_io non ho mai trovato +uno che sia vero frate, se non lui_); and when the Dominican, seeming +to soar above his natural height, bade him restore liberty to +Florence, the Magnifico sullenly turned his back upon him and shortly +afterwards died in despair.[19] According to Poliziano, an eyewitness +and an absolutely whole-hearted adherent of the Medici, Fra Girolamo +simply spoke a few words of priestly exhortation to the dying man; +then, as he turned away, Lorenzo cried, "Your blessing, father, before +you depart" (_Heus, benedictionem, Pater, priusquam a nobis +proficisceris_) and the two together repeated word for word the +Church's prayers for the departing; then Savonarola returned to his +convent, and Lorenzo passed away in peace and consolation. Reverently +and solemnly the body was brought from Careggi to Florence, rested for +a while in San Marco, and was then buried, with all external +simplicity, with his murdered brother in San Lorenzo. It was the +beginning of April 1492, and the Magnifico was only in his +forty-fourth year. The words of old Sixtus must have risen to the lips +of many: _Oggi e morta la pace d'Italia_. "This man," said Ferrante of +Naples, "lived long enough to make good his own title to immortality, +but not long enough for Italy." + + [19] The familiar legend that Lorenzo told Savonarola that the three + sins which lay heaviest on his conscience were the sack of Volterra, + the robbery of the Monte delle Doti, and the vengeance he had taken + for the Pazzi conspiracy, is only valuable as showing what were + popularly supposed by the Florentines to be his greatest crimes. + +Lorenzo left three sons--Piero, who virtually succeeded him in the +same rather undefined princedom; the young Cardinal Giovanni; and +Giuliano. Their father was wont to call Piero the "mad," Giovanni the +"wise," Giuliano the "good"; and to a certain extent their after-lives +corresponded with his characterisation. There was also a boy Giulio, +Lorenzo's nephew, an illegitimate child of Giuliano the elder by a +girl of the lower class; him Lorenzo left to the charge of Cardinal +Giovanni--the future Pope Clement to the future Pope Leo. Piero had +none of his father's abilities, and was not the man to guide the ship +of State through the storm that was rising; he was a wild licentious +young fellow, devoted to sport and athletics, with a great shock of +dark hair; he was practically the only handsome member of his family, +as you may see in a peculiarly fascinating Botticellian portrait in +the Uffizi, where he is holding a medallion of his great grandfather +Cosimo, and gazing out of the picture with a rather pathetic +expression, as if the Florentines who set a price upon his head had +misunderstood him. + +Piero's folly at once began to undo his father's work. A part of +Lorenzo's policy had been to keep his family united, including those +not belonging to the reigning branch. There were two young Medici then +in the city, about Piero's own age; Lorenzo and Giovanni di Pier +Francesco, the grandsons of Cosimo's brother Lorenzo (you may see +Giovanni with his father in a picture by Filippino Lippi in the +Uffizi). Lorenzo the Magnificent had made a point of keeping on good +terms with them, for they were beloved of the people. Giovanni was +destined, in a way, to play the part of Banquo to the Magnificent's +Macbeth, had there been a Florentine prophet to tell him, "Thou shalt +get kings though thou be none." But Piero disliked the two; at a dance +he struck Giovanni, and then, when the brothers showed resentment, he +arrested both and, not daring to take their lives, confined them to +their villas. And these were times when a stronger head than Piero's +might well have reeled. Italy's day had ended, and she was now to be +the battle-ground for the gigantic forces of the monarchies of Europe. +That same year in which Lorenzo died, Alexander VI. was elected to the +Papacy he had so shamelessly bought. A mysterious terror fell upon the +people; an agony of apprehension consumed their rulers throughout the +length and breadth of the land. In 1494 the crash came. The old King +Ferrante of Naples died, and his successor Alfonso prepared to meet +the torrent of French arms which Ludovico Sforza, the usurping Duke of +Milan, had invited into Italy. + + * * * * * + +In art and in letters, as well as in life and general conduct, this +epoch of the Quattrocento is one of the most marvellous chapters in +the history of human thought; the Renaissance as a wave broke over +Italy, and from Italy surged on to the bounds of Europe. And of this +"discovery by man of himself and of the world," Florence was the +centre; in its hothouse of learning and culture the rarest +personalities flourished, and its strangest and most brilliant flower, +in whose hard brilliancy a suggestion of poison lurked, was Lorenzo +the Magnificent himself. + +In both art and letters, the Renaissance had fully commenced before +the accession of the Medici to power. Ghiberti's first bronze gates of +the Baptistery and Masaccio's frescoes in the Carmine were executed +under the regime of the _nobili popolani_, the Albizzi and their +allies. Many of the men whom the Medici swept relentlessly from their +path were in the fore-front of the movement, such as the noble and +generous Palla Strozzi, one of the reformers of the Florentine Studio, +who brought the Greek, Emanuel Chrysolaras, at the close of the +fourteenth century, to make Florence the centre of Italian Hellenism. +Palla lavished his wealth in the hunting of codices, and at last, when +banished on Cosimo's return, died in harness at Padua at the venerable +age of ninety-two. His house had always been full of learned men, and +his reform of the university had brought throngs of students to +Florence. Put under bounds for ten years at Padua, he lived the life +of an ancient philosopher and of exemplary Christian virtue. +Persecuted at the end of every ten years with a new sentence, the +last--of ten more years--when he was eighty-two; robbed by death of +his wife and sons; he bore all with the utmost patience and fortitude, +until, in Vespasiano's words, "arrived at the age of ninety-two years, +in perfect health of body and of mind, he gave up his soul to his +Redeemer like a most faithful and good Christian." + +In 1401, the first year of the fifteenth century, the competition was +announced for the second gates of the Baptistery, which marks the +beginning of Renaissance sculpture; and the same year witnessed the +birth of Masaccio, who, in the words of Leonardo da Vinci, "showed +with his perfect work how those painters who follow aught but Nature, +the mistress of the masters, laboured in vain," Morelli calls this +Quattrocento the epoch of "character"; "that is, the period when it +was the principal aim of art to seize and represent the outward +appearances of persons and things, determined by inward and moral +conditions." The intimate connection of arts and crafts is +characteristic of the Quattrocento, as also the mutual interaction of +art with art. Sculpture was in advance of painting in the opening +stage of the century, and, indeed, influenced it profoundly +throughout; about the middle of the century they met, and ran +henceforth hand in hand. Many of the painters and sculptors, as, +notably, Ghiberti and Botticelli, had been apprentices in the +workshops of the goldsmiths; nor would the greatest painters disdain +to undertake the adornment of a _cassone_, or chest for wedding +presents, nor the most illustrious sculptor decline a commission for +the button of a prelate's cope or some mere trifle of household +furniture. The medals in the National Museum and the metal work on the +exterior of the Strozzi Palace are as typical of the art of +Renaissance Florence as the grandest statues and most elaborate +altar-pieces. + + [Illustration: IN THE SCULPTORS' WORKSHOP + BY NANNI DI BANCO + (For the Guild of Masters in Stone and Timber)] + +With the work of the individual artists we shall become better +acquainted in subsequent chapters. Here we can merely name their +leaders. In architecture and sculpture respectively, Filippo +Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and Donatello (1386-1466) are the ruling +spirits of the age. Their mutual friendship and brotherly rivalry +almost recall the loves of Dante and Cavalcanti in an earlier day. +Although Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455) justly won the competition for +the second gates of the Baptistery, it is now thought that Filippo ran +his successful rival much more closely than the critics of an earlier +day supposed. Mr Perkins remarks that "indirectly Brunelleschi was the +master of all the great painters and sculptors of his time, for he +taught them how to apply science to art, and so far both Ghiberti and +Donatello were his pupils, but the last was almost literally so, since +the great architect was not only his friend, but also his counsellor +and guide." Contemporaneous with these three _spiriti magni_ in their +earlier works, and even to some extent anticipating them, is Nanni di +Banco (died in 1421), a most excellent master, both in large +monumental statues and in bas-reliefs, whose works are to be seen and +loved outside and inside the Duomo, and in the niches round San +Michele in Orto. A pleasant friendship united him with Donatello, +although to regard him as that supreme master's pupil and follower, +as Vasari does, is an anachronism. To this same earlier portion of the +Quattrocento belong Leo Battista Alberti (1405-1472), a rare genius, +but a wandering stone who, as an architect, accomplished comparatively +little; Michelozzo Michelozzi (1396-1472), who worked as a sculptor +with Ghiberti and Donatello, but is best known as the favoured +architect of the Medici, for whom he built the palace so often +mentioned in these pages, and now known as the Palazzo Riccardi, and +the convent of San Marco; and Luca della Robbia (1399-1482), that +beloved master of marble music, whose enamelled terra-cotta Madonnas +are a perpetual fund of the purest delight. To Michelozzo and Luca in +collaboration we owe the bronze gates of the Duomo sacristy, a work +only inferior to Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise." + +Slightly later come Donatello's great pupils, Desiderio da Settignano +(1428-1464), Andrea Verrocchio (1435-1488), and Antonio Pollaiuolo +(1429-1498). The two latter are almost equally famous as painters. +Contemporaneous with them are Mino da Fiesole, Bernardo and Antonio +Rossellino, Giuliano da San Gallo, Giuliano and Benedetto da Maiano, +of whom the last-named was the first architect of the Strozzi Palace. +The last great architect of the Quattrocento is Simone del Pollaiuolo, +known as Cronaca (1457-1508); and its last great sculptor is Andrea +della Robbia, Luca's nephew, who was born in 1435, and lived on until +1525. Andrea's best works--and they are very numerous indeed, in the +same enamelled terra-cotta--hardly yield in charm and fascination to +those of Luca himself; in some of them, devotional art seems to reach +its last perfection in sculpture. Giovanni, Andrea's son, and others +of the family carried on the tradition--with cruder colours and less +delicate feeling. + +Masaccio (1401-1428), one of "the inheritors of unfulfilled renown," +is the first great painter of the Renaissance, and bears much the same +relation to the fifteenth as Giotto to the fourteenth century. +Vasari's statement that Masaccio's master, Masolino, was Ghiberti's +assistant appears to be incorrect; but it illustrates the dependence +of the painting of this epoch upon sculpture. Masaccio's frescoes in +the Carmine, which became the school of all Italian painting, were +entirely executed before the Medicean regime. The Dominican, Fra +Angelico da Fiesole (1387-1455), seems in his San Marco frescoes to +bring the denizens of the Empyrean, of which the mediaeval mystics +dreamed, down to earth to dwell among the black and white robed +children of St Dominic. The Carmelite, Fra Lippo Lippi (1406-1469), +the favourite of Cosimo, inferior to the angelical painter in +spiritual insight, had a keener eye for the beauty of the external +world and a surer touch upon reality. His buoyant humour and excellent +colouring make "the glad monk's gift" one of the most acceptable that +the Quattrocento has to offer us. Andrea del Castagno (died in 1457) +and Domenico Veneziano (died in 1461), together with Paolo Uccello +(died in 1475), were all absorbed in scientific researches with an eye +to the extension of the resources of their art; but the two former +found time to paint a few masterpieces in their kind--especially a +Cenacolo by Andrea in Santa Appollonia, which is the grandest +representation of its sublime theme, until the time that Leonardo da +Vinci painted on the walls of the Dominican convent at Milan. Problems +of the anatomical construction of the human frame and the rendering of +movement occupied Antonio Pollaiuolo (1429-1498) and Andrea Verrocchio +(1435-1488); their work was taken up and completed a little later by +two greater men, Luca Signorelli of Cortona and Leonardo da Vinci. + +The Florentine painting of this epoch culminates in the work of two +men--Sandro di Mariano Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli +(1447-1510), and Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494). If the greatest +pictures were painted poems, as some have held, then Sandro +Botticelli's masterpieces would be among the greatest of all time. In +his rendering of religious themes, in his intensely poetic and +strangely wistful attitude towards the fair myths of antiquity, and in +his Neo-Platonic mingling of the two, he is the most complete and +typical exponent of the finest spirit of the Quattrocento, to which, +in spite of the date of his death, his art entirely belongs. +Domenico's function, on the other hand, is to translate the external +pomp and circumstance of his times into the most uninspired of painted +prose, but with enormous technical skill and with considerable power +of portraiture; this he effected above all in his ostensibly religious +frescoes in Santa Maria Novella and Santa Trinita. Elsewhere he shows +a certain pathetic sympathy with humbler life, as in his Santa Fina +frescoes at San Gemignano, and in the admirable Adoration of the +Shepherds in the Accademia; but this is a less characteristic vein. +Filippino Lippi (1457-1504), the son of the Carmelite and the pupil of +Botticelli, has a certain wayward charm, especially in his earlier +works, but as a rule falls much below his master. He may be regarded +as the last direct inheritor of the traditions of Masaccio. Associated +with these are two lesser men, who lived considerably beyond the +limits of the fifteenth century, but whose artistic methods never went +past it; Piero di Cosimo (1462-1521) and Lorenzo di Credi (1459-1537). +The former (called after Cosimo Rosselli, his master) was one of the +most piquant personalities in the art world of Florence, as all +readers of _Romola_ know. As a painter, he has been very much +overestimated; at his best, he is a sort of Botticelli, with the +Botticellian grace and the Botticellian poetry almost all left out. He +was magnificent at designing pageants; and of one of his exploits in +this kind, we shall hear more presently. Lorenzo di Credi, +Verrocchio's favourite pupil, was later, like Botticelli and others, +to fall under the spell of Fra Girolamo; his pictures breathe a true +religious sentiment and are very carefully finished; but for the most +part, though there are exceptions, they lack virility. + +Before this epoch closed, the two greatest heroes of Florentine art +had appeared upon the scenes, but their great work lay still in the +future. Leonardo da Vinci (born in 1452) had learned to paint in the +school of Verrocchio; but painting was to occupy but a small portion +of his time and labour. His mind roamed freely over every field of +human activity, and plunged deeply into every sphere of human thought; +nor is he adequately represented even by the greatest of the pictures +that he has left. There is nothing of him now in Florence, save a few +drawings in the Uffizi and an unfinished picture of the Epiphany. +Leonardo finished little, and, with that little, time and man have +dealt hardly. Michelangelo Buonarroti was born in the Casentino in +1475, and nurtured among the stone quarries of Settignano. At the age +of thirteen, his father apprenticed him to the Ghirlandaii, Domenico +and his brother David; and, with his friend and fellow-student, +Francesco Granacci, the boy began to frequent the gardens of the +Medici, near San Marco, where in the midst of a rich collection of +antiquities Donatello's pupil and successor, Bertoldo, directed a kind +of Academy. Here Michelangelo attracted the attention of Lorenzo +himself, by the head of an old satyr which he had hammered out of a +piece of marble that fell to his hand; and the Magnifico took him into +his household. This youthful period in the great master's career was +occupied in drinking in culture from the Medicean circle, in studying +the antique and, of the moderns, especially the works of Donatello and +Masaccio. But, with the exception of a few early fragments from his +hand, Michelangelo's work commenced with his first visit to Rome, in +1496, and belongs to the following epoch. + +Turning from art to letters, the Quattrocento is an intermediate +period between the mainly Tuscan literary movement of the fourteenth +century and the general Italian literature of the sixteenth. The first +part of this century is the time of the discovery of the old authors, +of the copying of manuscripts (printing was not introduced into +Florence until 1471), of the eager search for classical relics and +antiquities, the comparative neglect of Italian when Latinity became +the test of all. Florence was the centre of the Humanism of the +Renaissance, the revival of Grecian culture, the blending of +Christianity and Paganism, the aping of antiquity in theory and in +practice. In the pages of Vespasiano we are given a series of lifelike +portraits of the scholars of this epoch, who thronged to Florence, +served the State as Secretary of the Republic or occupied chairs in +her newly reorganised university, or basked in the sun of Strozzian or +Medicean patronage. Niccolo Niccoli, who died in 1437, is one of the +most typical of these scholars; an ardent collector of ancient +manuscripts, his library, purchased after his death by Cosimo dei +Medici, forms the nucleus of the Biblioteca Laurenziana. His house was +adorned with all that was held most choice and precious; he always +wore long sweeping red robes, and had his table covered with ancient +vases and precious Greek cups and the like. In fact he played the +ancient sage to such perfection that simply to watch him eat his +dinner was a liberal education in itself! _A vederlo in tavola, cosi +antico come era, era una gentilezza._ + +Vespasiano tells a delightful yarn of how one fine day this Niccolo +Niccoli, "who was another Socrates or another Cato for continence and +virtue," was taking a constitutional round the Palazzo del Podesta, +when he chanced to espy a youth of most comely aspect, one who was +entirely devoted to worldly pleasures and delights, young Piero Pazzi. +Calling him and learning his name, Niccolo proceeded to question him +as to his profession. "Having a high old time," answered the ingenuous +youth: _attendo a darmi buon tempo_. "Being thy father's son and so +handsome," said the Sage severely, "it is a shame that thou dost not +set thyself to learn the Latin language, which would be a great +ornament to thee; and if thou dost not learn it, thou wilt be esteemed +of no account; yea, when the flower of thy youth is past, thou shalt +find thyself without any _virtu_." Messer Piero was converted on the +spot; Niccolo straightway found him a master and provided him with +books; and the pleasure-loving youth became a scholar and a patron of +scholars. Vespasiano assures us that, if he had lived, _lo +inconveniente che seguito_--so he euphoniously terms the Pazzi +conspiracy--would never have happened. + +Leonardo Bruni is the nearest approach to a really great figure in the +Florentine literary world of the first half of the century. His +translations of Plato and Aristotle, especially the former, mark an +epoch. His Latin history of Florence shows genuine critical insight; +but he is, perhaps, best known at the present day by his little Life +of Dante in Italian, a charming and valuable sketch, which has +preserved for us some fragments of Dantesque letters and several bits +of really precious information about the divine poet, which seem to +be authentic and which we do not find elsewhere. Leonardo appears to +have undertaken it as a kind of holiday task, for recreation after the +work of composing his more ponderous history. As Secretary of the +Republic he exercised considerable political influence; his fame was +so great that people came to Florence only to look at him; on his +death in 1444, he was solemnly crowned on the bier as poet laureate, +and buried in Santa Croce with stately pomp and applauded funeral +orations. Leonardo's successors, Carlo Marsuppini (like him, an +Aretine by birth) and Poggio Bracciolini--the one noted for his frank +paganism, the other for the foulness of his literary invective--are +less attractive figures; though the latter was no less famous and +influential in his day. Giannozzo Manetti, who pronounced Bruni's +funeral oration, was noted for his eloquence and incorruptibility, and +stands out prominently amidst the scholars and humanists by virtue of +his nobleness of character; like that other hero of the new learning, +Palla Strozzi, he was driven into exile and persecuted by the +Mediceans. + +Far more interesting are the men of light and learning who gathered +round Lorenzo dei Medici in the latter half of the century. This is +the epoch of the Platonic Academy, which Marsilio Ficino had founded +under the auspices of Cosimo. The discussions held in the convent +retreat among the forests of Camaldoli, the meetings in the Badia at +the foot of Fiesole, the mystical banquets celebrated in Lorenzo's +villa at Careggi in honour of the anniversary of Plato's birth and +death, may have added little to the sum of man's philosophic thought; +but the Neo-Platonic religion of love and beauty, which was there +proclaimed to the modern world, has left eternal traces in the poetic +literature both of Italy and of England. Spenser and Shelley might +have sat with the nine guests, whose number honoured the nine Muses, +at the famous Platonic banquet at Careggi, of which Marsilio Ficino +himself has left us an account in his commentary on the _Symposium_. +You may read a later Italian echo of it, when Marsilio Ficino had +passed away and his academy was a thing of the past, in the +impassioned and rapturous discourse on love and beauty poured forth by +Pietro Bembo, at that wonderful daybreak which ends the discussions of +Urbino's courtiers in Castiglione's treatise. In a creed that could +find one formula to cover both the reception of the Stigmata by St +Francis and the mystical flights of the Platonic Socrates and +Plotinus; that could unite the Sibyls and Diotima with the Magdalene +and the Virgin Martyrs; many a perplexed Italian of that epoch might +find more than temporary rest for his soul. + +Simultaneously with this new Platonic movement there came a great +revival of Italian literature, alike in poetry and in prose; what +Carducci calls _il rinascimento della vita italiana nella forma +classica_. The earlier humanists had scorned, or at least neglected +the language of Dante; and the circle that surrounded Lorenzo was +undoubtedly instrumental in this Italian reaction. Cristoforo Landini, +one of the principal members of the Platonic Academy, now wrote the +first Renaissance commentary upon the _Divina Commedia_; Leo Battista +Alberti, also a leader in these Platonic disputations, defended the +dignity of the Italian language, as Dante himself had done in an +earlier day. Lorenzo himself compiled the so-called _Raccolta +Aragonese_ of early Italian lyrics, and sent them to Frederick of +Aragon, together with a letter full of enthusiasm for the Tuscan +tongue, and with critical remarks on the individual poets of the +thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Upon the popular poetry of +Tuscany Lorenzo himself, and his favourite Angelo Ambrogini of +Montepulciano, better known as Poliziano, founded a new school of +Italian song. Luigi Pulci, the gay scoffer and cynical sceptic, +entertained the festive gatherings in the Medicean palace with his +wild tales, and, in his _Morgante Maggiore_, was practically the first +to work up the popular legends of Orlando and the Paladins into a +noteworthy poem--a poem of which Savonarola and his followers were +afterwards to burn every copy that fell into their hands. + +Poliziano is at once the truest classical scholar, and, with the +possible exception of Boiardo (who belongs to Ferrara, and does not +come within the scope of the present volume), the greatest Italian +poet of the fifteenth century. He is, indeed, the last and most +perfect fruit of Florentine Humanism. His father, Benedetto Ambrogini, +had been murdered in Montepulciano by the faction hostile to the +Medici; and the boy Angelo, coming to Florence, and studying under +Ficino and his colleagues, was received into Lorenzo's household as +tutor to the younger Piero. His lectures at the Studio attracted +students from all Europe, and his labours in the field of textual +criticism won a fame that has lasted to the present day. In Italian he +wrote the _Orfeo_ in two days for performance at Mantua, when he was +eighteen, a lyrical tragedy which stamps him as the father of Italian +dramatic opera; the scene of the descent of Orpheus into Hades +contains lyrical passages of great melodiousness. Shortly before the +Pazzi conspiracy, he composed his famous _Stanze_ in celebration of a +tournament given by Giuliano dei Medici, and in honour of the _bella +Simonetta_. There is absolutely no "fundamental brain work" about +these exquisitely finished stanzas; but they are full of dainty +mythological pictures quite in the Botticellian style, overladen, +perhaps, with adulation of the reigning house and its _ben nato +Lauro_. In his lyrics he gave artistic form to the _rispetti_ and +_strambotti_ of the people, and wrote exceedingly musical _ballate_, +or _canzoni a ballo_, which are the best of their kind in the whole +range of Italian poetry. There is, however, little genuine passion in +his love poems for his lady, Madonna Ippolita Leoncina of Prato; +though in all that he wrote there is, as Villari puts it, "a fineness +of taste that was almost Greek." + +Lorenzo dei Medici stands second to his friend as a poet; but he is a +good second. His early affection for the fair Lucrezia Donati, with +its inevitable sonnets and a commentary somewhat in the manner of +Dante's _Vita Nuova_, is more fanciful than earnest, although +Poliziano assures us of + + "La lunga fedelta del franco Lauro." + +But Lorenzo's intense love of external nature, his power of close +observation and graphic description, are more clearly shown in such +poems as the _Caccia col Falcone_ and the _Ambra_, written among the +woods and hills in the country round his new villa of Poggio a Caiano. +Elsewhere he gives free scope to the animal side of his sensual +nature, and in his famous _Canti carnascialeschi_, songs to be sung at +carnival and in masquerades, he at times revelled in pruriency, less +for its own sake than for the deliberate corruption of the +Florentines. And, for a time, their music drowned the impassioned +voice of Savonarola, whose stern cry of warning and exhortation to +repentance had for the nonce passed unheeded. + +There is extant a miracle play from Lorenzo's hand, the acts of the +martyrs Giovanni and Paolo, who suffered in the days of the emperor +Julian. Two sides of Lorenzo's nature are ever in conflict--the +Lorenzo of the ballate and the carnival songs--the Lorenzo of the +_laude_ and spiritual poems, many of which have the unmistakable ring +of sincerity. And, in the story of his last days and the summoning of +Savonarola to his bed-side, the triumph of the man's spiritual side is +seen at the end; he is, indeed, in the position of the dying Julian of +his own play:-- + + "Fallace vita! O nostra vana cura! + Lo spirto e gia fuor del mio petto spinto: + O Cristo Galileo, tu hai vinto." + +Such was likewise the attitude of several members of the Medicean +circle, when the crash came. Poliziano followed his friend and patron +to the grave, in September 1494; his last hours received the +consolations of religion from Savonarola's most devoted follower, Fra +Domenico da Pescia (of whom more anon); after death, he was robed in +the habit of St Dominic and buried in San Marco. Pico della Mirandola, +too, had been present at the Magnifico's death-bed, though not there +when the end actually came; he too, in 1494, received the Dominican +habit in death, and was buried by Savonarola's friars in San Marco. +Marsilio Ficino outlived his friends and denied Fra Girolamo; he died +in 1499, and lies at rest in the Duomo. + +Of all these Medicean Platonists, Pico della Mirandola is the most +fascinating. A young Lombard noble of almost feminine beauty, full of +the pride of having mastered all the knowledge of his day, he first +came to Florence in 1480 or 1482, almost at the very moment in which +Marsilio Ficino finished his translation of Plato. He became at once +the chosen friend of all the choicest spirits of Lorenzo's circle. Not +only classical learning, but the mysterious East and the sacred lore +of the Jews had rendered up their treasures for his intellectual +feast; his mysticism shot far beyond even Ficino; all knowledge and +all religions were to him a revelation of the Deity. Not only to +Lorenzo and his associates did young Pico seem a phoenix of earthly +and celestial wisdom, _uomo quasi divino_ as Machiavelli puts it; but +even Savonarola in his _Triumphus Crucis_, written after Pico's death, +declares that, by reason of his loftiness of intellect and the +sublimity of his doctrine, he should be numbered amongst the miracles +of God and Nature. Pico had been much beloved of many women, and not +always a Platonic lover, but, towards the close of his short +flower-like life, he burnt "fyve bokes that in his youthe of wanton +versis of love with other lyke fantasies he had made," and all else +seemed absorbed in the vision of love Divine. "The substance that I +have left," he told his nephew, "I intend to give out to poor people, +and, fencing myself with the crucifix, barefoot walking about the +world, in every town and castle I purpose to preach of Christ." +Savonarola, to whom he had confided all the secrets of his heart, was +not the only martyr who revered the memory of the man whom Lorenzo the +Magnificent had loved. Thomas More translated his life and letters, +and reckoned him a saint. He would die at the time of the lilies, so a +lady had told Pico; and he died indeed on the very day that the golden +lilies on the royal standard of France were borne into Florence +through the Porta San Frediano--consoled with wondrous visions of the +Queen of Heaven, and speaking as though he beheld the heavens opened. + +A month or two earlier, the pen had dropped from the hand of Matteo +Maria Boiardo, as he watched the French army descending the Alps; and +he brought his unfinished _Orlando Innamorato_ to an abrupt close, too +sick at heart to sing of the vain love of Fiordespina for +Brandiamante:-- + + "Mentre che io canto, o Dio Redentore, + Vedo l'Italia tutta a fiamma e foco, + Per questi Galli, che con gran valore + Vengon, per disertar non so che loco." + +"Whilst I sing, Oh my God, I see all Italy in flame and fire, through +these Gauls, who with great valour come, to lay waste I know not what +place." On this note of vague terror, in the onrush of the barbarian +hosts, the Quattrocento closes. + + [Illustration: ARMS OF THE PAZZI] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_From Fra Girolamo to Duke Cosimo_ + + "Vedendo lo omnipotente Dio multiplicare li peccati della Italia, + maxime nelli capi cosi ecclesiastici come seculari, non potendo + piu sostenere, determino purgare la Chiesa sua per uno gran + flagello. Et perche come e scripto in Amos propheta, Non faciet + Dominus Deus verbum nisi revelaverit secretum suum ad servos suos + prophetas: volse per la salute delli suoi electi accio che inanzi + al flagello si preparassino ad sofferire, che nella Italia questo + flagello fussi prenuntiato. Et essendo Firenze in mezzo la Italia + come il core in mezzo il corpo, s'e dignato di eleggere questa + citta; nella quale siano tale cose prenuntiate: accio che per lei + si sparghino negli altri luoghi."--_Savonarola._ + + +_Gladius Domini super terram cito et velociter_, "the Sword of the +Lord upon the earth soon and speedily." These words rang ever in the +ears of the Dominican friar who was now to eclipse the Medicean rulers +of Florence. Girolamo Savonarola, the grandson of a famous Paduan +physician who had settled at the court of Ferrara, had entered the +order of St Dominic at Bologna in 1474, moved by the great misery of +the world and the wickedness of men, and in 1481 had been sent to the +convent of San Marco at Florence. The corruption of the Church, the +vicious lives of her chief pastors, the growing immorality of the +people, the tyranny and oppression of their rulers, had entered into +his very soul--had found utterance in allegorical poetry, in an ode +_De Ruina Mundi_, written whilst still in the world, in another, _De +Ruina Ecclesiae_, composed in the silence of his Bolognese +cloister--that cloister which, in better days, had been hallowed by +the presence of St Dominic and the Angelical Doctor, Thomas Aquinas. +And he believed himself set by God as a watchman in the centre of +Italy, to announce to the people and princes that the sword was to +fall upon them: "If the sword come, and thou hast not announced it," +said the spirit voice that spoke to him in the silence as the daemon to +Socrates, "and they perish unwarned, I will require their blood at thy +hands and thou shalt bear the penalty." + +But at first the Florentines would not hear him; the gay dancings and +the wild carnival songs of their rulers drowned his voice; courtly +preachers like the Augustinian of Santo Spirito, Fra Mariano da +Gennazano, laid more flattering unction to their souls. Other cities +were more ready; San Gemignano first heard the word of prophecy that +was soon to resound beneath the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, even +as, some two hundred years before, she had listened to the speech of +Dante Alighieri. At the beginning of 1490, the Friar returned to +Florence and San Marco; and, on Sunday, August 1st, expounding the +Apocalypse in the Church of San Marco, he first set forth to the +Florentines the three cardinal points of his doctrine; first, the +Church was to be renovated; secondly, before this renovation, God +would send a great scourge upon all Italy; thirdly, these things would +come speedily. He preached the following Lent in the Duomo; and +thenceforth his great work of reforming Florence, and announcing the +impending judgments of God, went on its inspired way. "Go to Lorenzo +dei Medici," he said to the five citizens who came to him, at the +Magnifico's instigation, to urge him to let the future alone in his +sermons, "and bid him do penance for his sins, for God intends to +punish him and his"; and when elected Prior of San Marco in this same +year, 1491, he would neither enter Lorenzo's palace to salute the +patron of the convent, nor welcome him when he walked among the friars +in the garden. + +Fra Girolamo was preaching the Lent in San Lorenzo, when the Magnifico +died; and, a few days later, he saw a wondrous vision, as he himself +tells us in the _Compendium Revelationum_. "In 1492," he says, "while +I was preaching the Lent in San Lorenzo at Florence, I saw, on the +night of Good Friday, two crosses. First, a black cross in the midst +of Rome, whereof the head touched the heaven and the arms stretched +forth over all the earth; and above it were written these words, _Crux +irae Dei_. After I had beheld it, suddenly I saw the sky grow dark, +and clouds fly through the air; winds, flashes of lightning and +thunderbolts drove across, hail, fire and swords rained down, and slew +a vast multitude of folk, so that few remained on the earth. And after +this, there came a sky right calm and bright, and I saw another cross, +of the same greatness as the first but of gold, rise up over +Jerusalem; the which was so resplendent that it illumined all the +world, and filled it all with flowers and joy; and above it was +written, _Crux misericordiae Dei_. And I saw all generations of men +and women come from all parts of the world, to adore it and embrace +it." + +In the following August came the simoniacal election of Roderigo +Borgia to the Papacy, as Alexander VI.; and in Advent another vision +appeared to the prophet in his cell, which can only be told in Fra +Girolamo's own words:-- + +"I saw then in the year 1492, the night before the last sermon which I +gave that Advent in Santa Reparata, a hand in Heaven with a sword, +upon the which was written: _The sword of the Lord upon the earth, +soon and speedily_; and over the hand was written, _True and just are +the judgments of the Lord._ And it seemed that the arm of that hand +proceeded from three faces in one light, of which the first said: _The +iniquity of my sanctuary crieth to me from the earth._ The second +replied: _Therefore will I visit with a rod their iniquities, and with +stripes their sins._ The third said: _My mercy will I not remove from +it, nor will I harm it in my truth, and I will have mercy upon the +poor and the needy._ In like manner the first answered: _My people +have forgotten my commandments days without number._ The second +replied: _Therefore will I grind and break in pieces and will not have +mercy._ The third said: _I will be mindful of those who walk in my +precepts._ And straightway there came a great voice from all the three +faces, over all the world, and it said: _Hearken, all ye dwellers on +the earth; thus saith the Lord: I, the Lord, am speaking in my holy +zeal. Behold, the days shall come and I will unsheath my sword upon +you. Be ye converted therefore unto me, before my fury be +accomplished; for when the destruction cometh, ye shall seek peace and +there shall be none._ After these words it seemed to me that I saw the +whole world, and that the Angels descended from Heaven to earth, +arrayed in white, with a multitude of spotless stoles on their +shoulders and red crosses in their hands; and they went through the +world, offering to each man a white robe and a cross. Some men +accepted them and robed themselves with them. Some would not accept +them, although they did not impede the others who accepted them. +Others would neither accept them nor permit that the others should +accept them; and these were the tepid and the sapient of this world, +who made mock of them and strove to persuade the contrary. After this, +the hand turned the sword down towards the earth; and suddenly it +seemed that all the air grew dark with clouds, and that it rained +down swords and hail with great thunder and lightning and fire; and +there came upon the earth pestilence and famine and great tribulation. +And I saw the Angels go through the midst of the people, and give to +those who had the white robe and the cross in their hands a clear wine +to drink; and they drank and said: _How sweet in our mouths are thy +words, O Lord._ And the dregs at the bottom of the chalice they gave +to drink to the others, and they would not drink; and it seemed that +these would fain have been converted to penitence and could not, and +they said: _Wherefore dost thou forget us, Lord?_ And they wished to +lift up their eyes and look up to God, but they could not, so weighed +down were they with tribulations; for they were as though drunk, and +it seemed that their hearts had left their breasts, and they went +seeking the lusts of this world and found them not. And they walked +like senseless beings without heart. After this was done, I heard a +very great voice from those three faces, which said: _Hear ye then the +word of the Lord: for this have I waited for you, that I may have +mercy upon you. Come ye therefore to me, for I am kind and merciful, +extending mercy to all who call upon me. But if you will not, I will +turn my eyes from you for ever._ And it turned then to the just, and +said: _But rejoice, ye just, and exult, for when my short anger shall +have passed, I will break the horns of sinners, and the horns of the +just shall be exalted._ And suddenly everything disappeared, and it +was said to me: _Son, if sinners had eyes, they would surely see how +grievous and hard is this pestilence, and how sharp the sword._"[20] + + [20] This _Compendium of Revelations_ was, like the _Triumph of the + Cross_, published both in Latin and in Italian simultaneously. I have + rendered the above from the Italian version. + +The French army, terrible beyond any that the Italians had seen, and +rendered even more terrible by the universal dread that filled all +men's minds at this moment, entered Italy. On September 9th, 1494, +Charles VIII. arrived at Asti, where he was received by Ludovico and +his court, while the Swiss sacked and massacred at Rapallo. Here was +the new Cyrus whom Savonarola had foretold, the leader chosen by God +to chastise Italy and reform the Church. While the vague terror +throughout the land was at its height, Savonarola, on September 21st, +ascended the pulpit of the Duomo, and poured forth so terrible a flood +of words on the text _Ecce ego adducam aquas diluvii super terram_, +that the densely packed audience were overwhelmed in agonised panic. +The bloodless mercenary conflicts of a century had reduced Italy to +helplessness; the Aragonese resistance collapsed, and, sacking and +slaughtering as they came, the French marched unopposed through +Lunigiana upon Tuscany. Piero dei Medici, who had favoured the +Aragonese in a half-hearted way, went to meet the French King, +surrendered Sarzana and Pietrasanta, the fortresses which his father +had won back for Florence, promised to cede Pisa and Leghorn, and made +an absolute submission. "Behold," cried Savonarola, a few days later, +"the sword has descended, the scourge has fallen, the prophecies are +being fulfilled; behold, it is the Lord who is leading on these +armies." And he bade the citizens fast and pray throughout the city: +it was for the sins of Italy and of Florence that these things had +happened; for the corruption of the Church, this tempest had arisen. + +It was the republican hero, Piero Capponi, who now gave utterance to +the voice of the people. "Piero dei Medici," he said in the Council of +the Seventy called by the Signoria on November 4th, "is no longer fit +to rule the State: the Republic must provide for itself: the moment +has come to shake off this baby government." They prepared for +defence, but at the same time sent ambassadors to the "most Christian +King," and amongst these ambassadors was Savonarola. In the meantime +Piero dei Medici returned to Florence to find his government at an +end; the Signoria refused him admittance into the palace; the people +assailed him in the Piazza. He made a vain attempt to regain the State +by arms, but the despairing shouts of _Palle, Palle,_ which his +adherents and mercenaries raised, were drowned in the cries of _Popolo +e Liberta_, as the citizens, as in the old days of the Republic, heard +the great bell of the Palace tolling and saw the burghers once more in +arms. On the 9th of November Piero and Giuliano fled through the Porta +di San Gallo; the Cardinal Giovanni, who had shown more courage and +resource, soon followed, disguised as a friar. There was some pillage +done, but little bloodshed. The same day Pisa received the French +troops, and shook off the Florentine yoke--an example shortly followed +by other Tuscan cities. Florence had regained her liberty, but lost her +empire. But the King had listened to the words of Savonarola--words +preserved to us by the Friar himself in his _Compendium +Revelationum_--who had hailed him as the Minister of Christ, but +warned him sternly and fearlessly that, if he abused his power over +Florence, the strength which God had given him would be shattered. + +On November 17th Charles, clad in black velvet with mantle of gold +brocade and splendidly mounted, rode into Florence, as though into a +conquered city, with lance levelled, through the Porta di San +Frediano. With him was that priestly Mars, the terrible Cardinal della +Rovere (afterwards Julius II.), now bent upon the deposition of +Alexander VI. as a simoniacal usurper; and he was followed by all the +gorgeous chivalry of France, with the fierce Swiss infantry, the light +Gascon skirmishers, the gigantic Scottish bowmen--_uomini bestiali_ as +the Florentines called them--in all about 12,000 men. The procession +swept through the gaily decked streets over the Ponte Vecchio, wound +round the Piazza della Signoria, and then round the Duomo, amidst +deafening cries of _Viva Francia_ from the enthusiastic people. But +when the King descended and entered the Cathedral, there was a sad +disillusion--_parve al popolo un poco diminuta la fama_, as the good +apothecary Luca Landucci tells us--for, when off his horse, he +appeared a most insignificant little man, almost deformed, and with an +idiotic expression of countenance, as his bust portrait in the +Bargello still shows. This was not quite the sort of Cyrus that they +had expected from Savonarola's discourses; but still, within and +without Santa Maria del Fiore, the thunderous shouts of _Viva Francia_ +continued, until he was solemnly escorted to the Medicean palace which +had been prepared for his reception. + +That night, and each following night during the French occupation, +Florence shone so with illuminations that it seemed mid-day; every day +was full of feasting and pageantry; but French and Florentines alike +were in arms. The royal "deliverer"--egged on by the ladies of Piero's +family and especially by Alfonsina, his young wife--talked of +restoring the Medici; the Swiss, rioting in the Borgo SS. Apostoli, +were severely handled by the populace, in a way that showed the King +that the Republic was not to be trifled with. On November 24th the +treaty was signed in the Medicean (now the Riccardi) palace, after a +scene never forgotten by the Florentines. Discontented with the amount +of the indemnity, the King exclaimed in a threatening voice, "I will +bid my trumpets sound" (_io faro dare nelle trombe_). Piero Capponi +thereupon snatched the treaty from the royal secretary, tore it in +half, and exclaiming, "And we will sound our bells" (_e noi faremo +dare nelle campane_), turned with his colleagues to leave the room. +Charles, who knew Capponi of old (he had been Florentine Ambassador in +France), had the good sense to laugh it off, and the Republic was +saved. There was to be an alliance between the Republic and the King, +who was henceforth to be called "Restorer and Protector of the Liberty +of Florence." He was to receive a substantial indemnity. Pisa and the +fortresses were for the present to be retained, but ultimately +restored; the decree against the Medici was to be revoked, but they +were still banished from Tuscany. But the King would not go. The +tension every day grew greater, until at last Savonarola sought the +royal presence, solemnly warned him that God's anger would fall upon +him if he lingered, and sent him on his way. On November 28th the +French left Florence, everyone, from Charles himself downwards, +shamelessly carrying off everything of value that they could lay hands +on, including the greater part of the treasures and rarities that +Cosimo and Lorenzo had collected. + +It was now that all Florence turned to the voice that rang out from +the Convent of San Marco and the pulpit of the Duomo; and Savonarola +became, in some measure, the pilot of the State. Mainly through his +influence, the government was remodelled somewhat on the basis of the +Venetian constitution with modifications. The supreme authority was +vested in the _Greater Council_, which created the magistrates and +approved the laws; and it elected the _Council of Eighty_, with which +the Signoria was bound to consult, which, together with the Signoria +and the Colleges, made appointments and discussed matters which could +not be debated in the Greater Council. A law was also passed, known as +the "law of the six beans," which gave citizens the right of appeal +from the decisions of the Signoria or the sentences of the _Otto di +guardia e balia_ (who could condemn even to death by six votes or +"beans")--not to a special council to be chosen from the Greater +Council, as Savonarola wished, but to the Greater Council itself. +There was further a general amnesty proclaimed (March 1495). Finally, +since the time-honoured calling of parliaments had been a mere farce, +an excuse for masking revolution under the pretence of legality, and +was the only means left by which the Medici could constitutionally +have overthrown the new regime, it was ordained (August) that no +parliament should ever again be held under pain of death. "The only +purpose of parliament," said Savonarola, "is to snatch the sovereign +power from the hands of the people." So enthusiastic--to use no +harsher term--did the Friar show himself, that he declared from the +pulpit that, if ever the Signoria should sound the bell for a +parliament, their houses should be sacked, and that they themselves +might be hacked to pieces by the crowd without any sin being thereby +incurred; and that the Consiglio Maggiore was the work of God and not +of man, and that whoever should attempt to change this government +should for ever be accursed of the Lord. It was now that the Sala del +Maggior Consiglio was built by Cronaca in the Priors' Palace, to +accommodate this new government of the people; and the Signoria set up +in the middle of the court and at their gate the two bronze statues by +Donatello, which they took from Piero's palace--the _David_, an emblem +of the triumphant young republic that had overthrown the giant of +tyranny, the _Judith_ as a warning of the punishment that the State +would inflict upon whoso should attempt its restoration; _exemplum +salutis publicae cives posuere_, 1495, ran the new inscription put by +these stern theocratic republicans upon its base. + +But in the meantime Charles had pursued his triumphant march, had +entered Rome, had conquered the kingdom of Naples almost without a +blow. Then fortune turned against him; Ludovico Sforza with the Pope +formed an Italian league, including Venice, with hope of Germany and +Spain, to expel the French from Italy--a league in which all but +Florence and Ferrara joined. Charles was now in full retreat to secure +his return to France, and was said to be marching on Florence with +Piero dei Medici in his company--no reformation of the Church +accomplished, no restoration of Pisa to his ally. The Florentines flew +to arms. But Savonarola imagined that he had had a special Vision of +the Lilies vouchsafed to him by the Blessed Virgin, which pointed to +an alliance with France and the reacquisition of Pisa.[21] He went +forth to meet the King at Poggibonsi, June 1495, overawed the fickle +monarch by his prophetic exhortation, and at least kept the French out +of Florence. A month later, the battle of Fornovo secured Charles' +retreat and occasioned (what was more important to posterity) +Mantegna's Madonna of the Victory. And of the lost cities and +fortresses, Leghorn alone was recovered. + + [21] When Savonarola entered upon the political arena, his spiritual + sight was often terribly dimmed. The cause of Pisa against Florence + was every bit as righteous as that of the Florentines themselves + against the Medici. + +But all that Savonarola had done, or was to do, in the political field +was but the means to an end--the reformation and purification of +Florence. It was to be a united and consecrated State, with Christ +alone for King, adorned with all triumphs of Christian art and sacred +poetry, a fire of spiritual felicity to Italy and all the earth. In +Lent and Advent especially, his voice sounded from the pulpit, +denouncing vice, showing the beauty of righteousness, the efficacy of +the sacraments, and interpreting the Prophets, with special reference +to the needs of his times. And for a while Florence seemed verily a +new city. For the wild licence of the Carnival, for the Pagan +pageantry that the Medicean princes had loved, for the sensual songs +that had once floated up from every street of the City of +Flowers--there were now bonfires of the vanities in the public +squares; holocausts of immoral books, indecent pictures, all that +ministered to luxury and wantonness (and much, too, that was very +precious!); there were processions in honour of Christ and His Mother, +there were new mystical lauds and hymns of divine love. A kind of +spiritual inebriation took possession of the people and their rulers +alike. Tonsured friars and grave citizens, with heads garlanded, +mingled with the children and danced like David before the Ark, +shouting, "_Viva Cristo e la Vergine Maria nostra regina._" They had +indeed, like the Apostle, become fools for Christ's sake. "It was a +holy time," writes good Luca Landucci, "but it was short. The wicked +have prevailed over the good. Praised be God that I saw that short +holy time. Wherefore I pray God that He may give it back to us, that +holy and pure living. It was indeed a blessed time." Above all, the +children of Florence were the Friar's chosen emissaries and agents in +the great work he had in hand; he organised them into bands, with +standard-bearers and officers like the time-honoured city companies +with their gonfaloniers, and sent them round the city to seize +vanities, forcibly to stop gambling, to collect alms for the poor, and +even to exercise a supervision over the ladies' dresses. _Ecco i +fanciugli del Frate_, was an instant signal for gamblers to take to +flight, and for the fair and frail ladies to be on their very best +behaviour. They proceeded with olive branches, like the children of +Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday; they made the churches ring with +their hymns to the Madonna, and even harangued the Signoria on the +best method of reforming the morals of the citizens. "Out of the +mouths of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise," quotes +Landucci: "I have written these things because they are true, and I +have seen them and have felt their sweetness, and some of my own +children were among these pure and blessed bands."[22] + + [22] This Luca Landucci, whose diary we shall have occasion to quote + more than once, kept an apothecary's shop near the Strozzi Palace at + the Canto de' Tornaquinci. He was an ardent Piagnone, though he + wavered at times. He died in 1516, and was buried in Santa Maria + Novella. + +But the holy time was short indeed. Factions were still only too much +alive. The _Bigi_ or _Palleschi_ were secretly ready to welcome the +Medici back; the _Arrabbiati_, the powerful section of the citizens +who, to some extent, held the traditions of the so-called _Ottimati_ +or _nobili popolani_, whom the Medici had overthrown, were even more +bitter in their hatred to the _Frateschi_ or _Piagnoni_, as the +adherents of the Friar were called, though prepared to make common +cause with them on the least rumour of Piero dei Medici approaching +the walls. The _Compagnacci_, or "bad companions," dissolute young men +and evil livers, were banded together under Doffo Spini, and would +gladly have taken the life of the man who had curtailed their +opportunities for vice. And to these there were now added the open +hostility of Pope Alexander VI., and the secret machinations of his +worthy ally, the Duke of Milan. The Pope's hostility was at first +mainly political; he had no objection whatever to Savonarola reforming +faith and morals (so long as he did not ask Roderigo Borgia to reform +himself), but could not abide the Friar declaring that he had a +special mission from God and the Madonna to oppose the Italian league +against France. At the same time the Pope would undoubtedly have been +glad to see Piero dei Medici restored to power. But in the early part +of 1496, it became a war to the death between these two--the Prophet +of Righteousness and the Church's Caiaphas--a war which seemed at one +moment about to convulse all Christendom, but which ended in the +funeral pyre of the Piazza della Signoria. + +On Ash Wednesday, February 17th, Fra Girolamo, amidst the vastest +audience that had yet flocked to hear his words, ascended once more +the pulpit of Santa Maria del Fiore. He commenced by a profession of +most absolute submission to the Church of Rome. "I have ever believed, +and do believe," he said, "all that is believed by the Holy Roman +Church, and have ever submitted, and do submit, myself to her.... I +rely only on Christ and on the decisions of the Church of Rome." But +this was a prelude to the famous series of sermons on Amos and +Zechariah which he preached throughout this Lent, and which was in +effect a superb and inspired denunciation of the wickedness of +Alexander and his Court, of the shameless corruption of the Papal +Curia and the Church generally, which had made Rome, for a while, the +sink of Christendom. Nearly two hundred years before, St Peter had +said the same thing to Dante in the Heaven of the Fixed Stars:-- + + "Quegli ch'usurpa in terra il loco mio, + il loco mio, il loco mio, che vaca + nella presenza del Figliuol di Dio, + fatto ha del cimitero mio cloaca + del sangue e della puzza, onde il perverso + che cadde di quassu, laggiu si placa."[23] + + [23] "He who usurpeth upon earth my place, my place, my place, which + in the presence of the Son of God is vacant, + + "hath made my burial-ground a conduit for that blood and filth, + whereby the apostate one who fell from here above, is soothed down + there below."--_Paradiso_ xxvii. + Wicksteed's Translation. + +These were, perhaps, the most terrible of all Savonarola's sermons and +prophecies. Chastisement was to come upon Rome; she was to be girdled +with steel, put to the sword, consumed with fire. Italy was to be +ravaged with pestilence and famine; from all sides the barbarian +hordes would sweep down upon her. Let them fly from this corrupted +Rome, this new Babylon of confusion, and come to repentance. And for +himself, he asked and hoped for nothing but the lot of the martyrs, +when his work was done. These sermons echoed through all Europe; and +when the Friar, after a temporary absence at Prato, returned to the +pulpit in May with a new course of sermons on Ruth and Micah, he was +no less daring; as loudly as ever he rebuked the hideous corruption of +the times, the wickedness of the Roman Court, and announced the +scourge that was at hand:-- + +"I announce to thee, Italy and Rome, that the Lord will come forth out +of His place. He has awaited thee so long that He can wait no more. I +tell thee that God will draw forth the sword from the sheath; He will +send the foreign nations; He will come forth out of His clemency and +His mercy; and such bloodshed shall there be, so many deaths, such +cruelty, that thou shalt say: O Lord, Thou hast come forth out of Thy +place. Yea, the Lord shall come; He will come down and tread upon the +high places of the earth. I say to thee, Italy and Rome, that the Lord +will tread upon thee. I have bidden thee do penance; thou art worse +than ever. The feet of the Lord shall tread upon thee; His feet shall +be the horses, the armies of the foreign nations that shall trample +upon the great men of Italy; and soon shall priests, friars, bishops, +cardinals and great masters be trampled down.... + +"Trust not, Rome, in saying: Here we have the relics, here we have St +Peter and so many bodies of martyrs. God will not suffer such +iniquities! I warn thee that their blood cries up to Christ to come +and chastise thee."[24] + + [24] Sermon on May 29th, 1496. In Villari and Casanova, _Scelte di + prediche e scritti di Fra Girolamo Savonarola_. + +But, in the meanwhile, the state of Florence was dark and dismal in +the extreme. Pestilence and famine ravaged her streets; the war +against Pisa seemed more hopeless every day; Piero Capponi had fallen +in the field in September; and the forces of the League threatened her +with destruction, unless she deserted the French alliance. King +Charles showed no disposition to return; the Emperor Maximilian, with +the Venetian fleet, was blockading her sole remaining port of Leghorn. +A gleam of light came in October, when, at the very moment that the +miraculous Madonna of the Impruneta was being borne through the +streets in procession by the Piagnoni, a messenger brought the news +that reinforcements and provisions had reached Leghorn from +Marseilles; and it was followed in November by the dispersion of the +imperial fleet by a tempest. At the opening of 1497 a Signory devoted +to Savonarola, and headed by Francesco Valori as Gonfaloniere, was +elected; and the following carnival witnessed an even more emphatic +burning of the vanities in the great Piazza, while the sweet voices of +the "children of the Friar" seemed to rise louder and louder in +intercession and in praise. Savonarola was at this time living more +in seclusion, broken in health, and entirely engaged upon his great +theological treatise, the _Triumphus Crucis_; but in Lent he resumed +his pulpit crusade against the corruption of the Church, the +scandalous lives of her chief pastors, in a series of sermons on +Ezekiel; above all in one most tremendous discourse on the text: "And +in all thy abominations and thy fornications thou hast not remembered +the days of thy youth." In April, relying upon the election of a new +Signoria favourable to the Mediceans (and headed by Bernardo del Nero +as Gonfaloniere), Piero dei Medici--who had been leading a most +degraded life in Rome, and committing every turpitude imaginable--made +an attempt to surprise Florence, which merely resulted in a +contemptible fiasco. This threw the government into the hands of the +Arrabbiati, who hated Savonarola even more than the Palleschi did, and +who were intriguing with the Pope and the Duke of Milan. On Ascension +Day the Compagnacci raised a disgraceful riot in the Duomo, +interrupted Savonarola's sermon, and even attempted to take his life. +Then at last there came from Rome the long-expected bull of +excommunication, commencing, "We have heard from many persons worthy +of belief that a certain Fra Girolamo Savonarola, at this present said +to be vicar of San Marco in Florence, hath disseminated pernicious +doctrines to the scandal and great grief of simple souls." It was +published on June 18th in the Badia, the Annunziata, Santa Croce, +Santa Maria Novella, and Santo Spirito, with the usual solemn +ceremonies of ringing bells and dashing out of the lights--in the +last-named church, especially, the monks "did the cursing in the most +orgulist wise that might be done," as the compiler of the _Morte +Darthur_ would put it. + +The Arrabbiati and Compagnacci were exultant, but the Signoria that +entered office in July seemed disposed to make Savonarola's cause +their own. A fresh plot was discovered to betray Florence to Piero dei +Medici, and five of the noblest citizens in the State--the aged +Bernardo del Nero, who had merely known of the plot and not divulged +it, but who had been privy to Piero's coming in April while +Gonfaloniere, among them--were beheaded in the courtyard of the +Bargello's palace, adjoining the Palazzo Vecchio. In this Savonarola +took no share; he was absorbed in tending those who were dying on all +sides from the plague and famine, and in making the final revision of +his _Triumph of the Cross_, which was to show to the Pope and all the +world how steadfastly he held to the faith of the Church of Rome.[25] +The execution of these conspirators caused great indignation among +many in the city. They had been refused the right of appeal to the +Consiglio Maggiore, and it was held that Fra Girolamo might have saved +them, had he so chosen, and that his ally, Francesco Valori, who had +relentlessly hounded them to their deaths, had been actuated mainly by +personal hatred of Bernardo del Nero. + + [25] Professor Villari justly remarks that "Savonarola's attacks were + never directed in the slightest degree against the dogmas of the Roman + Church, but solely against those who corrupted them." The _Triumph of + the Cross_ was intended to do for the Renaissance what St Thomas + Aquinas had accomplished for the Middle Ages in his _Summa contra + Gentiles_. As this book is the fullest expression of Savonarola's + creed, it is much to be regretted that more than one of its English + translators have omitted some of its most characteristic and important + passages bearing upon Catholic practice and doctrine, without the + slightest indication that any such process of "expurgation" has been + carried out. + +But Savonarola could not long keep silence, and in the following +February, 1498, on Septuagesima Sunday, he again ascended the pulpit +of the Duomo. Many of his adherents, Landucci tells us, kept away for +fear of the excommunication: "I was one of those who did not go +there." Not faith, but charity it is that justifies and perfects +man--such was the burden of the Friar's sermons now: if the Pope gives +commands which are contrary to charity, he is no instrument of the +Lord, but a broken tool. The excommunication is invalid, the Lord will +work a miracle through His servant when His time comes, and his only +prayer is that he may die in defence of the truth. On the last day of +the Carnival, after communicating his friars and a vast throng of the +laity, Savonarola addressed the people in the Piazza of San Marco, +and, holding on high the Host, prayed that Christ would send fire from +heaven upon him that should swallow him up into hell, if he were +deceiving himself, and if his words were not from God. There was a +more gorgeous burning of the Vanities than ever; but all during Lent +the unequal conflict went on, and the Friar began to talk of a future +Council. This was the last straw. An interdict would ruin the commerce +of Florence; and on the 17th of March the Signoria bowed before the +storm, and forbade Savonarola to preach again. On the following +morning, the third Sunday in Lent, he delivered his last sermon:-- + +"If I am deceived, Christ, Thou hast deceived me, Thou. Holy Trinity, +if I am deceived, Thou hast deceived me. Angels, if I am deceived, ye +have deceived me. Saints of Paradise, if I am deceived, ye have +deceived me. But all that God has said, or His angels or His saints +have said, is most true, and it is impossible that they should lie; +and, therefore, it is impossible that, when I repeat what they have +told me, I should lie. O Rome, do all that thou wilt, for I assure +thee of this, that the Lord is with me. O Rome, it is hard for thee to +kick against the pricks. Thou shalt be purified yet.... Italy, Italy, +the Lord is with me. Thou wilt not be able to do aught. Florence, +Florence, that is, ye evil citizens of Florence, arm yourselves as ye +will, ye shall be conquered this time, and ye shall not be able to +kick against the pricks, for the Lord is with me, as a strong +warrior." "Let us leave all to the Lord; He has been the Master of all +the Prophets, and of all the holy men. He is the Master who wieldeth +the hammer, and, when He hath used it for His purpose, putteth it not +back into the chest, but casteth it aside. So did He unto Jeremiah, +for when He had used him as much as He wished, He cast him aside and +had him stoned. So will it be also with this hammer; when He shall +have used it in His own way, He will cast it aside. Yea, we are +content, let the Lord's will be done; and by the more suffering that +shall be ours here below, so much the greater shall the crown be +hereafter, there on high." + +"We will do with our prayers what we had to do with our preaching. O +Lord, I commend to Thee the good and the pure of heart; and I pray +Thee, look not at the negligence of the good, because human frailty is +great, yea, their frailty is great. Bless, Lord, the good and pure of +heart. Lord, I pray Thee that Thou delay no longer in fulfilling Thy +promises." + +It was now, in the silence of his cell, that Savonarola prepared his +last move. He would appeal to the princes of Christendom--the Emperor, +Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, Henry VII. of England, the King of +Hungary, and above all, that "most Christian King" Charles VIII. of +France--to summon a general council, depose the simoniacal usurper who +was polluting the chair of Peter, and reform the Church. He was +prepared to promise miracles from God to confirm his words. These +letters were written, but never sent; a preliminary message was +forwarded from trustworthy friends in Florence to influential persons +in each court to prepare them for what was coming; and the despatch +to the Florentine ambassador in France was intercepted by the agents +of the Duke of Milan. It was at once placed in the hands of Cardinal +Ascanio Sforza in Rome, and the end was now a matter of days. The +Signoria was hostile, and the famous ordeal by fire lit the +conflagration that freed the martyr and patriot. On Sunday, March +25th, the Franciscan Francesco da Puglia, preaching in Santa Croce and +denouncing Savonarola, challenged him to prove his doctrines by a +miracle, to pass unscathed through the fire. He was himself prepared +to enter the flames with him, or at least said that he was. Against +Savonarola's will his lieutenant, Fra Domenico, who had taken his +place in the pulpit, drew up a series of conclusions (epitomising +Savonarola's teaching and declaring the nullity of the excommunication), +and declared himself ready to enter the fire to prove their truth. + +Huge was the delight of the Compagnacci at the prospect of such sport, +and the Signoria seized upon it as a chance of ending the matter once +for all. Whether the Franciscans were sincere, or whether it was a +mere plot to enable the Arrabbiati and Compagnacci to destroy +Savonarola, is still a matter of dispute. The Piagnoni were confident +in the coming triumph of their prophet; champions came forward from +both sides, professedly eager to enter the flames--although it was +muttered that the Compagnacci and their Doffo Spini had promised the +Franciscans that no harm should befall them. Savonarola misliked it, +but took every precaution that, if the ordeal really came off, there +should be no possibility of fraud or evasion. Of the amazing scene in +the Piazza on April 7th, I will speak in the following chapter; +suffice it to say here that it ended in a complete fiasco, and that +Savonarola and his friars would never have reached their convent +alive, but for the protection of the armed soldiery of the Signoria. +Hounded home under the showers of stones and filth from the infuriated +crowd, whose howls of execration echoed through San Marco, Fra +Girolamo had the _Te Deum_ sung, but knew in his heart that all was +lost. That very same day his Cyrus, the champion of his prophetic +dreams, Charles VIII. of France, was struck down by an apoplectic +stroke at Amboise; and, as though in judgment for his abandonment of +what the prophet had told him was the work of the Lord, breathed his +last in the utmost misery and ignominy. + +The next morning, Palm Sunday, April 8th, Savonarola preached a very +short sermon in the church of San Marco, in which he offered himself +in sacrifice to God and was prepared to suffer death for his flock. +_Tanto fu sempre questo uomo simile a se stesso_, says Jacopo Nardi. +Hell had broken loose by the evening, and the Arrabbiati and +Compagnacci, stabbing and hewing as they came, surged round the church +and convent. In spite of Savonarola and Fra Domenico, the friars had +weapons and ammunition in their cells, and there was a small band of +devout laymen with them, prepared to hold by the prophet to the end. +From vespers till past midnight the attack and defence went on; in the +Piazza, in the church, and through the cloisters raged the fight, +while riot and murder wantoned through the streets of the city. +Francesco Valori, who had escaped from the convent in the hope of +bringing reinforcements, was brutally murdered before his own door. +The great bell of the convent tolled and tolled, animating both +besieged and besiegers to fresh efforts, but bringing no relief from +without. Savonarola, who had been prevented from following the +impulses of his heart and delivering himself up to the infernal crew +that thirsted for his blood in the Piazza, at last gathered his +friars round him before the Blessed Sacrament, in the great hall of +the Greek library, solemnly confirmed his doctrine, exhorted them to +embrace the Cross alone, and then, together with Fra Domenico, gave +himself into the hands of the forces of the Signoria. The entire +cloisters were already swarming with his exultant foes. "The work of +the Lord shall go forward without cease," he said, as the mace-bearers +bound him and Domenico, "my death will but hasten it on." Buffeted and +insulted by the Compagnacci and the populace, amidst the deafening +uproar, the two Dominicans were brought to the Palazzo Vecchio. It +seemed to the excited imaginations of the Piagnoni that the scenes of +the first Passiontide at Jerusalem were now being repeated in the +streets of fifteenth century Florence. + +The Signoria had no intention of handing over their captives to Rome, +but appointed a commission of seventeen--including Doffo Spini and +several of Savonarola's bitterest foes--to conduct the examination of +the three friars. The third, Fra Silvestro, a weak and foolish +visionary, had hid himself on the fatal night, but had been given up +on the following day. Again and again were they most cruelly +tortured--but in all essentials, though ever and anon they wrung some +sort of agonised denial from his lips, Savonarola's testimony as to +his divine mission was unshaken. Fra Domenico, the lion-hearted soul +whom the children of Florence had loved, and to whom poets like +Poliziano had turned on their death-beds, was as heroic on the rack or +under the torment of the boot as he had been throughout his career. +Out of Fra Silvestro the examiners could naturally extort almost +anything they pleased. And a number of laymen and others, supposed to +have been in their counsels, were similarly "examined," and their +shrieks rang through the Bargello; but with little profit to the +Friar's foes. So they falsified the confessions, and read the +falsification aloud in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, to the +bewilderment of all Savonarola's quondam disciples who were there. "We +had believed him to be a prophet," writes Landucci in his diary, "and +he confessed that he was not a prophet, and that he had not received +from God the things that he preached; and he confessed that many +things in his sermons were the contrary to what he had given us to +understand. And I was there when this process was read, whereat I was +astounded, stupified, and amazed. Grief pierced my soul, when I saw so +great an edifice fall to the ground, through being sadly based upon a +single lie. I expected Florence to be a new Jerusalem, whence should +proceed the laws and splendour and example of goodly living, and to +see the renovation of the Church, the conversion of the infidels and +the consolation of the good. And I heard the very contrary, and indeed +took the medicine: _In voluntate tua, Domine, omnia sunt posita._" + +A packed election produced a new Signoria, crueller than the last. +They still refused to send the friars to Rome, but invited the Pope's +commissioners to Florence. These arrived on May 19th--the Dominican +General, Torriani, a well-intentioned man, and the future Cardinal +Romolino, a typical creature of the Borgias and a most infamous +fellow. It was said that they meant to put Savonarola to death, even +if he were a second St John the Baptist. The torture was renewed +without result; the three friars were sentenced to be hanged and then +burnt. Fra Domenico implored that he might be cast alive into the +fire, in order that he might suffer more grievous torments for Christ, +and desired only that the friars of Fiesole, of which convent he was +prior, might bury him in some lowly spot, and be loyal to the +teachings of Fra Girolamo. On the morning of May 23rd, Savonarola said +his last Mass in the Chapel of the Priors, and communicated his +companions. Then they were led out on to the Ringhiera overlooking the +Piazza, from which a temporary _palchetto_ ran out towards the centre +of the square to serve as scaffold. Here, the evening before, the +gallows had been erected, beam across beam; but a cry had arisen among +the crowd, _They are going to crucify him._ So it had been hacked +about, in order that it might not seem even remotely to resemble a +cross. But in spite of all their efforts, Jacopo Nardi tells us, that +gallows still seemed to represent the figure of the Cross. + + [Illustration: THE DEATH OF SAVONAROLA + (From an old, but quite contemporary, representation)] + +The guards of the Signoria kept back the crowds that pressed thicker +and thicker round the scaffold, most of them bitterly hostile to the +Friars and heaping every insult upon them. When Savonarola was +stripped of the habit of Saint Dominic, he said, "Holy dress, how much +did I long to wear thee; thou wast granted to me by the grace of God, +and to this day I have kept thee spotless. I do not now leave thee, +thou art taken from me." They were now degraded by the Bishop of +Vasona, who had loved Fra Girolamo in better days; then in the same +breath sentenced and absolved by Romolino, and finally condemned by +the Eight--or the seven of them who were present--as representing the +secular arm. The Bishop, in degrading Savonarola, stammered out: +_Separo te ab Ecclesia militante atque triumphante_; to which the +Friar calmly answered, in words which have become famous: _Militante, +non triumphante; hoc enim tuum non est._ Silvestro suffered first, +then Domenico. There was a pause before Savonarola followed; and in +the sudden silence, as he looked his last upon the people, a voice +cried: "Now, prophet, is the time for a miracle." And then another +voice: "Now can I burn the man who would have burnt me"; and a +ruffian, who had been waiting since dawn at the foot of the scaffold, +fired the pile before the executioner could descend from his ladder. +The bodies were burnt to ashes amidst the ferocious yells of the +populace, and thrown into the Arno from the Ponte Vecchio. "Many fell +from their faith," writes Landucci. A faithful few, including some +noble Florentine ladies, gathered up relics, in spite of the crowd and +the Signory, and collected what floated on the water. It was the vigil +of Ascension Day. + + * * * * * + +Savonarola's martyrdom ends the story of mediaeval Florence. The last +man of the Middle Ages--born out of his due time--had perished. A +portion of the prophecy was fulfilled at once. The people of Italy and +their rulers alike were trampled into the dust beneath the feet of the +foreigners--the Frenchmen, the Switzers, the Spaniards, the Germans. +The new King of France, Louis XII., who claimed both the Duchy of +Milan and the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, entered Milan in 1499; and, +after a brief restoration, Ludovico Sforza expiated his treasons by +being sold by the Swiss to a lingering life-in-death in a French +dungeon. The Spaniards followed; and in 1501 the troops of Ferdinand +the Catholic occupied Naples. Like the dragon and the lion in +Leonardo's drawing, Spain and France now fell upon each other for the +possession of the spoils of conquered Italy; the Emperor Maximilian +and Pope Julius II. joined in the fray; fresh hordes of Swiss poured +into Lombardy. The battle of Pavia in 1525 gave the final victory to +Spain; and, in 1527, the judgment foretold by Savonarola fell upon +Rome, when the Eternal City was devastated by the Spaniards and +Germans, nominally the armies of the Emperor Charles V. The treaty of +Cateau-Cambresis in 1559 finally forged the Austrian and Spanish +fetters with which Italy was henceforth bound. + +The death of Savonarola did not materially alter the affairs of the +Republic. The Greater Council kept its hold upon the people and city, +and in 1502 Piero di Tommaso Soderini was elected Gonfaloniere for +life. The new head of the State was a sincere Republican and a genuine +whole-hearted patriot; a man of blameless life and noble character, +but simple-minded almost to a fault, and of abilities hardly more than +mediocre. Niccolo Machiavelli, who was born in 1469 and had entered +political life in 1498, shortly after Savonarola's death, as Secretary +to the Ten (the Dieci di Balia), was much employed by the Gonfaloniere +both in war and peace, especially on foreign legations; and, although +he sneered at Soderini after his death for his simplicity, he +co-operated faithfully and ably with him during his administration. It +was under Soderini that Machiavelli organised the Florentine militia. +Pisa was finally reconquered for Florence in 1509; and, although +Machiavelli cruelly told the Pisan envoys that the Florentines +required only their obedience, and cared nothing for their lives, +their property, nor their honour, the conquerors showed unusual +magnanimity and generosity in their triumph. + +These last years of the Republic are very glorious in the history of +Florentine art. In 1498, just before the French entered Milan, +Leonardo da Vinci had finished his Last Supper for Ludovico Sforza; in +the same year, Michelangelo commenced his Pieta in Rome which is now +in St Peter's; in 1499, Baccio della Porta began a fresco of the Last +Judgment in Santa Maria Nuova, a fresco which, when he entered the +Dominican order at San Marco and became henceforth known as Fra +Bartolommeo, was finished by his friend, Mariotto Albertinelli. These +three works, though in very different degrees, represent the opening +of the Cinquecento in painting and sculpture. While Soderini ruled, +both Leonardo and Michelangelo were working in Florence, for the Sala +del Maggior Consiglio, and Michelangelo's gigantic David--the Republic +preparing to meet its foes--was finished in 1504. This was the epoch +in which Leonardo was studying those strange women of the Renaissance, +whose mysterious smiles and wonderful hair still live for us in his +drawings; and it was now that he painted here in Florence his Monna +Lisa, "the embodiment of the old fancy, the symbol of the modern +idea." At the close of 1504 the young Raphael came to Florence (as +Perugino had done before him), and his art henceforth shows how +profoundly he felt the Florentine influence. We know how he sketched +the newly finished David, studied Masaccio's frescoes, copied bits of +Leonardo's cartoon, was impressed by Bartolommeo's Last Judgment. +Although it was especially Leonardo that he took for a model, Raphael +found his most congenial friend and adviser in the artist friar of San +Marco; and there is a pleasant tradition that he was himself +influential in persuading Fra Bartolommeo to resume the brush. +Leonardo soon went off to serve King Francis I. in France; Pope Julius +summoned both Michelangelo and Raphael to Rome. These men were the +masters of the world in painting and sculpture, and cannot really be +confined to one school. Purely Florentine painting in the Cinquecento +now culminated in the work of Fra Bartolommeo (1475-1517) and Andrea +del Sarto (1486-1531), who had both been the pupils of Piero di +Cosimo, although they felt other and greater influences later. After +Angelico, Fra Bartolommeo is the most purely religious of all the +Florentine masters; and, with the solitary exception of Andrea del +Sarto, he is their only really great colourist. Two pictures of his at +Lucca--one in the Cathedral, the other now in the Palazzo +Pubblico--are among the greatest works of the Renaissance. In the +latter especially, "Our Lady of Mercy," he shows himself the heir in +painting of the traditions of Savonarola. Many of Bartolommeo's +altar-pieces have grown very black, and have lost much of their effect +by being removed from the churches for which they were painted; but +enough is left in Florence to show his greatness. With him was +associated that gay Bohemian and wild liver, Mariotto Albertinelli +(1474-1515), who deserted painting to become an innkeeper, and who +frequently worked in partnership with the friar. Andrea del Sarto, the +tailor's son who loved not wisely but too well, is the last of a noble +line of heroic craftsmen. Although his work lacks all inspiration, he +is one of the greatest of colourists. "Andrea del Sarto," writes Mr +Berenson, "approached, perhaps, as closely to a Giorgione or a Titian +as could a Florentine, ill at ease in the neighbourhood of Leonardo +and Michelangelo." He entirely belongs to these closing days of the +Republic; his earliest frescoes were painted during Soderini's +gonfalonierate; his latest just before the great siege. + +In the Carnival of 1511 a wonderfully grim pageant was shown to the +Florentines, and it was ominous of coming events. It was known as the +_Carro della Morte_, and had been designed with much secrecy by Piero +di Cosimo. Drawn by buffaloes, a gigantic black chariot, all painted +over with dead men's bones and white crosses, slowly passed through +the streets. Upon the top of it, there stood a large figure of Death +with a scythe in her hand; all round her, on the chariot, were closed +coffins. When at intervals the Triumph paused, harsh and hoarse +trumpet-blasts sounded; the coffins opened, and horrible figures, +attired like skeletons, half issued forth. "We are dead," they sang, +"as you see. So shall we see you dead. Once we were even as you are, +soon shall you be as we." Before and after the chariot, rode a great +band of what seemed to be mounted deaths, on the sorriest steeds that +could be found. Each bore a great black banner with skull and +cross-bones upon it, and each ghastly cavalier was attended by four +skeletons with black torches. Ten black standards followed the +Triumph; and, as it slowly moved on, the whole procession chanted the +_Miserere_. Vasari tells us that this spectacle, which filled the city +with terror and wonder, was supposed to signify the return of the +Medici to Florence, which was to be "as it were, a resurrection from +death to life." + +And, sure enough, in the following year the Spaniards under Raimondo +da Cardona fell upon Tuscany, and, after the horrible sack and +massacre of Prato, reinstated the Cardinal Giovanni dei Medici and +Giuliano in Florence--their elder brother, Piero, had been drowned in +the Garigliano eight years before. Piero Soderini went into exile, the +Greater Council was abolished, and, while the city was held by their +foreign troops, the Medici renewed the old pretence of summoning a +parliament to grant a balia to reform the State. At the beginning of +1513 two young disciples of Savonarola, Pietro Paolo Boscoli and +Agostino Capponi, resolved to imitate Brutus and Cassius, and to +liberate Florence by the death of the Cardinal and his brother. Their +plot was discovered, and they died on the scaffold. "Get this Brutus +out of my head for me," said Boscoli to Luca della Robbia, kinsman of +the great sculptor, "that I may meet my last end like a Christian"; +and, to the Dominican friar who confessed him, he said, "Father, the +philosophers have taught me how to bear death manfully; do you help +me to bear it out of love for Christ." In this same year the Cardinal +Giovanni was elected Pope, and entered upon his splendid and +scandalous pontificate as Leo X. "Let us enjoy the Papacy," was his +maxim, "since God has given it to us." + +Although Machiavelli was ready to serve the Medici, he had been +deprived of his posts at the restoration, imprisoned and tortured on +suspicion of being concerned in Boscoli's conspiracy, and now, +released in the amnesty granted by the newly elected Pope, was living +in poverty and enforced retirement at his villa near San Casciano. It +was now that he wrote his great books, the _Principe_ and the +_Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio_. Florence was ruled by +the Pope's nephew, the younger Lorenzo, son of Piero by Alfonsina +Orsini. The government was practically what it had been under the +Magnificent, save that this new Lorenzo, who had married a French +princess, discarded the republican appearances which his grandfather +had maintained, and surrounded himself with courtiers and soldiers. +For him and for Giuliano, the Pope cherished designs of carving out +large princedoms in Italy; and Machiavelli, in dedicating his +_Principe_ first to Giuliano, who died in 1516, and then to Lorenzo, +probably dreamed that some such prince as he described might drive out +the foreigner and unify the nation. In his nobler moments Leo X., too, +seems to have aspired to establish the independence of Italy. When +Lorenzo died in 1519, leaving one daughter, who was afterwards to be +the notorious Queen of France, there was no direct legitimate male +descendant of Cosimo the elder left; and the Cardinal Giulio, son of +the elder Giuliano, governed Florence with considerable mildness, and +even seemed disposed to favour a genuine republican government, until +a plot against his life hardened his heart. It was to him that +Machiavelli, who was now to some extent received back into favour, +afterwards dedicated his _Istorie Fiorentine_. In 1523 the Cardinal +Giulio, in spite of his illegitimate birth, became Pope Clement VII., +that most hapless of Pontiffs, whose reign was so surpassingly +disastrous to Italy. In Florence the Medici were now represented by +two young bastards, Ippolito and Alessandro, the reputed children of +the younger Giuliano and the younger Lorenzo respectively; while the +Cardinal Passerini misruled the State in the name of the Pope. But +more of the true Medicean spirit had passed into the person of a +woman, Clarice, the daughter of Piero (and therefore the sister of the +Duke Lorenzo), who was married to the younger Filippo Strozzi, and +could ill bear to see her house end in these two base-born lads. And +elsewhere in Italy Giovanni delle Bande Nere (as he was afterwards +called, from the mourning of his soldiers for his death) was winning +renown as a captain; he was the son of that Giovanni dei Medici with +whom Piero had quarrelled, by Caterina Sforza, the Lady of Forli, and +had married Maria Salviati, a grand-daughter of Lorenzo the +Magnificent. But the Pope would rather have lost Florence than that it +should fall into the hands of the younger line. + +But the Florentine Republic was to have a more glorious sunset. In +1527, while the imperial troops sacked Rome, the Florentines for the +third time expelled the Medici and re-established the Republic, with +first Niccolo Capponi and then Francesco Carducci as Gonfaloniere. In +this sunset Machiavelli died; Andrea del Sarto painted the last great +Florentine fresco; Michelangelo returned to serve the State in her +hour of need. The voices of the Piagnoni were heard again from San +Marco, and Niccolo Capponi in the Greater Council carried a +resolution electing Jesus Christ king of Florence. But the plague fell +upon the city; and her liberty was the price of the reconciliation of +Pope and Emperor. From October 1529 until August 1530, their united +forces--first under the Prince of Orange and then under Ferrante +Gonzaga--beleaguered Florence. Francesco Ferrucci, the last hope of +the Republic, was defeated and slain by the imperialists near San +Marcello; and then, betrayed by her own infamous general Malatesta +Baglioni, the city capitulated on the understanding that, although the +form of the government was to be regulated and established by the +Emperor, her liberty was preserved. The sun had indeed set of the most +noble Republic in all history. + +Alessandro dei Medici, the reputed son of Lorenzo by a mulatto woman, +was now made hereditary ruler of Florence by the Emperor, whose +illegitimate daughter he married, and by the Pope. For a time, the +Duke behaved with some decency; but after the death of Clement in +1534, he showed himself in his true light as a most abominable tyrant, +and would even have murdered Michelangelo, who had been working upon +the tombs of Giuliano and Lorenzo. "It was certainly by God's aid," +writes Condivi, "that he happened to be away from Florence when +Clement died." Alessandro appears to have poisoned his kinsman, the +Cardinal Ippolito, the other illegitimate remnant of the elder +Medicean line, in whom he dreaded a possible rival. Associated with +him in his worst excesses was a legitimate scion of the younger branch +of the house, Lorenzino--the _Lorenzaccio_ of Alfred de Musset's +drama--who was the grandson of the Lorenzo di Pier Francesco mentioned +in the previous chapter.[26] On January 5th, 1537, this young man--a +reckless libertine, half scholar and half madman--stabbed the Duke +Alessandro to death with the aid of a bravo, and fled, only to find a +dishonourable grave some ten years later in Venice. + + [26] See the Genealogical Table of the Medici. + + [Illustration: THE DAWN + BY MICHELANGELO] + +Florence now fell into the hands of the ablest and most ruthless of +all her rulers, Cosimo I. (the son of Giovanni delle Bande Nere), who +united Medicean craft with the brutality of the Sforzas, conquered +Siena, and became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany. At the opening of +his reign the Florentine exiles, headed by the Strozzi and by Baccio +Valori, attempted to recover the State, but were defeated by Cosimo's +mercenaries. Their leaders were relentlessly put to death; and Filippo +Strozzi, after prolonged torture, was either murdered in prison or +committed suicide. A word will be said presently, in chapter ix., on +Cosimo's descendants, the Medicean Grand Dukes who reigned in Tuscany +for two hundred years. + +The older generation of artists had passed away with the Republic. +After the siege Michelangelo alone remained, compelled to labour upon +the Medicean tombs in San Lorenzo, which have become a monument, less +to the tyrants for whom he reared them, than to the _saeva indignatio_ +of the great master himself at the downfall of his country. A madrigal +of his, written either in the days of Alessandro or at the beginning +of Cosimo's reign, expresses what was in his heart. Symonds renders +it:-- + + "Lady, for joy of lovers numberless + Thou wast created fair as angels are; + Sure God hath fallen asleep in heaven afar, + When one man calls the bliss of many his." + +But the last days and last works of Michelangelo belong to the story +of Rome rather than to that of Florence. Jacopo Carucci da Pontormo +(1494-1557), who had been Andrea del Sarto's scholar, and whose +earlier works had been painted before the downfall of the Republic, +connects the earlier with the later Cinquecento; but of his work, as +of that of his pupil Angelo Bronzino (1502-1572), the portraits alone +have any significance for us now. Giorgio Vasari (1512-1574), although +painter and architect--the Uffizi and part of the Palazzo Vecchio are +his work--is chiefly famous for his delightful series of biographies of +the artists themselves. Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), that most piquant +of personalities, and the Fleming Giambologna or Giovanni da Bologna +(1524-1608), the master of the flying Mercury, are the last noteworthy +sculptors of the Florentine school. When Michelangelo--_Michel, +piu che mortale, Angel divino_, as Ariosto calls him--passed away on +February 18th, 1564, the Renaissance was over as far as Art was +concerned. And not in Art only. The dome of St Peter's, that was +slowly rising before Michelangelo's dying eyes, was a visible sign of +the new spirit that was moving within the Church itself, the spirit +that reformed the Church and purified the Papacy, and which brought +about the renovation of which Savonarola had prophesied. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_The Palazzo Vecchio--The Piazza della Signoria--The Uffizi_ + + "Ecco il Palagio de' Signori si bello + che chi cercasse tutto l'universo, + non credo ch'e trovasse par di quello." + --_Antonio Pucci._ + + [Illustration: THE PALAZZO VECCHIO] + + +At the eastern corner of the Piazza della Signoria--that great square +over which almost all the history of Florence may be said to have +passed--rises the Palazzo Vecchio, with its great projecting parapets +and its soaring tower: the old Palace of the Signoria, originally the +Palace of the Priors, and therefore of the People. It is often stated +that the square battlements of the Palace itself represent the Guelfs, +while the forked battlements of the tower are in some mysterious way +connected with the Ghibellines, who can hardly be said to have still +existed as a real party in the city when they were built; there is, it +appears, absolutely no historical foundation for this legend. The +Palace was commenced by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1298, when, in +consequence of the hostility between the magnates and the people, it +was thought that the Priors were not sufficiently secure in the Palace +of the Cerchi; and it may be taken to represent the whole course of +Florentine history, from this government of the Secondo Popolo, +through Savonarola's Republic and the Medicean despotism, down to the +unification of Italy. Its design and essentials, however, are +Arnolfo's and the people's, though many later architects, besides +Vasari, have had their share in the completion of the present +building. Arnolfo founded the great tower of the Priors upon an older +tower of a family of magnates, the Foraboschi, and it was also known +as the Torre della Vacca. When, in those fierce democratic days, its +great bell rang to summon a Parliament in the Piazza, or to call the +companies of the city to arms, it was popularly said that "the cow" +was lowing. The upper part of the tower belongs to the fifteenth +century. Stupendous though the Palazzo is, it would have been of +vaster proportions but for the prohibition given to Arnolfo to raise +the house of the Republic where the dwellings of the Uberti had once +stood--_ribelli di Firenze e Ghibellini_. Not even the heroism of +Farinata could make this stern people less "fierce against my kindred +in all its laws," as that great Ghibelline puts it to Dante in the +_Inferno_. + +The present steps and platform in front of the Palace are only the +remnants of the famous Ringhiera constructed here in the fourteenth +century, and removed in 1812. On it the Signoria used to meet to +address the crowd in the Piazza, or to enter upon their term of +office. Here, at one time, the Gonfaloniere received the Standard of +the People, and here, at a somewhat later date, the batons of command +were given to the condottieri who led the mercenaries in the pay of +the Republic. Here the famous meeting took place at which the Duke of +Athens was acclaimed _Signore a vita_ by the mob; and here, a few +months later, his Burgundian followers thrust out the most unpopular +of his agents to be torn to pieces by the besiegers. Here the Papal +Commissioners and the Eight sat on the day of Savonarola's martyrdom, +as told in the last chapter. + +The inscription over the door, with the monogram of Christ, was +placed here by the Gonfaloniere Niccolo Capponi in February 1528, in +the last temporary restoration of the Republic; it originally +announced that Jesus Christ had been chosen King of the Florentine +People, but was modified by Cosimo I. The huge marble group of +Hercules and Cacus on the right, by Baccio Bandinelli, is an atrocity; +in Benvenuto Cellini's autobiography there is a rare story of how he +and Baccio wrangled about it in the Duke's presence, on which occasion +Bandinelli was stung into making a foul--but probably true--accusation +against Cellini, which might have had serious consequences. The +Marzocco on the left, the emblematical lion of Florence, is a copy +from Donatello. + +The court is the work of Michelozzo, commenced in 1434, on the return +of the elder Cosimo from exile. The stucco ornamentations and +grotesques were executed in 1565, on the occasion of the marriage of +Francesco dei Medici, son of Cosimo I., with Giovanna of Austria; the +faded frescoes are partly intended to symbolise the ducal exploits, +partly views of Austrian cities in compliment to the bride. The bronze +boy with a dolphin, on the fountain in the centre of the court, was +made by Andrea Verrocchio for Lorenzo the Magnificent; it is an +exquisite little work, full of life and motion--"the little boy who +for ever half runs and half flits across the courtyard of the Palace, +while the dolphin ceaselessly struggles in the arms, whose pressure +sends the water spurting from the nostrils."[27] + + [27] Mr Armstrong in his _Lorenzo de' Medici_. + +On the first floor is the _Sala del Consiglio Grande_, frequently +called the _Salone dei Cinquecento_. It was mainly constructed in 1495 +by Simone del Pollaiuolo, called Cronaca from his capacity of telling +endless stories about Fra Girolamo. Here the Greater Council met, +which the Friar declared was the work of God and not of man. And here +it was that, in a famous sermon preached before the Signoria and chief +citizens on August 20th, 1496, he cried: "I want no hats, no mitres +great or small; nought would I have save what Thou hast given to Thy +saints--death; a red hat, a hat of blood--this do I desire." It was +supposed that the Pope had offered to make him a cardinal. In this +same hall on the evening of May 22nd, 1498, the evening before their +death, Savonarola was allowed an hour's interview with his two +companions; it was the first time that they had met since their +arrest, and in the meanwhile Savonarola had been told that the others +had recanted, and Domenico and Silvestro had been shown what purported +to be their master's confession, seeming, in part at least, to abjure +the cause for which Fra Domenico was yearning to shed his blood. A few +years later, in 1503, the Gonfaloniere Piero Soderini intrusted the +decoration of these walls to Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo; and +it was then that this hall, so consecrated to liberty, became _la +scuola del mondo_, the school of all the world in art; and Raphael +himself was among the most ardent of its scholars. Leonardo drew his +famous scene of the Battle of the Standard, and appears to have +actually commenced painting on the wall. Michelangelo sketched the +cartoon of a group of soldiers bathing in the Arno, suddenly surprised +by the sound of the trumpet calling them to arms; but he did not +proceed any further. These cartoons played the same part in the art of +the Cinquecento as Masaccio's Carmine frescoes in that of the +preceding century; it is the universal testimony of contemporaries +that they were the supremely perfect works of the Renaissance. Vasari +gives a full description of each--but no traces of the original works +now remain. One episode from Leonardo's cartoon is preserved in an +engraving by Edelinck after a copy, which is hardly likely to have +been a faithful one, by Rubens; and there is an earlier engraving as +well. A few figures are to be seen in a drawing at Venice, doubtfully +ascribed to Raphael. Drawings and engravings of Michelangelo's +soldiers have made a portion of his composition familiar--enough at +least to make the world realise something of the extent of its loss. + +On the restoration of the Medici in 1512, the hall was used as a +barracks for their foreign soldiers; and Vasari accuses Baccio +Bandinelli of having seized the opportunity to destroy Michelangelo's +cartoon--which hardly seems probable. The frescoes which now cover the +walls are by Vasari and his school, the statues of the Medici partly +by Bandinelli, whilst that of Fra Girolamo is modern. It was in this +hall that the first Parliament of United Italy met, during the short +period when Florence was the capital. The adjoining rooms, called +after various illustrious members of the Medicean family, are adorned +with pompous uninspiring frescoes of their exploits by Vasari; in the +Salotto di Papa Clemente there is a representation of the siege of +Florence by the papal and imperial armies, which gives a fine idea of +the magnitude of the third walls of the city, Arnolfo's walls, though +even then the towers had been in part shortened. + +On the second floor, the hall prettily known as the Sala dei Gigli +contains some frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio, executed about 1482. +They represent St Zenobius in his majesty, enthroned between Eugenius +and Crescentius, with Roman heroes as it were in attendance upon this +great patron of the Florentines. In a lunette, painted in imitation of +bas-relief, there is a peculiarly beautiful Madonna and Child with +Angels, also by Domenico Ghirlandaio. This room is sometimes called +the Sala del Orologio, from a wonderful old clock that once stood +here. The following room, into which a door with marble framework by +Benedetto da Maiano leads, is the audience chamber of the Signoria; it +was originally to have been decorated by Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, +Perugino, and Filippino Lippi--but the present frescoes are by +Salviati in the middle of the sixteenth century. Here, on the fateful +day of the _Cimento_ or Ordeal, the two Franciscans, Francesco da +Puglia and Giuliano Rondinelli, consulted with the Priors and then +passed into the Chapel to await the event. Beyond is the Priors' +Chapel, dedicated to St Bernard and decorated with frescoes in +imitation of mosaic by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (Domenico's son). Here on +the morning of his martyrdom Savonarola said Mass, and, before +actually communicating, took the Host in his hands and uttered his +famous prayer:-- + +"Lord, I know that Thou art that very God, the Creator of the world +and of human nature. I know that Thou art that perfect, indivisible +and inseparable Trinity, distinct in three Persons, Father, Son, and +Holy Ghost. I know that Thou art that Eternal Word, who didst descend +from Heaven to earth in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Thou didst ascend +the wood of the Cross to shed Thy precious Blood for us, miserable +sinners. I pray Thee, my Lord; I pray Thee, my Salvation; I pray Thee, +my Consoler; that such precious Blood be not shed for me in vain, but +may be for the remission of all my sins. For these I crave Thy pardon, +from the day that I received the water of Holy Baptism even to this +moment; and I confess to Thee, Lord, my guilt. And so I crave pardon +of Thee for what offence I have done to this city and all this people, +in things spiritual and temporal, as well as for all those things +wherein of myself I am not conscious of having erred. And humbly do I +crave pardon of all those persons who are here standing round. May +they pray to God for me, and may He make me strong up to the last end, +so that the enemy may have no power over me. Amen." + +Beyond the Priors' chapel are the apartments of Duke Cosimo's Spanish +wife, Eleonora of Toledo, with a little chapel decorated by Bronzino. +It was in these rooms that the Duchess stormed at poor Benvenuto +Cellini, when he passed through to speak with the Duke--as he tells us +in his autobiography. Benvenuto had an awkward knack of suddenly +appearing here whenever the Duke and Duchess were particularly busy; +but their children were hugely delighted at seeing him, and little Don +Garzia especially used to pull him by the cloak and "have the most +pleasant sport with me that such a _bambino_ could have." + +A room in the tower, discovered in 1814, is supposed to be the +Alberghettino, in which the elder Cosimo was imprisoned in 1433, and +in which Savonarola passed his last days--save when he was brought down +to the Bargello to be tortured. Here the Friar wrote his meditations +upon the _In te, Domine, speravi_ and the _Miserere_--meditations +which became famous throughout Christendom. The prayer, quoted above, +is usually printed as a pendant to the _Miserere_. + +On the left of the palace, the great fountain with Neptune and his +riotous gods and goddesses of the sea, by Bartolommeo Ammanati and his +contemporaries, is a characteristic production of the later +Cinquecento. No less characteristic, though in another way, is the +equestrian statue in bronze of Cosimo I., as first Grand Duke of +Tuscany, by Giovanni da Bologna; the tyrant sits on his steed, +gloomily guarding the Palace and Piazza where he has finally +extinguished the last sparks of republican liberty. It was finished +in 1594, in the days of his son Ferdinand I., the third Grand Duke. + +At the beginning of the Via Gondi, adjoining the custom-house and now +incorporated in the Palazzo Vecchio, was the palace of the Captain, +the residence of the Bargello and Executor of Justice. It was here +that the Pazzi conspirators were hung out of the windows in 1478; here +that Bernardo del Nero and his associates were beheaded in 1497; and +here, in the following year, the examination of Savonarola and his +adherents was carried on. Near here, too, stood in old times the +Serraglio, or den of the lions, which was also incorporated by Vasari +into the Palace; the Via del Leone, in which Vasari's rather fine +rustica facade stands, is named from them still. + +The Piazza saw the Pisan captives forced ignominiously to kiss the +Marzocco in 1364, and to build the so-called Tetto dei Pisani, which +formerly stood on the west, opposite the Palace. In this Piazza, too, +the people assembled in parliament at the sounding of the great bell. +In the fifteenth century, this simply meant that whatever party in the +State desired to alter the government, in their own favour, occupied +the openings of the Piazza with troops; and the noisy rabble that +appeared on these occasions, to roar out their assent to whatever was +proposed, had but little connection with the real People of Florence. +Among the wildest scenes that this Piazza has witnessed were those +during the rising of the Ciompi in 1378, when again and again the +populace surged round the Palace with their banners and wild cries, +until the terrified Signoria granted their demands. Here, too, took +place Savonarola's famous burnings of the Vanities in Carnival time; +large piles of these "lustful things" were surmounted by allegorical +figures of King Carnival, or of Lucifer and the seven deadly sins, +and then solemnly fired; while the people sang the _Te Deum_, the +bells rang, and the trumpets and drums of the Signoria pealed out +their loudest. But sport of less serious kind went on here +too--tournaments and shows of wild beasts and the like--things that +the Florentines dearly loved, and in which their rulers found it +politic to fool them to the top of their bent. For instance, on June +25th, 1514, there was a _caccia_ of a specially magnificent kind; a +sort of glorified bull-fight, in which a fountain surrounded by green +woods was constructed in the middle of the Piazza, and two lions, with +bears and leopards, bulls, buffaloes, stags, horses, and the like were +driven into the arena. Enormous prices were paid for seats; foreigners +came from all countries, and four Roman cardinals were conspicuous, +including Raphael's Bibbiena, disguised as Spanish gentlemen. Several +people were killed by the beasts. It was always a sore point with the +Florentines that their lions were such unsatisfactory brutes and never +distinguished themselves on these occasions; they were no match for +your Spanish bull, at a time when, in politics, the bull's master had +yoked all Italy to his triumphal car. + +The _Loggia dei Priori_, now called the _Loggia dei Lanzi_ after the +German lancers of Duke Cosimo who were stationed here, was originally +built for the Priors and other magistrates to exercise public +functions, with all the display that mediaeval republics knew so well +how to use. It is a kind of great open vaulted hall; a throne for a +popular government, as M. Reymond calls it. Although frequently known +as the Loggia of Orcagna, it was commenced in 1376 by Benci di Cione +and Simone Talenti, and is intermediate in style between Gothic and +Renaissance (in contrast to the pure Gothic of the Bigallo). The +sculptures above, frequently ascribed to Agnolo Gaddi and +representing the Virtues, are now assigned to Giovanni d'Ambrogio and +Jacopo di Piero, and were executed between 1380 and 1390. Among the +numerous statues that now stand beneath its roof (and which include +Giambologna's Rape of the Sabines) are two of the finest bronzes in +Florence: Donatello's _Judith and Holofernes_, cast for Cosimo the +elder, and originally in the Medicean Palace, but, on the expulsion of +the younger Piero, set up on the Ringhiera with the threatening +inscription: _exemplum Salutis Publicae_; and Benvenuto Cellini's +_Perseus with the head of Medusa_, cast in 1553 for the Grand Duke +Cosimo (then only Duke), and possibly intended as a kind of despotic +counter-blast to the Judith. The pedestal (with the exception of the +bas-relief in front, of which the original is in the Bargello) is also +Cellini's. Cellini gives us a rare account of the exhibiting of this +Perseus to the people, while the Duke himself lurked behind a window +over the door of the palace to hear what was said. He assures us that +the crowd gazed upon him--that is, the artist, not the statue--as +something altogether miraculous for having accomplished such a work, +and that two noblemen from Sicily accosted him as he walked in the +Piazza, with such ceremony as would have been too much even towards +the Pope. He took a holiday in honour of the event, sang psalms and +hymns the whole way out of Florence, and was absolutely convinced that +the _ne plus ultra_ of art had been reached. + +But it is of Savonarola, and not of Benvenuto Cellini, that the Loggia +reminds us; for here was the scene of the _Cimento di Fuoco_, the +ordeal of fire, on April 7th, 1498. An immense crowd of men filled the +Piazza; women and children were excluded, but packed every inch of +windows, roofs, balconies. The streets and entrances were strongly +held by troops, while more were drawn up round the Palace under +Giovacchino della Vecchia. The platform bearing the intended pyre--a +most formidable death-trap, which was to be fired behind the champions +as soon as they were well within it--ran out from the Ringhiera +towards the centre of the Piazza. In spite of the strict proclamation +to armed men not to enter, Doffo Spini appeared with three hundred +Compagnacci, "all armed like Paladins," says Simone Filipepi,[28] "in +favour of the friars of St Francis." They entered the Piazza with a +tremendous uproar, and formed up under the Tetto dei Pisani, opposite +the Palace. Simone says that there was a pre-arranged plot, in virtue +of which they only waited for a sign from the Palace to cut the +Dominicans and their adherents to pieces. The Loggia was divided into +two parts, the half nearer the Palace assigned to the Franciscans, the +other, in which a temporary altar had been erected, to the Dominicans. +In front of the Loggia the sun flashed back from the armour of a +picked band of soldiers, under Marcuccio Salviati, apparently intended +as a counter demonstration to Doffo Spini and his young aristocrats. +The Franciscans were first on the field, and quietly took their +station. Their two champions entered the Palace, and were seen no more +during the proceedings. Then with exultant strains of the _Exsurgat +Deus_, the Dominicans slowly made their way down the Corso degli +Adimari and through the Piazza in procession, two and two. Their +fierce psalm was caught up and re-echoed by their adherents as they +passed. Preceded by a Crucifix, about two hundred of these black and +white "hounds of the Lord" entered the field of battle, followed by +Fra Domenico in a rich cope, and then Savonarola in full vestments +with the Blessed Sacrament, attended by deacon and sub-deacon. A band +of devout republican laymen, with candles and red crosses, brought up +the rear. Savonarola entered the Loggia, set the Sacrament on the +altar, and solemnly knelt in adoration. + + [28] Botticelli's brother and an ardent Piagnone, whose chronicle has + been recently discovered and published by Villari and Casanova. The + Franciscans were possibly sincere in the business, and mere tools in + the hands of the Compagnacci; they are not likely to have been privy + to the plot. + +Then, while Fra Girolamo stood firm as a column, delay after delay +commenced. The Dominican's cope might be enchanted, or his robe too +for the matter of that, so Domenico was hurried into the Palace and +his garments changed. The two Franciscan stalwarts remained in the +Priors' chapel. In the meanwhile a storm passed over the city. A rush +of the Compagnacci and populace towards the Loggia was driven back by +Salviati's guard. Domenico returned with changed garments, and stood +among the Franciscans; stones hurtled about him; he would enter the +fire with the Crucifix--this was objected to; then with the +Sacrament--this was worse. Domenico was convinced that he would pass +through the ordeal scathless, and that the Sacrament would not protect +him if his cause were not just; but he was equally convinced that it +was God's will that he should not enter the fire without it. Evening +fell in the midst of the wrangling, and at last the Signoria ordered +both parties to go home. Only the efforts of Salviati and his soldiery +saved Savonarola and Domenico from being torn to pieces at the hands +of the infuriated mob, who apparently concluded that they had been +trifled with. "As the Father Fra Girolamo issued from the Loggia with +the Most Holy Sacrament in his hands," says Simone Filipepi, who was +present, "and Fra Domenico with his Crucifix, the signal was given +from the Palace to Doffo Spini to carry out his design; but he, as it +pleased God, would do nothing." The Franciscans of Santa Croce were +promised an annual subsidy of sixty pieces of silver for their share +in the day's work: "Here, take the price of the innocent blood you +have betrayed," was their greeting when they came to demand it. + +In after years, Doffo Spini was fond of gossiping with Botticelli and +his brother, Simone Filipepi, and made no secret of his intention of +killing Savonarola on this occasion. Yet, of all the Friar's +persecutors, he was the only one that showed any signs of penitence +for what he had done. "On the ninth day of April, 1503," writes Simone +in his Chronicle, "as I, Simone di Mariano Filipepi, was leaving my +house to go to vespers in San Marco, Doffo Spini, who was in the +company of Bartolommeo di Lorenzo Carducci, saluted me. Bartolommeo +turned to me, and said that Fra Girolamo and the Piagnoni had spoilt +and undone the city; whereupon many words passed between him and me, +which I will not set down here. But Doffo interposed, and said that he +had never had any dealings with Fra Girolamo, until the time when, as +a member of the Eight, he had to examine him in prison; and that, if +he had heard Fra Girolamo earlier and had been intimate with him, +'even as Simone here'--turning to me--'I would have been a more ardent +partisan of his than even Simone, for nothing save good was ever seen +in him even unto his death.'" + + +THE UFFIZI + +Beyond the Palazzo Vecchio, between the Piazza and the Arno, stands +the Palazzo degli Uffizi, which Giorgio Vasari reared in the third +quarter of the sixteenth century, for Cosimo I. It contains the +Archives, the Biblioteca Nazionale (which includes the Palatine and +Magliabecchian Libraries, and, like all similar institutions in +Italy, is generously thrown open to all comers without reserve), and, +above all, the great picture gallery commenced by the Grand Dukes, +usually simply known as the Uffizi and now officially the Galleria +Reale degli Uffizi, which, together with its continuation in the Pitti +Palace across the river, is undoubtedly the finest collection of +pictures in the world. + + [Illustration: LOOKING THROUGH VASARI'S LOGGIA, UFFIZI] + +Leaving the double lines of illustrious Florentines, men great in the +arts of war and peace, in their marble niches watching over the +pigeons who throng the Portico, we ascend to the picture gallery by +the second door to the left.[29] + + [29] The following notes make no pretence at furnishing a catalogue, + but are simply intended to indicate the more important Italian + pictures, especially the principal masterpieces of, or connected with + the Florentine school. + + +RITRATTI DEI PITTORI--PRIMO CORRIDORE. + +On the way up, four rooms on the right contain the Portraits of the +Painters, many of them painted by themselves. In the further room, +Filippino Lippi by himself, fragment of a fresco (286). Raphael (288) +at the age of twenty-three, with his spiritual, almost feminine +beauty, painted by himself at Urbino during his Florentine period, +about 1506. This is Raphael before the worldly influence of Rome had +fallen upon him, the youth who came from Urbino and Perugia to the +City of the Lilies with the letter of recommendation from Urbino's +Duchess to Piero Soderini, to sit at the feet of Leonardo and +Michelangelo, and wander with Fra Bartolommeo through the cloisters of +San Marco. Titian (384), "in which he appears, painted by himself, on +the confines of old age, vigorous and ardent still, fully conscious, +moreover, though without affectation, of pre-eminent genius and +supreme artistic rank" (Mr C. Phillips). Tintoretto, by himself (378); +Andrea del Sarto, by himself (1176); a genuine portrait of +Michelangelo (290), but of course not by himself; Rubens, by himself +(228). An imaginary portrait of Leonardo da Vinci (292), of a much +later period, may possibly preserve some tradition of the "magician's" +appearance; the Dosso Dossi is doubtful; those of Giorgione and +Bellini are certainly apocryphal. In the second room are two portraits +of Rembrandt by himself. In the third room Angelica Kauffmann and +Vigee Le Brun are charming in their way. In the fourth room, English +visitors cannot fail to welcome several of their own painters of the +nineteenth century, including Mr Watts. + +Passing the Medicean busts at the head of the stairs, the famous Wild +Boar and the two Molossian Hounds, we enter the first or eastern +corridor, containing paintings of the earlier masters, mingled with +ancient busts and sarcophagi. The best specimens of the Giotteschi are +an Agony in the Garden (8), wrongly ascribed to Giotto himself; an +Entombment (27), ascribed to a Giotto di Stefano, called Giottino, a +painter of whom hardly anything but the nickname is known; an +Annunciation (28), ascribed to Agnolo Gaddi; and an altar-piece by +Giovanni da Milano (32). There are some excellent early Sienese +paintings; a Madonna and Child with Angels, by Pietro Lorenzetti, +1340 (15); the Annunciation, by Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi (23); and +a very curious picture of the Hermits of the Thebaid (16), a kind of +devout fairy-land painted possibly by one of the Lorenzetti, in the +spirit of those delightfully naive _Vite del Santi Padri_. Lorenzo +Monaco, or Don Lorenzo, a master who occupies an intermediate position +between the Giotteschi and the Quattrocento, is represented by the +Mystery of the Passion (40), a symbolical picture painted in 1404, of a +type that Angelico brought to perfection in a fresco in San Marco; the +Adoration of the Magi (39, the scenes in the frame by a later hand), +and Madonna and Saints (41). The portrait of Giovanni dei Medici (43) +is by an unknown hand of the Quattrocento. Paolo Uccello's Battle (52) +is mainly a study in perspective. The Annunciation (53), by Neri di +Bicci di Lorenzo, is a fair example of one of the least progressive +painters of the Quattrocento. The pictures by Alessio Baldovinetti (56 +and 60) and Cosimo Rosselli (63 and 65) are tolerable examples of +very uninteresting fifteenth century masters. The allegorical figures +of the Virtues (69-73), ascribed to Piero Pollaiuolo, are second-rate; +and the same may be said of an Annunciation (such is the real subject +of 81) and the Perseus and Andromeda pictures (85, 86, 87) by Piero di +Cosimo. But the real gem of this corridor is the Madonna and +Child (74), which Luca Signorelli painted for Lorenzo dei Medici, a +picture which profoundly influenced Michelangelo; the splendidly +modelled nude figures of men in the background transport us into the +golden age. + + +TRIBUNA. + +The famous Tribuna is supposed to contain the masterpieces of the +whole collection, though the lover of the Quattrocento will naturally +seek his best-loved favourites elsewhere. Of the five ancient +sculptures in the centre of the hall the best is that of the crouching +barbarian slave, who is preparing his knife to flay Marsyas. It is a +fine work of the Pergamene school. The celebrated Venus dei Medici is +a typical Graeco-Roman work, the inscription at its base being a +comparatively modern forgery. It was formerly absurdly overpraised, +and is in consequence perhaps too much depreciated at the present day. +The remaining three--the Satyr, the Wrestlers, and the young +Apollo--have each been largely and freely restored. + +Turning to the pictures, we have first the Madonna del +Cardellino (1129), painted by Raphael during his Florentine period when +under the influence of Fra Bartolommeo, in 1506 or thereabouts, and +afterwards much damaged and restored: still one of the most beautiful +of his early Madonnas. The St. John the Baptist (1127), ascribed to +Raphael, is only a school piece, though from a design of the +master's. The Madonna del Pozzo (1125), in spite of its hard and +over-smooth colouring, was at one time attributed to Raphael; its +ascription to Francia Bigio is somewhat conjectural. The portrait of a +Lady wearing a wreath (1123), and popularly called the Fornarina, +originally ascribed to Giorgione and later to Raphael, is believed to +be by Sebastiano del Piombo. Then come a lady's portrait, ascribed to +Raphael (1120); another by a Veronese master, erroneously ascribed to +Mantegna, and erroneously said to represent the Duchess Elizabeth of +Urbino (1121); Bernardino Luini's Daughter of Herodias (1135), a fine +study of a female Italian criminal of the Renaissance; Perugino's +portrait of Francesco delle Opere, holding a scroll inscribed _Timete +Deum_, an admirable picture painted in oils about the year 1494, and +formerly supposed to be a portrait of Perugino by himself (287); +portrait of Evangelista Scappa, ascribed to Francia (1124); and a +portrait of a man, by Sebastiano del Piombo (3458). Raphael's Pope +Julius II. (1131) is a grand and terrible portrait of the tremendous +warrior Pontiff, whom the Romans called a second Mars. Vasari says +that in this picture he looks so exactly like himself that "one +trembles before him as if he were still alive." Albert Duerer's +Adoration of the Magi (1141) and Lucas van Leyden's Mystery of the +Passion (1143) are powerful examples of the religious painting of the +North, that loved beauty less for its own sake than did the Italians. +The latter should be compared with similar pictures by Don Lorenzo and +Fra Angelico. Titian's portrait of the Papal Nuncio Beccadelli (1116), +painted in 1552, although a decidedly fine work, has been rather +overpraised. + +Michelangelo's Holy Family (1139) is the only existing easel picture +that the master completed. It was painted for the rich merchant, +Angelo Doni (who haggled in a miserly fashion over the price and was +in consequence forced to pay double the sum agreed upon), about 1504, +in the days of the Gonfaloniere Soderini, when Michelangelo was +engaged upon the famous cartoon for the Sala del Maggior Consiglio. +Like Luca Signorelli, Michelangelo has introduced naked figures, +apparently shepherds, into his background. "In the Doni Madonna of the +Uffizi," writes Walter Pater, "Michelangelo actually brings the pagan +religion, and with it the unveiled human form, the sleepy-looking +fauns of a Dionysiac revel, into the presence of the Madonna, as +simpler painters had introduced other products of the earth, birds or +flowers; and he has given to that Madonna herself much of the uncouth +energy of the older and more primitive 'Mighty Mother.'" The painters +introduced into their pictures what they loved best, in earth or sky, +as votive offerings to the Queen of Heaven; and what Signorelli and +Michelangelo best loved was the human form. This is reflected in the +latter's own lines:-- + + Ne Dio, sua grazia, mi si mostra altrove, + piu che'n alcun leggiadro e mortal velo, + e quel sol amo, perche'n quel si specchia. + +"Nor does God vouchsafe to reveal Himself to me anywhere more than in +some lovely mortal veil, and that alone I love, because He is mirrored +therein." + +In the strongest possible contrast to Michelangelo's picture are the +two examples of the softest master of the Renaissance--Correggio's +Repose on the Flight to Egypt (1118), and his Madonna adoring the +Divine Child (1134). The former, with its rather out of place St. +Francis of Assisi, is a work of what is known as Correggio's +transition period, 1515-1518, after he had painted his earlier easel +pictures and before commencing his great fresco work at Parma; the +latter, a more characteristic picture, is slightly later and was given +by the Duke of Mantua to Cosimo II. The figures of Prophets by Fra +Bartolommeo (1130 and 1126), the side-wings of a picture now in the +Pitti Gallery, are not remarkable in any way. The Madonna and Child +with the Baptist and St. Sebastian (1122) is a work of Perugino's +better period. + +There remain the two famous Venuses of Titian. The so-called Urbino +Venus (1117)--a motive to some extent borrowed, and slightly coarsened +in the borrowing, from Giorgione's picture at Dresden--is much the +finer of the two. It was painted for Francesco Maria della Rovere, +Duke of Urbino, and, although not a portrait of Eleonora Gonzaga, who +was then a middle-aged woman, it was certainly intended to conjure up +the beauty of her youth. What Eleonora really looked like at this +time, you can see in the first of the two Venetian rooms, where +Titian's portrait of her, painted at about the same date, hangs. The +Venus and Cupid (1108) is a later work; the goddess is the likeness of +a model who very frequently appears in the works of Titian and Palma. + + +SCUOLA TOSCANA. + +On the left we pass out of the Tribuna to three rooms devoted to the +Tuscan school. + +The first contains the smaller pictures, including several priceless +Angelicos and Botticellis. Fra Angelico's Naming of St. John (1162), +Marriage of the Blessed Virgin to St. Joseph (1178), and her Death +(1184), are excellent examples of his delicate execution and spiritual +expression in his smaller, miniature-like works. Antonio Pollaiuolo's +Labours of Hercules (1153) is one of the masterpieces of this most +uncompromising realist of the Quattrocento. Either by Antonio or his +brother Piero, is also the portrait of that monster of iniquity, +Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan (30). Sandro Botticelli's Calumny +(1182) is supposed to have been painted as a thankoffering to a friend +who had defended him from the assaults of slanderous tongues; it is a +splendid example of his dramatic intensity, the very statues in their +niches taking part in the action. The subject--taken from Lucian's +description of a picture by Apelles of Ephesus--was frequently painted +by artists of the Renaissance, and there is a most magnificent drawing +of the same by Andrea Mantegna at the British Museum, which was copied +by Rembrandt. On the judgment-seat sits a man with ears like those of +Midas, into which Ignorance and Suspicion on either side ever whisper. +Before him stands Envy,--a hideous, pale, and haggard man, seeming +wasted by some slow disease. He is making the accusation and leading +Calumny, a scornful Botticellian beauty, who holds in one hand a torch +and with the other drags her victim by the hair to the judge's feet. +Calumny is tended and adorned by two female figures, Artifice and +Deceit. But Repentance slowly follows, in black mourning habit; while +naked Truth--the Botticellian Venus in another form--raises her hand +in appeal to the heavens. + +The rather striking portrait of a painter (1163) is usually supposed +to be Andrea Verrocchio, by Lorenzo di Credi, his pupil and successor; +Mr Berenson, however, considers that it is Perugino and by Domenico +Ghirlandaio. On the opposite wall are two very early Botticellis, +Judith returning from the camp of the Assyrians (1156) and the finding +of the body of Holofernes (1158), in a scale of colouring differing +from that of his later works. The former is one of those pictures +which have been illumined for us by Ruskin, who regards it as the only +picture that is true to Judith; "The triumph of Miriam over a fallen +host, the fire of exulting mortal life in an immortal hour, the purity +and severity of a guardian angel--all are here; and as her servant +follows, carrying indeed the head, but invisible--(a mere thing to be +carried--no more to be so much as thought of)--she looks only at her +mistress, with intense, servile, watchful love. Faithful, not in these +days of fear only, but hitherto in all her life, and afterwards for +ever." Walter Pater has read the picture in a different sense, and +sees in it Judith "returning home across the hill country, when the +great deed is over, and the moment of revulsion come, and the olive +branch in her hand is becoming a burden." + +The portrait of Andrea del Sarto by himself (280) represents him in +the latter days of his life, and was painted on a tile in 1529, about +a year before his death, with some colours that remained over after he +had finished the portrait of one of the Vallombrosan monks; his wife +kept it by her until her death. The very powerful likeness of an old +man in white cap and gown (1167), a fresco ascribed to Masaccio, is +more probably the work of Filippino Lippi. The famous Head of Medusa +(1159) must be seen with grateful reverence by all lovers of English +poetry, for it was admired by Shelley and inspired him with certain +familiar and exceedingly beautiful stanzas; but as for its being a +work of Leonardo da Vinci, it is now almost universally admitted to be +a comparatively late forgery, to supply the place of the lost Medusa +of which Vasari speaks. The portrait (1157), also ascribed to +Leonardo, is better, but probably no more authentic. Here is a most +dainty little example of Fra Bartolommeo's work on a small scale +(1161), representing the Circumcision and the Nativity, with the +Annunciation in grisaille on the back. Botticelli's St. Augustine +(1179) is an early work, and, like the Judith, shows his artistic +derivation from Fra Lippo Lippi, to whom indeed it was formerly +ascribed. His portrait of Piero di Lorenzo dei Medici (1154), a +splendid young man in red cap and flowing dark hair, has been already +referred to in chapter iii.; it was formerly supposed to be a likeness +of Pico della Mirandola. It was painted before Piero's expulsion from +Florence, probably during the life-time of the Magnificent, and +represents him before he degenerated into the low tyrannical +blackguard of later years; he apparently wishes to appeal to the +memory of his great-grandfather Cosimo, whose medallion he holds, to +find favour with his unwilling subjects. The portraits of Duke +Cosimo's son and grandchild, Don Garzia and Donna Maria (1155 and +1164), by Bronzino, should be noted. Finally we have the famous +picture of Perseus freeing Andromeda, by Piero di Cosimo (1312). It is +about the best specimen of his fantastic conceptions to be seen in +Florence, and the monster itself is certainly a triumph of a somewhat +unhealthy imagination nourished in solitude on an odd diet. + +In the second room are larger works of the great Tuscans. The +Adoration of the Magi (1252) is one of the very few authentic works of +Leonardo; it was one of his earliest productions, commenced in 1478, +and, like so many other things of his, never finished. The St. +Sebastian (1279) is one of the masterpieces of that wayward Lombard or +rather Piedmontese--although we now associate him with Siena--who +approached nearest of all to the art of Leonardo, Giovanni Antonio +Bazzi, known still as Sodoma. Ridolfo Ghirlandaio's Miracles of +Zenobius (1277 and 1275) are excellent works by a usually second-rate +master. The Visitation with its predella, by Mariotto Albertinelli +(1259), painted in 1503, is incomparably the greatest picture that Fra +Bartolommeo's wild friend and fellow student ever produced, and one in +which he most nearly approaches the best works of Bartolommeo himself. +"The figures, however," Morelli points out, "are less refined and +noble than those of the Frate, and the foliage of the trees is +executed with miniature-like precision, which is never the case in the +landscapes of the latter." Andrea del Sarto's genial and kindly St. +James with the orphans (1254), is one of his last works; it was +painted to serve as a standard in processions, and has consequently +suffered considerably. Bronzino's Descent of Christ into Hades (1271), +that "heap of cumbrous nothingnesses and sickening offensivenesses," +as Ruskin pleasantly called it, need only be seen to be loathed. The +so-called Madonna delle Arpie, or our Lady of the Harpies, from the +figures on the pedestal beneath her feet (1112), is perhaps the finest +of all Andrea del Sarto's pictures; the Madonna is a highly idealised +likeness of his own wife Lucrezia, and some have tried to recognise +the features of the painter himself in the St. John:-- + + "You loved me quite enough, it seems to-night. + This must suffice me here. What would one have? + In heaven, perhaps, new chances, one more chance-- + Four great walls in the New Jerusalem + Meted on each side by the Angel's reed, + For Leonard, Rafael, Agnolo and me + To cover--the three first without a wife, + While I have mine! So--still they overcome + Because there's still Lucrezia,--as I choose." + +The full-length portrait of Cosimo the Elder (1267), the Pater +Patriae (so the flattery of the age hailed the man who said that a +city destroyed was better than a city lost), was painted by Pontormo +from some fifteenth century source, as a companion piece to his +portrait here of Duke Cosimo I. (1270). The admirable portrait of +Lorenzo the Magnificent by Vasari (1269) is similarly constructed from +contemporary materials, and is probably the most valuable thing that +Vasari has left to us in the way of painting. The unfinished picture +by Fra Bartolommeo (1265), representing our Lady enthroned with St. +Anne, the guardian of the Republic, watching over her and interceding +for Florence, while the patrons of the city gather round for her +defence, was intended for the altar in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio +of the Palazzo Vecchio; it is conceived in something of the same +spirit that made the last inheritors of Savonarola's tradition and +teaching fondly believe that Angels would man the walls of Florence, +rather than that she should again fall into the hands of her former +tyrants, the Medici. The great Madonna and Child with four Saints and +two Angels scattering flowers, by Filippino Lippi (1268), was painted +in 1485 for the room in the Palazzo Vecchio in which the Otto di +Pratica held their meetings. The Adoration of the Magi (1257), also by +Filippino Lippi, painted in 1496, apart from its great value as a work +of art, has a curious historical significance; the Magi and their +principal attendants, who are thus pushing forwards to display their +devotion to Our Lady of Florence and the Child whom the Florentines +were to elect their King, are the members of the younger branch of the +Medici, who have returned to the city now that Piero has been +expelled, and are waiting their chance. See how they have already +replaced the family of the elder Cosimo, who occupy this same +position in a similar picture painted some eighteen years before by +Sandro Botticelli, Filippino's master. At this epoch they had +ostentatiously altered their name of Medici and called themselves +Popolani, but were certainly intriguing against Fra Girolamo. The old +astronomer kneeling to our extreme left is the elder Piero Francesco, +watching the adventurous game for a throne that his children are +preparing; the most prominent figure in the picture, from whose head a +page is lifting the crown, is Pier Francesco's son, Giovanni, who will +soon woo Caterina Sforza, the lady of Forli, and make her the mother +of Giovanni delle Bande Nere; and the precious vessel which he is to +offer to the divine Child is handed to him by the younger Pier +Francesco, the father of Lorenzaccio, that "Tuscan Brutus" whose +dagger was to make Giovanni's grandson, Cosimo, the sole lord of +Florence and her empire.[30] + + [30] See the Genealogical Table in Appendix. The elder Pier Francesco + was dead many years before this picture was painted. It was for his + other son, Lorenzo, that Sandro Botticelli drew his illustrations of + the _Divina Commedia_. + +Granacci's Madonna of the Girdle (1280), over the door, formerly in +San Piero Maggiore, is a good example of a painter who imitated most +of his contemporaries and had little individuality. On easels in the +middle of the room are (3452) Venus, by Lorenzo di Credi, a +conscientious attempt to follow the fashion of the age and handle a +subject quite alien to his natural sympathies--for Lorenzo di Credi +was one of those who sacrificed their studies of the nude on +Savonarola's pyre of the Vanities; and (3436) an Adoration of the +Magi, a cartoon of Sandro Botticelli's, coloured by a later hand, +marvellously full of life in movement, intense and passionate, in +which--as though the painter anticipated the Reformation--the +followers of the Magi are fighting furiously with each other in their +desire to find the right way to the Stable of Bethlehem! + +The third room of the Tuscan School contains some of the truest +masterpieces of the whole collection. The Epiphany, by Domenico +Ghirlandaio (1295), painted in 1487, is one of that prosaic master's +best easel pictures. The wonderful Annunciation (1288), in which the +Archangel has alighted upon the flowers in the silence of an Italian +twilight, with a mystical landscape of mountains and rivers, and +far-off cities in the background, may possibly be an early work of +Leonardo da Vinci, to whom it is officially assigned, but is ascribed +by contemporary critics to Leonardo's master, Andrea Verrocchio. The +least satisfactory passage is the rather wooden face and inappropriate +action of the Madonna; Leonardo would surely not have made her, on +receiving the angelic salutation, put her finger into her book to keep +the place. After Three Saints by one of the Pollaiuoli (1301) and two +smaller pictures by Lorenzo di Credi (1311 and 1313), we come to Piero +della Francesca's grand portraits of Federigo of Montefeltro, Duke of +Urbino, and his wife, Battista Sforza (1300); on the reverse, the Duke +and Duchess are seen in triumphal cars surrounded with allegorical +pageantry. Federigo is always, as here, represented in profile, +because he lost his right eye and had the bridge of his nose broken in +a tournament. The three predella scenes (1298) are characteristic +examples of the minor works of Piero's great pupil, Luca Signorelli of +Cortona. + +On the opposite wall are four Botticellian pictures. The Magnificat +(1267 _bis_)--Sandro's most famous and familiar tondo--in which the +Madonna rather sadly writes the Magnificat, while Angels cluster round +to crown their Queen, to offer ink and book, or look into the thing +that she has written, while the Dove hovers above her, is full of the +haunting charm, the elusive mystery, the vague yearning, which makes +the fascination of Botticelli to-day. She already seems to be +anticipating the Passion of that Child--so unmistakably divine--who is +guiding her hand. The Madonna of the Pomegranate (1289) is a somewhat +similar, but less beautiful tondo; the Angel faces, who are said to be +idealised portraits of the Medicean children, have partially lost +their angelic look. The Fortitude (1299) is one of Sandro's earliest +paintings, and its authenticity has been questioned; she seems to be +dreading, almost shrinking from some great battle at hand, of which no +man can foretell the end. The Annunciation (1316) is rather +Botticellian in conception; but the colouring and execution generally +do not suggest the master himself. Antonio Pollaiuolo's Prudence +(1306) is a harsh companion to Sandro's Fortitude. The tondo (1291) of +the Holy Family, by Luca Signorelli, is one of his best works in this +kind; the colouring is less heavy than is usual with him, and the +Child is more divine. Of the two carefully finished Annunciations by +Lorenzo di Credi (1314, 1160), the latter is the earlier and finer. +Fra Filippo's little Madonna of the Sea (1307), with her happy +boy-like Angel attendants, is one of the monk's most attractive and +characteristic works; perhaps the best of all his smaller pictures. +And we have left to the last Fra Angelico's divinest dream of the +Coronation of the Madonna in the Empyrean Heaven of Heavens (1290), +amidst exultant throngs of Saints and Angels absorbed in the Beatific +Vision of Paradise. It is the pictorial equivalent of Bernard's most +ardent sermons on the Assumption of Mary and of the mystic musings of +John of Damascus. Here are "the Angel choirs of Angelico, with the +flames on their white foreheads waving brighter as they move, and the +sparkles streaming from their purple wings like the glitter of many +suns upon a sounding sea, listening in the pauses of alternate song, +for the prolonging of the trumpet blast, and the answering of psaltery +and cymbal, throughout the endless deep, and from all the star shores +of heaven."[31] + + [31] _Modern Painters_, vol. ii. + + +SALA DI MAESTRI DIVERSI ITALIANI. + +In the small room which opens out of the Tribune, on the opposite side +to these three Tuscan rooms, are two perfect little gems of more +northern Italian painting. Mantegna's Madonna of the Quarries (1025), +apart from its nobility of conception and grand austerity of +sentiment, is a positive marvel of minute drawing with the point of +the _pennello_. Every detail in the landscape, with the winding road +up to the city on the hill, the field labourers in the meadow, the +shepherds and travellers, on the left, and the stone-cutterss among +the caverns on the right, preparing stone for the sculptors and +architects of Florence and Rome, is elaborately rendered with +exquisite delicacy and finish. It was painted at Rome in 1488, while +Mantegna was working on his frescoes (now destroyed) for Pope Innocent +VIII. in a chapel of the Vatican. The other is a little Madonna and +Child with two Angels playing musical instruments, by Correggio +(1002), a most exquisite little picture in an almost perfect state of +preservation, formerly ascribed to Titian, but entirely characteristic +of Correggio's earliest period when he was influenced by Mantegna and +the Ferrarese. + +Beyond are the Dutch, Flemish, German, and French pictures which do +not come into our present scope--though they include several excellent +works as, notably, a little Madonna by Hans Memlinc and two Apostles +by Albert Duerer. The cabinet of the gems contains some of the +treasures left by the Medicean Grand Dukes, including work by Cellini +and Giovanni da Bologna. + + +SCUOLA VENETA. + +Crossing the short southern corridor, with some noteworthy ancient +sculptury, we pass down the long western corridor. Out of this open +first the two rooms devoted to the Venetian school. In the first, to +seek the best only, are Titian's portraits of Francesco Maria della +Rovere, third Duke of Urbino, and Eleonora Gonzaga, his duchess (605 +and 599), painted in 1537. A triptych by Mantegna (1111)--the +Adoration of the Kings, between the Circumcision and the Ascension--is +one of the earlier works of the great Paduan master; the face of the +Divine Child in the Circumcision is marvellously painted. The Madonna +by the Lake by Giovanni Bellini (631), also called the Allegory of the +Tree of Life, is an exceedingly beautiful picture, one of Bellini's +later works. Titian's Flora (626), an early work of the master, +charming in its way, has been damaged and rather overpraised. In the +second room, are three works by Giorgione; the Judgment of Solomon and +the Ordeal of Moses (630 and 621), with their fantastic costumes and +poetically conceived landscapes, are very youthful works indeed; the +portrait of a Knight of Malta (622) is more mature, and one of the +noblest of Venetian portraits. Florence thus possesses more authentic +works of this wonderful, almost mythical, Venetian than does Venice +herself. Here, too, is usually--except when it is in request +elsewhere for the copyist--Titian's Madonna and Child with the boy +John Baptist, and the old Antony Abbot, leaning on his staff and +watching the flower play (633)--the most beautiful of Titian's early +Giorgionesque Madonnas. + + [Illustration: VENUS + BY SANDRO BOTTICELLI] + + +SALA DI LORENZO MONACO. + +The following passage leads to the Sala di Lorenzo Monaco, the room +which bears the name of the austere monk of Camaldoli, and, hallowed +by the presence of Fra Angelico's Madonna, seems at times almost to +re-echo still with the music of the Angel choir; but to which the +modern worshipper turns to adore the Venus of the Renaissance rising +from the Sea. For here is Sandro Botticelli's famous Birth of Venus +(39), the most typical picture of the Quattrocento, painted for +Lorenzo dei Medici and in part inspired by certain lines of Angelo +Poliziano. But let all description be left to the golden words of +Walter Pater in his _Renaissance_:-- + +"At first, perhaps, you are attracted only by a quaintness of design, +which seems to recall all at once whatever you have read of Florence +in the fifteenth century; afterwards you may think that this +quaintness must be incongruous with the subject, and that the colour +is cadaverous or at least cold. And yet, the more you come to +understand what imaginative colouring really is, that all colour is no +mere delightful quality of natural things, but a spirit upon them by +which they become expressive to the spirit, the better you will like +this peculiar quality of colour; and you will find that quaint design +of Botticelli's a more direct inlet into the Greek temper than the +works of the Greeks themselves, even of the finest period. Of the +Greeks as they really were, of their difference from ourselves, of +the aspects of their outward life, we know far more than Botticelli, +or his most learned contemporaries; but for us long familiarity has +taken off the edge of the lesson, and we are hardly conscious of what +we owe to the Hellenic spirit. But in pictures like this of +Botticelli's you have a record of the first impression made by it on +minds turned back towards it, in almost painful aspiration, from a +world in which it had been ignored so long; and in the passion, the +energy, the industry of realisation, with which Botticelli carries out +his intention, is the exact measure of the legitimate influence over +the human mind of the imaginative system of which this is the central +myth. The light is indeed cold--mere sunless dawn; but a later painter +would have cloyed you with sunshine; and you can see the better for +that quietness in the morning air each long promontory, as it slopes +down to the water's edge. Men go forth to their labours until the +evening; but she is awake before them, and you might think that the +sorrow in her face was at the thought of the whole long day of love +yet to come. An emblematical figure of the wind blows hard across the +grey water, moving forward the dainty-lipped shell on which she sails, +the sea 'showing his teeth' as it moves in thin lines of foam, and +sucking in, one by one, the falling roses, each severe in outline, +plucked off short at the stalk, but embrowned a little, as +Botticelli's flowers always are. Botticelli meant all that imagery to +be altogether pleasurable; and it was partly an incompleteness of +resources, inseparable from the art of that time, that subdued and +chilled it; but his predilection for minor tones counts also; and what +is unmistakable is the sadness with which he has conceived the goddess +of pleasure, as the depositary of a great power over the lives of +men." + +In this same room are five other masterpieces of early Tuscan +painting. Don Lorenzo's Coronation of the Madonna (1309), though +signed and dated 1413, may be regarded as the last great altar-piece +of the school of Giotto and his followers. It has been terribly +repainted. The presence in the most prominent position of St. Benedict +and St. Romuald in their white robes shows that it was painted for a +convent of Camaldolese monks. The predella, representing the Adoration +of the Magi and scenes from the life of St. Benedict, includes a very +sweet little picture of the last interview of the saint with his +sister Scholastica, when, in answer to her prayers, God sent such a +storm that her brother, although unwilling to break his monastic rule, +was forced to spend the night with her. "I asked you a favour," she +told him, "and you refused it me; I asked it of Almighty God, and He +has granted it to me." In Browning's poem, Don Lorenzo is one of the +models specially recommended to Lippo Lippi by his superiors:-- + + "You're not of the true painters, great and old; + Brother Angelico's the man, you'll find; + Brother Lorenzo stands his single peer; + Fag on at flesh, you'll never make the third." + +The Madonna and Child with St. Francis and St. John Baptist, St. +Zenobius and St. Lucy (1305), is one of the very few authentic works +by Domenico Veneziano, one of the great innovators in the painting of +the fifteenth century. + +Sandro Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi (1286), painted for Santa +Maria Novella, is enthusiastically praised by Vasari. It is not a very +characteristic work of the painter's, but contains admirable portraits +of the Medici and their court. The first king, kneeling up alone +before the Divine Child, is Cosimo the Elder himself, according to +Vasari, "the most faithful and animated likeness of all now known to +exist of him"; the other two kings are his two sons, Piero il Gottoso +in the centre, Giovanni di Cosimo on the right. The black-haired youth +with folded hands, standing behind Giovanni, is Giuliano, who fell in +the Pazzi conspiracy. On the extreme left, standing with his hands +resting upon the hilt of his sword, is Lorenzo the Magnificent, who +avenged Giuliano's death; behind Lorenzo, apparently clinging to him +as though in anticipation or recollection of the conspiracy, is Angelo +Poliziano. The rather sullen-looking personage, with a certain dash of +sensuality about him, on our extreme right, gazing out of the picture, +is Sandro himself. This picture, which was probably painted slightly +before or shortly after the murder of Giuliano, has been called "the +Apotheosis of the Medici"; it should be contrasted with the very +different Nativity, now in the National Gallery, which Sandro painted +many years later, in 1500, and which is full of the mystical +aspirations of the disciples of Savonarola. + +The Madonna and Child with Angels, two Archangels standing guard and +two Bishops kneeling in adoration (1297), is a rich and attractive +work by Domenico Ghirlandaio. Fra Angelico's Tabernacle (17), Madonna +and Child with the Baptist and St. Mark, and the famous series of +much-copied Angels, was painted for the Guild of Flax-merchants, whose +patron was St. Mark. The admirable Predella (1294) represents St. Mark +reporting St. Peter's sermons, and St. Mark's martyrdom, together with +the Adoration of the Magi. + + * * * * * + +Passing down the corridor, we come to the entrance to the passage +which leads across the Ponte Vecchio to the Pitti Palace. There are +some fine Italian engravings on the way down. The halls of the +Inscriptions and Cameos contain ancient statues as well, including the +so-called dying Alexander, and some of those so over-praised by +Shelley. Among the pictures in the Sala del Baroccio, is a very genial +lady with a volume of Petrarch's sonnets, by Andrea del Sarto (188). +Here, too, are some excellent portraits by Bronzino; a lady with a +missal (198); a rather pathetic picture of Eleonora of Toledo, the +wife of Cosimo I., with Don Garzia--the boy with whom Cellini used to +romp (172); Bartolommeo Panciatichi (159); Lucrezia Panciatichi (154), +a peculiarly sympathetic rendering of an attractive personality. +Sustermans' Galileo (163) is also worth notice. The Duchess Eleonora +died almost simultaneously with her sons, Giovanni and Garzia, in +1562, and there arose in consequence a legend that Garzia had murdered +Giovanni, and had, in his turn, been killed by his own father, and +that Eleonora had either also been murdered by the Duke or died of +grief. Like many similar stories of the Medicean princes, this appears +to be entirely fictitious. + +The Hall of Niobe contains the famous series of statues representing +the destruction of Niobe and her children at the hands of Apollo and +Artemis. They are Roman or Graeco-Roman copies of a group assigned by +tradition to the fourth century B.C., and which was brought from Asia +Minor to Rome in the year 35 B.C. The finest of these statues is that +of Niobe's son, the young man who is raising his cloak upon his arm as +a shield; he was originally protecting a sister, who, already pierced +by the fatal arrow, leaned against his knee as she died. + +In a room further on there is an interesting series of miniature +portraits of the Medici, from Giovanni di Averardo to the family of +Duke Cosimo. Six of the later ones are by Bronzino. + +At the end of the corridor, by Baccio Bandinelli's copy of the +Laocooen, are three rooms containing the drawings and sketches of the +Old Masters. It would take a book as long as the present to deal +adequately with them. Many of the Florentine painters, who were always +better draughtsmen than they were colourists, are seen to much greater +advantage in their drawings than in their finished pictures. Besides a +most rich collection of the early men and their successors, from +Angelico to Bartolommeo, there are here several of Raphael's cartoons +for Madonnas and two for his St. George and the Dragon; many of the +most famous and characteristic drawings of Leonardo da Vinci (and it +is from his drawings alone that we can now get any real notion of this +"Magician of the Renaissance"); and some important specimens of +Michelangelo. Here, too, is Andrea Mantegna's terrible Judith, +conceived in the spirit of some Roman heroine, which once belonged to +Vasari and was highly valued by him. It is dated 1491, and should be +compared with Botticelli's rendering of the same theme. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_Or San Michele and the Sesto di San Piero_ + + "Una figura della Donna mia + s'adora, Guido, a San Michele in Orto, + che di bella sembianza, onesta e pia, + de' peccatori e gran rifugio e porto." + (_Guido Cavalcanti_ to _Guido Orlandi_.) + + +At the end of the bustling noisy Via Calzaioli, the Street of the +Stocking-makers, rises the Oratory of Our Lady, known as San Michele +in Orto, "St. Michael in the Garden." Around its outer walls, +enshrined in little temples of their own, stand great statues of +saints in marble and bronze by the hands of the greatest sculptors of +Florence--the canonised patrons of the Arts or Guilds, keeping guard +over the thronging crowds that pass below. This is the grand monument +of the wealth and taste, devotion and charity, of the commercial +democracy of the Middle Ages. + + [Illustration: ORCAGNA'S TABERNACLE, OR SAN MICHELE] + +The ancient church of San Michele in Orto was demolished by order of +the Commune in the thirteenth century, to make way for a piazza for +the grain and corn market, in the centre of which Arnolfo di Cambio +built a loggia in 1280. Upon one of the pilasters of this loggia there +was painted a picture of the Madonna, held in highest reverence by the +frequenters of the market; a special company or sodality of laymen +was formed, the _Laudesi_ of Our Lady of Or San Michele, who met here +every evening to sing _laudi_ in her honour, and who were +distinguished even in mediaeval Florence, where charity was always on a +heroic scale, by their munificence towards the poor. "On July 3rd, +1292," so Giovanni Villani writes, "great and manifest miracles began +to be shown forth in the city of Florence by a figure of Holy Mary +which was painted on a pilaster of the loggia of San Michele in Orto, +where the grain was sold; the sick were healed, the deformed made +straight, and the possessed visibly delivered in great numbers. But +the preaching friars, and the friars minor likewise, through envy or +some other cause, would put no faith in it, whereby they fell into +much infamy with the Florentines. And so greatly grew the fame of +these miracles and merits of Our Lady that folk flocked hither in +pilgrimage from all parts of Tuscany at her feasts, bringing divers +waxen images for the wonders worked, wherewith a great part of the +loggia in front of and around the said figure was filled." In spite of +ecclesiastical scepticism, this popular devotion ever increased; the +company of the Laudesi, amongst whom, says Villani, was a good part of +the best folk in Florence, had their hands always full of offerings +and legacies, which they faithfully distributed to the poor. + +The wonderful tidings roused even Guido Cavalcanti from his melancholy +musings among the tombs. As a sceptical philosopher, he had little +faith in miracles, but an _esprit fort_ of the period could not allow +himself to be on the same side as the friars. A delightful _via media_ +presented itself; the features of the Madonna in the picture bore a +certain resemblance to his lady, and everything was at once made +clear. So he took up his pen, and wrote a very beautiful sonnet to his +friend, Guido Orlandi. It begins: "A figure of my Lady is adored, +Guido, in San Michele in Orto, which, with her fair semblance, pure +and tender, is the great refuge and harbour of sinners." And after +describing (with evident devotional feeling, in spite of the obvious +suggestion that it is the likeness of his lady that gives the picture +its miraculous powers) the devotion of the people and the wonders +worked on souls and bodies alike, he concludes: "Her fame goeth +through far off lands: but the friars minor say it is idolatry, for +envy that she is not their neighbour." But Orlandi professed himself +much shocked at his friend's levity. "If thou hadst said, my friend, +of Mary," so runs the double sonnet of his answer, "Loving and full of +grace, thou art a red rose planted in the garden; thou wouldst have +written fittingly. For she is the Truth and the Way, she was the +mansion of our Lord, and is the port of our salvation." And he bids +the greater Guido imitate the publican; cast the beam out of his own +eye and let the mote alone in those of the friars: "The friars minor +know the divine Latin scripture, and the good preachers are the +defenders of the faith; their preaching is our medicine." + +One of the most terrible faction fights in Florentine history raged +round the loggia and oratory on June 10th, 1304. The Cavalcanti and +their allies were heroically holding their own, here and in Mercato +Vecchio, against the overwhelming forces of the Neri headed by the +Della Tosa, Sinibaldo Donati and Boccaccio Adimari, when Neri Abati +fired the houses round Or San Michele; the wax images in Our Lady's +oratory flared up, the loggia was burned to the ground, and all the +houses along Calimara and Mercato Nuovo and beyond down to the Ponte +Vecchio were utterly destroyed. The young nobles of the Neri faction +galloped about with flaming torches to assail the houses of their +foes; the Podesta with his troops came into Mercato Nuovo, stared at +the blaze, but did nothing but block the way. In this part of the town +was all the richest merchandise of Florence, and the loss was +enormous. The Cavalcanti, against whom the iniquitous plot was +specially aimed, were absolutely ruined, and left the city without +further resistance. + +The pilaster with Madonna's picture had survived the fire, and the +_Laudesi_ still met round it to sing her praises. But in 1336 the +Signoria proposed to erect a grand new building on the site of the old +loggia, which should serve at once for corn exchange and provide a +fitting oratory for this new and growing cult of the Madonna di +Orsanmichele. The present edifice, half palace and half church, was +commenced in 1337, and finished at the opening of the fifteenth +century. The actual building was in the hands of the Commune, who +delegated their powers to the Arte di Por Sta. Maria or Arte della +Seta. The Parte Guelfa and the Greater Guilds were to see to the +external decoration of the pilasters, upon each of which tabernacles +were made to receive the images of the Saints before which each of the +Arts should come in state, to make offerings on the feasts of their +proper patrons; while the shrine itself, and the internal decorations +of the loggia (as it was still called), were left in the charge and +care of the _Laudesi_ themselves, the Compagnia of Orsanmichele, which +was thoroughly organised under its special captains. It is uncertain +whom the Arte della Seta employed as architect; Vasari says that +Taddeo Gaddi gave the design, others say Orcagna (who worked for the +Laudesi inside), and more recently Francesco Talenti has been +suggested. Benci di Cione and Simone di Francesco Talenti, who also +worked at the same epoch upon the Duomo, were among the architects +employed later. The closing in of the arcades, for the better +protection of the tabernacle, took away the last remnants of its +original appearance as an open loggia; and, shortly before, the corn +market itself was removed to the present Piazza del Grano, and thus +the "Palatium" became the present church. The extremely beautifully +sculptured windows are the work of Simone di Francesco Talenti. + +There are fourteen of these little temples or niches, partly belonging +to the Greater and partly to the Lesser Arts. It will be seen that, +while the seven Greater Arts have each their niche, only six out of +the fourteen Minor Arts are represented. Over the niches are _tondi_ +with the insignia of each Art. The statues were set up at different +epochs, and are not always those that originally stood here--altered +in one case from significant political motives, in others from the +desire of the guilds to have something more thoroughly up to date--the +rejected images being made over to the authorities of the Duomo for +their unfinished facade, or sent into exile among the friars of Santa +Croce. In 1404 the Signoria decreed that, within ten years from that +date, the Arts who had secured their pilasters should have their +statues in position, on pain of losing the right. But this does not +seem to have been rigidly enforced. + + [Illustration: WINDOW OF OR SAN MICHELE] + +Beginning at the corner of the northern side, facing towards the +Duomo, we have the minor Art of the Butchers represented by +Donatello's St. Peter in marble, an early and not very excellent work +of the master, about 1412 (in a tabernacle of the previous century); +the _tondo_ above containing their arms, a black goat on a gold field, +is modern. Next comes the marble St. Philip, the patron saint of the +minor Art of the Shoemakers, by Nanni di Banco, of 1408, a +beautiful and characteristic work of this too often neglected +sculptor. Then, also by Nanni di Banco, the _Quattro incoronati_, the +"four crowned martyrs," who, being carvers by profession, were put to +death under Diocletian for refusing to make idols, and are the patrons +of the masters in stone and wood, a minor Art which included +sculptors, architects, bricklayers, carpenters, and masons; the +bas-relief under the shrine, also by Nanni, is a priceless masterpiece +of realistic Florentine democratic art, and shows us the mediaeval +craftsmen at their work, the every-day life of the men who made +Florence the dream of beauty which she became; above it are the arms +of the Guild, in an ornate and beautiful medallion, by Luca della +Robbia. The following shrine, that of the Art of makers of swords and +armour, had originally Donatello's famous St. George in marble, of +1415, which is now in the Bargello; the present bronze (inappropriate +for a minor Art, according to the precedent of the others) is a modern +copy; the bas-relief below, of St. George slaying the dragon, is still +Donato's. On the western wall, opposite the old tower of the Guild of +Wool, comes first a bronze St. Matthew, made together with its +tabernacle by Ghiberti and Michelozzo for the greater Guild of +Money-changers and Bankers (Arte del Cambio), and finished in 1422. +The Annunciation above is by Niccolo of Arezzo, at the close of the +Trecento. The very beautiful bronze statue of St. Stephen, by +Ghiberti, represents the great Guild of Wool, Arte della Lana; +originally they had a marble St. Stephen, but, seeing what excellent +statues had been made for the Cambio and the Calimala Guilds, they +declared that since the Arte della Lana claimed to be always mistress +of the other Arts, she must excel in this also; so sent their St. +Stephen away to the Cathedral, and assigned the new work to Ghiberti +(1425). Then comes the marble St. Eligius, by Nanni di Banco (1415), +for the minor Art of the Maniscalchi, which included farriers, +iron-smiths, knife-makers, and the like; the bas-relief below, also by +Nanni, represents the Saint (San Lo he is more familiarly called, or +St. Eloy in French) engaged in shoeing a demoniacal horse. + +On the southern facade, we have St. Mark in marble for the minor Art +of Linaioli and Rigattieri, flax merchants and hucksters, by +Donatello, (about 1412).[32] The Arte dei Vaiai e Pellicciai, +furriers, although a greater Guild, seems to have been contented with +the rather insignificant marble St. James, which follows, of uncertain +authorship, and dating from the end of the Trecento; the bas-relief +seems later. The next shrine, that of the Doctors and Apothecaries, +the great Guild to which Dante belonged and which included painters +and booksellers, is empty; the Madonna herself is their patroness, but +their statue is now inside the church; the Madonna and Child in the +medallion above are by Luca della Robbia. The next niche is that of +the great Arte della Seta or Arte di Por Santa Maria, the Guild of the +Silk-merchants, to which embroiderers, goldsmiths and silversmiths +were attached; the bronze statue of their patron, St. John the +Evangelist, is by Baccio da Montelupo (1515), and replaces an earlier +marble now in the Bargello; the medallion above with their arms, a +gate on a shield supported by two cherubs, is by Luca della Robbia. + + [32] The eight Arti Minori not represented are the vintners (St. + Martin), the inn-keepers (St. Julian), the cheesemongers (St. + Bartholomew), the leather-dressers (St. Augustine), the saddlemakers + (the Blessed Trinity), the joiners (the Annunciation), tin and + coppersmiths (St. Zenobius), and the bakers (St. Lawrence). + +Finally, on the facade in the Via Calzaioli, the first shrine is that +of the Arte di Calimala or Arte dei Mercatanti, who carried on the +great commerce in foreign cloth, the chief democratic guild of the +latter half of the thirteenth century, but which, together with the +Arte della Lana, began somewhat to decline towards the middle of the +Quattrocento; their bronze St. John Baptist is Ghiberti's, but hardly +one of his better works (1415). The large central tabernacle was +originally assigned to the Parte Guelfa, the only organisation outside +of the Guilds that was allowed to share in this work; for them, +Donatello made a bronze statue of their patron, St. Louis of Toulouse, +and either Donatello himself or Michelozzo prepared, in 1423, the +beautiful niche for him which is still here. But, owing to the great +unpopularity of the Parte Guelfa and their complete loss of authority +under the new Medicean regime, this tabernacle was taken from them in +1459 and made over to the Universita dei Mercanti or Magistrato della +Mercanzia, a board of magistrates who presided over all the Guilds; +the arms of this magistracy were set up in the present medallion by +Luca della Robbia in 1462; Donatello's St. Louis was sent to the +friars minor; and, some years later, Verrocchio cast the present +masterly group of Christ and St. Thomas. Landucci, in his diary for +1483, tells us how it was set up, and that the bronze figure of the +Saviour seemed to him the most beautiful that had ever been made. Last +of all, the bronze statue of St. Luke was set up by Giovanni da +Bologna in 1601, for the Judges and Notaries, who, like the +silk-merchants, discarded an earlier marble. It must be observed that +the substitution of the Commercial Tribunal for the tyrannical Parte +Guelfa completes the purely democratic character of the whole +monument. + +Entering the interior, we pass from the domains of the great +commercial guilds and their patrons to those of the _Laudesi_ of Santa +Maria. It is rich and subdued in colour, the vaults and pilasters +covered with faded frescoes. It is divided into two parts, the one +ending in the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin, the other in the chapel +and altar of St. Anne, her mother and the deliveress of the Republic. +These two record the two great events of fourteenth century Florentine +history--the expulsion of the Duke of Athens and the Black Death. It +was after this great plague that, in consequence of the Compagnia +having had great riches left to them, "to the honour of the Holy +Virgin Mary and for the benefit of the poor," the Captains of +Orsanmichele, as the heads of these Laudesi were called, summoned +Orcagna, in 1349, to the "work of the pilaster," as it was officially +styled, to enclose what remained of the miraculous picture in a +glorious tabernacle. He took ten years over it, finishing it in 1359, +while the railing by Pietro di Migliore was completed in 1366. It was +approximately at this epoch that it was decided to find another place +for the market, and to close the arcades of the loggia, _per +adornamento e salvezza del tabernacolo di Nostra Donna_. + +It is goldsmith's work on a gigantic scale, this marble reliquary of +the archangelic painter. "A miracle of loveliness," wrote Lord +Lindsay, "and though clustered all over with pillars and pinnacles, +inlaid with the richest marbles, lapis-lazuli, and mosaic work, it is +chaste in its luxuriance as an Arctic iceberg--worthy of her who was +spotless among women." The whole is crowned with a statue of St. +Michael, and the miraculous picture is enclosed in an infinite wealth +and profusion of statues and arabesques, angels and prophets, precious +stones and lions' heads. Scenes in bas-relief from Our Lady's life +alternate with prophets and allegorical representations of the +virtues, some of these latter being single figures of great beauty and +some psychological insight in the rendering--for instance, Docilitas, +Solertia, Justitia, Fortitudo--while marble Angels cluster round their +Queen's tabernacle in eager service and loving worship. At the back is +the great scene beneath which, to right and left, the series begins +and ends--the death of Madonna and her Assumption, or rather, Our Lady +of the Girdle, the giving of that celestial gift to the Thomas who had +doubted, the mystical treasure which Tuscan Prato still fondly +believes that her Duomo holds. This is perhaps the first +representation of this mystery in Italian sculpture, and is signed and +dated: _Andreas Cionis pictor Florentinus oratorii archimagister +extitit hujus, 1359._ The figure with a small divided beard, talking +with a man in a big hat and long beard, is Orcagna's own portrait. The +miraculous painting itself is within the tabernacle. The picture in +front, the Madonna and Child with goldfinch, adored by eight Angels, +is believed to be either by Orcagna himself or Bernardo Daddi[33]; it +is decidedly more primitive than their authenticated works, probably +because it is a comparatively close rendering of the original +composition. + + [33] There are three extant documents concerning pictures of the + Madonna for the Captains of Saint Michael; two refer to a painting + ordered from Bernardo Daddi, in 1346 and 1347; the third to one by + Orcagna, 1352. _See_ Signor P. Franceschini's monograph on Or San + Michele, to which I am much indebted in this chapter. + +On the side altar on the right is the venerated Crucifix before which +St. Antoninus used to pray. At one time the Dominicans were wont to +come hither in procession on the anniversary of his death. In his +Chronicle of Florence, Antoninus defends the friars from the +accusations of Villani with respect to their scepticism about the +miraculous picture. On the opposite side altar is the marble statue of +Mother and Child from the tabernacle of the Medici e Speziali. It was +executed about the year 1399; Vasari ascribes it to a Simone di +Firenze, who may possibly be Simone di Francesco Talenti. + +The altar of St. Anne at the east end of the left half of the nave is +one of the Republic's thank-offerings for their deliverance from the +tyranny of Walter de Brienne. Public thanksgiving had been held here, +before Our Lady's picture, as early as 1343, while the "Palatium" was +still in building; but in the following year, 1344, at the instance of +the captains of Or San Michele and others, the Signoria decreed that +"for the perpetual memory of the grace conceded by God to the Commune +and People of Florence, on the day of blessed Anne, Mother of the +glorious Virgin, by the liberation of the city and the citizens, and +by the destruction of the pernicious and tyrannical yoke," solemn +offerings should be made on St. Anne's feast day by the Signoria and +the consuls of the Arts, before her statue in Or San Michele, and that +on that day all offices and shops should be closed, and no one be +subject to arrest for debt. The present statue on this votive altar, +representing the Madonna (here perhaps symbolising her faithful city +of Florence) seated on the lap of St. Anne, who is thus protecting her +and her Divine Child, was executed by Francesco da Sangallo in 1526, +and replaces an older group in wood; although highly praised by +Vasari, it will strike most people as not quite worthy of the place or +the occasion. The powerful and expressive head of St. Anne is the best +part of the group. + +The beneficent energies of these Laudesi and their captains spread far +beyond the limits of this church and shrine. The great and still +existing company of the Misericordia was originally connected with +them; and the Bigallo for the foundling children was raised by them at +the same time as their Tabernacle here. They contributed generously to +the construction of the Duomo, and decorated chapels in Santa Croce +and the Carmine. Sacchetti and Giovanni Boccaccio were among their +officers; and it was while Boccaccio was serving as one of their +captains in 1350 that they sent a sum of money by his hands to Dante's +daughter Beatrice, in her distant convent at Ravenna. They appear to +have spent all they had in the defence of Florentine liberty during +the great siege of 1529. + +The imposing old tower that rises opposite San Michele in the Calimala +is the Torrione of the Arte della Lana, copiously adorned with their +arms--the Lamb bearing the Baptist's cross. It was erected at the end +of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century, and in it +the consuls of the Guild had their meetings. It was stormed and sacked +by the Ciompi in 1378. The heavy arch that connects the tower with the +upper storey of Or San Michele, and rather disfigures the building, is +the work of Buontalenti in the latter half of the sixteenth century. +The large vaulted hall into which it leads, intended originally for +the storage of grain and the like, is now known as the Sala di Dante, +and witnesses the brilliant gatherings of Florentines and foreigners +to listen to the readings of the _Divina Commedia_ given under the +auspices of the _Societa Dantesca Italiana_. + +This is the part of the city where the Arts had their wealth and +strength; the very names of the streets show it; Calimala and +Pellicceria, for instance, which run from the Mercato Vecchio to the +Via Porta Rossa. The Mercato Vecchio, the centre of the city both in +Roman and mediaeval times, around which the houses and towers of the +oldest families clustered--Elisei, Caponsacchi, Nerli, Vecchietti, and +the rest of whom Dante's _Paradiso_ tells--is now a painfully +unsightly modern square, with what appears to be a triumphal arch +bearing the inscription: _L'antico centro della citta da secolare +squallore a vita nuova restituita_(!). Passing down the Calimala to +the Via Porta Rossa and the Mercato Nuovo, near where the former +enters the Via Calzaioli, the site is still indicated of the Calimala +Bottega where the government of the Arts was first organised, as told +in chapter i. Near here and in the Mercato Nuovo, the Cavalcanti had +their palaces. In the Via Porta Rossa the Arte della Seta had their +warehouses; the gate from which they took their second name, and which +is represented on their shield, is of course the Por Santa Maria, Our +Lady's Gate of the old walls or Cerchia Antica, which was somewhere +about the middle of the present Via Por Santa Maria. The Church of +Santa Maria sopra la Porta, between the Mercato Nuovo and the Via +delle Terme, is the present San Biagio (now used by the firemen); +adjoining it is the fine old palace of the dreaded captains of the +Parte Guelfa. The Via Porta Rossa contains some mediaeval houses and +the lower portions of a few grand old towers still standing; as +already said, in the first circle of walls there was a postern gate, +at the end of the present street, opposite Santa Trinita. In the +Mercato Nuovo, where a copy of the ancient boar--which figures in Hans +Andersen's familiar story--seems to watch the flower market, the +arcades were built by Battista del Tasso for Cosimo I. Here, too, +modernisation has destroyed much. Hardly can we conjure up now that +day of the great fire in 1304, when the nobles of the "black" faction +galloped through the crowd of plunderers, with their blazing torches +throwing a lurid glow on the steel-clad Podesta with his soldiers +drawn up here idly to gaze upon the flames! A house that once belonged +to the Cavalcanti is still standing in Mercato Nuovo, marked by the +Cross of the People; the branch of the family who lived here left the +magnates and joined the people, as the Cross indicates, changing their +name from Cavalcanti to Cavallereschi. + + [Illustration: TOWER OF THE ARTE DELLA LANA] + +The little fourteenth century church of St. Michael, now called San +Carlo, which stands opposite San Michele in Orto on the other side of +the Via Calzaioli, was originally a votive chapel to Saint Anne, built +at the expense of the captains of the Laudesi on a site purchased by +the Commune. It was begun in 1349 by Fioraventi and Benci di Cione, +simultaneously with Orcagna's tabernacle, continued by Simone di +Francesco Talenti, and completed at the opening of the fifteenth +century. The captains intended to have the ceremonial offerings made +here instead of in the Loggia; but the thing fell through owing to a +disagreement with the Arte di Por Santa Maria, and the votive altar +remained in the Loggia. + +Between San Carlo and the Duomo the street has been completely +modernised. Of old it was the Corso degli Adimari, surrounded by the +houses and towers of this fierce Guelf clan, who were at deadly feud +with the Donati. Cacciaguida in the _Paradiso_ (canto xvi.) describes +them as "the outrageous tribe that playeth dragon after whoso fleeth, +and to whoso showeth tooth--or purse--is quiet as a lamb." One of +their towers still stands on the left. On the right the place is +marked where the famous loggia, called the Neghittosa, once stood, +which belonged to the branch of the Adimari called the Cavicciuli, +who, in spite of their hatred to the Donati, joined the Black Guelfs. +One of them, Boccaccio or Boccaccino Adimari, seized upon Dante's +goods when he was exiled, and exerted his influence to prevent his +being recalled. In this loggia, too, Filippo Argenti used to sit, the +_Fiorentino spirito bizzarro_ whom Dante saw rise before him covered +with mire out of the marshy lake of Styx. He is supposed to have +ridden a horse shod with silver, and there is a rare story in the +_Decameron_ of a mad outburst of bestial fury on his part in this very +loggia, on account of a mild practical joke on the part of Ciacco, a +bon vivant of the period whom Dante has sternly flung into the hell of +gluttons. On this occasion Filippo, who was an enormously big, strong, +and sinewy man, beat a poor little dandy called Biondello within an +inch of his life. In this same loggia, on August 4th, 1397, a party of +young Florentine exiles, who had come secretly from Bologna with the +intention of killing Maso degli Albizzi, took refuge, after a vain +attempt to call the people to arms. From the highest part of the +loggia, seeing a great crowd assembling round them, they harangued the +mob, imploring them not stupidly to wait to see their would-be +deliverers killed and themselves thrust back into still more grievous +servitude. When not a soul moved, "finding out too late how dangerous +it is to wish to set free a people that desires, happen what may, to +be enslaved," as Machiavelli cynically puts it, they escaped into the +Duomo, where, after a vain attempt at defending themselves, they were +captured by the Captain, put to the question and executed. There were +about ten of them in all, including three of the Cavicciuli and +Antonio dei Medici. + +On November 9th, 1494, when the Florentines rose against Piero dei +Medici and his brothers, the young Cardinal Giovanni rode down this +street with retainers and a few citizens shouting, _Popolo e liberta_, +pretending that he was going to join the insurgents. But when he got +to San Michele in Orto, the people turned upon him from the piazza +with their pikes and lances, with loud shouts of "Traitor!" upon which +he fled back in great dread. Landucci saw him at the windows of his +palace, on his knees with clasped hand, commending himself to God. +"When I saw him," he says, "I grew very sorry for him (_m'inteneri +assai_); and I judged that he was a good and sensible youth." + +To the east of the Via Calzaioli lies the Sesto di San Piero Maggiore, +which, at the end of the thirteenth century, received the pleasant +name of the Sesto di Scandali. It lies on either side of the Via del +Corso, which with its continuations ran from east to west through the +old city. In the Via della Condotta, at the corner of the Vicolo dei +Cerchi, still stands the palace which belonged to a section of this +family (the section known as the White Cerchi to distinguish them from +Messer Vieri's branch, the Black Cerchi, who were even more "white" in +politics, in spite of their name); in this palace the Priors sat +before Arnolfo built the Palazzo Vecchio, which became the seat of +government in 1299. It was there, not here, that Dante and his +colleagues, on June 15th, 1300, entered upon office, and the same day +confirmed the sentences which had been passed under their predecessors +against the three traitors who had conspired to betray Florence to +Pope Boniface; and then, a few days later, passed the decree by which +Corso Donati and Guido Cavalcanti were sent into exile. Later the +vicars of Robert of Anjou for a time resided here, and the +administrators appointed to assess the confiscated goods of "rebels." +At the corner of the Via dei Cerchi, where it joins the Via dei +Cimatori, are traces of the loggia of the Cerchi; the same corner +affords a picturesque glimpse of the belfrey of the Badia and the +tower of the Podesta's palace. + +There was another great palace of the Cerchi, referred to in the +_Paradiso_, which had formerly belonged to the Ravignani and the Conti +Guidi, the acquisition of which by Messer Vieri had excited the envy +of the Donati. This palace is described by Dante (_Parad._ xvi.) as +being _sopra la porta_, that is, over the inner gate of St. Peter, the +gate of the first circuit in Cacciaguida's day. No trace of it +remains, but it was apparently on the north side of the Corso where it +now joins the Via del Proconsolo. "Over the gate," says Cacciaguida, +"which is now laden with new felony of such weight that there will +soon be a wrecking of the ship, were the Ravignani, whence is +descended the Count Guido, and whoever has since taken the name of the +noble Bellincione." Here the daughter of Bellincione Berti, the _alto +Bellincion_, lived,--the beautiful and good Gualdrada, whom we can +dimly discern as a sweet and gracious presence in that far-off early +Florence of which the _Paradiso_ sings; she was the ancestress of the +great lords of the Casentino, the Conti Guidi. The principal houses of +the Donati appear to have been on the Duomo side of the Corso, just +before the Via dello Studio now joins it; but they had possessions on +the other side as well. Giano della Bella had his house almost +opposite to them, on the southern side. A little further on, at the +corner where the Corso joins the Via del Proconsolo, Folco Portinari +lived, the father, according to tradition, of Dante's Beatrice: "he +who had been the father of so great a marvel, as this most noble +Beatrice was manifestly seen to be." Folco's sons joined the Bianchi; +one of them, Pigello, was poisoned during Dante's priorate; an elder +son, Manetto Portinari (the friend of Dante and Cavalcanti), +afterwards ratted and made his peace with the Neri. All the family are +included, together with the Giuochi who lived opposite to them, in a +sentence passed against Dante and his sons in 1315, from which Manetto +Portinari is excepted by name. The building which now occupies the +site of the Casa Portinari was once the Salviati Palace. + + [Illustration: HOUSE OF DANTE] + +In the little Piazza di San Martino is shown the Casa di Dante, which +undoubtedly belonged to the Alighieri, and in which Dante is said to +have been born. It has been completely modernised. The Alighieri had +also a house in the Via Santa Margherita, which runs from the Piazza +San Martino to the Corso, opposite the little church of Santa +Margherita. Hard by, in the Piazza dei Donati a section of that family +had a house and garden; and here Dante saw and wooed Gemma, the +daughter of Manetto Donati. The old tower which seems to watch over +Dante's house from the other side of the Piazza San Martino, the +Torre della Castagna, belonged in Dante's days to the monks of the +Badia; in it, in 1282, the Priors of the Arts held their first +meeting, when the government of the Republic was placed in their +hands. At the corner of the Piazza, opposite Dante's house, lived the +Sacchetti, the family from which the novelist, Franco, sprang. They +were in deadly feud with Geri del Bello, the cousin of Dante's father, +who lived in the house next to Dante's; and, shortly before the year +of Dante's vision, the Sacchetti murdered Geri. He seems to have +deserved his fate, and Dante places him among the sowers of discord in +Hell, where he points at Dante and threatens him vehemently. "His +violent death," says the poet in _Inferno_ xxix, "which is not yet +avenged for him, by any that is a partner of his shame, made him +indignant; therefore, as I suppose, he went away without speaking to +me; and in that he has made me pity him the more." Thirty years after +the murder, Geri's nephews broke into the house of the Sacchetti and +stabbed one of the family to death; and the two families were finally +reconciled in 1342, on which occasion Dante's half-brother, Francesco +Alighieri, was the representative of the Alighieri. Many years later, +Dante's great-grandson, Leonardo Alighieri, came from Verona to +Florence. "He paid me a visit," writes Leonardo Bruni, "as a friend of +the memory of his great-grandfather, Dante. And I showed him Dante's +house, and that of his forebears, and I pointed out to him many +particulars with which he was not acquainted, because he and his +family had been estranged from their fatherland. And so does Fortune +roll this world around, and change its inhabitants up and down as she +turns her wheel." + +Beyond the Via del Proconsolo the Borgo, now called of the Albizzi, +was originally the Borgo di San Piero--a suburb of the old city, but +included in the second walls of the twelfth century. The present name +records the brief, but not inglorious period of the rule of the +oligarchy or Ottimati, before Cosimo dei Medici obtained complete +possession of the State. It was formerly called the Corso di Por San +Piero. The first palace on the right (De Rast or Quaratesi) was built +for the Pazzi by Brunelleschi, and still shows their armorial bearings +by Donatello. They had another palace further on, on the left, +opposite the Via dell'Acqua. Still further on (past the Altoviti +palace, with its caricatures) is the palace of the Albizzi family, on +the left, as you approach the Piazza. Here Maso degli Albizzi, and +then Rinaldo, lived and practically ruled the state. Giuliano dei +Medici alighted here in 1512. At the end of the Borgo degli Albizzi is +now the busy, rather picturesque little Piazza di San Piero Maggiore, +usually full of stalls and trucks. St. Peter's Gate in Dante's time +lay just beyond the church, to the left. In this Piazza also the +Donati had houses; and it was through this gate that Corso Donati +burst into Florence with his followers on the morning of November 5th, +1301; "and he entered into the city like a daring and bold cavalier," +as Dino Compagni--who loves a strong personality even on the opposite +side to his own--puts it. The Bianchi in the Sesto largely outnumbered +his forces, but did not venture to attack him, while the populace +bawled _Viva il Barone_ to their hearts' content. He incontinently +seized that tall tower of the Corbizzi that still rises opposite to +the facade of the church, at the southern corner of the Piazza in the +Via del Mercatino, and hung out his banner from it. Seven years later +he made his last stand in this square and round this tower, as we have +told in chapter ii. Of the church of San Piero Maggiore, only the +seventeenth century facade remains; but of old it ranked as the third +of the Florentine temples. According to the legend, it was on his way +to this church that San Zenobio raised the French child to life in the +Borgo degli Albizzi, opposite the spot where the Palazzo Altoviti now +stands. It is said to have been the only church in Florence free from +the taint of simony in the days of St. Giovanni Gualberto, and of old +had the privilege of first receiving the new Archbishops when they +entered Florence. The Archbishop went through a curious and beautiful +ceremony of mystic marriage with the Abbess of the Benedictine convent +attached to the church, who apparently personified the diocese of +Florence. Every year on Easter Monday the canons of the Duomo came +here in procession; and on St. Peter's day the captains of the Parte +Guelfa entered the Piazza in state to make a solemn offering, and had +a race run in the Piazza Santa Croce after the ceremony. The artists, +Lorenzo di Credi, Mariotto Albertinelli, Piero di Cosimo and Luca +della Robbia were buried here. Two of the best pictures that the +church contained--a Coronation of the Madonna ascribed to Orcagna and +the famous Assumption said by Vasari to have been painted by +Botticelli for Matteo Palmieri (which was supposed to inculcate +heretical neoplatonic doctrines concerning the human soul and the +Angels in the spheres), are now in the National Gallery of London. + +It was in this Piazza that the conspirators resolved to assassinate +Maso degli Albizzi. Their spies watched him leave his palace, walk +leisurely towards the church and then enter an apothecary's shop, +close to San Piero. They hurried off to tell their associates, but +when the would-be assassins arrived on the scene, they found that +Maso had given them the slip and left the shop. + +Turning down the Via del Mercatino and back to the Badia along the Via +Pandolfini, we pass the palace which once belonged to Francesco +Valori, Savonarola's formidable adherent. Here it was on that terrible +Palm Sunday, 1498, when Hell broke loose, as Landucci puts it, that +Valori's wife was shot dead at a window, while her husband in the +street below, on his way to answer the summons of the Signoria, was +murdered near San Procolo by the kinsmen of the men whom he had sent +to the scaffold. + +The Badia shares with the Baptistery and San Miniato the distinction +of being the only Florentine churches mentioned by Dante. In +Cacciaguida's days it was close to the old Roman wall; from its +campanile even in Dante's time, Florence still "took tierce and nones +"; and, at the sound of its bells, the craftsmen of the Arts went to +and from their work. Originally founded by the Countess Willa in the +tenth century, the Badia di San Stefano (as it was called) that Dante +and Boccaccio knew was the work of Arnolfo di Cambio; but it was +entirely rebuilt in the seventeenth century, with consequent +destruction of priceless frescoes by Giotto and Masaccio. The present +graceful campanile is of the fourteenth century. The relief in the +lunette over the chief door, rather in the manner of Andrea della +Robbia, is by Benedetto Buglione. In the left transept is the monument +by Mino da Fiesole of Willa's son Hugo, Margrave of Tuscany, who died +on St. Thomas' day, 1006. Dante calls him the great baron; his +anniversary was solemnly celebrated here, and he was supposed to have +conferred knighthood and nobility upon the Della Bella and other +Florentine families. "Each one," says Cacciaguida, "who beareth aught +of the fair arms of the great baron, whose name and worth the festival +of Thomas keepeth living, from him derived knighthood and privilege" +(_Paradiso_ xvi.). In a chapel to the left of this monument is +Filippino Lippi's picture of the Madonna appearing to St. Bernard, +painted in 1480, one of the most beautiful renderings of an +exceedingly poetical subject. For Dante, Bernard is _colui +ch'abbelliva di Maria, come del sole stella mattutina_, "he who drew +light from Mary, as the morning star from the sun." Filippino has +introduced the portrait of the donor, on the right, Francesco di +Pugliese. The church contains two other works by Mino da Fiesole, a +Madonna and (in the right transept) the sepulchral monument of +Bernardo Giugni, who served the State as ambassador to Milan and +Venice in the days of Cosimo and Piero dei Medici. At the entrance to +the cloisters Francesco Valori is buried. + +It was in the Badia (and not in the Church of San Stefano, near the +Via Por Santa Maria, as usually stated) that Boccaccio lectured upon +the _Divina Commedia_ in 1373. Benvenuto da Imola came over from +Bologna to attend his beloved master's readings, and was much edified. +But the audience were not equally pleased, and Boccaccio had to defend +himself in verse. One of the sonnets he wrote on this occasion, _Se +Dante piange, dove ch'el si sia_, has been admirably translated by +Dante Rossetti:-- + + If Dante mourns, there wheresoe'er he be, + That such high fancies of a soul so proud + Should be laid open to the vulgar crowd, + (As, touching my Discourse, I'm told by thee), + + This were my grievous pain; and certainly + My proper blame should not be disavow'd; + Though hereof somewhat, I declare aloud + Were due to others, not alone to me. + + False hopes, true poverty, and therewithal + The blinded judgment of a host of friends, + And their entreaties, made that I did thus. + + But of all this there is no gain at all + Unto the thankless souls with whose base ends + Nothing agrees that's great or generous. + + [Illustration: ARMS OF THE SESTO DI SAN PIERO] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_From the Bargello past Santa Croce_ + + "Non ha l'ottimo artista alcun concetto, + ch'un marmo solo in se non circonscriva + col suo soverchio; e solo a quello arriva + la man che ubbidisce all'intelletto." + --_Michelangelo Buonarroti._ + + +Even as the Palazzo Vecchio or Palace of the Priors is essentially the +monument of the _Secondo Popolo_, so the Palazzo del Podesta or Palace +of the Commune belongs to the _Primo Popolo_; it was commenced in +1255, in that first great triumph of the democracy, although mainly +finished towards the middle of the following century. Here sat the +Podesta, with his assessors and retainers, whom he brought with him to +Florence--himself always an alien noble. Originally he was the chief +officer of the Republic, for the six months during which he held +office, led the burgher forces in war, and acted as chief justice in +peace; but he gradually sunk in popular estimation before the more +democratic Captain of the People (who was himself, it will be +remembered, normally an alien Guelf noble). A little later, both +Podesta and Captain were eclipsed by the Gonfaloniere of Justice. In +the fifteenth century the Podesta was still the president of the chief +civil and criminal court of the city, and his office was only finally +abolished during the Gonfalonierate of Piero Soderini at the +beginning of the Cinquecento. Under the Medicean grand dukes the +Bargello, or chief of police, resided here--hence the present name of +the palace; and it is well to repeat, once for all, that when the +Bargello, or Court of the Bargello, is mentioned in Florentine +history--in grim tales of torture and executions and the like--it is +not this building, but the residence of the Executore of Justice, now +incorporated into the Palazzo Vecchio, that is usually meant. + +It was in this Palace of the Podesta, however, that Guido Novello +resided and ruled the city in the name of King Manfred, during the +short period of Ghibelline tyranny that followed Montaperti, +1260-1266, and which the Via Ghibellina, first opened by him, recalls. +The Palace was broken into by the populace in 1295, just before the +fall of Giano della Bella, because a Lombard Podesta had unjustly +acquitted Corso Donati for the death of a burgher at the hands of his +riotous retainers. Here, too, was Cante dei Gabbrielli of Gubbio +installed by Charles of Valois, in November 1301, and from its gates +issued the Crier of the Republic that summoned Dante Alighieri and his +companions in misfortune to appear before the Podesta's court. In one +of those dark vaulted rooms on the ground floor, now full of a choice +collection of mediaeval arms and armour, Cante's successor, Fulcieri da +Calvoli, tortured those of the Bianchi who fell into his cruel hands. +"He sells their flesh while it is still alive," says Dante in the +_Purgatorio_, "then slayeth them like a worn out brute: many doth he +deprive of life, and himself of honour." Some died under the torments, +others were beheaded. + +"Messer Donato Alberti," writes Dino Compagni, "mounted vilely upon an +ass, in a peasant's smock, was brought before the Podesta. And when he +saw him, he asked him: 'Are you Messer Donato Alberti?' He replied: +'I am Donato. Would that Andrea da Cerreto were here before us, and +Niccola Acciaioli, and Baldo d'Aguglione, and Jacopo da Certaldo, who +have destroyed Florence.'[34] Then he was fastened to the rope and the +cord adjusted to the pulley, and so they let him stay; and the windows +and doors of the Palace were opened, and many citizens called in under +other pretexts, that they might see him tortured and derided." + + [34] These were the burghers and lawyers of the black faction, the + Podesta's allies and friends. This was in the spring of 1303. + +In the rising of the Ciompi, July 1378, the palace was forced to +surrender to the insurgents after an assault of two hours. They let +the Podesta escape, but burnt all books and papers, especially those +of the hated Arte della Lana. At night as many as the palace could +hold quartered themselves here. + + [Illustration: BARGELLO COURTYARD AND STAIRCASE] + +The beautiful court and stairway, surrounded by statues and armorial +bearings, the ascent guarded by the symbolical lion of Florence and +leading to an open loggia, is the work of Benci di Cione and Neri di +Fioraventi, 1333-1345. The palace is now the National Museum of +Sculpture and kindred arts and crafts. Keeping to the left, round the +court itself, we see a marble St. Luke by Niccolo di Piero Lamberti, +of the end of the fourteenth century, from the niche of the Judges and +Notaries at Or San Michele; a magnificent sixteenth century +portalantern in beaten iron; the old marble St. John Evangelist, +contemporaneous with the St. Luke, and probably by Piero di Giovanni +Tedesco, from the niche of the Arte della Seta at Or San Michele; some +allegorical statues by Giovanni da Bologna and Vincenzo Danti, in +rather unsuccessful imitation of Michelangelo; a dying Adonis, +questionably ascribed to Michelangelo. And, finally (numbered 18), +there stands Michelangelo's so-called "Victory," the triumph of the +ideal over outworn tyranny and superstition; a radiant youth, but worn +and exhausted by the struggle, rising triumphantly over a shape of +gigantic eld, so roughly hewn as to seem lost in the mist from which +the young hero has gloriously freed himself.[35] + + [35] Such, at least, seems the more obvious interpretation; but there + is a certain sensuality and cruelty about the victor's expression, + which, together with the fact that the vanquished undoubtedly has + something of Michelangelo's own features, lead us to suspect that the + master's sympathies were with the lost cause. + +Also on the ground floor, to the left, are two rooms full of statuary. +The first contains nothing important, save perhaps the Madonna and +Child with St. Peter and St. Paul, formerly above the Porta Romana. In +the second room, a series of bas-reliefs by Benedetto da Rovezzano, +begun in 1511 and terribly mutilated by the imperial soldiery during +the siege, represent scenes connected with the life and miracles of +St. Giovanni Gualberto, including the famous trial of Peter Igneus, +who, in order to convict the Bishop of Florence of simony, passed +unharmed through the ordeal of fire. Here is the unfinished bust of +Brutus (111) by Michelangelo, one of his latest works, and a +significant expression of the state of the man's heart, when he was +forced to rear sumptuous monuments for the new tyrants who had +overthrown his beloved Republic. Then a chimney-piece by Benedetto da +Rovezzano from the Casa Borgherini, one of the most sumptuous pieces +of domestic furniture of the Renaissance; a very beautiful tondo of +the Madonna and Child with the little St. John (123) by Michelangelo, +made for Bartolommeo Pitti early in the Cinquecento; the mask of a +grinning faun with gap-teeth, traditionally shown as the head struck +out by the boy Michelangelo in his first visit to the Medici Gardens, +when he attracted the attention of Lorenzo the Magnificent--but +probably a comparatively modern work suggested by Vasari's story; a +sketch in marble for the martyrdom of St. Andrew, supposed to be a +juvenile work of Michelangelo's, but also doubtful. Here too is +Michelangelo's drunken Bacchus (128), an exquisitely-modelled +intoxicated vine-crowned youth, behind whom a sly little satyr lurks, +nibbling grapes. It is one of the master's earliest works, very +carefully and delicately finished, executed during his first visit to +Rome, for Messer Jacopo Galli, probably about 1497. Of this statue +Ruskin wrote, while it was still in the Uffizi: "The white lassitude +of joyous limbs, panther-like, yet passive, fainting with their own +delight, that gleam among the Pagan formalisms of the Uffizi, far +away, separating themselves in their lustrous lightness as the waves +of an Alpine torrent do by their dancing from the dead stones, though +the stones be as white as they." Shelley, on the contrary, found it +"most revolting," "the idea of the deity of Bacchus in the conception +of a Catholic." Near it is a tondo of the Virgin and Child with the +Baptist, by Andrea Ferrucci. + +At the top of the picturesque and richly ornamented staircase, to the +right of the loggia on the first floor, opens a great vaulted hall, +where the works of Donatello, casts and originals, surround a cast of +his great equestrian monument to Gattamelata at Padua--a hall of such +noble proportions that even Gattamelata looks insignificant, where he +sits his war-horse between the Cross of the People and the Lily of the +Commune. Here the general council of the Commune met--the only council +(besides the special council of the Podesta) in which the magnates +could sit and vote, and it was here, on July 6th, 1295, that Dante +Alighieri first entered public life; he spoke in support of the +modifications of the Ordinances of Justice--which may have very +probably been a few months before he definitely associated himself +with the People by matriculating in the Arte dei Medici e Speziali. +Among the casts and copies that fill this room, there are several +original and splendid works of Donatello; the Marzocco, or symbolical +lion of Florence protecting the shield of the Commune, which was +formerly in front of the Palace of the Priors; the bronze David, full +of Donatello's delight in the exuberance of youthful manhood just +budding; the San Giovannino or little St. John; the marble David, +inferior to the bronze, but heralding Michelangelo; the bronze bust of +a youth, called the son of Gattamelata; Love trampling upon a snake +(bronze); St. George in marble from Or San Michele, an idealised +condottiere of the Quattrocento; St. John the Baptist from the +Baptistery; and a bronze relief of the Crucifixion. The coloured bust +is now believed by many critics to be neither the portrait of Niccolo +da Uzzano nor by Donatello; it is possibly a Roman hero by some +sculptor of the Seicento. + +The next room is the audience chamber of the Podesta. Besides the +Cross and the Lilies on the windows, its walls and roof are covered +with the gold lion on azure ground, the arms of the Duke of Athens. +They were cancelled by decree of the Republic in 1343, and renewed in +1861; as a patriotically worded tablet on the left, under the window, +explains. Opening out of this is the famous Chapel of the +Podesta--famous for the frescoes on its walls--once a prison. From out +of these terribly ruined frescoes stands the figure of Dante (stands +out, alas, because completely repainted--a mere _rifacimento_ with +hardly a trace of the original work left) in what was once a +_Paradiso_; the dim figures on either side are said to represent +Brunette Latini and either Corso Donati or Guido Cavalcanti. In spite +of a very pleasant fable, it is absolutely certain that this is not a +contemporaneous portrait of Dante (although it may be regarded as an +authentic likeness, to some extent) and was not painted by Giotto; the +frescoes were executed by some later follower of Giotto (possibly by +Taddeo Gaddi, who painted the lost portraits of Dante and Guido in +Santa Croce) after 1345. The two paintings below on either side, +Madonna and Child and St. Jerome, are votive pictures commissioned by +pious Podestas in 1490 and 1491, the former by Sebastiano Mainardi, +the brother-in-law of Domenico Ghirlandaio. + +The third room contains small bronze works by Tuscan masters of the +Quattrocento. In the centre, Verrocchio's David (22), cast for Lorenzo +dei Medici, one of the masterpieces of the fifteenth century. Here are +the famous trial plates for the great competition for the second +bronze gates of the Baptistery, announced in 1401, the Sacrifice of +Abraham, by Brunelleschi and Ghiberti respectively; the grace and +harmony of Ghiberti's composition (12) contrast strongly with the +force, almost violence, the dramatic action and movement of +Brunelleschi's (13). Ghiberti's, unlike his rival's, is in one single +piece; but, until lately, there has been a tendency to underrate the +excellence of Brunelleschi's relief. Here, too, are Ghiberti's +reliquary of St. Hyacinth, executed in 1428, with two beautiful +floating Angels (21); several bas-reliefs by Bertoldo, Donatello's +pupil and successor; the effigy of Marino Soccino, a lawyer of Siena, +by the Sienese sculptor Il Vecchietta (16); and, in a glass case, +Orpheus by Bertoldo, Hercules and Antaeus by Antonio Pollaiuolo, and +Love on a Scallop Shell by Donatello. The following room contains +mostly bronzes by later masters, especially Cellini, Giovanni da +Bologna, Vincenzo Danti. The most noteworthy of its contents are +Daniele Ricciarelli's striking bust of Michelangelo (37); Cellini's +bronze sketch for Perseus (38), his bronze bust of Duke Cosimo I. +(39), his wax model for Perseus (40), the liberation of Andromeda, +from the pedestal of the statue in the Loggia dei Lanzi (42); and +above all, Giovanni da Bologna's flying Mercury (82), showing what +exceedingly beautiful mythological work could still be produced when +the golden days of the Renaissance were over. It was cast in 1565, +and, like many of the best bronzes of this epoch, was originally +placed on a fountain in one of the Medicean villas. + +On the second floor, first a long room with seals, etc., guarded by +Rosso's frescoed Justice. Here, and in the room on the left, is a most +wonderful array of the works in enamelled terra cotta of the Della +Robbias--Luca and Andrea, followed by Giovanni and their imitators. In +the best work of Luca and Andrea--and there is much of their very best +and most perfect work in these two rooms--religious devotion received +its highest and most perfect expression in sculpture. Their Madonnas, +Annunciations, Nativities and the like, are the sculptural counterpart +to Angelico's divinest paintings, though never quite attaining to his +spiritual insight and supra-sensible gaze upon life. Andrea's work is +more pictorial in treatment than Luca's, has less vigour and even at +times a perceptible trace of sentimentality; but in sheer beauty his +very best creations do not yield to those of his great master and +uncle. Both Luca and Andrea kept to the simple blue and white--in the +best part of their work--and surrounded their Madonnas with exquisite +festoons of fruit and leaves: "wrought them," in Pater's words, "into +all sorts of marvellous frames and garlands, giving them their natural +colours, only subdued a little, a little paler than nature." + +To the right of the first Della Robbia room, are two more rooms full +of statuary, and one with a collection of medals, including that +commemorating Savonarola's Vision of the Sword of the Lord. In the +first room--taking merely the more important--we may see Music, +wrongly ascribed to Orcagna, probably earlier (139); bust of Charles +VIII. of France (164), author uncertain; bust in terra cotta of a +young warrior, by Antonio Pollaiuolo (161), as grandly insolent and +confident as any of Signorelli's savage youths in the Orvieto +frescoes. Also, bust of Matteo Palmieri, the humanist and suspected +heretic, by Antonio Rossellino (160); bust of Pietro Mellini by +Benedetto da Maiano (153); portrait of a young lady, by Matteo +Civitali of Lucca (142); a long relief (146) ascribed to Verrocchio +and representing the death of a lady of the Tornabuoni family in +child-birth, which Shelley greatly admired and described at length, +under the impression that he was studying a genuine antique: "It is +altogether an admirable piece," he says, "quite in the spirit of +Terence." The uncompromising realism of the male portraiture of the +fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries is fully illustrated in this +room, and there is at the same time a peculiar tenderness and +winsomeness in representing young girls, which is exceedingly +attractive. + +In the next room there are many excellent portraits of this kind, +named and unnamed. Of more important works, we should notice the San +Giovannino by Antonio Rossellino, and a tondo by the same master +representing the Adoration of the Shepherds; Andrea Verrocchio's +Madonna and Child; Verrocchio's Lady with the Bouquet (181), with +those exquisite hands of which Gabriele D'Annunzio has almost wearied +the readers of his _Gioconda_; by Matteo Civitali of Lucca, Faith +gazing ecstatically upon the Sacrament. By Mino da Fiesole are a +Madonna and Child, and several portrait busts--of the elder Piero dei +Medici (234) and his brother Giovanni di Cosimo (236), and of Rinaldo +della Luna. We should also notice the statues of Christ and three +Apostles, of the school of Andrea Pisano; portrait of a girl by +Desiderio da Settignano; two bas-reliefs by Luca della Robbia, +representing the Liberation and Crucifixion of St. Peter, early works +executed for a chapel in the Duomo; two sixteenth century busts, +representing the younger Giuliano dei Medici and Giovanni delle Bande +Nere; and, also, a curious fourteenth century group (222) apparently +representing the coronation of an emperor by the Pope's legate. + +In the centre of the room are St. John Baptist by Benedetto da Maiano; +Bacchus, by Jacopo Sansovino; and Michelangelo's second David (224), +frequently miscalled Apollo, made for Baccio Valori after the siege of +Florence, and pathetically different from the gigantic David of his +youth, which had been chiselled more than a quarter of a century +before, in all the passing glory of the Republican restoration. + + * * * * * + +When the Duke of Athens made himself tyrant of Florence, King Robert +urged him to take up his abode in this palace, as Charles of Calabria +had done, and leave the Palace of the People to the Priors. The advice +was not taken, and, when the rising broke out, the palace was easily +captured, before the Duke and his adherents in the Palazzo Vecchio +were forced to surrender. Passing along the Via Ghibellina, we +presently come on the right to what was originally the _Stinche_, a +prison for nobles, _in qua carcerentur et custodiantur magnates_, so +called from a castle of the Cavalcanti captured by the Neri in 1304, +from which the prisoners were imprisoned here: it is now a part of the +Teatro Pagliano. Later it became the place of captivity of the lowest +criminals, and a first point of attack in risings of the populace. It +contains, in a lunette on the stairs, a contemporary fresco +representing the expulsion of the Duke of Athens on St. Anne's Day, +1343. St. Anne is giving the banners of the People and of the Commune +to a group of stern Republican warriors, while with one hand she +indicates the Palace of the Priors, fortified with the tyrant's towers +and battlements. By its side rises a great throne, from which the Duke +is shrinking in terror from the Angel of the wrath of God; a broken +sword lies at his feet; the banner of Brienne lies dishonoured in the +dust, with the scales of justice that he profaned and the book of the +law that he outraged. In so solemn and chastened a spirit could the +artists of the Trecento conceive of their Republic's deliverance. The +fresco was probably painted by either Giottino or Maso di Banco; it +was once wrongly ascribed to Cennino Cennini, who wrote the _Treatise +on Painting_, which was the approved text-book in the studios and +workshops of the earlier masters. + +Further down the Via Ghibellina is the Casa Buonarroti, which once +belonged to Michelangelo, and was bequeathed by his family to the +city. It is entirely got up as a museum now, and not in the least +suggestive of the great artist's life, though a tiny little study and +a few letters and other relics are shown. There are, however, a +certain number of his drawings here, including a design for the facade +of San Lorenzo, which is of very questionable authenticity, and a +Madonna. Two of his earliest works in marble are preserved here, +executed at that epoch of his youth when he frequented the house and +garden of Lorenzo the Magnificent. One is a bas-relief of the Madonna +and Child--somewhat in the manner of Donatello--with two Angels at the +top of a ladder. The other is a struggle of the Centaurs and Lapithae, +a subject suggested to the boy by Angelo Poliziano, full of motion and +vigour and wonderfully modelled. Vasari says, "To whoso considers this +work, it does not seem from the hand of a youth, but from that of an +accomplished and past master in these studies, and experienced in the +art." The former is in the fifth room, the latter in the antechamber. +There are also two models for the great David; a bust of the master in +bronze by Ricciarelli, and his portrait by his pupil, Marcello +Venusti. A predella representing the legend of St. Nicholas is by +Francesco Pesellino, whose works are rare. In the third room (among +the later allegories and scenes from the master's life) is a large +picture supposed to have been painted by Jacopo da Empoli from a +cartoon by Michelangelo, representing the Holy Family with the four +Evangelists; it is a peculiarly unattractive work. The cartoon, +ascribed to Michelangelo, is in the British Museum; and I would +suggest that it was originally not a religious picture at all, but an +allegory of Charity. The cross in the little Baptist's hand does not +occur in the cartoon. + +Almost at the end of the Via Ghibellina are the Prisons which occupy +the site of the famous convent of _Le Murate_. In this convent +Caterina Sforza, the dethroned Lady of Forli and mother of Giovanni +delle Bande Nere, ended her days in 1509. Here the Duchessina, or +"Little Duchess," as Caterina dei Medici was called, was placed by the +Signoria after the expulsion of the Medici in 1527, in order to +prevent Pope Clement VII. from using her for the purpose of a +political marriage which might endanger the city. They seem to have +feared especially the Prince of Orange. The result was that the +convent became a centre of Medicean intrigue; and the Signoria, when +the siege commenced, sent Salvestro Aldobrandini to take her away. +When Salvestro arrived, after he had been kept waiting for some time, +the little Duchess came to the grill of the parlour, dressed as a nun, +and said that she intended to take the habit and stay for ever "with +these my reverend mothers." According to Varchi, the poor little +girl--she was barely eleven years old, had lost both parents in the +year of her birth, and was practically alone in the city where the +cruellest threats had been uttered against her--was terribly +frightened and cried bitterly, "not knowing to what glory and felicity +her life had been reserved by God and the Heavens." But Messer +Salvestro and Messer Antonio de' Nerli did all they could to comfort +and reassure her, and took her to the convent of Santa Lucia in the +Via di San Gallo; "in which monastery," says Nardi, "she was received +and treated with the same maternal love by those nuns, until the end +of the war." + +In the centre of the oblong Piazza di Santa Croce rises the statue and +monument of Dante Alighieri, erected on the occasion of the sixth +centenary of his birth, in those glowing early days of the first +completion of Italian unity; at its back stand the great Gothic church +and convent, which Arnolfo di Cambio commenced for the Franciscans in +1294, while Dante was still in Florence--the year before he entered +political life. + +The great Piazza was a centre of festivities and stirring Florentine +life, and has witnessed many historical scenes, in old times and in +new, from the tournaments and jousts of the Middle Ages and early +Renaissance to the penitential processions of the victims of the +Inquisition in the days of the Medicean Grand Dukes, from the +preaching of San Bernardino of Siena to the missionary labours of the +Jesuit Segneri. On Christmas Day, 1301, Niccolo dei Cerchi was passing +through this Piazza with a few friends on horseback on his way to his +farm and mill--for that was hardly a happy Christmas for Guelfs of the +white faction in Florence--while a friar was preaching in the open +air, announcing the birth of Christ to the crowd; when Simone Donati +with a band of mounted retainers gave chase, and, when he overtook +him, killed him. In the scuffle Simone himself received a mortal +wound, of which he died the same night. "Although it was a just +judgment," writes Villani, "yet was it held a great loss, for the said +Simone was the most accomplished and virtuous squire in Florence, and +of the greatest promise, and he was all the hope of his father, Messer +Corso." It was in the convent of Santa Croce that the Duke of Athens +took up his abode in 1342, with much parade of religious simplicity, +when about to seize upon the lordship of Florence; here, on that +fateful September 8th, he assembled his followers and adherents in the +Piazza, whence they marched to the Parliament at the Palazzo Vecchio, +where he was proclaimed Signor of Florence for life. But in the +following year, when he attempted to celebrate Easter with great pomp +and luxury, and held grand jousts in this same Piazza for many days, +the people sullenly held aloof and very few citizens entered the +lists. + +Most gorgeous and altogether successful was the tournament given here +by Lorenzo dei Medici in 1467, to celebrate his approaching marriage +with Clarice Orsini, when he jousted against all comers in honour of +the lady of his sonnets and odes, Lucrezia Donati. There was not much +serious tilting about it, but a magnificent display of rich costumes +and precious jewelled caps and helmets, and a glorious procession +which must have been a positive feast of colour. "To follow the +custom," writes Lorenzo himself, "and do like others, I gave a +tournament on the Piazza Santa Croce at great cost and with much +magnificence; I find that about 10,000 ducats were spent on it. +Although I was not a very vigorous warrior, nor a hard hitter, the +first prize was adjudged to me, a helmet inlaid with silver and a +figure of Mars as the crest."[36] He sent a long account of the +proceedings to his future bride, who answered: "I am glad that you are +successful in what gives you pleasure, and that my prayer is heard, +for I have no other wish than to see you happy." Luca Pulci, the +luckless brother of Luigi, wrote a dull poem on the not very inspiring +theme. A few years later, at the end of January 1478, a less sumptuous +entertainment of the same sort was given by Giuliano dei Medici; and +it was apparently on this occasion that Poliziano commenced his famous +stanzas in honour of Giuliano and his lady love, Simonetta,--stanzas +which were interrupted by the daggers of the Pazzi and their +accomplices. It was no longer time for soft song or courtly sport when +prelates and nobles were hanging from the palace windows, and the +thunders of the Papal interdict were about to burst over the city and +her rulers. + + [36] Quoted in Mr Armstrong's _Lorenzo de' Medici_. + +Entering the Church through the unpleasing modern facade (which is, +however, said to have followed the design of Cronaca himself, the +architect of the exceedingly graceful convent of San Salvadore al +Monte on the other side of the river), we catch a glow of colour from +the east end, from the stained glass and frescoes in the choir. The +vast and spacious nave of Arnolfo--like his Palazzo Vecchio, partly +spoiled by Vasari--ends rather abruptly in the line of ten chapels +with, in the midst of them, one very high recess which represents the +apse and choir, thus giving the whole the T shape which we find in the +Italian Gothic churches which were reared for the friars preachers and +friars minor. The somewhat unsightly appearance, which many churches +of this kind present in Italy, is due to the fact that Arnolfo and his +school intended every inch of wall to be covered with significant +fresco paintings, and this coloured decoration was seldom completely +carried out, or has perished in the course of time. Fergusson remarks +that "an Italian Church without its coloured decoration is only a +framed canvas without harmony or meaning." + +Santa Croce is, in the words of the late Dean of Westminster, "the +recognised shrine of Italian genius." On the pavement beneath our +feet, outstretched on their tombstones, lie effigies of grave +Florentine citizens, friars of note, prelates, scholars, warriors; in +their robes of state or of daily life, in the Franciscan garb or in +armour, with arms folded across their breasts, or still clasping the +books they loved and wrote (in this way the humanists, such as +Leonardo Bruni, were laid out in state after death); the knights have +their swords by their sides, which they had wielded in defence of the +Republic, and their hands clasped in prayer. Here they lie, waiting +the resurrection. Has any echo of the Risorgimento reached them? In +their long sleep, have they dreamed aught of the movement that has led +Florence to raise tablets to the names of Cavour and Mazzini upon +these walls? The tombs on the floor of the nave are mostly of the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; the second from the central door +is that of Galileo dei Galilei, like the other scholars lying with his +hands folded across the book on his breast, the ancestor of the +immortal astronomer: "This Galileo of the Galilei was, in his time, +the head of philosophy and medicine; who also in the highest +magistracy loved the Republic marvellously." About the middle of the +nave is the tomb of John Catrick, Bishop of Exeter, who had come to +Florence on an embassy from Henry V. of England to Pope Martin V., in +1419. But those on the floor at the end of the right aisle and in the +short right transept are the earliest and most interesting to the +lover of early Florentine history; notice, for instance, the knightly +tomb of a warrior of the great Ghibelline house of the Ubaldini, dated +1358, at the foot of the steps to the chapel at the end of the right +transept; and there is a similar one, only less fine, on the opposite +side. Larger and more pretentious tombs and monuments of more recent +date, to the heroes of Italian life and thought, pass in series along +the side walls of the whole church, between the altars of the south +and north (right and left) aisles. + + [Illustration: SANTA CROCE] + +Over the central door, below the window whose stained glass is said to +have been designed by Ghiberti, is Donatello's bronze statue of King +Robert's canonised brother, the Franciscan Bishop St. Louis of +Toulouse. This St. Louis, the patron saint of the Parte Guelfa, had +been ordered by the captains of the Party for their niche at San +Michele in Orto, from which he was irreverently banished shortly after +the restoration of Cosimo dei Medici, when the Parte Guelfa was forced +to surrender its niche. On the left of the entrance should be +noticed with gratitude the tomb of the historian of the Florentine +Republic, the Italian patriot, Gino Capponi. + +In the right aisle are the tomb and monument of Michelangelo, designed +by Giorgio Vasari; on the pillar opposite to it, over the holy water +stoop, a beautiful Madonna and Child in marble by Bernardo Rossellino, +beneath which lies Francesco Nori, who was murdered whilst defending +Lorenzo dei Medici in the Pazzi conspiracy; the comparatively modern +monument to Dante, whose bones rest at Ravenna and for whom +Michelangelo had offered in vain to raise a worthy sepulchre. Two +sonnets by the great sculptor supply to some extent in verse what he +was not suffered to do in marble: I quote the finer of the two, from +Addington Symonds' excellent translation:-- + + From Heaven his spirit came, and, robed in clay, + The realms of justice and of mercy trod: + Then rose a living man to gaze on God, + That he might make the truth as clear as day. + For that pure star, that brightened with its ray + The undeserving nest where I was born, + The whole wide world would be a prize to scorn: + None but his Maker can due guerdon pay. + I speak of Dante, whose high work remains + Unknown, unhonoured by that thankless brood + Who only to just men deny their wage. + Were I but he! Born for like lingering pains, + Against his exile coupled with his good + I'd gladly change the world's best heritage. + +Then comes Canova's monument to Vittorio Alfieri, the great tragic +dramatist of Italy (died 1803); followed by an eighteenth century +monument to Machiavelli (died 1527), and the tomb of Padre Lanzi, the +Jesuit historian of Italian art. The pulpit by a pillar in the nave is +considered the most beautiful pulpit in Italy, and is, perhaps, +Benedetto da Maiano's finest work; the bas-reliefs in marble +represent scenes from the life of St. Francis and the martyrdom of +some of his friars, with figures of the virtues below. Beyond Padre +Lanzi's grave, over the tomb of the learned Franciscan Fra Benedetto +Cavalcanti, are two exceedingly powerful figures of saints in fresco, +the Baptist and St. Francis; they have been ascribed to various +painters, but are almost certainly the work of Domenico Veneziano, and +closely resemble the figures of the same saints in his undoubtedly +genuine picture in the Sala di Lorenzo Monaco in the Uffizi. The +adjacent Annunciation by Donatello, in _pietra serena_, was also made +for the Cavalcanti; its fine Renaissance architectural setting is +likewise Donatello's work. Above it are four lovely wooden Putti, who +seem embracing each other for fear of tumbling off from their height; +originally there were six, and the other two are preserved in the +convent. M. Reymond has shown that this Annunciation is not an early +work of the master's, as Vasari and others state, but is of the same +style and period as the Cantoria of the Duomo, about 1435. Lastly, at +the end of the right aisle is the splendid tomb of Leonardo Bruni +(died 1444), secretary of the Republic, translator of Plato, historian +of Florence, biographer of Dante,--the outstretched recumbent figure +of the grand old humanist, watched over by Mary and her Babe with the +Angels, by Bernardo Rossellino. A worthy monument to a noble soul, +whose memory is dear to every lover of Dante. Yet we may, not without +advantage, contrast it with the simpler Gothic sepulchres on the floor +of the transepts,--the marble slabs that cover the bones of the old +Florentines who, in war and peace, did the deeds of which Leonardo and +his kind wrote. + +The tombs and monuments in the left aisle are less interesting. +Opposite Leonardo Bruni's tomb is that of his successor, Carlo +Marsuppini, called Carlo Aretino (died 1453), by Desiderio da +Settignano; he was a good Greek scholar, a fluent orator and a +professed Pagan, but accomplished no literary work of any value; +utterly inferior as a man and as an author to Leonardo, he has an even +more gorgeous tomb. In this aisle there are modern monuments to +Vespasiano Bisticci and Donatello; and, opposite to Michelangelo's +tomb, that of Galileo himself (died 1642), with traces of old +fourteenth century frescoes round it, which may, perhaps, symbolise +for us the fleeting phantoms of mediaeval thought fading away before +the advance of science. + +In the central chapel of the left or northern transept is the famous +wooden Crucifix by Donatello, which gave rise to the fraternal contest +between him and Brunelleschi. Brunelleschi told his friend that he had +put upon his cross a contadino and not a figure like that of Christ. +"Take some wood then," answered the nettled sculptor, "and try to make +one thyself." Filippo did so; and when it was finished Donatello was +so stupefied with admiration, that he let drop all the eggs and other +things that he was carrying for their dinner. "I have had all I want +for to-day," he exclaimed; "if you want your share, take it: to thee +is it given to carve Christs and to me to make contadini." The rival +piece may still be seen in Santa Maria Novella, and there is not much +to choose between them. Donatello's is, perhaps, somewhat more +realistic and less refined. + +The first two chapels of the left transept (fifth and fourth from the +choir, respectively,) contain fourteenth century frescoes; a warrior +of the Bardi family rising to judgment, the healing of Constantine's +leprosy and other miracles of St. Sylvester, ascribed to Maso di +Banco; the martyrdom of St. Lawrence and the martyrdom of St. +Stephen, by Bernardo Daddi (the painter to whom it is attempted to +ascribe the famous Last Judgment and Triumph of Death in the Pisan +Campo Santo). All these imply a certain Dantesque selection; these +subjects are among the examples quoted for purposes of meditation or +admonition in the _Divina Commedia_. The coloured terracotta relief is +by Giovanni della Robbia. The frescoes of the choir, by Agnolo Gaddi, +are among the finest works of Giotto's school. They set forth the +history of the wood of the True Cross, which, according to the legend, +was a shoot of the tree of Eden planted by Seth on Adam's grave; the +Queen of Sheba prophetically adored it, when she came to visit Solomon +during the building of the Temple; cast into the pool of Bethsaida, +the Jews dragged it out to make the Cross for Christ; then, after it +had been buried on Mount Calvary for three centuries, St. Helen +discovered it by its power of raising the dead to life. These subjects +are set forth on the right wall; on the left, we have the taking of +the relic of the Cross by the Persians under Chosroes, and its +recovery by the Emperor Heraclius. In the scene where the Emperor +barefooted carries the Cross into Jerusalem, the painter has +introduced his own portrait, near one of the gates of the city, with a +small beard and a red hood. Vasari thinks poorly of these frescoes; +but the legend of the True Cross is of some importance to the student +of Dante, whose profound allegory of the Church and Empire in the +Earthly Paradise, at the close of the _Purgatorio_, is to some extent +based upon it. + +The two Gothic chapels to the right of the choir contain Giotto's +frescoes--both chapels were originally entirely painted by +him--rescued from the whitewash under which they were discovered, and, +in part at least, most terribly "restored." The frescoes in the +first, the Bardi Chapel, illustrating the life of St. Francis, have +suffered most; all the peculiar Giottesque charm of face has +disappeared, and, instead, the restorer has given us monotonous +countenances, almost deadly in their uniformity and utter lack of +expression. Like all mediaeval frescoes dealing with St. Francis, they +should be read with the _Fioretti_ or with Dante's _Paradiso_, or with +one of the old lives of the Seraphic Father in our hands. On the left +(beginning at the top) we have his renunciation of the world in the +presence of his father and the Bishop of Assisi--_innanzi alla sua +spirital corte, et coram patre_, as Dante puts it; on the right, the +confirmation of the order by Pope Honorius; on the left, the +apparition of St. Francis to St. Antony of Padua; on the right, St. +Francis and his followers before the Soldan--_nella presenza del +Soldan superba_--in the ordeal of fire; and, below it, St. Francis on +his death-bed, with the apparition to the sleeping bishop to assure +him of the truth of the Stigmata. Opposite, left, the body is +surrounded by weeping friars, the incredulous judge touching the wound +in the side, while the simplest of the friars, at the saint's head, +sees his soul carried up to heaven in a little cloud. This conception +of saintly death was, perhaps, originally derived from Dante's dream +of Beatrice in the _Vita Nuova_: "I seemed to look towards heaven, and +to behold a multitude of Angels who were returning upwards, having +before them an exceedingly white cloud; and these Angels were singing +together gloriously." It became traditional in early Italian painting. +On the window wall are four great Franciscans. St. Louis the King (one +whom Dante does not seem to have held in honour), a splendid figure, +calm and noble, in one hand the sceptre and in the other the +Franciscan cord, his royal robe besprinkled with the golden lily of +France over the armour of the warrior of the Cross; his face absorbed +in celestial contemplation. He is the Christian realisation of the +Platonic philosopher king; "St. Louis," says Walter Pater, "precisely +because his whole being was full of heavenly vision, in self +banishment from it for a while, led and ruled the French people so +magnanimously alike in peace and war." Opposite him is St. Louis of +Toulouse, with the royal crown at his feet; below are St. Elizabeth of +Hungary, with her lap full of flowers; and, opposite to her, St. +Clare, of whom Dante's Piccarda tells so sweetly in the +_Paradiso_--that lady on high whom "perfected life and lofty merit +doth enheaven." On the vaulted roof of the chapel are the glory of St. +Francis and symbolical representations of the three vows--Poverty, +Chastity, Obedience; not rendered as in Giotto's great allegories at +Assisi, of which these are, as it were, his own later simplifications, +but merely as the three mystical Angels that met Francis and his +friars on the road to Siena, crying "Welcome, Lady Poverty." The +picture of St. Francis on the altar, ascribed by Vasari to Cimabue, is +probably by some unknown painter at the close of the thirteenth +century. + +The frescoes in the following, the Chapel of the Peruzzi, are very +much better preserved, especially in the scene of Herod's feast. Like +all Giotto's genuine work, they are eloquent in their pictorial +simplicity of diction; there are no useless crowds of spectators, as +in the later work of Ghirlandaio and his contemporaries. On the left +is the life of St. John the Baptist--the Angel appearing to Zacharias, +the birth and naming of the Precursor, the dance of the daughter of +Herodias at Herod's feast. This last has suffered less from +restoration than any other work of Giotto's in Florence; both the +rhythmically moving figure of the girl herself and that of the +musician are very beautiful, and the expression on Herod's face is +worthy of the psychological insight of the author of the Vices and +Virtues in the Madonna's chapel at Padua. Ruskin talks of "the striped +curtain behind the table being wrought with a variety and fantasy of +playing colour which Paul Veronese could not better at his best." On +the right wall is the life of the Evangelist, John the Divine, or +rather its closing scenes; the mystical vision at Patmos, the seer +_dormendo con la faccia arguta_, like the solitary elder who brought +up the rear of the triumphal pageant in Dante's Earthly Paradise; the +raising of Drusiana from the dead; the assumption of St. John. The +curious legend represented in this last fresco--that St. John was +taken up body and soul, _con le due stole_, into Heaven after death, +and that his disciples found his tomb full of manna--was, of course, +based upon the saying that went abroad among the brethren, "that that +disciple should not die"; it is mentioned as a pious belief by St. +Thomas, but is very forcibly repudiated by Giotto's great friend, +Dante; in the _Paradiso_ St. John admonishes him to tell the world +that only Christ and the Blessed Virgin rose from the dead. "In the +earth my body is earth, and shall be there with the others, until our +number be equalled with the eternal design." + +In the last chapel of the south transept, there are two curious +frescoes apparently of the beginning of the fourteenth century, in +honour of St. Michael; they represent his leading the Angelic hosts +against the forces of Lucifer, and the legend of his apparition at +Monte Gargano. The frescoes in the chapel at the end of the transept, +the Baroncelli chapel, representing scenes in the life of the Blessed +Virgin, are by Giotto's pupil, Taddeo Gaddi; they are similar to his +work at Assisi. The Assumption opposite was painted by Sebastiano +Mainardi from a cartoon by Domenico Ghirlandaio. In the Chapel of the +Blessed Sacrament there are more frescoed lives of saints by Taddeo's +son, Agnolo Gaddi, less admirable than his work in the choir; and +statues of two Franciscans, of the Della Robbia school. The monument +of the Countess of Albany may interest English admirers of the +Stuarts, but hardly concerns the story of Florence. + +From the right transept a corridor leads off to the chapel of the +Noviciate and the Sacristy. The former, built by Michelozzo for +Cosimo, contains some beautiful terracotta work of the school of the +Della Robbia, a tabernacle by Mino da Fiesole, and a Coronation of the +Blessed Virgin ascribed to Giotto. This Coronation was originally the +altar piece of the Baroncelli chapel, and is an excellent picture, +although its authenticity is not above suspicion; the signature is +almost certainly a forgery; this title of _Magister_ was Giotto's pet +aversion, as we know from Boccaccio, and he never used it. Opening out +of the Sacristy is a chapel, decorated with beautiful frescoes of the +life of the Blessed Virgin and St. Mary Magdalene, now held to be the +work of Taddeo Gaddi's Lombard pupil, Giovanni da Milano. There is, as +has already been said, very little individuality in the work of +Giotto's followers, but these frescoes are among the best of their +kind. + +The first Gothic cloisters belong to the epoch of the foundation of +the church, and were probably designed by Arnolfo himself; the second, +early Renaissance, are Brunelleschi's. The Refectory, which is entered +from the first cloisters, contains a fresco of the Last Supper--one of +the earliest renderings of this theme for monastic dining-rooms--which +used to be assigned to Giotto, and is probably by one of his +scholars. This room had the invidious honour of being the seat of the +Inquisition, which in Florence had always--save for a very brief +period in the thirteenth century--been in the hands of the +Franciscans, and not the Dominicans. It never had any real power in +Florence--the _bel viver fiorentino_, which, even in the days of +tyranny, was always characteristic of the city, was opposed to its +influence. The beautiful chapel of the Pazzi was built by +Brunelleschi; its frieze of Angels' heads is by Donatello and +Desiderio; within are Luca della Robbia's Apostles and Evangelists. +Jacopo Pazzi had headed the conspiracy against the Medici in 1478, +and, after attempting to raise the people, had been captured in his +escape, tortured and hanged. It was said that he had cried in dying +that he gave his soul to the devil; he was certainly a notorious +gambler and blasphemer. When buried here, the peasants believed that +he brought a curse upon their crops; so the rabble dug him up, dragged +the body through the streets, and finally with every conceivable +indignity threw it into the Arno. + +Behind Santa Croce two streets of very opposite names and traditions +meet, the _Via Borgo Allegri_ (which also intersects the Via +Ghibellina) and the _Via dei Malcontenti_; the former records the +legendary birthday of Italian painting, the latter the mournful +processions of poor wretches condemned to death. + +According to the tradition, Giovanni Cimabue had his studio in the +former street, and it was here that, in Dante's words, he thought to +hold the field in painting: _Credette Cimabue nella pittura tener lo +campo._ Here, according to Vasari, he was visited by Charles the Elder +of Anjou, and his great Madonna carried hence in procession with music +and lighted candles, ringing of bells and waving of banners, to Santa +Maria Novella; while the street that had witnessed such a miracle was +ever after called _Borgo Allegri_, "the happy suburb:" "named the Glad +Borgo from that beauteous face," as Elizabeth Barrett Browning puts +it. Unfortunately there are several little things that show that this +story needs revision of some kind. When Charles of Anjou came to +Florence, the first stone of Santa Maria Novella had not yet been +laid, and the picture now shown there as Cimabue's appears to be a +Sienese work. The legend, however, is very precious, and should be +devoutly held. The king in question was probably another Angevin +Charles--Carlo Martello, grandson of the elder Charles and titular +King of Hungary, Dante's friend, who was certainly in Florence for +nearly a month in the spring of 1295, and made himself exceedingly +pleasant. Vasari has made a similar confusion in the case of two +emperors of the name of Frederick. The picture has doubtless perished, +but the Joyous Borgo has not changed its name. + +The Via dei Malcontenti leads out into the broad Viale Carlo Alberto, +which marks the site of Arnolfo's wall. It formerly ended in a postern +gate, known as the Porta della Giustizia, beyond which was a little +chapel--of which no trace is left--and the place where the gallows +stood. The condemned were first brought to a chapel which stood in the +Via dei Malcontenti, near the present San Giuseppe, and then taken out +to the chapel beyond the gate, where the prayers for the dying were +said over them by the friars, after which they were delivered to the +executioner.[37] In May 1503, as Simone Filipepi tells us, a man was +beheaded here, whom the people apparently regarded as innocent; when +he was dead, they rose up and stoned the executioner to death. And +this was the same executioner who, five years before, had hanged +Savonarola and his companions in the Piazza, and had insulted their +dead bodies to please the dregs of the populace. The tower, of which +the mutilated remains still stand here, the _Torre della Zecca +Vecchia_, formerly called the _Torre Reale_, was originally a part of +the defences of a bridge which it was intended to build here in honour +of King Robert of Naples in 1317, and guarded the Arno at this point. +After the siege, during which the Porta della Giustizia was walled up, +Duke Alessandro incorporated the then lofty Torre Reale into a strong +fortress which he constructed here, the Fortezza Vecchia. In later +days, offices connected with the Arte del Cambio and the Mint were +established in its place, whence the present name of the Torre della +Zecca Vecchia. + + [37] See Guido Carocci, _Firenze Scomparsa_, here and generally. + + [Illustration: OLD HOUSES ON THE ARNO] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_The Baptistery, the Campanile, and the Duomo_ + + "There the traditions of faith and hope, of both the Gentile and + Jewish races, met for their beautiful labour: the Baptistery of + Florence is the last building raised on the earth by the + descendants of the workmen taught by Daedalus: and the Tower of + Giotto is the loveliest of those raised on earth under the + inspiration of the men who lifted up the tabernacle in the + wilderness. Of living Greek work there is none after the + Florentine Baptistery; of living Christian work, none so perfect + as the Tower of Giotto."--_Ruskin._ + + "Il non mai abbastanza lodato tempio di Santa Maria del + Fiore."--_Vasari._ + + +To the west of the Piazza del Duomo stands the octagonal building of +black and white marble--"_l'antico vostro Batisteo_" as Cacciaguida +calls it to Dante--which, in one shape or another, may be said to have +watched over the history of Florence from the beginning. "It is," says +Ruskin, "the central building of Etrurian Christianity--of European +Christianity." Here, in old pagan times, stood the Temple of Mars, +with the shrine and sanctuary of the God of War. This was the +Cathedral of Florence during a portion at least of the early history +of the Republic, before the great Gothic building rose that now +overshadows it to the east. + +Villani and other early writers all suppose that this present building +really was the original Temple of Mars, converted into a church for +St. John the Baptist. Villani tells us that, after the founding of +Florence by Julius Caesar and other noble Romans, the citizens of this +new Rome decided to erect a marvellous temple to the honour of Mars, +in thanksgiving for the victory which the Romans had won over the city +of Fiesole; and for this purpose the Senate sent them the best and +most subtle masters that there were in Rome. Black and white marble +was brought by sea and then up the Arno, with columns of various +sizes; stone and other columns were taken from Fiesole, and the temple +was erected in the place where the Etruscans of Fiesole had once held +their market:-- + +"Right noble and beauteous did they make it with eight faces, and when +they had done it with great diligence, they consecrated it to their +god Mars, who was the god of the Romans; and they had him carved in +marble, in the shape of a knight armed on horseback. They set him upon +a marble column in the midst of that temple, and him did they hold in +great reverence and adored as their god, what time Paganism lasted in +Florence. And we find that the said temple was commenced at the time +that Octavian Augustus reigned, and that it was erected under the +ascendency of such a constellation that it will last well nigh to +eternity." + +There is much difference of opinion as to the real date of +construction of the present building. While some authorities have +assigned it to the eleventh or even to the twelfth century, others +have supposed that it is either a Christian temple constructed in the +sixth century on the site of the old Temple of Mars, or the original +Temple converted into Christian use. It has indeed been recently urged +that it is essentially a genuine Roman work of the fourth century, +very analogous in structure to the Pantheon at Rome, on the model of +which it was probably built. The little apse to the south-west--the +part which contains the choir and altar--is certainly of the twelfth +century. There was originally a round opening at the centre of the +dome--like the Pantheon--and under this opening, according to Villani, +the statue of Mars stood. It was closed in the twelfth century. The +dome served Brunelleschi as a model for the cupola of Santa Maria del +Fiore. The lantern was added in the sixteenth century. Although this +building, so sacrosanct to the Florentines, had been spared by the +Goths and Lombards, it narrowly escaped destruction at the hands of +the Tuscan Ghibellines. In 1249, when the Ghibellines, with the aid of +the Emperor Frederick II., had expelled the Guelfs, the conquerors +endeavoured to destroy the Baptistery by means of the tower called the +Guardamorto, which stood in the Piazza towards the entrance of the +Corso degli Adimari, and watched over the tombs of the dead citizens +who were buried round San Giovanni. This device of making the tower +fall upon the church failed. "As it pleased God," writes Villani, +"through the reverence and miraculous power of the blessed John, the +tower, when it fell, manifestly avoided the holy Church, and turned +back and fell across the Piazza; whereat all the Florentines wondered, +and the People greatly rejoiced." + +At the close of the thirteenth century, in those golden days of +Dante's youth and early manhood, there were steps leading up to the +church, and it was surrounded by these tombs. Many of the latter seem +to have been old pagan sarcophagi adopted for use by the Florentine +aristocracy. Here Guido Cavalcanti used to wander in his solitary +musings and speculations--trying to find out that there was no God, as +his friends charitably suggested--and Boccaccio tells a most +delightful story of a friendly encounter between him and some young +Florentine nobles, who objected to his unsociable habits. In 1293, +Arnolfo di Cambio levelled the Piazza, removed the tombs, and +plastered the pilasters in the angles of the octagonal with slabs of +black and white marble of Prato, as now we see. The similar decoration +of the eight faces of the church is much earlier. + +The interior is very dark indeed--so dark that the mosaics, which +Dante must in part have looked upon, would need a very bright day to +be visible. At present they are almost completely concealed by the +scaffolding of the restorers.[38] Over the whole church preside the +two Saints whom an earlier Florentine worshipper of Mars could least +have comprehended--the Baptist and the Magdalene. And the spirit of +Dante haunts it as he does no other Florentine building--_il mio bel +San Giovanni_, he lovingly calls it. "In your ancient Baptistery," his +ancestor tells him in the fifteenth Canto of the _Paradiso_, "I became +at once a Christian and Cacciaguida." And, indeed, the same holds true +of countless generations of Florentines--among them the keenest +intellects and most subtle hands that the world has known--all +baptised here. But it has memories of another kind. The shameful +penance of oblation to St. John--if Boccaccio's tale be true, and if +the letter ascribed to Dante is authentic--was rejected by him; but +many another Florentine, with bare feet and lighted candle, has +entered here as a prisoner in penitential garb. The present +font--although of early date--was placed here in the seventeenth +century, to replace the very famous one which played so large a part +in Dante's thoughts. Here had he been baptised--here, in one of the +most pathetic passages of the _Paradiso_, did he yearn, before death +came, to take the laurel crown:-- + + [38] The earliest of these mosaics are those in the tribune, executed + originally by a certain Fra Jacopo in the year 1225; those in the dome + are in part ascribed to Dante's contemporary, Andrea Tafi. + + Se mai continga che il poema sacro, + al quale ha posto mano e cielo e terra, + si che m'ha fatto per piu anni macro, + vinca la crudelta, che fuor mi serra + del bello ovil, dov'io dormii agnello, + nimico ai lupi che gli danno guerra; + con altra voce omai, con altro vello + ritornero poeta, ed in sul fonte + del mio battesmo prendero il cappello; + pero che nella Fede, che fa conte + l'anime a Dio, quivi entra' io.[39] + + [39] + Should it e'er come to pass that the sacred poem to which + both heaven and earth so have set hand, that it hath + made me lean through many a year, + should overcome the cruelty which doth bar me forth from + the fair sheepfold wherein I used to sleep, a lamb, foe to + the wolves which war upon it; + with changed voice now, and with changed fleece shall I + return, a poet, and at the font of my baptism shall I + assume the chaplet; + because into the Faith which maketh souls known of God, + 'twas there I entered. + --Par. xxv. 1-11, _Wicksteed's translation_. + +This ancient font, which stood in the centre of the church, appears to +have had round holes or _pozzetti_ in its outer wall, in which the +priests stood to baptise; and Dante tells us in the _Inferno_ that he +broke one of these _pozzetti_, to save a boy from being drowned or +suffocated. The boy saved was apparently not being baptised, but was +playing about with others, and had either tumbled into the font itself +or climbed head foremost into one of the _pozzetti_. When the divine +poet was exiled, charitable people said that he had done this from +heretical motives--just as they had looked with suspicion upon his +friend Guido's spiritual wanderings in the same locality. + + [Illustration: THE BAPTISTERY] + +Though the old font has gone, St. John, to the left of the high altar, +still keeps watch over all the Florentine children brought to be +baptised--to be made _conti_, known to God, and to himself in God. +Opposite to him is the great type of repentance after baptism, St. +Mary Magdalene, a wooden statue by Donatello. What a contrast is here +with those pagan Magdalenes of the Renaissance--such as Titian and +Correggio painted! Fearfully wasted and haggard, this terrible figure +of asceticism--when once the first shock of repulsion is got over--is +unmistakably a masterpiece of the sculptor; it is as though one of the +Penitential Psalms had taken bodily shape. + +On the other side of the church stands the tomb of the dethroned Pope, +John XXIII., Baldassarre Cossa, one of the earliest works in the +Renaissance style, reared by Michelozzo and Donatello, 1424-1427, for +Cosimo dei Medici. The fallen Pontiff rests at last in peace in the +city which had witnessed his submission to his successful rival, +Martin V., and which had given a home to his closing days; here he +lies, forgetful of councils and cardinals:-- + + "After life's fitful fever he sleeps well." + +The recumbent figure in bronze is the work of Donatello, as also the +Madonna and Child that guard his last slumber. Below, are Faith, Hope, +and Charity--the former by Michelozzo (to whom also the architectural +part of the monument is due), the two latter by Donatello. It is said +that Pope Martin V. objected to the inscription, "quondam papa," and +was answered in the words of Pilate: _quod scripsi, scripsi_. + + * * * * * + +But the glory of the Baptistery is in its three bronze gates, the +finest triumph of bronze casting. On November 6th, 1329, the consuls +of the Arte di Calimala, who had charge of the works of San Giovanni, +ordained that their doors should be of metal and as beautiful as +possible. The first of the three, now the southern gate opposite the +Bigallo (but originally the _porta di mezzo_ opposite the Duomo), was +assigned by them to Andrea Pisano on January 9th, 1330; he made the +models in the same year, as the inscription on the gate itself shows; +the casting was finished in 1336. Vasari's statement that Giotto +furnished the designs for Andrea is now entirely discredited. These +gates set before us, in twenty-eight reliefs, twenty scenes from the +life of the Baptist with eight symbolical virtues below--all set round +with lions' heads. Those who know the work of the earlier Pisan +masters, Niccolo and Giovanni, will at once perceive how completely +Andrea has freed himself from the traditions of the school of Pisa; +instead of filling the whole available space with figures on different +planes and telling several stories at once, Andrea composes his relief +of a few figures on the same plane, and leaves the background free. +There are never any unnecessary figures or mere spectators; the bare +essentials of the episode are set before us as simply as possible, +whether it be Zacharias writing the name of John or the dance of the +daughter of Herodias, which may well be compared with Giotto's +frescoes in Santa Croce. Most perfect of all are the eight figures of +the Virtues in the eight lower panels, and they should be compared +with Giotto's allegories at Padua. We have Hope winged and straining +upwards towards a crown, Faith with cross and sacramental cup, Charity +and Prudence, above; Fortitude, Temperance and Justice below; and +then, to complete the eight, Dante's favourite virtue, the maiden +Humility. The Temperance, with Giotto and Andrea Pisano, is not the +mere opposite of Gluttony, with pitcher of water and cup (as we may +see her presently in Santa Maria Novella); but it is the cardinal +virtue which, St. Thomas says, includes "any virtue whatsoever that +puts in practice moderation in any matter, and restrains appetite in +its tendency in any direction." Andrea Pisano's Temperance sits next +to his Justice, with the sword and scales; she too has a sword, even +as Justice has, but she is either sheathing it or drawing it with +reluctance. + +The lovely and luxuriant decorative frieze that runs round this portal +was executed by Ghiberti's pupils in the middle of the fifteenth +century. Over the gate is the beheading of St. John the Baptist--two +second-rate figures by Vincenzo Danti. + +The second or northern gate is more than three-quarters of a century +later, and it is the result of that famous competition which opened +the Quattrocento. It was assigned to Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1403, and he +had with him his stepfather Bartolo di Michele, and other assistants +(including possibly Donatello). It was finished and set up gilded in +April 1424, at the main entry between the two porphyry columns, +opposite the Duomo, whence Andrea's gate was removed. It will be +observed that each new gate was first put in this place of honour, and +then translated to make room for its better. The plan of Ghiberti's is +similar to that of Andrea's gate--in fact it is his style of work +brought to its ultimate perfection. Twenty-eight reliefs represent +scenes from the New Testament, from the Annunciation to the Descent of +the Holy Spirit, while in eight lower compartments are the four +Evangelists and the four great Latin Doctors. The scene of the +Temptation of the Saviour is particularly striking, and the figure of +the Evangelist John, the Eagle of Christ, has the utmost grandeur. +Over the door are three finely modelled figures representing St. John +the Baptist disputing with a Levite and a Pharisee--or, perhaps, the +Baptist between two Prophets--by Giovanni Francesco Rustici +(1506-1511), a pupil of Verrocchio's, who appears to have been +influenced by Leonardo da Vinci. + +But in the third or eastern gate, opposite the Duomo, Ghiberti was to +crown the whole achievement of his life. Mr Perkins remarks: "Had he +never lived to make the second gates, which to the world in general +are far superior to the first, he would have been known in history as +a continuator of the school of Andrea Pisano, enriched with all those +added graces which belonged to his own style, and those refinements of +technique which the progress made in bronze casting had rendered +perfect."[40] In the meantime the laws of perspective had been +understood, and their science set forth by Brunelleschi; and when +Ghiberti, on the completion of his first gates, was in January 1425 +invited by the consuls of the Guild (amongst whom was the great +anti-Medicean politician, Niccolo da Uzzano) to model the third doors, +he was full of this new knowledge. "I strove," he says in his +commentaries, "to imitate nature to the uttermost." The subjects were +selected for him by Leonardo Bruni--ten stories from the Old Testament +which, says Leonardo in his letter to Niccolo da Uzzano and his +colleagues, "should have two things: first and chiefly, they must be +illustrious; and secondly, they must be significant. Illustrious, I +call those which can satisfy the eye with variety of design; +significant, those which have importance worthy of memory." For the +rest, their main instructions to him were that he should make the +whole the richest, most perfect and most beauteous work imaginable, +regardless of time and cost. + + [40] By these "second gates" are of course meant Ghiberti's second + gates: in reality the "third gates" of the Baptistery. + +The work took more than twenty-five years. The stories were all +modelled in wax by 1440, when the casting of the bronze commenced; +the whole was finished in 1447, gilded in 1452--the gilding has +happily worn off from all the gates--and finally set up in June 1452, +in the place where Ghiberti's other gate had been. Among his numerous +assistants were again his stepfather Bartolo, his son Vittorio, and, +among the less important, the painters Paolo Uccello and Benozzo +Gozzoli. + +The result is a series of most magnificent pictures in bronze. +Ghiberti worked upon his reliefs like a painter, and lavished all the +newly-discovered scientific resources of the painter's art upon them. +Whether legitimate sculpture or not, it is, beyond a doubt, one of the +most beautiful things in the world. "I sought to understand," he says +in his second commentary, that book which excited Vasari's scorn, "how +forms strike upon the eye, and how the theoretic part of graphic and +pictorial art should be managed. Working with the utmost diligence and +care, I introduced into some of my compositions as many as a hundred +figures, which I modelled upon different planes, so that those nearest +the eye might appear larger, and those more remote smaller in +proportion." It is a triumph of science wedded to the most exquisite +sense of beauty. Each of the ten bas-reliefs contains several motives +and an enormous number of these figures on different planes; which is, +in a sense, going back from the simplicity of Andrea Pisano to glorify +the old manner of Niccolo and Giovanni. In the first, the creation of +man, the creation of woman, and the expulsion from Eden are seen; in +the second, the sacrifice of Abel, in which the ploughing of Cain's +oxen especially pleased Vasari; in the third, the story of Noah; in +the fourth, the story of Abraham, a return to the theme in which +Ghiberti had won his first laurels,--the three Angels appearing to +Abraham have incomparable grace and loveliness, and the landscape in +bronze is a marvel of skill. In the fifth and sixth, we have the +stories of Jacob and Joseph, respectively; in the seventh and eighth, +of Moses and Joshua; in the ninth and tenth, of David and Solomon. The +latter is supposed to have been imitated by Raphael, in his famous +fresco of the School of Athens in the Vatican. The architectural +backgrounds--dream palaces endowed with permanent life in bronze--are +as marvellous as the figures and landscapes. Hardly less beautiful are +the minor ornaments that surround these masterpieces,--the wonderful +decorative frieze of fruits and birds and beasts that frames the +whole, the statuettes alternating with busts in the double border +round the bas-reliefs. It is the ultimate perfection of decorative +art. Among the statuettes a figure of Miriam, recalling an Angel of +Angelico, is of peculiar loveliness. In the middle of the whole, in +the centre at the lower corners of the Jacob and Joseph respectively, +are portrait busts of Lorenzo Ghiberti himself and Bartolo di Michele. +Vasari has said the last word:-- + +"And in very truth can it be said that this work hath its perfection +in all things, and that it is the most beautiful work of the world, or +that ever was seen amongst ancients or moderns. And verily ought +Lorenzo to be truly praised, seeing that one day Michelangelo +Buonarroti, when he stopped to look at this work, being asked what he +thought of it and if these gates were beautiful, replied: 'They are so +beautiful that they would do well for the Gates of Paradise.' Praise +verily proper, and spoken by one who could judge them." + +The Baptism of Christ over the portal is an unattractive work by +Andrea Sansovino (circa 1505), finished by Vincenzo Danti. The Angel +is a seventeenth century addition. More interesting far, are the +scorched porphyry columns on either side of the gate; these were part +of the booty carried off by the Pisan galleys from Majorca in 1117, +and presented to the Florentines in gratitude for their having guarded +Pisa during the absence of the troops. Villani says that the Pisans +offered their allies the choice between these porphyry columns and +some metal gates, and that, on their choosing the columns, they sent +them to Florence covered with scarlet, but that some said that they +scorched them first for envy. It was between these columns that +Cavalcanti was lingering and musing when the gay cavalcade of Betto +Brunelleschi and his friends, in Boccaccio's novel, swooped down upon +him through the Piazza di Santa Reparata: "Thou, Guido, wilt none of +our fellowship; but lo now! when thou shalt have found that there is +no God, what wilt thou have done?" + +From the gate which might have stood at the doors of Paradise, or at +least have guarded that sacred threshold by which Virgil and Dante +entered Purgatory, we cross to the tower which might fittingly have +sounded tierce and nones to the valley of the Princes. This +"Shepherd's Tower," according to Ruskin, is "the model and mirror of +perfect architecture." The characteristics of Power and Beauty, he +writes in the _Seven Lamps of Architecture_, "occur more or less in +different buildings, some in one and some in another. But all +together, and all in their highest possible relative degrees, they +exist, as far as I know, only in one building in the world, the +Campanile of Giotto." + +Like Ghiberti's bronze gates, this exquisitely lovely tower of marble +has beauty beyond words: "That bright, smooth, sunny surface of +glowing jasper, those spiral shafts and fairy traceries, so white, so +faint, so crystalline, that their slight shapes are hardly traced in +darkness on the pallor of the eastern sky, that serene height of +mountain alabaster, coloured like a morning cloud, and chased like a +sea-shell." It was commenced by Giotto himself in 1334, when the first +stone was solemnly laid. When Giotto died in 1336, the work had +probably not risen above the stage of the lower series of reliefs. +Andrea Pisano was chosen to succeed him, and he carried it on from +1337 to 1342, finishing the first story and bringing it up to the +first of the three stories of windows; it will be observed that +Andrea, who was primarily a sculptor, unlike Giotto, made provision +for the presence of large monumental statues as well as reliefs in his +decorative scheme. Through some misunderstanding, Andrea was then +deprived of the work, which was intrusted to Francesco Talenti. +Francesco Talenti carried it on until 1387, making a general +modification in the architecture and decoration; the three most +beautiful windows, increasing in size as we ascend, with their +beautiful Gothic tracery, are his work. According to Giotto's original +plan, the whole was to have been crowned with a pyramidical steeple or +spire; Vasari says that it was abandoned "because it was a German +thing, and of antiquated fashion." + +All around the base of the tower runs a wonderful series of +bas-reliefs on a very small scale, setting forth the whole history of +human skill under divine guidance, from the creation of man to the +reign of art, science, and letters, in twenty-seven exquisitely +"inlaid jewels of Giotto's." At each corner of the tower are three +shields, the red Cross of the People between the red lilies of the +Commune. "This smallness of scale," says Ruskin of these reliefs +"enabled the master workmen of the tower to execute them with their +own hands; and for the rest, in the very finest architecture, the +decoration of the most precious kind is usually thought of as a jewel, +and set with space round it--as the jewels of a crown, or the clasp of +a girdle." These twenty-seven subjects, with the possible exception of +the last five on the northern side, were designed by Giotto himself; +and are, together with the first bronze door, the greatest Florentine +work in sculpture of the first half of the fourteenth century. The +execution is, in the main, Andrea Pisano's; but there is a constant +tradition that some of the reliefs are from Giotto's own hand. Antonio +Pucci, in the eighty-fifth canto of his _Centiloquio_, distinctly +states that Giotto carved the earlier ones, _i primi intagli fe con +bello stile_, and Pucci was almost Giotto's contemporary. "Pastoral +life," "Jubal," "Tubal Cain," "Sculpture," "Painting," are the special +subjects which it is most plausible, or perhaps most attractive, to +ascribe to him. + +On the western side we have the creation of Man, the creation of +Woman; and then, thirdly, Adam and Eve toiling, or you may call it the +dignity of labour, if you will--Giotto's rendering of the thought +which John Ball was to give deadly meaning to, or ever the fourteenth +century closed-- + + When Adam delved and Eve span, + Who was then the gentleman? + +Then come pastoral life, Jabal with his tent, his flock and dog; +Jubal, the maker of stringed and wind instruments; Tubal Cain, the +first worker in metal; the first vintage, represented by the story of +Noah. On the southern side comes first Astronomy, represented by +either Zoroaster or Ptolemy. Then follow Building, Pottery, Riding, +Weaving, and (according to Ruskin) the Giving of Law. Lastly +Daedalus, symbolising, according to Ruskin, "the conquest of the +element of air"; or, more probably, here as in Dante (_Paradiso_ +viii.), the typical mechanician. Next, on the eastern side, comes +Rowing, symbolising, according to Ruskin, "the conquest of the +sea"--very possibly intended for Jason and the Argo, a type adopted in +several places by Dante. The next relief, "the conquest of the earth," +probably represents the slaying of Antaeus by Hercules, and symbolises +the "beneficent strength of civilisation, crushing the savageness of +inhumanity." Giotto uses his mythology much as Dante does--as +something only a little less sacred, and of barely less authority than +theology--and the conquest of Antaeus by Hercules was a solemn subject +with Dante too; besides a reference in the _Inferno_, he mentions it +twice in the _De Monarchia_ as a special revelation of God's judgment +by way of ordeal, and touches upon it again in the _Convivio, secondo +le testimonianze delle scritture_. Here Hercules immediately follows +the "conquest of the sea," as having, by his columns, set sacred +limits to warn men that they must pass no further (_Inferno_ xxvi.). +Brutality being thus overthrown, we are shown agriculture and +trade,--represented by a splendid team of ploughing bulls and a +horse-chariot, respectively. Then, over the door of the tower, the +Lamb with the symbol of Resurrection, perhaps, as Ruskin thinks, to +"express the law of Sacrifice and door of ascent to Heaven"; or, +perhaps, merely as being the emblem of the great Guild of wool +merchants, the Arte della Lana, who had charge of the cathedral works. +Then follow the representations of the arts, commencing with the +relief at the corner: Geometry, regarded as the foundation of the +others to follow, as being _senza macula d'errore e certissima_. +Turning the corner, the first and second, on the northern side, +represent Sculpture and Painting, and were possibly carved by Giotto +himself. The remaining five are all later, and from the hand of Luca +della Robbia, who perhaps worked from designs left by Giotto--Grammar, +which may be taken to represent Literature in general, Arithmetic, the +science of numbers (in its great mediaeval sense), Dialectics; closing +with Music, in some respects the most beautiful of the series, +symbolised in Orpheus charming beasts and birds by his strains, and +Harmony. "Harmony of song," writes Ruskin, "in the full power of it, +meaning perfect education in all art of the Muses and of civilised +life; the mystery of its concord is taken for the symbol of that of a +perfect state; one day, doubtless, of the perfect world." + +Above this fundamental series of bas-reliefs, there runs a second +series of four groups of seven. They were probably executed by pupils +of Andrea Pisano, and are altogether inferior to those below--the +seven Sacraments on the northern side being the best. Above are a +series of heroic statues in marble. Of these the oldest are those less +easily visible, on the north opposite the Duomo, representing David +and Solomon, with two Sibyls; M. Reymond ascribes them to Andrea +Pisano. Those opposite the Misericordia are also of the fourteenth +century. On the east are Habakkuk and Abraham, by Donatello (the +latter in part by a pupil), between two Patriarchs probably by Niccolo +d'Arezzo, the chief sculptor of the Florentine school at the end of +the Trecento. Three of the four statues opposite the Baptistery are by +Donatello; figures of marvellous strength and vigour. It is quite +uncertain whom they are intended to represent (the "Solomon" and +"David," below the two in the centre, refer to the older statues which +once stood here), but the two younger are said to be the Baptist and +Jeremiah. The old bald-headed prophet, irreverently called the +_Zuccone_ or "Bald-head," is one of Donatello's masterpieces, and is +said to have been the sculptor's own favourite creation. Vasari tells +us that, while working upon it, Donatello used to bid it talk to him, +and, when he wanted to be particularly believed, he used to swear by +it: "By the faith that I bear to my Zuccone." + + * * * * * + + [Illustration: THE BIGALLO] + +At the end of the Via Calzaioli, opposite the Baptistery, is that +little Gothic gem, the Loggia called the _Bigallo_, erected between +1352 and 1358, for the "Captains of Our Lady of Mercy," while Orcagna +was rearing his more gorgeous tabernacle for the "Captains of Our Lady +of Or San Michele." Its architect is unknown; his manner resembles +Orcagna's, to whom the work has been erroneously ascribed. The Madonna +is by Alberto Arnoldi (1361). The Bigallo was intended for the public +functions of charity of the foundling hospital, which was founded +under the auspices of the Confraternity of the Misericordia, whose +oratory is on the other side of the way. These Brothers of Mercy, in +their mysterious black robes hiding their faces, are familiar enough +even to the most casual visitor to Florence; and their work of succour +to the sick and injured has gone on uninterruptedly throughout the +whole of Florentine history. + + * * * * * + +In the last decade of the thirteenth century, when the People and +Commune of Florence were in an unusually peaceful state, after the +tumults caused by the reforms and expulsion of Giano della Bella had +subsided, the new Cathedral was commenced on the site of the older +church of Santa Reparata. The first stones and foundations were +blessed with great solemnity in 1296; and, in this golden age of the +democracy, the work proceeded apace, until in a document of April +1299, concerning the exemption of Arnolfo di Cambio from all taxation, +it is stated that "by reason of his industry, experience and genius, +the Commune and People of Florence from the magnificent and visible +beginning of the said work of the said church, commenced by the same +Master Arnolphus, hope to have a more beautiful and more honourable +temple than any other which there is in the regions of Tuscany." + +But although the original design and beginning were undoubtedly +Arnolfo's, the troublous times that fell upon Florence appear to have +interrupted the work; and it was almost abandoned for lack of funds +until 1334, when Giotto was appointed capo-maestro of the Commune and +of the work of Santa Reparata, as it was still called. The Cathedral +was now in charge of the Arte della Lana, as the Baptistery was in +that of the Arte di Calimala. It is not precisely known what Giotto +did with it; but the work languished again after his death, until +Francesco Talenti was appointed capo-maestro, and, in July 1357, the +foundations were laid of the present church of Santa Maria del Fiore, +on a larger and more magnificent scale. Arnolfo's work appears to +have been partly destroyed, partly enlarged and extended. Other +capo-maestri carried on what Francesco Talenti had commenced, until, +in 1378, just at the end of mediaeval Florence, the fourth and last +great vault was closed, and the main work finished. + +The completion of the Cathedral belongs to that intermediate epoch +which saw the decline of the great democracy and the dawn of the +Renaissance, and ran from 1378 to 1421, in which latter year the third +tribune was finished. Filippo Brunelleschi's dome or cupola, raised +upon a frieze or drum high above the three great semi-domes, with a +large window in each of the eight sides, was commenced in 1420 and +finished in 1434, the year which witnessed the establishment of the +Medicean regime in Florence. Vasari waxes most enthusiastic over this +work. "Heaven willed," he writes, "after the earth had been for so +many years without an excellent soul or a divine spirit, that Filippo +should leave to the world from himself the greatest, the most lofty +and the most beauteous construction of all others made in the time of +the moderns and even in that of the ancients." And Michelangelo +imitated it in St Peter's at Rome, turning back, as he rode away from +Florence, to gaze upon Filippo's work, and declaring that he could not +do anything more beautiful. Some modern writers have passed a very +different judgment. Fergusson says:--"The plain, heavy, simple +outlined dome of Brunelleschi acts like an extinguisher, crushing all +the lower part of the composition, and both internally and externally +destroying all harmony between the parts." Brunelleschi also designed +the Lantern, which was commenced shortly before his death (1446) and +finished in 1461. The palla or ball, which crowns the whole, was added +by Andrea Verrocchio. In the fresco in the Spanish Chapel of Santa +Maria Novella, you shall see the Catholic Church symbolised by the +earlier church of Santa Reparata; and, as the fresco was executed +before the middle of the fourteenth century, it apparently represents +the designs of Arnolfo and Giotto. Vasari, indeed, states that it was +taken from Arnolfo's model in wood. "From this painting," he says, "it +is obvious that Arnolfo had proposed to raise the dome immediately +over the piers and above the first cornice, at that point namely where +Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, desiring to render the building less +heavy, interposed the whole space wherein we now see the windows, +before adding the dome."[41] + + [41] "There is only one point from which the size of the Cathedral of + Florence is felt; and that is from the corner of the Via de' + Balestrieri, opposite the south-east angle, where it happens that the + dome is seen rising instantly above the apse and transepts" (_Seven + Lamps_). + + [Illustration: PORTA DELLA MANDORLA, DUOMO] + +The Duomo has had three facades. Of the first facade, the facade of +Arnolfo's church before 1357, only two statues remain which probably +formed part of it; one of Boniface VIII. within the Cathedral, of +which more presently, and a statue of a Bishop in the sacristy. The +second facade, commenced in 1357, and still in progress in 1420, was +left unfinished, and barbarously destroyed towards the end of the +sixteenth century. A fresco by Poccetti in the first cloister of San +Marco, the fifth to the right of the entrance, representing the +entrance of St. Antoninus into Florence to take possession of his see, +shows this second facade. Some of the statues that once decorated it +still exist. The Boniface reappeared upon it from the first facade, +between St. Peter and St. Paul; over the principal gate was Our Lady +of the Flower herself, presenting her Child to give His blessing to +the Florentines--and this is still preserved in the Opera del +Duomo--by an unknown artist of the latter half of the fourteenth +century; she was formerly attended by Zenobius and Reparata, while +Angels held a canopy over her--these are lost. Four Doctors of the +Church, now mutilated and transformed into poets, are still to be seen +on the way to Poggio Imperiale--by Niccolo d'Arezzo and Piero di +Giovanni Tedesco (1396); some Apostles, probably by the latter, and +very fine works, are in the court of the Riccardi Palace. The last +statues made for the facade, the four Evangelists, of the first +fifteen years of the Quattrocento, are now within the present church, +in the chapels of the Tribune of St. Zenobius. There is a curious +tradition that Donatello placed Farinata degli Uberti on the facade; +and few men would have deserved the honour better. After the sixteenth +century the facade remained a desolate waste down to our own times. +The present facade, gorgeous but admirable in its way, was designed by +De Fabris, and finished between 1875 and 1887; the first stone was +laid by Victor Emmanuel in 1860. Thus has the United Italy of to-day +completed the work of the great Republic of the Middle Ages. + + [Illustration: STATUE OF BONIFACE VIII.] + +The four side gates of the Duomo are among the chief artistic +monuments of Florentine sculpture in the epoch that intervened between +the setting of Andrea Pisano and Orcagna, and the rising of Donatello +and Ghiberti. Nearer the facade, south and north, the two plainer and +earlier portals are always closed; the two more ornate and later, the +gate of the canons on the south and the gate of the Mandorla on the +north, are the ordinary entrances into the aisles of the cathedral. + +Earliest of the four is the minor southern portal near the Campanile, +over which the pigeons cluster and coo. Our Lady of the Pigeons, in +the tympanum, is an excellent work of the school of Nino Pisano +(Andrea's son), rather later than the middle of the Trecento. The +northern minor portal is similar in style, with sculpture subordinated +to polychromatic decoration, but with beautiful twisted columns, of +which the two outermost rest upon grand mediaeval lions, who are helped +to bear them by delicious little winged _putti_. Third in order of +construction comes the chief southern portal, the Porta dei Canonici, +belonging to the last decade of the fourteenth century. The pilasters +are richly decorated with sculptured foliage and figures of animals in +the intervals between the leaves. In the tympanum above, the Madonna +and Child with two adoring Angels--statues of great grace and +beauty--are by Lorenzo di Giovanni d'Ambrogio, 1402. Above are Angels +bearing a tondo of the Pieta. + +The Porta della Mandorla is one of the most perfect examples of +Florentine decorative sculpture that exists. M. Reymond calls it "le +produit le plus pur du genie florentin dans toute l'independance de sa +pensee." It was commenced by Giovanni di Ambrogio, the chief master of +the canons' gate; and finished by Niccolo da Arezzo, in the early +years of the fifteenth century. The decorations of its pilasters, with +nude figures amidst the conventional foliage between the angels with +their wings and scrolls, are already almost in the spirit of the +Renaissance. The mosaic over the door, representing the Annunciation, +was executed by Domenico Ghirlandaio in 1490. "Amongst modern masters +of mosaic," says Vasari, "nothing has yet been seen better than this. +Domenico was wont to say that painting is mere design, and that the +true painting for eternity is mosaic." The two small statues of +Prophets are the earliest works of Donatello, 1405-1406. Above is the +famous relief which crowns the whole, and from which the door takes +its name--the glorified Madonna of the Mandorla. Formerly ascribed to +Jacopo della Quercia, it is now recognised as the work of Nanni di +Banco, whose father Antonio collaborated with Niccolo da Arezzo on the +door. It represents the Madonna borne up in the Mandorla surrounded by +Angels, three of whom above are hymning her triumph. With a singularly +sweet yet majestic maternal gesture, she consigns her girdle to the +kneeling Thomas on the left; on the right among the rocks, a bear is +either shaking or climbing a tree. This work, executed slightly before +1420, is the best example of the noble manner of the fourteenth +century united to the technical mastery of the fifteenth. Though +matured late, it is the most perfect fruit of the school of Orcagna. +Nanni died before it was quite completed. The precise symbolism of +the bear is not easy to determine; it occurs also in Andrea Pisano's +relief of Adam and Eve labouring, on the Campanile. According to St. +Buonaventura, the bear is an emblem of Lust; according to the +Bestiaries, of Violence. The probability is that here it merely +represents the evil one, symbolising the Fall in the Adam and Eve +relief, and now implying that Mary healed the wound that Eve had dealt +the human race--_la piaga che Maria richiuse ed unse_. + +The interior is somewhat bare, and the aisles and vaults are so +proportioned and constructed as to destroy much of the effect of the +vast size both of the whole and of the parts. The nave and aisles lead +to a great octagonal space beneath the dome, where the choir is +placed, extending into three polygonal apses, those to right and left +representing the transepts. + +Over the central door is a fine but restored mosaic of the Coronation +of Madonna, by Giotto's friend and contemporary, Gaddo Gaddi, which is +highly praised by Vasari. On either side stand two great equestrian +portraits in fresco of condottieri, who served the Republic in +critical times; by Andrea del Castagno is Niccolo da Tolentino, who +fought in the Florentine pay with average success and more than +average fidelity, and died in 1435, a prisoner in the hands of Filippo +Maria Visconti; by Paolo Uccello is Giovanni Aguto, or John Hawkwood, +a greater captain, but of more dubious character, who died in 1394. +Let it stand to Hawkwood's credit that St Catherine of Siena once +wrote to him, _O carissimo e dolcissimo fratello in Cristo Gesu_. By +the side of the entrance is the famous statue, mutilated but +extraordinarily impressive, of Boniface VIII., ascribed by Vasari to +Andrea Pisano, but which is certainly earlier, and may possibly, +according to M. Reymond, be assigned to Arnolfo di Cambio himself. It +represents the terrible Pontiff in the flower of his age; hardly a +portrait, but an idealised rendering of a Papal politician, a _papa +re_ of the Middle Ages. Even so might he have looked when he received +Dante and his fellow-ambassadors alone, and addressed to them the +words recorded by Dino Compagni: "Why are ye so obstinate? Humble +yourselves before me. I tell you in very truth that I have no other +intention, save for your peace. Let two of you go back, and they shall +have my benediction if they bring it about that my will be obeyed." + +As though in contrast with this worldly Pope, on the first pillars in +the aisles are pictures of two ideal pastors; on the left, St Zenobius +enthroned with Eugenius and Crescentius, by an unknown painter of the +school of Orcagna; on the right, a similar but comparatively modern +picture of St Antoninus giving his blessing. In the middle of the +nave, is the original resting-place of the body of Zenobius; here the +picturesque blessing of the roses takes place on his feast-day. The +right and left aisles contain some striking statues and interesting +monuments. First on the right is a statue of a Prophet (sometimes +called Joshua), an early Donatello, said to be the portrait of +Giannozzo Manetti, between the monuments of Brunelleschi and Giotto; +the bust of the latter is by Benedetto da Maiano, and the inscription +by Poliziano. Opposite these, in the left aisle, is a most life-like +and realistic statue of a Prophet by Donatello, said to be the +portrait of Poggio Bracciolini, between modern medallions of De Fabris +and Arnolfo. Further on, on the right, are Hezekiah by Nanni di Banco, +and a fine portrait bust of Marsilio Ficino by Andrea Ferrucci +(1520)--the mystic dreamer caught in a rare moment of inspiration, as +on that wonderful day when he closed his finished Plato, and saw young +Pico della Mirandola before him. Opposite them, on the left, are David +by Ciuffagni, and a bust of the musician Squarcialupi by Benedetto da +Maiano. On the last pillars of the nave, right and left, stand later +statues of the Apostles--St Matthew by Vincenzo de' Rossi, and St +James by Jacopo Sansovino. + +Under Brunelleschi's vast dome--the effect of which is terribly marred +by miserable frescoes by Vasari and Zuccheri--are the choir and the +high altar. The stained glass in the windows in the drum is from +designs of Ghiberti, Donatello (the Coronation), and Paolo Uccello. +Behind the high altar is one of the most solemn and pathetic works of +art in existence--Michelangelo's last effort in sculpture, the +unfinished Deposition from the Cross; "the strange spectral wreath of +the Florence Pieta, casting its pyramidal, distorted shadow, full of +pain and death, among the faint purple lights that cross and perish +under the obscure dome of Santa Maria del Fiore."[42] It is a group of +four figures more than life-size; the body of Christ is received in +the arms of His mother, who sustains Him with the aid of St Mary +Magdalene and the standing Nicodemus, who bends over the group at the +back with a countenance full of unutterable love and sorrow. Although, +in a fit of impatience, Michelangelo damaged the work and allowed it +to be patched up by others, he had intended it for his own sepulchre, +and there is no doubt that the Nicodemus--whose features to some +extent are modelled from his own--represents his own attitude as death +approached. His sonnet to Giorgio Vasari is an expression of the same +temper, and the most precious commentary upon his work:-- + + [42] _Modern Painters_, vol. ii. "Of Imagination Penetrative." + + Now hath my life across a stormy sea, + Like a frail bark reached that wide port where all + Are bidden, ere the final reckoning fall + Of good and evil for eternity. + Now know I well how that fond phantasy, + Which made my soul the worshipper and thrall + Of earthly art, is vain; how criminal + Is that which all men seek unwillingly. + Those amorous thoughts which were so lightly dressed, + What are they when the double death is nigh? + The one I know for sure, the other dread. + Painting nor sculpture now can lull to rest + My soul that turns to His great Love on high, + Whose arms, to clasp us, on the Cross were spread. + (_Addington Symonds' translation._) + +The apse at the east end, or tribuna di San Zenobio, ends in the altar +of the Blessed Sacrament, which is also the shrine of Saint Zenobius. +The reliquary which contains his remains is the work of Lorenzo +Ghiberti, and was finished in 1446; the bronze reliefs set forth his +principal miracles, and there is a most exquisite group of those +flying Angels which Ghiberti realises so wonderfully. Some of the +glass in the windows is also from his design. The seated statues in +the four chapels, representing the four Evangelists, were originally +on the facade; the St. Luke, by Nanni di Banco, in the first chapel on +the right, is the best of the four; then follow St. John, a very early +Donatello, and, on the other side, St. Matthew by Ciuffagni and St. +Mark by Niccolo da Arezzo (slightly earlier than the others). The two +Apostles standing on guard at the entrance of the tribune, St. John +and St. Peter, are by Benedetto da Rovezzano. To right and left are +the southern and northern sacristies. Over the door of the southern +sacristy is a very beautiful bas-relief by Luca della Robbia, +representing the Ascension (1446), like a Fra Angelico in enamelled +terracotta; within the sacristy are two kneeling Angels also by Luca +(1448), practically his only isolated statues, of the greatest beauty +and harmony; and also a rather indifferent St. Michael, a late work of +Lorenzo di Credi. Over the door of the northern sacristy is the +Resurrection by Luca della Robbia (1443), perhaps his earliest extant +work in this enamelled terracotta. The bronze doors of this northern +sacristy are by Michelozzo and Luca della Robbia, assisted by Maso and +Giovanni di Bartolommeo, and were executed between 1446 and 1467. They +are composed of ten reliefs with decorative heads at the corners of +each, as in Lorenzo Ghiberti's work. Above are Madonna and Child with +two Angels; the Baptist with two Angels; in the centre the four +Evangelists, each with two Angels; and below, the four Doctors, each +with two Angels. M. Reymond has shown that the four latter are the +work of Michelozzo. Of Luca's work, the four Evangelists are later +than the two topmost reliefs, and are most beautiful; the Angels are +especially lovely, and there are admirable decorative heads between. +Within, are some characteristic _putti_ by Donatello. + +The side apses, which represent the right and left transepts, guarded +by sixteenth century Apostles, and with frescoed Saints and Prophets +in the chapels by Bicci di Lorenzo, are quite uninteresting. + +By the door that leads out of the northern aisle into the street, is a +wonderful picture, painted in honour of Dante by order of the State in +1465, by Domenico di Michelino, a pupil of Fra Angelico, whose works, +with this exception, are hardly identified. At the time that this was +painted, the authentic portrait of Dante still existed in the (now +lost) fresco at Santa Croce, so we may take this as a fairly probable +likeness; it is, at the same time, one of the earliest efforts to give +pictorial treatment to the _Purgatorio_. Outside the gates of Florence +stands Dante in spirit, clothed in the simple red robe of a +Florentine citizen, and wearing the laurel wreath which was denied to +him in life; in his left hand he holds the open volume of the _Divina +Commedia_, from which rays of burning light proceed and illumine all +the city. But it is not the mediaeval Florence that the divine singer +had known, which his ghost now revisits, but the Florence of the +Quattrocento--with the completed Cathedral and the cupola of +Brunelleschi rising over it, with the Campanile and the great tower of +the Palazzo della Signoria completed--the Florence which has just lost +Cosimo dei Medici, Pater Patriae, and may need fresh guidance, now +that great mutations are at hand in Italy. With his right hand he +indicates the gate of Hell and its antechamber; but it is not the +torments of its true inmates that he would bid the Florentines mark, +but the shameful and degrading lot of the cowards and neutrals, the +trimmers, who would follow no standard upon earth, and are now +rejected by Heaven and Hell alike; "the crew of caitiffs hateful to +God and to his enemies," who now are compelled, goaded on by hornets +and wasps, to rush for ever after a devil-carried ensign, "which +whirling ran so quickly that it seemed to scorn all pause." Behind, +among the rocks and precipices of Hell, the monstrous fiends of +schism, treason and anarchy glare through the gate, preparing to sweep +down upon the City of the Lily, if she heeds not the lesson. In the +centre of the picture, in the distance, the Mountain of Purgation +rises over the shore of the lonely ocean, on the little island where +rushes alone grow above the soft mud. The Angel at the gate, seated +upon the rock of diamond, above the three steps of contrition, +confession, and satisfaction, marks the brows of the penitent souls +with his dazzling sword, and admits them into the terraces of the +mountain, where Pride, Anger, Envy, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, and +Lust (the latter, in the purifying fire of the seventh terrace, merely +indicated by the flames on the right) are purged away. On the top of +the mountain Adam and Eve stand in the Earthly Paradise, which +symbolises blessedness of this life, the end to which an ideal ruler +is to lead the human race, and the state of innocence to which the +purgatorial pains restore man. Above and around sweep the spheres of +the planets, the lower moving heavens, from which the angelic +influences are poured down upon the Universe beneath their sway. + +Thirteen years after this picture was painted, the Duomo saw Giuliano +dei Medici fall beneath the daggers of the Pazzi and their +confederates on Sunday, April 26th, 1478. The bell that rang for the +Elevation of the Host was the signal. Giuliano had been moving round +about the choir, and was standing not far from the picture of Dante, +when Bernardo Baroncelli and Francesco Pazzi struck the first blows. +Lorenzo, who was on the opposite side of the choir, beat off his +assailants with his sword and then fled across into the northern +sacristy, through the bronze gates of Michelozzo and Luca della +Robbia, which Poliziano and the Cavalcanti now closed against the +conspirators. The boy cardinal, Raffaello Sansoni, whose visit to the +Medicean brothers had furnished the Pazzi with their chance, fled in +abject terror into the other sacristy. Francesco Nori, a faithful +friend of the Medici, was murdered by Baroncelli in defending his +masters' lives; he is very probably the bare-headed figure kneeling +behind Giuliano in Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi in the +Uffizi.[43] + + [43] The Duomo has fairer memories of the Pazzi, than this deed of + blood and treachery. Their ancestor at the Crusades had carried the + sacred fire from Jerusalem to Florence, and still, on Easter Eve, an + artificial dove sent from the high altar lights the car of fireworks + in the Piazza--the Carro dei Pazzi--in front of the church, in honour + of their name. + +But of all the scenes that have passed beneath Brunelleschi's cupola, +the most in accordance with the spirit of Dante's picture are those +connected with Savonarola. It was here that his most famous and most +terrible sermons were delivered; here, on that fateful September +morning when the French host was sweeping down through Italy, he gazed +in silence upon the expectant multitude that thronged the building, +and then, stretching forth his hands, cried aloud in a terrible voice +the ominous text of Genesis: "Behold I, even I, do bring a flood of +waters upon the earth;" and here, too, the fatal riot commenced which +ended with the storming of the convent. And here, in a gentler vein, +the children of Florence were wont to await the coming of their father +and prophet. "The children," writes Simone Filipepi, "were placed all +together upon certain steps made on purpose for them, and there were +about three thousand of them; they came an hour or two before the +sermon; and, in the meanwhile, some read psalms and others said the +rosary, and often choir by choir they sang lauds and psalms most +devoutly; and when the Father appeared, to mount up into the pulpit, +the said children sang the _Ave Maris Stella_, and likewise the people +answered back, in such wise that all that time, from early morning +even to the end of the sermon, one seemed to be verily in Paradise." + +The Opera del Duomo or Cathedral Museum contains, besides several +works of minor importance (including the Madonna from the second +facade), three of the great achievements of Florentine sculpture +during the fifteenth century; the two _cantorie_, or organ galleries, +of Donatello and Luca della Robbia; the silver altar for the +Baptistery, with the statue of the Baptist by Michelozzo, and reliefs +in silver by Antonio Pollaiuolo and Andrea Verrocchio, representing +the Nativity of the Baptist by the former, the dance of the daughter +of Herodias and the Decollation of the Saint by the latter. + +The two organ galleries, facing each other and finished almost +simultaneously (about 1440), are an utter contrast both in spirit and +in execution. There is nothing specially angelic or devotional about +Donatello's wonderful frieze of dancing genii, winged boys that might +well have danced round Venus at Psyche's wedding-feast, but would have +been out of place among the Angels who, as the old mystic puts it, +"rejoiced exceedingly when the most Blessed Virgin entered the +Heavenly City." The beauty of rhythmic movement, the joy of living and +of being young, exultancy, _baldanza_--these are what they express for +us. Luca della Robbia's boys and girls, singing together and playing +musical instruments, have less exuberance and motion, but more grace +and repose; they illustrate in ten high reliefs the verses of the +psalm, _Laudate Dominum in sanctis ejus_, which is inscribed upon the +Cantoria; and those that dance are more chastened in their joy, more +in the spirit of David before the Ark. But all are as wrapt and +absorbed in their music, as are Donatello's in their wild yet +harmonious romp. + +In detail and considered separately, Luca's more perfectly finished +groups, with their exquisite purity of line, are decidedly more lovely +than Donatello's more roughly sketched, lower and flatter bas-reliefs; +but, seen from a distance and raised from the ground, as they were +originally intended, Donatello's are decidedly more effective as a +whole. It is only of late years that the reliefs have been remounted +and set up in the way we now see; and it is not quite certain whether +their present arrangement, in all respects, exactly corresponds to +what was originally intended by the masters. It was in this building, +the Opera del Duomo, that Donatello at one time had his school and +studio; and it was here, in the early years of the Cinquecento, that +Michelangelo worked upon the shapeless mass of marble which became the +gigantic David. + + [Illustration: CROSS OF THE FLORENTINE PEOPLE (FROM OLD HOUSE ON NORTH + SIDE OF DUOMO)] + + [Illustration: ARMS OF THE MEDICI FROM THE BADIA AT FIESOLE.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +_The Palazzo Riccardi--San Lorenzo--San Marco._ + + Per molti, donna, anzi per mille amanti, + creata fusti, e d'angelica forma. + Or par che'n ciel si dorma, + s'un sol s'appropria quel ch'e dato a tanti. + (_Michelangelo Buonarroti_). + + +The Via dei Martelli leads from the Baptistery into the Via Cavour, +formerly the historical Via Larga. Here stands the great Palace of the +Medici, now called the Palazzo Riccardi from the name of the family to +whom the Grand Duke Ferdinand II. sold it in the seventeenth century. + +The palace was begun by Michelozzo for Cosimo the Elder shortly before +his exile, and completed after his return, when it became in reality +the seat of government of the city, although the Signoria still kept +up the pretence of a republic in the Palazzo Vecchio. Here Lorenzo the +Magnificent was born on January 1st, 1449, and here the most brilliant +and cultured society of artists and scholars that the world had seen +gathered round him and his family.[44] Here, too, after the expulsion +of Lorenzo's mad son, Piero, in 1494, Charles VIII. of France was +splendidly lodged; here Piero Capponi tore the dishonourable treaty +and saved the Republic, and here Fra Girolamo a few days later +admonished the fickle king. On the return of the Medici, the Cardinal +Giovanni, the younger Lorenzo, and the Cardinal Giulio successively +governed the city here; until in 1527 the people drove out the young +pretenders, Alessandro and Ippolito, with their guardian, the Cardinal +Passerini. It was on this latter occasion that Piero's daughter, +Madonna Clarice, the wife of the younger Filippo Strozzi, was carried +hither in her litter, and literally slanged these boys and the +Cardinal out of Florence. She is reported, with more vehemence than +delicacy, to have told her young kinsmen that the house of Lorenzo dei +Medici was not a stable for mules. During the siege, the people wished +to entirely destroy the palace and rename the place the Piazza dei +Muli. + + [44] It should be observed that Lorenzo was not specially called the + "Magnificent" by his contemporaries. All the more prominent members of + the Medicean family were styled _Magnifico_ in the same way. + +After the restoration Alessandro carried on his abominable career +here, until, on January 5th, 1537, the dagger of another Lorenzo freed +the world from an infamous monster. Some months before, Benvenuto +Cellini came to the palace, as he tells us in his autobiography, to +show the Duke the wax models for his medals which he was making. +Alessandro was lying on his bed, indisposed, and with him was only +this Lorenzino or Lorenzaccio, _quel pazzo malinconico filosafo di +Lorenzino_, as Benvenuto calls him elsewhere. "The Duke," writes +Benvenuto, "several times signed to him that he too should urge me to +stop; upon which Lorenzino never said anything else, but: 'Benvenuto, +you would do best for yourself to stay.' To which I said that I wanted +by all means to return to Rome. He said nothing more, and kept +continually staring at the Duke with a most evil eye. Having finished +the medal and shut it up in its case, I said to the Duke: 'My Lord, be +content, for I will make you a much more beautiful medal than I made +for Pope Clement; for reason wills that I should do better, since that +was the first that ever I made; and Messer Lorenzo here will give me +some splendid subject for a reverse, like the learned person and +magnificent genius that he is.' To these words the said Lorenzo +promptly answered: 'I was thinking of nothing else, save how to give +thee a reverse that should be worthy of his Excellency.' The Duke +grinned, and, looking at Lorenzo, said: 'Lorenzo, you shall give him +the reverse, and he shall make it here, and shall not go away.' +Lorenzo replied hastily, saying: 'I will do it as quickly as I +possibly can, and I hope to do a thing that will astonish the world.' +The Duke, who sometimes thought him a madman and sometimes a coward, +turned over in his bed, and laughed at the words which he had said to +him. I went away without other ceremonies of leave-taking, and left +them alone together." + +On the fatal night Lorenzino lured the Duke into his own rooms, in +what was afterwards called the Strada del Traditore, which was +incorporated into the palace by the Riccardi. Alessandro, tired out +with the excesses of the day, threw himself upon a bed; Lorenzino went +out of the room, ostensibly to fetch his kinswoman, Caterina Ginori, +whose beauty had been the bait; and he returned with the bravo +Scoroncocolo, with whose assistance he assassinated him. Those who saw +Sarah Bernhardt in the part of "Lorenzaccio," will not easily forget +her rendering of this scene. Lorenzino published an Apologia, in which +he enumerates Alessandro's crimes, declares that he was no true +offspring of the Medici, and that his own single motive was the +liberation of Florence from tyranny. He fled first to Constantinople, +and then to Venice, where he was murdered in 1547 by the agents of +Alessandro's successor, Cosimo I., who transferred the ducal residence +from the present palace first to the Palazzo Vecchio, and then across +the river to the Pitti Palace. + +With the exception of the chapel, the interior of the Palazzo Riccardi +is not very suggestive of the old Medicean glories of the days of +Lorenzo the Magnificent. There is a fine court, surrounded with +sarcophagi and statues, including some of the old tombs which stood +round the Baptistery and among which Guido Cavalcanti used to linger, +and some statues of Apostles from the second facade of the Duomo. +Above the arcades are eight fine classical medallions by Donatello, +copied and enlarged from antique gems. The rooms above have been +entirely altered since the days when Capponi defied King Charles, and +Madonna Clarice taunted Alessandro and Ippolito; the large gallery, +which witnessed these scenes, is covered with frescoes by Luca +Giordano, executed in the early part of the seventeenth century. The +Chapel--still entirely reminiscent of the better Medici--was painted +by Benozzo Gozzoli shortly before the death of Cosimo the Elder, with +frescoes representing the Procession of the Magi, in a delightfully +impossible landscape. The two older kings are the Patriarch Joseph of +Constantinople, and John Paleologus, Emperor of the East, who had +visited Florence twenty years before on the occasion of the Council +(Benozzo, it must be observed, was painting them in 1459, after the +fall of Constantinople); the third is Lorenzo dei Medici himself, as a +boy. Behind follow the rest of the Medicean court, Cosimo himself and +his son, Piero, content apparently to be led forward by this mere lad; +and in their train is Benozzo Gozzoli himself, marked by the signature +on his hat. The picture of the Nativity itself, round which Benozzo's +lovely Angels--though very earthly compared with Angelico's--seem +still to linger in attendance, is believed to have been one by Lippo +Lippi, now at Berlin. + +In the chapter _Of the Superhuman Ideal_, in the second volume of +_Modern Painters_, Ruskin refers to these frescoes as the most +beautiful instance of the supernatural landscapes of the early +religious painters:-- + +"Behind the adoring angel groups, the landscape is governed by the +most absolute symmetry; roses, and pomegranates, their leaves drawn to +the last rib and vein, twine themselves in fair and perfect order +about delicate trellises; broad stone pines and tall cypresses +overshadow them, bright birds hover here and there in the serene sky, +and groups of angels, hand joined with hand, and wing with wing, glide +and float through the glades of the unentangled forest. But behind the +human figures, behind the pomp and turbulence of the kingly procession +descending from the distant hills, the spirit of the landscape is +changed. Severer mountains rise in the distance, ruder prominences +and less flowery vary the nearer ground, and gloomy shadows remain +unbroken beneath the forest branches." + +Among the manuscripts in the _Biblioteca Riccardiana_, which is +entered from the Via Ginori at the back of the palace, is the most +striking and plausible of all existing portraits of Dante. It is at +the beginning of a codex of the Canzoni (numbered 1040), and appears +to have been painted about 1436. + +From the palace where the elder Medici lived, we turn to the church +where they, and their successors of the younger line, lie in death. In +the Piazza San Lorenzo there is an inane statue of the father of +Cosimo I., Giovanni delle Bande Nere, by Baccio Bandinelli. Here, in +June 1865, Robert Browning picked up at a stall the "square old yellow +Book" with "the crumpled vellum covers," which gave him the story of +_The Ring and the Book_:-- + + "I found this book, + Gave a lira for it, eightpence English just, + (Mark the predestination!) when a Hand, + Always above my shoulder, pushed me once, + One day still fierce 'mid many a day struck calm, + Across a square in Florence, crammed with booths, + Buzzing and blaze, noon-tide and market-time, + Toward Baccio's marble--ay, the basement ledge + O' the pedestal where sits and menaces + John of the Black Bands with the upright spear, + 'Twixt palace and church--Riccardi where they lived, + His race, and San Lorenzo where they lie. + + "That memorable day, + (June was the month, Lorenzo named the Square) + I leaned a little and overlooked my prize + By the low railing round the fountain-source + Close to the statue, where a step descends: + While clinked the cans of copper, as stooped and rose + Thick-ankled girls who brimmed them, and made place + For market men glad to pitch basket down, + Dip a broad melon-leaf that holds the wet, + And whisk their faded fresh." + + [Illustration: THE TOMB OF GIOVANNI AND PIERO DEI MEDICI + BY ANDREA VERROCCHIO + (In San Lorenzo)] + +The unsightly bare front of San Lorenzo represents several fruitless +and miserable years of Michelangelo's life. Pope Leo X. and the +Cardinal Giulio dei Medici commissioned him to make a new facade, in +1516, and for some years he consumed his time labouring among the +quarries of Carrara and Pietrasanta, getting the marble for it and for +the statues with which it was to be adorned. In one of his letters he +says: "I am perfectly disposed (_a me basta l'animo_) to make this +work of the facade of San Lorenzo so that, both in architecture and in +sculpture, it shall be the mirror of all Italy; but the Pope and the +Cardinal must decide quickly, if they want me to do it or not"; and +again, some time later: "What I have promised to do, I shall do by all +means, and I shall make the most beautiful work that was ever made in +Italy, if God helps me." But nothing came of it all; and in after +years Michelangelo bitterly declared that Leo had only pretended that +he wanted the facade finished, in order to prevent him working upon +the tomb of Pope Julius. + +"The ancient Ambrosian Basilica of St. Lawrence," founded according to +tradition by a Florentine widow named Giuliana, and consecrated by St. +Ambrose in the days of Zenobius, was entirely destroyed by fire early +in the fifteenth century, during a solemn service ordered by the +Signoria to invoke the protection of St. Ambrose for the Florentines +in their war against Filippo Maria Visconti. Practically the only +relic of this Basilica is the miraculous image of the Madonna in the +right transept. The present church was erected from the designs of +Filippo Brunelleschi, at the cost of the Medici (especially Giovanni +di Averardo, who may be regarded as its chief founder) and seven other +Florentine families. It is simple and harmonious in structure; the +cupola, which is so visible in distant views of Florence, looking +like a smaller edition of the Duomo, unlike the latter, rests directly +upon the cross. This appears to be one of the modifications from what +Brunelleschi had intended. + +The two pulpits with their bronze reliefs, right and left, are the +last works of Donatello; they were executed in part and finished by +his pupil, Bertoldo. The marble singing gallery in the left aisle +(near a fresco of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence, by Bronzino) is also +the joint work of Donatello and Bertoldo. In the right transept is a +marble tabernacle by Donatello's great pupil, Desiderio da Settignano. +Beneath a porphyry slab in front of the choir, Cosimo the Elder, the +Pater Patriae, lies; Donatello is buried in the same vault as his +great patron and friend. In the Martelli Chapel, on the left, is an +exceedingly beautiful Annunciation by Fra Filippo Lippi, a fine +example of his colouring (in which he is decidedly the best of all the +early Florentines); Gabriel is attended by two minor Angels, squires +waiting upon this great Prince of the Archangelic order, who are full +of that peculiar mixture of boyish high spirits and religious +sentiment which gives a special charm of its own to all that Lippo +does. + +The _Sagrestia Vecchia_, founded by Giovanni di Averardo, was erected +by Brunelleschi and decorated by Donatello for Cosimo the Elder. In +the centre is the marble sarcophagus, adorned with _putti_ and +festoons, containing the remains of Giovanni and his wife Piccarda, +Cosimo's father and mother, by Donatello. The bronze doors (hardly +among his best works), the marble balustrade before the altar, the +stucco medallions of the Evangelists, the reliefs of patron saints of +the Medici and the frieze of Angels' heads are all Donatello's; also +an exceedingly beautiful terracotta bust of St. Lawrence, which is one +of his most attractive creations. In the niche on the left of the +entrance is the simple but very beautiful tomb of the two sons of +Cosimo, Piero and Giovanni--who are united also in Botticelli's +Adoration of the Magi as the two kings--and it serves also as a +monument to Cosimo himself; it was made by Andrea Verrocchio for +Lorenzo and Giuliano, Piero's sons. The remains of Lorenzo and +Giuliano rested together in this sacristy until they were translated +in the sixteenth century. In spite of a misleading modern inscription, +they were apparently not buried in their father's grave, and the +actual site of their former tomb is unknown. They now lie together in +the _Sagrestia Nuova_. The simplicity of these funereal monuments and +the _pietas_ which united the members of the family so closely, in +death and in life alike, are very characteristic of these earlier +Medicean rulers of Florence. + +The cloisters of San Lorenzo, haunted by needy and destitute cats, +were also designed by Brunelleschi. To the right, after passing +Francesco da San Gallo's statue of Paolo Giovio, the historian, who +died in 1559, is the entrance to the famous Biblioteca Laurenziana. +The nucleus of this library was the collection of codices formed by +Niccolo Niccoli, which were afterwards purchased by Cosimo the Elder, +and still more largely increased by Lorenzo the Magnificent; after the +expulsion of Piero the younger, they were bought by the Friars of San +Marco, and then from them by the Cardinal Giovanni, who transferred +them to the Medicean villa at Rome. In accordance with Pope Leo's +wish, Clement VII. (then the Cardinal Giulio) brought them back to +Florence, and, when Pope, commissioned Michelangelo to design the +building that was to house them. The portico, vestibule and staircase +were designed by him, and, in judging of their effect, it must be +remembered that Michelangelo professed that architecture was not his +business, and also that the vestibule and staircase were intended to +have been adorned with bronzes and statues. It was commenced in 1524, +before the siege. Of the numberless precious manuscripts which this +collection contains, we will mention only two classical and one +mediaeval; the famous Pandects of Justinian which the Pisans took from +Amalfi, and the Medicean Virgil of the fourth or fifth century; and +Boccaccio's autograph manuscript of Dante's Eclogues and Epistles. +This latter codex, shown under the glass at the entrance to the +Rotunda, is the only manuscript in existence which contains Dante's +Epistles to the Italian Cardinals and to a Florentine Friend. In the +first, he defines his attitude towards the Church, and declares that +he is not touching the Ark, but merely turning to the kicking oxen who +are dragging it out of the right path; in the second, he proudly +proclaims his innocence, rejects the amnesty, and refuses to return to +Florence under dishonourable conditions. Although undoubtedly in +Boccaccio's handwriting, it has been much disputed of late years as to +whether these two letters are really by Dante. There is not a single +autograph manuscript, nor a single scrap of Dante's handwriting extant +at the present day. + + * * * * * + +From the Piazza Madonna, at the back of San Lorenzo, we enter a chilly +vestibule, the burial vault of less important members of the families +of the Medicean Grand Dukes, and ascend to the _Sagrestia Nuova_, +where the last male descendants of Cosimo the Elder and Lorenzo the +Magnificent lie. Although the idea of adding some such mausoleum to +San Lorenzo appears to have originated with Leo X., this New Sacristy +was built by Michelangelo for Clement VII., commenced while he was +still the Cardinal Giulio and finished in 1524, before the Library +was constructed. Its form was intended to correspond with that of +Brunelleschi's Old Sacristy, and it was to contain four sepulchral +monuments. Two of these, the only two that were actually constructed, +were for the younger Lorenzo, titular Duke of Urbino (who died in +1519, the son of Piero and nephew of Pope Leo), and the younger +Giuliano, Duke of Nemours (who died in 1516, the third son of the +Magnificent and younger brother of Leo). It is not quite certain for +whom the other two monuments were to have been, but it is most +probable that they were for the fathers of the two Medicean Popes, +Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother the elder Giuliano, whose +remains were translated hither by Duke Cosimo I. and rediscovered a +few years ago. Michelangelo commenced the statues before the third +expulsion of the Medici, worked on them in secret while he was +fortifying Florence against Pope Clement before the siege, and +returned to them, after the downfall of the Republic, as the condition +of obtaining the Pope's pardon. He resumed work, full of bitterness at +the treacherous overthrow of the Republic, tormented by the heirs of +Pope Julius II., whose tomb he had been forced to abandon, suffering +from insomnia and shattered health, threatened with death by the +tyrant Alessandro. When he left Florence finally in 1534, just before +the death of Clement, the statues had not even been put into their +places. + +Neither of the ducal statues is a portrait, but they appear to +represent the active and contemplative lives, like the Leah and Rachel +on the tomb of Pope Julius II. at Rome. On the right sits Giuliano, +holding the baton of command as Gonfaloniere of the Church. His +handsome sensual features to some extent recall those of the +victorious youth in the allegory in the Bargello. He holds his baton +somewhat loosely, as though he half realised the baseness of the +historical part he was doomed to play, and had not got his heart in +it. Opposite is Lorenzo, immersed in profound thought, "ghastly as a +tyrant's dream." What visions are haunting him of the sack of Prato, +of the atrocities of the barbarian hordes in the Eternal City, of the +doom his house has brought upon Florence? Does he already smell the +blood that his daughter will shed, fifty years later, on St. +Bartholomew's day? Here he sits, as Elizabeth Barrett Browning puts +it:-- + + "With everlasting shadow on his face, + While the slow dawns and twilights disapprove + The ashes of his long extinguished race, + Which never more shall clog the feet of men." + +"It fascinates and is intolerable," as Rogers wrote of this statue. It +is, probably, not due to Michelangelo that the niches in which the +dukes sit are too narrow for them; but the result is to make the +tyrants seem as helpless as their victims, in the fetters of destiny. +Beneath them are four tremendous and terrible allegorical figures: +"those four ineffable types," writes Ruskin, "not of darkness nor of +day--not of morning nor evening, but of the departure and the +resurrection, the twilight and the dawn of the souls of men." Beneath +Lorenzo are Dawn and Twilight; Dawn awakes in agony, but her most +horrible dreams are better than the reality which she must face; +Twilight has worked all day in vain, and, like a helpless Titan, is +sinking now into a slumber where is no repose. Beneath Giuliano are +Day and Night: Day is captive and unable to rise, his mighty powers +are uselessly wasted and he glares defiance; Night is buried in +torturing dreams, but Michelangelo has forbidden us to wake her:-- + + "Grato mi e il sonno, e piu l'esser di sasso; + mentre che il danno e la vergogna dura, + non veder, non sentir, m'e gran ventura; + pero non mi destar; deh, parla basso!"[45] + + [45] "Grateful to me is sleep, and more the being stone; while ruin + and shame last, not to see, not to feel, is great good fortune to me. + Therefore wake me not; ah, speak low!" + +It will be remembered that it was for these two young men, to whom +Michelangelo has thus reared the noblest sepulchral monuments of the +modern world, that Leo X. desired to build kingdoms and that +Machiavelli wrote one of the masterpieces of Italian prose--the +_Principe_. Giuliano was the most respectable of the elder Medicean +line; in Castiglione's _Cortigiano_ he is an attractive figure, the +chivalrous champion of women. It is not easy to get a definite idea of +the character of Lorenzo, who, as we saw in chapter iv., was virtually +tyrant of Florence during his uncle's pontificate. The Venetian +ambassador once wrote of him that he was fitted for great deeds, and +only a little inferior to Caesar Borgia--which was intended for very +high praise; but there was nothing in him to deserve either +Michelangelo's monument or Machiavelli's dedication. He usurped the +Duchy of Urbino, and spent his last days in fooling with a jester. His +reputed son, the foul Duke Alessandro, lies buried with him here in +the same coffin. + +Opposite the altar is the Madonna and Child, by Michelangelo. The +Madonna is one of the noblest and most beautiful of all the master's +works, but the Child, whom Florence had once chosen for her King, has +turned His face away from the city. A few years later, and Cosimo I. +will alter the inscription which Niccolo Capponi had set up on the +Palazzo Vecchio. The patron saints of the Medici on either side, Sts. +Cosmas and Damian, are by Michelangelo's pupils and assistants, Fra +Giovanni Angiolo da Montorsoli and Raffaello da Montelupo. Beneath +these statues lie Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother, the elder +Giuliano. Their bodies were removed hither from the Old Sacristy in +1559, and the question as to their place of burial was finally set at +rest, in October 1895, by the discovery of their bodies. It is +probable that Michelangelo had originally intended the Madonna for the +tomb of his first patron, Lorenzo. + +In judging of the general effect of this _Sagrestia Nuova_, which is +certainly somewhat cold, it must be remembered that Michelangelo +intended it to be full of statues and that the walls were to have been +covered with paintings. "Its justification," says Addington Symonds, +"lies in the fact that it demanded statuary and colour for its +completion." The vault was frescoed by Giovanni da Udine, but is now +whitewashed. In 1562, Vasari wrote to Michelangelo at Rome on behalf +of Duke Cosimo, telling him that "the place is being now used for +religious services by day and night, according to the intentions of +Pope Clement," and that the Duke was anxious that all the best +sculptors and painters of the newly instituted Academy should work +upon the Sacristy and finish it from Michelangelo's designs. "He +intends," writes Vasari, "that the new Academicians shall complete the +whole imperfect scheme, in order that the world may see that, while so +many men of genius still exist among us, the noblest work which was +ever yet conceived on earth has not been left unfinished." And the +Duke wants to know what Michelangelo's own idea is about the statues +and paintings; "He is particularly anxious that you should be assured +of his determination to alter nothing you have already done or +planned, but, on the contrary, to carry out the whole work according +to your conception. The Academicians, too, are unanimous in their +hearty desire to abide by this decision."[46] + + [46] Given in Addington Symonds' _Life of Michelangelo_. + +In the _Cappella dei Principi_, gorgeous with its marbles and mosaics, +lie the sovereigns of the younger line, the Medicean Grand Dukes of +Tuscany, the descendants of the great captain Giovanni delle Bande +Nere. Here are the sepulchral monuments of Cosimo I. (1537-1574); of +his sons, Francesco (1574-1587) and Ferdinand I. (1587-1609); and of +Ferdinand's son, grandson and great-grandson, Cosimo II. (1609-1621), +Ferdinand II. (1627-1670), Cosimo III. (1670-1723). The statues are +those of Ferdinand I. and Cosimo II. + +Cosimo I. finally transformed the republic into a monarchy, created a +new aristocracy and established a small standing army, though he +mainly relied upon Spanish and German mercenaries. He conquered Siena +in 1553, and in 1570 was invested with the grand ducal crown by Pius +V.--a title which the Emperor confirmed to his successor. Although the +tragedy which tradition has hung round the end of the Duchess Eleonora +and her two sons has not stood the test of historical criticism, there +are plenty of bloody deeds to be laid to Duke Cosimo's account during +his able and ruthless reign. Towards the close of his life he married +his mistress, Cammilla Martelli, and made over the government to his +son. This son, Francesco, the founder of the Uffizi Gallery and of the +modern city of Leghorn, had more than his father's vices and hardly +any of his ability; his intrigue with the beautiful Venetian, Bianca +Cappello, whom he afterwards married, and who died with him, has +excited more interest than it deserves. The Cardinal Ferdinand, who +succeeded him and renounced the cardinalate, was incomparably the best +of the house--a man of magnanimous character and an enlightened +ruler. He shook off the influence of Spain, and built an excellent +navy to make war upon the Turks and Barbary corsairs. Cosimo II. and +Ferdinand II. reigned quietly and benevolently, with no ability but +with plenty of good intentions. Chiabrera sings their praises with +rather unnecessary fervour. But the wealth and prosperity of Tuscany +was waning, and Cosimo III., a luxurious and selfish bigot, could do +nothing to arrest the decay. On the death of his miserable and +contemptible successor, Gian Gastone dei Medici in 1737, the Medicean +dynasty was at an end. + +Stretching along a portion of the Via Larga, and near the Piazza di +San Marco, were the famous gardens of the Medici, which the people +sacked in 1494 on the expulsion of Piero. The Casino Mediceo, built by +Buontalenti in 1576, marks the site. Here were placed some of +Lorenzo's antique statues and curios; and here Bertoldo had his great +art school, where the most famous painters and sculptors came to bask +in the sun of Medicean patronage, and to copy the antique. Here the +boy Michelangelo came with his friend Granacci, and here Andrea +Verrocchio first trained the young Leonardo. In this garden, too, +Angelo Poliziano walked with his pupils, and initiated Michelangelo +into the newly revived Hellenic culture. There is nothing now to +recall these past glories. + + [Illustration: THE WELL OF S. MARCO] + +The church of San Marco has been frequently altered and modernised, +and there is little now to remind us that it was here on August 1, +1489, that Savonarola began to expound the Apocalypse. Over the +entrance is a Crucifix ascribed by Vasari to Giotto. On the second +altar to the right is a much-damaged but authentic Madonna and Saints +by Fra Bartolommeo; that on the opposite altar, on the left, is a +copy of the original now in the Pitti Palace. There are some +picturesque bits of old fourteenth century frescoes on the left wall, +and beneath them, between the second and third altars, lie Pico della +Mirandola and his friend Girolamo Benivieni, and Angelo Poliziano. The +left transept contains the tomb and shrine of St Antoninus, the good +Dominican Archbishop of Florence, with statues by Giovanni da Bologna +and his followers, and later frescoes. In the sacristy, which was +designed by Brunelleschi, there is a fine bronze recumbent statue of +him. Antoninus was Prior of San Marco in the days of Angelico, and +Vasari tells us that when Angelico went to Rome, to paint for Pope +Eugenius, the Pope wished to make the painter Archbishop of Florence: +"When the said friar heard this, he besought his Holiness to find +somebody else, because he did not feel himself apt to govern people; +but that since his Order had a friar who loved the poor, who was most +learned and fit for rule, and who feared God, this dignity would be +much better conferred upon him than on himself. The Pope, hearing +this, and bethinking him that what he said was true, granted his +request freely; and so Fra Antonino was made Archbishop of Florence, +of the Order of Preachers, a man truly most illustrious for sanctity +and learning." + +It was in the church of San Marco that Savonarola celebrated Mass on +the day of the Ordeal; here the women waited and prayed, while the +procession set forth; and hither the Dominicans returned at evening, +amidst the howls and derision of the crowd. Here, on the next evening, +the fiercest of the fighting took place. The attempt of the enemy to +break into the church by the sacristy door was repulsed. One of the +Panciatichi, a mere boy, mortally wounded, joyfully received the last +sacraments from Fra Domenico on the steps of the altar, and died in +such bliss, that the rest envied him. Finally the great door of the +church was broken down; Fra Enrico, a German, mounted the pulpit and +fired again and again into the midst of the Compagnacci, shouting with +each shot, _Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine_. Driven from the pulpit, +he and other friars planted their arquebusses beneath the Crucifix on +the high altar, and continued to fire. The church was now so full of +smoke that the friars could hardly continue the defence, until Fra +Giovacchino della Robbia broke one of the windows with a lance. At +last, when the Signoria threatened to destroy the whole convent with +artillery, Savonarola ordered the friars to go in procession from the +church to the dormitory, and himself, taking the Blessed Sacrament +from the altar, slowly followed them. + +The convent itself, now officially the _Museo di San Marco_, +originally a house of Silvestrine monks, was made over to the +Dominicans by Pope Eugenius IV., at the instance of Cosimo dei Medici +and his brother Lorenzo. They solemnly took possession in 1436, and +Michelozzo entirely rebuilt the whole convent for them, mainly at the +cost of Cosimo, between 1437 and 1452. "It is believed," says Vasari, +"to be the best conceived and the most beautiful and commodious +convent of any in Italy, thanks to the virtue and industry of +Michelozzo." Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, as the Beato Angelico was +called, came from his Fiesolan convent, and worked simultaneously with +Michelozzo for about eight or nine years (until the Pope summoned him +to Rome in 1445 to paint in the Vatican), covering with his mystical +dreams the walls that his friend designed. That other artistic glory +of the Dominicans, Fra Bartolommeo, took the habit here in 1500, +though there are now only a few unimportant works of his remaining in +the convent. Never was there such a visible outpouring of the praying +heart in painting, as in the work of these two friars. And Antoninus +and Savonarola strove to make the spirit world that they painted a +living reality, for Florence and for the Church. + +The first cloister is surrounded by later frescoes, scenes from the +life of St. Antoninus, partly by Bernardino Poccetti and Matteo +Rosselli, at the beginning of the seventeenth century. They are not of +great artistic value, but one, the fifth on the right of the entrance, +representing the entry of St. Antoninus into Florence, shows the old +facade of the Duomo. Like gems in this rather indifferent setting, are +five exquisite frescoes by Angelico in lunettes over the doors; St. +Thomas Aquinas, Christ as a pilgrim received by two Dominican friars, +Christ in the tomb, St. Dominic (spoilt), St. Peter Martyr; also a +larger fresco of St. Dominic at the foot of the Cross. The second of +these, symbolising the hospitality of the convent rule, is one of +Angelico's masterpieces; beneath it is the entrance to the Foresteria, +the guest-chambers. Under the third lunette we pass into the great +Refectory, with its customary pulpit for the novice reader: here, +instead of the usual Last Supper, is a striking fresco of St. Dominic +and his friars miraculously fed by Angels, painted in 1536 by Giovanni +Antonio Sogliani (a pupil of Lorenzo di Credi); the Crucifixion above, +with St. Catherine of Siena and St. Antoninus, is said to be by Fra +Bartolommeo. Here, too, on the right is the original framework by +Jacopo di Bartolommeo da Sete and Simone da Fiesole, executed in 1433, +for Angelico's great tabernacle now in the Uffizi. + +Angelico's St. Dominic appropriately watches over the Chapter House, +which contains the largest of Fra Giovanni's frescoes and one of the +greatest masterpieces of religious art: the Crucifixion with the +patron saints of Florence, of the convent, and of the Medici, the +founders of the religious orders, the representatives of the zeal and +learning of the Dominicans, all gathered and united in contemplation +around the Cross of Christ. It was ordered by Cosimo dei Medici, and +painted about 1441. On our left are the Madonna, supported by the +Magdalene, the other Mary, and the beloved Disciple; the Baptist and +St. Mark, representing the city and the convent; St. Lawrence and St. +Cosmas (said by Vasari to be a portrait of Nanni di Banco, who died +twenty years before), and St. Damian. On our right, kneeling at the +foot of the Cross, is St. Dominic, a masterpiece of expression and +sentiment; behind him St. Augustine and St. Albert of Jerusalem +represent Augustinians and Carmelites; St. Jerome, St. Francis, St. +Bernard, St. John Gualbert kneel; St. Benedict and St. Romuald stand +behind them, while at the end are St. Peter Martyr and St. Thomas +Aquinas. All the male heads are admirably characterised and +discriminated, unlike Angelico's women, who are usually either merely +conventionally done or idealised into Angels. Round the picture is a +frieze of prophets, culminating in the mystical Pelican; below is the +great tree of the Dominican order, spreading out from St. Dominic +himself in the centre, with Popes Innocent V. and Benedict XI. on +either hand. The St. Antoninus was added later. Vasari tells us that, +in this tree, the brothers of the order assisted Angelico by obtaining +portraits of the various personages represented from different places; +and they may therefore be regarded as the real, or traditional, +likenesses of the great Dominicans. The same probably applies to the +wonderful figure of Aquinas in the picture itself. + +Beyond is a second and larger cloister, surrounded by very inferior +frescoes of the life of St. Dominic, full of old armorial bearings and +architectural fragments arranged rather incongruously. Some of the +lunettes over the cells contain frescoes of the school of Fra +Bartolommeo. The Academy of the Crusca is established here, in what +was once the dormitory of the Novices. Connected with this cloister +was the convent garden. "In the summer time," writes Simone Filipepi, +"in the evening after supper, the Father Fra Girolamo used to walk +with his friars in the garden, and he would make them all sit round +him with the Bible in his hand, and here he expounded to them some +fair passage of the Scriptures, sometimes questioning some novice or +other, as occasion arose. At these meetings there gathered also some +fifty or sixty learned laymen, for their edification. When, by reason +of rain or other cause, it was not possible in the garden, they went +into the _hospitium_ to do the same; and for an hour or two one seemed +verily to be in Paradise, such charity and devotion and simplicity +appeared in all. Blessed was he who could be there." Shortly before +the Ordeal of Fire, Fra Girolamo was walking in the garden with Fra +Placido Cinozzi, when an exceedingly beautiful boy of noble family +came to him with a ticket upon which was written his name, offering +himself to pass through the flames. And thinking that this might not +be sufficient, he fell upon his knees, begging the Friar that he might +be allowed to undergo the ordeal for him. "Rise up, my son," said +Savonarola, "for this thy good will is wondrously pleasing unto God"; +and, when the boy had gone, he turned to Fra Placido and said: "From +many persons have I had these applications, but from none have I +received so much joy as from this child, for which may God be +praised." + +To the left of the staircase to the upper floor, is the smaller +refectory with a fresco of the Last Supper by Domenico Ghirlandaio, +not by any means one of the painter's best works. + +On the top of the stairs we are initiated into the spirit of the place +by Angelico's most beautiful Annunciation, with its inscription, +_Virginis intacte cum veneris ante figuram, pretereundo cave ne +sileatur Ave_, "When thou shalt have come before the image of the +spotless Virgin, beware lest by negligence the Ave be silent." + +On the left of the stairway a double series of cells on either side of +the corridor leads us to Savonarola's room. At the head of the +corridor is one of those representations that Angelico repeated so +often, usually with modifications, of St. Dominic at the foot of the +Cross. Each of the cells has a painted lyric of the life of Christ and +His mother, from Angelico's hand; almost each scene with Dominican +witnesses and auditors introduced,--Dominic, Aquinas, Peter Martyr, as +the case may be. In these frescoes Angelico was undoubtedly assisted +by pupils, from whom a few of the less excellent scenes may come; +there is an interesting, but altogether untrustworthy tradition that +some were executed by his brother, Fra Benedetto da Mugello, who took +the Dominican habit simultaneously with him and was Prior of the +convent at Fiesole. Taking the cells on the left first, we see the +_Noli me tangere_ (1), the Entombment (2), the Annunciation (3), the +Crucifixion (4), the Nativity (5), the Transfiguration (6), a most +wonderful picture. Opposite the Transfiguration, on the right wall of +the corridor, is a Madonna and Saints, painted by the Friar somewhat +later than the frescoes in the cells (which, it should be observed, +appear to have been painted on the walls before the cells were +actually partitioned off)--St. John Evangelist and St. Mark, the three +great Dominicans and the patrons of the Medici. Then, on the left, the +following cells contain the Mocking of Christ (7), the Resurrection +with the Maries at the tomb (8), the Coronation of the Madonna (9), +one of the grandest of the whole series, with St. Dominic and St. +Francis kneeling below, and behind them St. Benedict and St. Thomas +Aquinas, St. Peter Martyr and St. Paul the Hermit. The Presentation in +the Temple (10), and the Madonna and Child with Aquinas and Augustine +(11), are inferior to the rest. + +The shorter passage now turns to the cells occupied by Fra Girolamo +Savonarola; one large cell leading into two smaller ones (12-14). In +the larger are placed three frescoes by Fra Bartolommeo; Christ and +the two disciples at Emmaus, formerly over the doorway of the +refectory, and two Madonnas--one from the Dominican convent in the +Mugnone being especially beautiful. Here are also modern busts of +Savonarola by Dupre and Benivieni by Bastianini. In the first inner +cell are Savonarola's portrait, apparently copied from a medal and +wrongly ascribed to Bartolommeo, his Crucifix and his relics, his +manuscripts and books of devotion, and, in another case, his hair +shirt and rosary, his beloved Dominican garb which he gave up on the +day of his martyrdom. In the inmost cell are the Cross which he is +said to have carried, and a copy of the old (but not contemporary) +picture of his death, of which the original is in the Corsini Palace. + +The seven small cells on the right (15-21) were assigned to the +Juniors, the younger friars who had just passed through the Noviciate. +Each contains a fresco by Angelico of St. Dominic at the foot of the +Cross, now scourging himself, now absorbed in contemplation, now +covering his face with his hands, but in no two cases identical. Into +one of these cells a divine apparition was said to have come to one of +these youths, after hearing Savonarola's "most fervent and most +wondrous discourse" upon the mystery of the Incarnation. The story is +told by Simone Filipepi:-- + +"On the night of the most Holy Nativity, to a young friar in the +convent, who had not yet sung Mass, had appeared visibly in his cell +on the little altar, whilst he was engaged in prayer, Our Lord in the +form of a little infant even as when He was born in the stable. And +when the hour came to go into the choir for matins, the said friar +commenced to debate in his mind whether he ought to go and leave here +the Holy Child, and deprive himself of such sweetness, or not. At last +he resolved to go and to bear It with him; so, having wrapped It up in +his arms and under his cowl as best he could, all trembling with joy +and with fear, he went down into the choir without telling anyone. +But, when it came to his turn to sing a lesson, whilst he approached +the reading-desk, the Infant vanished from his arms; and when the +friar was aware of this, he remained so overwhelmed and almost beside +himself that he commenced to wander through the choir, like one who +seeks a thing lost, so that it was necessary that another should read +that lesson." + +Passing back again down the corridor, we see in the cells two more +Crucifixions (22 and 23); the Baptism of Christ with Madonna as +witness (24), the Crucifixion (25); then, passing the great Madonna +fresco, the Mystery of the Passion (26), in one of those symbolical +representations which seem to have originated with the Camaldolese +painter, Don Lorenzo; Christ bound to the pillar, with St. Dominic +scourging himself and the Madonna appealing to us (27, perhaps by a +pupil); Christ bearing the Cross (28); two more Crucifixions (29 and +30), apparently not executed by Angelico himself. + +At the side of Angelico's Annunciation opposite the stairs, we enter +the cell of St. Antoninus (31). Here is one of Angelico's most +beautiful and characteristic frescoes, Christ's descent into Hades: +"the intense, fixed, statue-like silence of ineffable adoration upon +the spirits in prison at the feet of Christ, side by side, the hands +lifted and the knees bowed, and the lips trembling together," as +Ruskin describes it. Here, too, is the death mask of Antoninus, his +portrait perhaps drawn from the death mask by Bartolommeo, his +manuscripts and relics; also a tree of saintly Dominicans, Savonarola +being on the main trunk, the third from the root. + +The next cell on the right (32) has the Sermon on the Mount and the +Temptation in the Wilderness. In the following (33), also double, +besides the frescoed Kiss of Judas, are two minute pictures by Fra +Angelico, belonging to an earlier stage of his art than the frescoes, +intended for reliquaries and formerly in Santa Maria Novella. One of +them, the _Madonna della Stella_, is a very perfect and typical +example of the Friar's smaller works, in their "purity of colour +almost shadowless." The other, the Coronation of the Madonna, is less +excellent and has suffered from retouching. The Agony in the Garden +(in cell 34) contains a curious piece of mediaeval symbolism in the +presence of Mary and Martha, contemplation and action, the Mary being +here the Blessed Virgin. In the same cell is another of the +reliquaries from Santa Maria Novella, the Annunciation over the +Adoration of the Magi, with Madonna and Child, the Virgin Martyrs, the +Magdalene and St. Catherine of Siena below; the drawing is rather +faulty. In the following cells are the Last Supper (35), conceived +mystically as the institution of the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, +with the Madonna alone as witness; the Deposition from the Cross (36); +and the Crucifixion (37), in which Dominic stands with out-stretched +arms. + +Opposite on the right (38-39) is the great cell where Pope Eugenius +stayed on the occasion of the consecration of San Marco in 1442; here +Cosimo the Elder, Pater Patriae, spent long hours of his closing days, +in spiritual intercourse with St. Antoninus and after the latter's +death. In the outer compartment the Medicean saint, Cosmas, joins +Madonna and Peter Martyr at the foot of the Cross. Within are the +Adoration of the Magi and a Pieta, both from Angelico's hand, and the +former, one of his latest masterpieces, probably painted with +reference to the fact that the convent had been consecrated on the +Feast of the Epiphany. Here, too, is an old terracotta bust of +Antoninus, and a splendid but damaged picture of Cosimo himself by +Jacopo da Pontormo, incomparably finer than that artist's similarly +constructed work in the Uffizi. Between two smaller cells containing +Crucifixions, both apparently by Angelico himself (42-43--the former +with the Mary and Martha motive at the foot of the Cross), is the +great Greek Library, built by Michelozzo for Cosimo. Here Cosimo +deposited a portion of the manuscripts which had been collected by +Niccolo Niccoli, with additions of his own, and it became the first +public library in Italy. Its shelves are now empty and bare, but it +contains a fine collection of illuminated ritual books from suppressed +convents, several of which are, rather doubtfully, ascribed to +Angelico's brother, Fra Benedetto da Mugello. + +It was in this library that Savonarola exercised for the last time his +functions of Prior of San Marco, and surrendered to the commissioners +of the Signoria, on the night of Palm Sunday, 1498. What happened had +best be told in the words of the Padre Pacifico Burlamacchi of the +same convent, Savonarola's contemporary and follower. After several +fictitious summonses had come:-- + +"They returned at last with the decree of the Signoria in writing, but +with the open promise that Fra Girolamo should be restored safe and +sound, together with his companions. When he heard this, he told them +that he would obey. But first he retired with his friars into the +Greek Library, where he made them in Latin a most beautiful sermon, +exhorting them to follow onwards in the way of God with faith, prayer, +and patience; telling them that it was necessary to go to heaven by +the way of tribulations, and that therefore they ought not in any way +to be terrified; alleging many old examples of the ingratitude of the +city of Florence in return for the benefits received from their Order. +As that of St. Peter Martyr who, after doing so many marvellous things +in Florence, was slain, the Florentines paying the price of his blood. +And of St. Catherine of Siena, whom many had sought to kill, after she +had borne so many labours for them, going personally to Avignon to +plead their cause before the Pope. Nor had less happened to St. +Antoninus, their Archbishop and excellent Pastor, whom they had once +wished to throw from the windows. And that it was no marvel, if he +also, after such sorrows and labourings, was paid at the end in the +same coin. But that he was ready to receive everything with desire and +happiness for the love of his Lord, knowing that in nought else +consisted the Christian life, save in doing good and suffering evil. +And thus, while all the bye-standers wept, he finished his sermon. +Then, issuing forth from the library, he said to those laymen who +awaited him: 'I will say to you what Jeremiah said: This thing I +expected, but not so soon nor so suddenly.' He exhorted them further +to live well and to be fervent in prayer. And having confessed to the +Father Fra Domenico da Pescia, he took the Communion in the first +library. And the same did Fra Domenico. After eating a little, he was +somewhat refreshed; and he spoke the last words to his friars, +exhorting them to persevere in religion, and kissing them all, he took +his last departure from them. In the parting one of his children said +to him: 'Father, why dost thou abandon us and leave us so desolate?' +To which he replied: 'Son, have patience, God will help you'; and he +added that he would either see them again alive, or that after death +he would appear to them without fail. Also, as he departed, he gave up +the common keys to the brethren, with so great humility and charity, +that the friars could not keep themselves from tears; and many of them +wished by all means to go with him. At last, recommending himself to +their prayers, he made his way towards the door of the library, where +the first Commissioners all armed were awaiting him; to whom, giving +himself into their hands like a most meek lamb, he said: 'I recommend +to you this my flock and all these other citizens.' And when he was in +the corridor of the library, he said: 'My friars, doubt not, for God +will not fail to perfect His work; and although I be put to death, I +shall help you more than I have done in life, and I will return +without fail to console you, either dead or alive.' Arrived at the +holy water, which is at the exit of the choir, Fra Domenico said to +him: 'Fain would I too come to these nuptials.' Certain of the laymen, +his friends, were arrested at the command of the Signoria. When the +Father Fra Girolamo was in the first cloister, Fra Benedetto, the +miniaturist, strove ardently to go with him; and, when the officers +thrust him back, he still insisted that he would go. But the Father +Fra Girolamo turned to him, and said: 'Fra Benedetto, on your +obedience come not, for I and Fra Domenico have to die for the love of +Christ.' And thus he was torn away from the eyes of his children." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +_The Accademia delle Belle Arti--The Santissima Annunziata--And other +Buildings_ + + "In Firenze, piu che altrove, venivano gli uomini perfetti in tutte + l'arti, e specialmente nella pittura."--_Vasari._ + + +Turning southwards from the Piazza di San Marco into the Via Ricasoli, +we come to the _Accademia delle Belle Arti_, with its collection of +Tuscan and Umbrian pictures, mostly gathered from suppressed churches +and convents. + +In the central hall, the Tribune of the David, Michelangelo's gigantic +marble youth stands under the cupola, surrounded by casts of the +master's other works. The young hero has just caught sight of the +approaching enemy, and is all braced up for the immortal moment. +Commenced in 1501 and finished at the beginning of 1504, out of a +block of marble over which an earlier sculptor had bungled, it was +originally set up in front of the Palazzo Vecchio on the Ringhiera, as +though to defend the great Palace of the People. It is supposed to +have taken five days to move the statue from the Opera del Duomo, +where Michelangelo had chiselled it out, to the Palace. When the +simple-minded Gonfaloniere, Piero Soderini, saw it, he told the artist +that the nose appeared to him to be too large; whereupon Michelangelo +mounted a ladder, pretended to work upon it for a few moments, +dropping a little marble dust all the time, which he had taken up with +him, and then turned round for approval to the Gonfaloniere, who +assured him that he had now given the statue life. This _gigante di +Fiorenza_, as it was called, was considerably damaged during the third +expulsion of the Medici in 1527, but retained its proud position +before the Palace until 1873. + +On the right, as we approach the giant, is the _Sala del Beato +Angelico_, containing a lovely array of Fra Angelico's smaller +paintings. Were we to attempt to sum up Angelico's chief +characteristics in one word, that word would be _onesta_, in its early +mediaeval sense as Dante uses it in the _Vita Nuova_, signifying not +merely purity or chastity, as it came later to mean, but the outward +manifestation of spiritual beauty,--the _honestas_ of which Aquinas +speaks. A supreme expression of this may be found in the Paradise of +his Last Judgment (266), the mystical dance of saints and Angels in +the celestial garden that blossoms under the rays of the Sun of Divine +Love, and on all the faces of the blessed beneath the Queen of Mercy +on the Judge's right. The Hell is, naturally, almost a failure. In +many of the small scenes from the lives of Christ and His Mother, of +which there are several complete series here, some of the heads are +absolute miracles of expression; notice, for instance, the Judas +receiving the thirty pieces of silver, and all the faces in the +Betrayal (237), and, above all perhaps, the Peter in the Entry into +Jerusalem (252), on every line of whose face seems written: "Lord, why +can I not follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake." The +Deposition from the Cross (246), contemplated by St. Dominic, the +Beata Villana and St. Catherine of Alexandria, appears to be an +earlier work of Angelico's. Here, also, are three great Madonnas +painted by the Friar as altar pieces for convent churches; the Madonna +and Child surrounded by Angels and saints, while Cosmas and Damian, +the patrons of the Medici, kneel at her feet (281), was executed in +1438 for the high altar of San Marco, and, though now terribly +injured, was originally one of his best pictures; the Madonna and +Child, with two Angels and six saints, Peter Martyr, Cosmas and +Damian, Francis, Antony of Padua, and Louis of Toulouse (265), was +painted for the convent of the Osservanza near Mugello,--hence the +group of Franciscans on the left; the third (227), in which Cosmas and +Damian stand with St. Dominic on the right of the Madonna, and St. +Francis with Lawrence and John the Divine on her left, is an inferior +work from his hand. + +Also in this room are four delicious little panels by Lippo Lippi (264 +and 263), representing the Annunciation divided into two compartments, +St. Antony Abbot and the Baptist; two Monks of the Vallombrosa, by +Perugino (241, 242), almost worthy of Raphael; and two charming scenes +of mediaeval university life, the School of Albertus Magnus (231) and +the School of St. Thomas Aquinas (247). These two latter appear to be +by some pupil of Fra Angelico, and may possibly be very early works of +Benozzo Gozzoli. In the first, Albert is lecturing to an audience, +partly lay and partly clerical, amongst whom is St. Thomas, then a +youthful novice but already distinguished by the halo and the sun upon +his breast; in the second, Thomas himself is now holding the +professorial chair, surrounded by pupils listening or taking notes, +while Dominicans throng the cloisters behind. On his right sits the +King of France; below his seat the discomforted Averrhoes humbly +places himself on the lowest step, between the heretics--William of +St. Amour and Sabellius. + +From the left of the David's tribune, we turn into three rooms +containing masterpieces of the Quattrocento (with a few later works), +and appropriately named after Botticelli and Perugino. + +In the _Sala prima del Botticelli_ is Sandro's famous _Primavera_, the +Allegory of Spring or the Kingdom of Venus (80). Inspired in part by +Poliziano's _stanze_ in honour of Giuliano dei Medici and his Bella +Simonetta, Botticelli nevertheless has given to his strange--not +altogether decipherable--allegory, a vague mysterious poetry far +beyond anything that Messer Angelo could have suggested to him. +Through this weirdly coloured garden of the Queen of Love, in "the +light that never was on sea or land," blind Cupid darts upon his +little wings, shooting, apparently at random, a flame-tipped arrow +which will surely pierce the heart of the central maiden of those +three, who, in their thin clinging white raiment, personify the +Graces. The eyes of Simonetta--for it is clearly she--rest for a +moment in the dance upon the stalwart Hermes, an idealised Giuliano, +who has turned away carelessly from the scene. Flora, "pranked and +pied for birth," advances from our right, scattering flowers rapidly +as she approaches; while behind her a wanton Zephyr, borne on his +strong wings, breaks through the wood to clasp Fertility, from whose +mouth the flowers are starting. Venus herself, the mistress of nature, +for whom and by whom all these things are done, stands somewhat sadly +apart in the centre of the picture; this is only one more of the +numberless springs that have passed over her since she first rose from +the sea, and she is somewhat weary of it all:-- + + "Te, dea, te fugiunt venti, te nubila caeli + Adventumque tuum, tibi suavis daedala tellus + Summittit flores, tibi rident aequora ponti + Placatumque nitet diffuso lumine caelum."[47] + + [47] "Before thee, goddess, flee the winds, the clouds of heaven; + before thee and thy advent; for thee earth manifold in works puts + forth sweet-smelling flowers; for thee the levels of the sea do laugh + and heaven propitiated shines with outspread light" (Munro's + _Lucretius_). + +This was one of the pictures painted for Lorenzo the Magnificent. +Botticelli's other picture in this room, the large Coronation of the +Madonna (73) with its predella (74), was commissioned by the Arte di +Por Sta. Maria, the Guild of Silk-merchants, for an altar in San +Marco; the ring of festive Angels, encircling their King and Queen, is +in one of the master's most characteristic moods. On either side of +the Primavera are two early works by Lippo Lippi; Madonna adoring the +Divine Child in a rocky landscape, with the little St. John and an old +hermit (79), and the Nativity (82), with Angels and shepherds, Jerome, +Magdalene and Hilarion. Other important pictures in this room are +Andrea del Sarto's Four Saints (76), one of his latest works painted +for the monks of Vallombrosa in 1528; Andrea Verrocchio's Baptism of +Christ (71), in which the two Angels were possibly painted by +Verrocchio's great pupil, Leonardo, in his youth; Masaccio's Madonna +and Child watched over by St. Anne (70), an early and damaged work, +the only authentic easel picture of his in Florence. The three small +predella pictures (72), the Nativity, the martyrdom of Sts. Cosmas and +Damian, St. Anthony of Padua finding a stone in the place of the dead +miser's heart, by Francesco Pesellino, 1422-1457, the pupil of Lippo +Lippi, are fine examples of a painter who normally only worked on this +small scale and whose works are very rare indeed. Francesco Granacci, +who painted the Assumption (68), is chiefly interesting as having +been Michelangelo's friend and fellow pupil under Ghirlandaio. + +The _Sala del Perugino_ takes its name from three works of that master +which it contains; the great Vallombrosa Assumption (57), signed and +dated 1500, one of the painter's finest altar pieces, with a very +characteristic St. Michael--the Archangel who was by tradition the +genius of the Assumption, as Gabriel had been of the Annunciation; the +Deposition from the Cross (56); and the Agony in the Garden (53). But +the gem of the whole room is Lippo Lippi's Coronation of the Madonna +(62), one of the masterpieces of the early Florentine school, which he +commenced for the nuns of Sant' Ambrogio in 1441. The throngs of boys +and girls, bearing lilies and playing at being Angels, are altogether +delightful, and the two little orphans, that are being petted by the +pretty Florentine lady on our right, are characteristic of Fra +Filippo's never failing sympathy with child life. On the left two +admirably characterised monks are patronised by St. Ambrose, and in +the right corner the jolly Carmelite himself, under the wing of the +Baptist, is welcomed by a little Angel with the scroll, _Is perfecit +opus_. It will be observed that "poor brother Lippo" has dressed +himself with greater care for his celestial visit, than he announced +his intention of doing in Robert Browning's poem:-- + + "Well, all these + Secured at their devotion, up shall come + Out of a corner when you least expect, + As one by a dark stair into a great light, + Music and talking, who but Lippo! I!-- + Mazed, motionless and moon-struck--I'm the man! + Back I shrink--what is this I see and hear? + I, caught up with my monk's things by mistake, + My old serge gown and rope that goes all round, + I, in this presence, this pure company! + Where's a hole, where's a corner for escape? + Then steps a sweet angelic slip of a thing + Forward, puts out a soft palm--'Not so fast!' + Addresses the celestial presence, 'Nay-- + 'He made you and devised you, after all, + 'Though he's none of you! Could Saint John there draw-- + 'His camel-hair make up a painting-brush? + 'We come to brother Lippo for all that, + '_Iste perfecit opus!_'" + +Fra Filippo's Madonna and Child, with Sts. Cosmas and Damian, Francis +and Antony, painted for the Medicean chapel in Santa Croce (55), is an +earlier and less characteristic work. Over the door is St. Vincent +preaching, by Fra Bartolommeo (58), originally painted to go over the +entrance to the sacristy in San Marco--a striking representation of a +Dominican preacher of repentance and renovation, conceived in the +spirit of Savonarola, but terribly "restored." The Trinita (63) is one +of Mariotto Albertinelli's best works, but sadly damaged. The two +child Angels (61) by Andrea del Sarto, originally belonged to his +picture of the Four Saints, in the last room; the Crucifixion, with +the wonderful figure of the Magdalene at the foot of the Cross (65), +ascribed to Luca Signorelli, does not appear to be from the master's +own hand; Ghirlandaio's predella (67), with scenes from the lives of +Sts. Dionysius, Clement, Dominic, and Thomas Aquinas, belongs to a +great picture which we shall see presently. + +The _Sala seconda del Botticelli_ contains three pictures ascribed to +the master, but only one is authentic--the Madonna and Child enthroned +with six Saints, while Angels raise the curtain over her throne or +hold up emblems of the Passion (85); it is inscribed with Dante's +line-- + + "Vergine Madre, Figlia del tuo Figlio." + +The familiar Three Archangels (84), though attributed to Sandro, is +not even a work of his school. There is a charming little predella +picture by Fra Filippo (86), representing a miracle of San Frediano, +St. Michael announcing her death to the Blessed Virgin, and a friar +contemplating the mystery of the Blessed Trinity--pierced by the +"three arrows of the three stringed bow," to adopt Dante's phrase. The +Deposition from the Cross (98), was commenced by Filippino Lippi for +the Annunziata, and finished after his death in 1504 by Perugino, who +added the group of Maries with the Magdalene and the figure on our +right. The Vision of St. Bernard (97), by Fra Bartolommeo, is the +first picture that the Friar undertook on resuming his brush, after +Raphael's visit to Florence had stirred him up to new efforts; +commenced in 1506, it was left unfinished, and has been injured by +renovations. Here are two excellent paintings by Lorenzo di Credi (92 +and 94), the former, the Adoration of the Shepherds, being his very +best and most perfectly finished work. High up are two figures in +niches by Filippino Lippi, the Baptist and the Magdalene (93 and 89), +hardly pleasing. The Resurrection (90), by Raffaellino del Garbo, is +the only authentic work in Florence of a pupil of Filippino's, who +gave great promise which was never fulfilled. + +At the end of the hall are three Sale _dei Maestri Toscani_, from the +earliest Primitives down to the eighteenth century. Only a few need +concern us much. + +The first room contains the works of the earlier masters, from a +pseudo-Cimabue (102), to Luca Signorelli, whose Madonna and Child with +Archangels and Doctors (164), painted for a church in Cortona, has +suffered from restoration. There are four genuine, very tiny pictures +by Botticelli (157, 158, 161, 162). The Adoration of the Kings (165), +by Gentile da Fabriano, is one of the most delightful old pictures in +Florence; Gentile da Fabriano, an Umbrian master who, through Jacopo +Bellini, had a considerable influence upon the early Venetian school, +settled in Florence in 1422, and finished this picture in the +following year for Santa Trinita, near which he kept a much frequented +bottega. Michelangelo said that Gentile had a hand similar to his +name; and this picture, with its rich and varied poetry, is his +masterpiece. The man wearing a turban, seen full face behind the third +king, is the painter himself. Kugler remarks: "Fra Angelico and +Gentile are like two brothers, both highly gifted by nature, both full +of the most refined and amiable feelings; but the one became a monk, +the other a knight." The smaller pictures surrounding it are almost +equally charming in their way--especially, perhaps, the Flight into +Egypt in the predella. The Deposition from the Cross (166), by Fra +Angelico, also comes from Santa Trinita, for which it was finished in +1445; originally one of Angelico's masterpieces, it has been badly +repainted; the saints in the frame are extremely beautiful, especially +a most wonderful St. Michael at the top, on our left; the man standing +on the ladder, wearing a black hood, is the architect, Michelozzo, who +was the Friar's friend, and may be recognised in several of his +paintings. The lunettes in the three Gothic arches above Angelico's +picture, and which, perhaps, did not originally belong to it, are by +the Camaldolese Don Lorenzo, by whom are also the Annunciation with +four Saints (143), and the three predella scenes (144, 145, 146). + +Of the earlier pictures, the Madonna and Child adored by Angels (103) +is now believed to be the only authentic easel picture of Giotto's +that remains to us--though this is, possibly, an excess of scepticism. +Besides several works ascribed to Taddeo Gaddi and his son Agnolo, by +the former of whom are probably the small panels from Santa Croce, +formerly attributed to Giotto, we should notice the Pieta by Giovanni +da Milano (131); the Presentation in the Temple by Ambrogio Lorenzetti +(134), signed and dated 1342; and a large altarpiece ascribed to +Pietro Cavallini (157). The so-called Marriage of Boccaccio Adimari +with Lisa Ricasoli (147) is an odd picture of the social customs of +old Florence. + +In the second room are chiefly works by Fra Bartolommeo and Mariotto +Albertinelli. By the Frate, are the series of heads of Christ and +Saints (168), excepting the Baptist on the right; they are frescoes +taken from San Marco, excepting the Christ on the left, inscribed +"Orate pro pictore 1514," which is in oil on canvas. Also by him are +the two frescoes of Madonna and Child (171, 173), and the splendid +portrait of Savonarola in the character of St. Peter Martyr (172), the +great religious persecutor of the Middle Ages, to whom Fra Girolamo +had a special devotion. By Albertinelli, are the Madonna and Saints +(167), and the Annunciation (169), signed and dated 1510. This room +also contains several pictures by Fra Paolino da Pistoia and the +Dominican nun, Plautilla Nelli, two pious but insipid artists, who +inherited Fra Bartolommeo's drawings and tried to carry on his +traditions. On a stand in the middle of the room, is Domenico +Ghirlandaio's Adoration of the Shepherds (195), from Santa Trinita, a +splendid work with--as Vasari puts it--"certain heads of shepherds +which are held a divine thing." + +On the walls of the third room are later pictures of no importance or +significance. But in the middle of the room is another masterpiece by +Ghirlandaio (66); the Madonna and Child with two Angels, Thomas +Aquinas and Dionysius standing on either side of the throne, Dominic +and Clement kneeling. It is seldom, indeed, that this prosaic painter +succeeded in creating such a thinker as this Thomas, such a mystic as +this Dionysius; in the head of the latter we see indeed the image of +the man who, according to the pleasant mediaeval fable eternalised by +Dante, "in the flesh below, saw deepest into the Angelic nature and +its ministry." + + * * * * * + +In the Via Cavour, beyond San Marco, is the _Chiostro dello Scalzo_, a +cloister belonging to a brotherhood dedicated to St. John, which was +suppressed in the eighteenth century. Here are a series of frescoes +painted in grisaille by Andrea del Sarto and his partner, Francia +Bigio, representing scenes from the life of the Precursor, with +allegorical figures of the Virtues. The Baptism of Christ is the +earliest, and was painted by the two artists in collaboration, in 1509 +or 1510. After some work for the Servites, which we shall see +presently, Andrea returned to this cloister; and painted, from 1515 to +1517, the Justice, St. John preaching, St. John baptising the people, +and his imprisonment. Some of the figures in these frescoes show the +influence of Albert Duerer's engravings. Towards the end of 1518, +Andrea went off to France to work for King Francis I.; and, while he +was away, Francia Bigio painted St. John leaving his parents, and St. +John's first meeting with Christ. On Andrea's return, he set to work +here again and painted, at intervals from 1520 to 1526, Charity, Faith +and Hope, the dance of the daughter of Herodias, the decollation of +St. John, and the presentation of his head, the Angel appearing to +Zacharias, the Visitation, and, last of all, the Birth of the Baptist. +The Charity is Andrea's own wife, Lucrezia, who at this very time, if +Vasari's story is true, was persuading him to break his promise to the +French King and to squander the money which had been intrusted to him +for the purchase of works of art. + +The Via della Sapienza leads from San Marco into the _Piazza della +Santissima Annunziata_. In one of the houses on the left, now +incorporated into the Reale Istituto di Studi Superiori, Andrea del +Sarto and Francia Bigio lodged with other painters, before Andrea's +marriage; and here, usually under the presidency of the sculptor +Rustici, the "Compagnia del Paiuolo," an artists' club of twelve +members, met for feasting and disport.[48] + + [48] See _Andrea del Sarto_, by H. Guinness in the _Great Masters_ + series, and _G. F. Rustici_ in Vasari. + +This Piazza was a great place for processions in old Florence. Here +stand the church of the _Santissima Annunziata_ and the convent of the +Servites, while the Piazza itself is flanked to right and left by +arcades originally designed by Brunelleschi. The equestrian statue of +the Grand Duke Ferdinand I. was cast by Giovanni da Bologna out of +metal from captured Turkish guns. The arcade on the right, as we face +the church, with its charming medallions of babies in swaddling +clothes by Andrea della Robbia, is a part of the Spedale degli +Innocenti or Hospital for Foundlings, which was commenced from +Brunelleschi's designs in 1421, during the Gonfalonierate of Giovanni +dei Medici; the work, which was eloquently supported in the Council of +the People by Leonardo Bruni, was raised by the Silk-merchants Guild, +the Arte di Por Santa Maria. On its steps the Compagnacci murdered +their first victim in the attack on San Marco. There is a picturesque +court, designed by Brunelleschi, with an Annunciation by Andrea della +Robbia over the door of the chapel, and a small picture gallery, which +contains nothing of much importance, save a Holy Family with Saints by +Piero di Cosimo. In the chapel, or church of Santa Maria degli +Innocenti, there is a masterpiece by Domenico Ghirlandaio, painted in +1488, an Adoration of the Magi (the fourth head on the left is the +painter himself), in which the Massacre of the Innocents is seen in +the background, and two of these glorified infant martyrs, under the +protection of the two St. Johns, are kneeling most sweetly in front of +the Madonna and her Child, for whom they have died, joining in the +adoration of the kings and the _gloria_ of the angelic choir. + +The church of the Santissima Annunziata was founded in the thirteenth +century, but has been completely altered and modernised since at +different epochs. In summer mornings lilies and other flowers lie in +heaps in its portico and beneath Ghirlandaio's mosaic of the +Annunciation, to be offered at Madonna's shrine within. The entrance +court was built in the fifteenth century, at the expense of the elder +Piero dei Medici. The fresco to the left of the entrance, the Nativity +of Christ, is by Alessio Baldovinetti. Within the glass, to the left, +are six frescoes representing the life and miracles of the great +Servite, Filippo Benizzi; that of his receiving the habit of the order +is by Cosimo Rosselli (1476); the remaining five are early works by +Andrea del Sarto, painted in 1509 and 1510, for which he received a +mere trifle; in the midst of them is an indifferent seventeenth +century bust of their painter. The frescoes on the right, representing +the life of the Madonna, of whom this order claims to be the special +servants, are slightly later. The approach of the Magi and the +Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, the latter dated 1514, are among the +finest works of Andrea del Sarto; in the former he has introduced +himself and the sculptor Sansovino, and among the ladies in the latter +is his wife. Fifty years afterwards the painter Jacopo da Empoli was +copying this picture, when a very old lady, who was going into the +church to hear mass, stopped to look at his work, and then, pointing +to the portrait of Lucrezia, told him that it was herself. The +Sposalizio, by Francia Bigio, painted in 1513, was damaged by the +painter himself in a fit of passion at the meddling of the monks. The +Visitation, by Jacopo da Pontormo, painted in 1516, shows what +admirable work this artist could do in his youth, before he fell into +his mannered imitations of Michelangelo; the Assumption, painted +slightly later by another of Andrea's pupils, Rosso Fiorentino, is +less excellent. + +Inside the church itself, on the left, is the sanctuary of Our Lady of +the Annunciation, one of the most highly revered shrines in Tuscany; +it was constructed from the designs of Michelozzo at the cost of the +elder Piero dei Medici to enclose the miraculous picture of the +Annunciation, and lavishly decorated and adorned by the Medicean Grand +Dukes. After the Pazzi conspiracy, Piero's son Lorenzo had a waxen +image of himself suspended here in thanksgiving for his escape. Over +the altar there is usually a beautiful little head of the Saviour, by +Andrea del Sarto. The little oratory beyond, with the Madonna's +mystical emblems on its walls, was constructed in the seventeenth +century. + +In the second chapel from the shrine is a fresco by Andrea del +Castagno, which was discovered in the summer of 1899 under a copy of +Michelangelo's Last Judgment. It represents St. Jerome and two women +saints adoring the Blessed Trinity, and is characteristic of the _modo +terribile_ in which this painter conceived his subjects; the heads of +the Jerome and the older saint to our right are particularly powerful. +For the rest, the interior of this church is more gorgeous than +tasteful; and the other works which it contains, including the two +Peruginos, and some tolerable monuments, are third rate. The rotunda +of the choir was designed by Leo Battista Alberti and erected at the +cost of the Marquis of Mantua, whose descendant, San Luigi Gonzaga, +had a special devotion to the miraculous picture. + +From the north transept, the cloisters are entered. Here, over the +door, is the Madonna del Sacco, an exceedingly beautiful fresco by +Andrea del Sarto, painted in 1525. St. Joseph, leaning upon the sack +which gives the picture its name, is reading aloud the Prophecies to +the Mother and Child whom they concern. In this cloister--which was +built by Cronaca--is the monument of the French knight slain at +Campaldino in 1289 (_see_ chapter ii.), which should be contrasted +with the later monuments of condottieri in the Duomo. Here also is the +chapel of St. Luke, where the Academy of Artists, founded under Cosimo +I., used to meet. + +A good view of the exterior of the rotunda can be obtained from the +Via Gino Capponi. At the corner of this street and the Via del +Mandorlo is the house which Andrea del Sarto bought for himself and +his Lucrezia, after his return from France, and here he died in 1531, +"full of glory and of domestic sorrows." Lucrezia survived him for +nearly forty years, and died in 1570. Perhaps, if she had not made +herself so unpleasant to her husband's pupils and assistants, good +Giorgio Vasari--the youngest of them--might not have left us so dark a +picture of this beautiful Florentine. + +The rather picturesque bit of ruin in the Via degli Alfani, at the +corner of the Via del Castellaccio, is merely a part of an oratory in +connection with Santa Maria degli Angioli, which Brunelleschi +commenced for Filippo Scolari, but which was abandoned. _Santa Maria +degli Angioli_ itself, a suppressed Camaldolese house, was of old one +of the most important convents in Florence. The famous poet, Fra +Guittone d'Arezzo, of whom Dante speaks disparagingly in the +_Commedia_ and in the _De Vulgari Eloquentia_, was instrumental in its +foundation in 1293. It was sacked in 1378 during the rising of the +Ciompi. This convent in the earlier portion of the fifteenth century +was a centre of Hellenic studies and humanistic culture, under Father +Ambrogio Traversari, who died at the close of the Council of Florence. +In the cloister there is still a powerful fresco by Andrea del +Castagno representing Christ on the Cross, with Madonna and the +Magdalene, the Baptist, St. Benedict and St. Romuald. The Romuald +especially, the founder of the order, is a fine life-like figure. + +The _Spedale di Santa Maria Nuova_ was originally founded by Messer +Folco Portinari, the father of the girl who may have been Dante's +"Giver of Blessing," in 1287. Folco died in 1289, and is buried within +the church, which contains one of Andrea della Robbia's Madonnas. Over +the portal is a terracotta Coronation of the Madonna by Bicci di +Lorenzo, erected in 1424. The two frescoes, representing scenes in the +history of the hospital, are of the early part of the fifteenth +century; the one on the right was painted in 1424 by Bicci di Lorenzo. +In the Via Bufalini, Ghiberti had his workshop; in what was once his +house is now the picture gallery of the hospital. Here is the fresco +of the Last Judgment, commenced by Fra Bartolommeo in 1499, before he +abandoned the world, and finished by Mariotto Albertinelli. Among its +contents are an Annunciation by Albertinelli, Madonnas by Cosimo +Rosselli and Rosso Fiorentino, and a terracotta Madonna by +Verrocchio. The two pictures ascribed to Angelico and Botticelli are +not authentic. But in some respects more interesting than these +Florentine works is the triptych by the Fleming, Hugo Van der Goes, +painted between 1470 and 1475 for Tommaso Portinari, Messer Folco's +descendant; in the centre is the "Adoration of the Shepherds," with +deliciously quaint little Angels; in the side wings, Tommaso Portinari +with his two boys, his wife and their little girl, are guarded by +their patron saints. Tommaso Portinari was agent for the Medici in +Bruges; and, on the occasion of the wedding of Charles the Bold of +Burgundy with Margaret of York in 1468, he made a fine show riding in +the procession at the head of the Florentines. + + [Illustration: THE CLOISTER OF THE INNOCENTI] + +A little more to the east are the church and suppressed convent of +Santa Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi. In the church, which has a fine court +designed by Giuliano da San Gallo, is a Coronation of the Madonna by +Cosimo Rosselli; in the chapter-house of the convent is a Crucifixion +by Perugino, painted in the closing years of the Quattrocento, perhaps +the grandest of all his frescoes. In Ruskin's chapter on the +_Superhuman Ideal_, in the second volume of _Modern Painters_, he +cites the background of this fresco (together with Benozzo Gozzoli's +in the Palazzo Riccardi) as one of the most perfect examples of those +ideal landscapes of the religious painters, in which Perugino is +supreme: "In the landscape of the fresco in Sta. Maria Maddalena at +Florence there is more variety than is usual with him: a gentle river +winds round the bases of rocky hills, a river like our own Wye or Tees +in their loveliest reaches; level meadows stretch away on its opposite +side; mounds set with slender-stemmed foliage occupy the nearer +ground, and a small village with its simple spire peeps from the +forest at the bend of the valley." + +Beyond is the church of Sant' Ambrogio, once belonging to the convent +of Benedictine nuns for whom Fra Lippo Lippi painted his great +Coronation of Madonna. The church is hardly interesting at present, +but contains an Assumption by Cosimo Rosselli, and, in the chapel of +the Blessed Sacrament, a marble tabernacle by Mino da Fiesole and a +fresco by Cosimo Rosselli painted in 1486, representing the legend of +a miraculous chalice with some fine Florentine portrait heads, +altogether above the usual level of Cosimo's work. + +The Borgo la Croce leads hence to the Porta alla Croce, in the very +prosaic and modern Piazza Beccaria. This Porta alla Croce, the eastern +gate of Florence in the third walls, was commenced by Arnolfo di +Cambio in 1284; the frescoed Madonna in the lunette is by one of the +later followers of Ghirlandaio. Through this gate, on October 6th +1308, Corso Donati fled from Florence, after his desperate attempt to +hold the Piazza di San Piero Maggiore against the forces of the +Signoria. Following the Via Aretina towards Rovezzano, we soon reach +the remains of the Badia di San Salvi, where he was slain by his +captors--as Dante makes his brother Forese darkly prophesy in the +twenty-fourth canto of the _Purgatorio_. Four year later, in October +1312, the Emperor Henry VII. lay sick in the Abbey, while his army +ineffectually besieged Florence. Nothing remains to remind us of that +epoch, although the district is still called the Campo di Marte or +Campo di Arrigo. We know from Leonardo Bruni that Dante, although he +had urged the Emperor on to attack the city, did not join the imperial +army like many of his fellow exiles had done: "so much reverence did +he yet retain for his fatherland." In the old refectory of the Abbey +is Andrea del Sarto's Last Supper, one of his most admirable frescoes, +painted between 1525 and 1527, equally excellent in colour and design. +"I know not," writes Vasari, "what to say of this _Cenacolo_ that +would not be too little, seeing it to be such that all who behold it +are struck with astonishment." When the siege was expected in 1529, +and the defenders of the city were destroying everything in the +suburbs which could give aid or cover to the enemy, a party of them +broke down a wall in the convent and found themselves face to face +with this picture. Lost in admiration, they built up a portion of what +they had destroyed, in order that this last triumph of Florentine +painting might be secure from the hand of war. + + * * * * * + +On this side of the river, those walls of Florence which Lapo Gianni +would fain have seen _inargentate_--the third circle reared by Arnolfo +and his successors--have been almost entirely destroyed, and their +site marked by the broad utterly prosaic Viali. Besides the Porta alla +Croce, the Porta San Gallo and the Porta al Prato still stand, on the +north and west respectively. The Porta San Gallo was begun from +Arnolfo's design in 1284, but not finished until 1327; the fresco in +the lunette is by Michele di Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, Ridolfo's adopted +son. On July 21, 1304, the exiled Bianchi and Ghibellines made a +desperate attempt to surprise Florence through this gate, led by the +heroic young Baschiera della Tosa. In 1494, Piero dei Medici and his +brother Giuliano fled from the people through it; and in 1738 the +first Austrian Grand Duke, Francis II., entered by it. The triumphant +arch beyond, at which the lions of the Republic, to right and left of +the gate, appear to gaze with little favour, marked this latter +event. + +These Austrian Grand Dukes were decidedly better rulers than the +Medici, to whom, by an imperial usurpation, they succeeded on the +death of Gian Gastone. Leopold I., Ferdinand III., Leopold II., were +tolerant and liberal-minded sovereigns, and under them Tuscany became +the most prosperous state in Italy: "a Garden of Paradise without the +tree of knowledge and without the tree of life." But, when the +Risorgimento came, their sway was found incompatible with the +aspirations of the Italians towards national unification; the last +Grand Duke, after wavering between Austria and young Italy, threw in +his lot with the former, and after having brought the Austrians into +Tuscany, was forced to abdicate. Thus Florence became the first +capital of Victor Emmanuel's kingdom. + +In the Via di San Gallo is the very graceful Palazzo Pandolfini, +commenced in 1520 from Raphael's designs, on the left as we move +inwards from the gate. From the Via 27 Aprile, which joins the Via di +San Gallo, we enter the former convent of Sta. Appollonia. In what was +once its refectory is a fresco of the Last Supper by Andrea del +Castagno, with the Crucifixion, Entombment, and Resurrection. Andrea +del Castagno impressed his contemporaries by his furious passions and +savage intractability of temper, his quality of _terribilita_; +although we now know that Vasari's story that Andrea obtained the +secret of using oil as a vehicle in painting from his friend, Domenico +Veneziano, and then murdered him, must be a mere fable, since Domenico +survived Andrea by nearly five years. Rugged unadorned strength, with +considerable power of characterisation and great technical dexterity, +mark his extant works, which are very few in number. This _Cenacolo_ +in the finest of them all; the figures are full of life and +character, although the Saviour is unpleasing and the Judas inclines +to caricature. The nine figures from the Villa Pandolfini, frescoes +transferred to canvas, are also his; Filippo Scolari, known as Pippo +Spano (a Florentine connected with the Buondelmonti, but Ghibelline, +who became Count of Temesvar and a great Hungarian captain), Farinata +degli Uberti, Niccolo Acciaiuoli (a Florentine who became Grand +Seneschal of the kingdom of Naples and founded the Certosa), the +Cumaean Sibyl, Esther, Queen Tomyris, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. +The two poets and Boccaccio are the least successful, since they were +altogether out of Andrea's line, but there must have been something +noble in the man to enable him so to realise Farinata degli Uberti, as +he stood alone at Empoli when all others agreed to destroy Florence, +to defend her to the last: _Colui che la difese a viso aperto._ + +A _Cenacolo_ of a very different character may be seen in the +refectory of the suppressed convent of Sant' Onofrio in the Via di +Faenza. Though showing Florentine influence in its composition, this +fresco is mainly Umbrian in character; from a half deciphered +inscription on the robe of one of the Apostles (which appears to have +been altered), it was once attempted to ascribe it to Raphael. It is +now believed to be partly the work of Perugino, partly that of some +pupil or pupils of his--perhaps Gerino da Pistoia or Giannicola Manni. +It has also been ascribed to Giovanni Lo Spagna and to Raffaellino del +Garbo. Morelli supposed it to be the work of a pupil of Perugino who +was inspired by a Florentine engraving of the fifteenth century, and +suggested Giannicola Manni. In the same street is the picturesque +little Gothic church of San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini. + + [Illustration: A FLORENTINE SUBURB] + +At the end of the Via Faenza--where once stood one of Arnolfo's +gates--we are out again upon the Viale, here named after Filippo +Strozzi. Opposite rises what was the great Medicean citadel, the +Fortezza da Basso, built by Alessandro dei Medici to overawe the city. +Michelangelo steadfastly refused, at the risk of his life, to have +anything to do with it. Filippo Strozzi is said to have aided +Alessandro in carrying out this design, and even to have urged it upon +him, although he was warned that he was digging his own grave. After +the unsuccessful attempt of the exiles to overthrow the +newly-established government of Duke Cosimo, while Baccio Valori and +the other prisoners were sent to be beheaded or hanged in the +Bargello, Filippo Strozzi was imprisoned here and cruelly tortured, in +spite of the devoted attempts of his children to obtain his release. +Here at length, in 1538, he was found dead in his cell. He was said to +have left a paper declaring that, lest he should be more terribly +tortured and forced to say things to prejudice his own honour and +inculpate innocent persons, he had resolved to take his own life, and +that he commended his soul to God, humbly praying Him, if He would +grant it no other good, at least to give it a place with that of Cato +of Utica. It is not improbable that the paper was a fabrication, and +that Filippo had been murdered by orders of the Duke. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +_The Bridges--The Quarter of Santa Maria Novella_ + + "Sopra il bel fiume d'Arno alla gran villa." + --_Dante._ + + +Outside the portico of the Uffizi four Florentine heroes--Farinata +degli Uberti, Piero Capponi, Giovanni delle Bande Nere, Francesco +Ferrucci--from their marble niches keep watch and ward over the river. +This Arno, which Lapo Gianni dreamed of as _balsamo fino_, is spanned +by four ancient and famous bridges, and bordered on both banks by the +Lungarno. + +To the east is the Ponte Rubaconte--so called after the Milanese +Podesta, during whose term of office it was made--or Ponte alle +Grazie, built in 1237; it is mentioned by Dante in Canto xii. of the +_Purgatorio_, and is the only existing Florentine bridge which could +have actually felt the footsteps of the man who was afterwards to +tread scathless through the ways of Hell, "unbitten by its whirring +sulphur-spume." It has, however, been completely altered at various +periods. On this bridge a solemn reconciliation was effected between +Guelfs and Ghibellines on July 2, 1273, by Pope Gregory X. The Pope in +state, between Charles of Anjou and the Emperor Baldwin of +Constantinople, blessed his "reconciled" people from the bridge, and +afterwards laid the first stone of a church called San Gregorio della +Pace in the Piazza dei Mozzi, now destroyed. As soon as the Pope's +back was turned, Charles contrived that his work should be undone, and +the Ghibellines hounded again out of the city.[49] + + [49] Opposite the bridge, at the beginning of the Via dei Benci, is + the palace of the old Alberti family; the remains of their loggia + stand further up the street, at the corner of the Borgo Santa Croce. + In all these streets, between the Lungarno della Borsa and the Borgo + dei Greci, there are many old houses and palaces; in the Piazza dei + Peruzzi the houses, formerly of that family and partly built in the + fourteenth century, follow the lines of the Roman amphitheatre--the + _Parlascio_ of the early Middle Ages. The Palazzo dei Giudici--in the + piazza of that name--was originally built in the thirteenth century, + though reconstructed at a later epoch. + +Below the Ponte alle Grazie comes the Ponte Vecchio, the Bridge _par +excellence_; _il ponte_, or _il passo d'Arno_, as Dante calls it. More +than a mere bridge over a river, this Ponte Vecchio is a link in the +chain binding Florence to the Eternal City. A Roman bridge stood here +of old, and a Roman road may be said to have run across it; it heard +the tramp of Roman legionaries, and shook beneath the horses of +Totila's Gothic chivalry. This Roman bridge possibly lasted down to +the great inundation of 1333. The present structure, erected by Taddeo +Gaddi after 1360, with its exquisite framed pictures of the river and +city in the centre, is one of the most characteristic bits of old +Florence still remaining. The shops of goldsmiths and jewellers were +originally established here in the days of Cosimo I., for whom Giorgio +Vasari built the gallery that runs above to connect the two Grand +Ducal Palaces. Connecting the Porta Romana with the heart of the city, +the bridge has witnessed most of the great pageants and processions in +Florentine history. Popes and Emperors have crossed it in state; +Florentine generals, or hireling condottieri, at the head of their +victorious troops; the Piagnoni, bearing the miraculous Madonna of the +Impruneta to save the city from famine and pestilence; and +Savonarola's new Cyrus, Charles VIII., as conqueror, with lance +levelled. Across it, in 1515, was Pope Leo X. borne in his litter, +blessing the people to right and left, amidst the exultant cries of +_Palle, Palle!_ from the crowd, who had forgotten for the time all the +crimes of his house in their delight at seeing their countryman, the +son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, raised to the papal throne. + +In Dante's day, what remained of the famous statue supposed of Mars, +_quella pietra scema che guarda il ponte_, "that mutilated stone which +guardeth the bridge," still stood here at the corner, probably at the +beginning of the present Lungarno Acciaiuoli. "I was of that city that +changed its first patron for the Baptist," says an unknown suicide in +the seventh circle of Hell, probably one of the Mozzi: "on which +account he with his art will ever make it sorrowful. And were it not +that at the passage of the Arno there yet remains some semblance of +him, those citizens, who afterwards rebuilt it on the ashes left by +Attila, would have laboured in vain." Here, as we saw in chapter i., +young Buondelmonte was murdered in 1215, a sacrifice to Mars in the +city's "last time of peace," _nella sua pace postrema_. + + [Illustration: THE PONTE VECCHIO] + +Lower down comes the Ponte Santa Trinita, originally built in 1252; +and still lower the Ponte alla Carraia, built between 1218 and 1220 in +the days of Frederick II., for the sake of the growing commerce of the +Borgo Ognissanti. This latter bridge was originally called the Ponte +Nuovo, as at that time the only other bridge over the Arno was the +Ponte Vecchio. It was here that a terrible disaster took place on +May 1st, 1304--a strange piece of grim mediaeval jesting by the irony +of fate turned to still grimmer earnest. After a cruel period of +disasters and faction fights, there had come a momentary gleam of +peace, and it was determined to renew the pageants and festivities +that had been held in better days on May-day, "in the good time +passed, of the tranquil and good state of Florence," each contrada +trying to rival the other. What followed had best be told in the words +of Giovanni Villani, an eye-witness:-- + +"Amongst the others, the folk of the Borgo San Frediano, who had been +wont of yore to devise the newest and most diverse pastimes, sent out +a proclamation, that those who wished to know news of the other world +should be upon the Ponte alla Carraia and around the Arno on the day +of the calends of May. And they arranged scaffolds on the Arno upon +boats and ships, and made thereon the likeness and figure of Hell with +fires and other pains and torments, with men arrayed like demons, +horrible to behold, and others who bore the semblance of naked souls, +that seemed real persons; and they hurled them into those divers +torments with loud cries and shrieks and uproar, the which seemed +hateful and appalling to hear and to behold. Many were the citizens +that gathered here to witness this new sport; and the Ponte alla +Carraia, the which was then of wood from pile to pile, was so laden +with folk that it broke down in several places, and fell with the +people who were upon it, whereby many persons died there and were +drowned, and many were grieviously injured; so that the game was +changed from jest to earnest, and, as the proclamation had run, so +indeed did many depart in death to hear news of the other world, with +great mourning and lamentation to all the city, for each one thought +that he had lost son or brother." + +The famous inundation of November 1333 swept away all the bridges, +excepting the Ponte Rubaconte. The present Ponte Santa Trinita and +Ponte alla Carraia were erected for Duke Cosimo I. by Bartolommeo +Ammanati, shortly after the middle of the sixteenth century. + +Turning from the river at the Ponte Vecchio by the Via Por Sta. Maria, +we see on the right the old church of San Stefano, with a completely +modernised interior. Here in 1426 Rinaldo degli Albizzi and Niccolo da +Uzzano held a meeting of some seventy citizens, and Rinaldo proposed +to check the growing power of the populace by admitting the magnates +into the government and reducing the number of Arti Minori. Their plan +failed through the opposition of Giovanni dei Medici, who acquired +much popularity thereby. It should be remembered that it was not here, +as usually stated, but in the Badia, which was also dedicated to St. +Stephen, that Boccaccio lectured on Dante. + +Right and left two very old streets diverge, the Via Lambertesca and +the Borgo Santissimi Apostoli, with splendid mediaeval towers. In the +former, at the angle of the Via di Por Santa Maria, are the towers of +the Girolami and Gherardini, round which there was fierce fighting in +the expulsion of the Ghibellines in 1266. Opposite, at the opening of +the Borgo Santissimi Apostoli, are the towers of the Baldovinetti (the +tower of San Zenobio) and of the Amidei--_la casa di che nacque il +vostro fleto_, as Cacciaguida puts it to Dante: "the house from which +your wailing sprang," whose feud with the Buondelmonti was supposed to +have originated the Guelf and Ghibelline factions in Florence. And +further down the Borgo Santissimi Apostoli, at the opening of the +Chiasso delle Misure, is the tall and stately tower of these +Buondelmonti themselves, who also had a palace on the opposite side of +the street. + +The old church of the Santissimi Apostoli, in the Piazza del Limbo, +has an inscription on its facade stating that it was founded by +Charlemagne, and consecrated by Archbishop Turpin, with Roland and +Oliver as witnesses. It appears to have been built in the eleventh +century, and is the oldest church on this side of the Arno, with the +exception of the Baptistery. Its interior, which is well preserved, is +said to have been taken by Filippo Brunelleschi as the model for San +Lorenzo and Santo Spirito. In it is a beautiful Ciborium by Andrea +della Robbia, with monuments of some of the Altoviti family. + + [Illustration: THE TOWER OF S. ZANOBI] + +The Piazza Santa Trinita was a great place for social and other +gatherings in mediaeval and renaissance Florence. Here on the first of +May 1300, a dance of girls was being held to greet the calends of May +in the old Florentine fashion, when a band of mounted youths of the +Donati, Pazzi and Spini came to blows with a rival company of the +Cerchi and their allies; and thus the first blood was shed in the +disastrous struggle between the Bianchi and Neri. A few days later a +similar faction fight took place on the other side of the bridge, in +the Piazza Frescobaldi, on the occasion of a lady's funeral. The +great Palazzo Spini, opposite the church, was built at the end of the +thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century by Geri Spini, the +rich papal banker and one of the leaders of the "black" faction. Here +he received the Pope's ambassadors and made a great display of his +wealth and magnificence, as we gather from Boccaccio's _Decameron_, +which gives us an amusing story of his friendship with Cisti the +baker, and another of the witty repartees of Madonna Oretta, Geri's +wife, a lady of the Malaspina. When Charles of Valois entered Florence +in November 1301, Messer Geri entertained a portion of the French +barons here, while the Prince himself took up his quarters with the +Frescobaldi over the river; during that tumultuous period of +Florentine history that followed the expulsion of the Bianchi, Geri +was one of the most prominent politicians in the State. + +Savonarola's processions of friars and children used to pass through +this piazza and over the bridge, returning by way of the Ponte +Vecchio. On the Feast of Corpus Christi, 1497, as the Blessed +Sacrament was being borne along, with many children carrying red +crosses, they were set upon by some of the Compagnacci. The story is +quaintly told by Landucci: "As the said procession was passing over +the Bridge of Santa Trinita, certain youths were standing to see it +pass, by the side of a little church which is on the bridge on the +right hand going towards Santo Spirito. Seeing those children with the +crosses, they said: 'Here are the children of Fra Girolamo.' And one +of them coming up to them, took one of these crosses and, snatching it +out of the hand of that child, broke it and threw it into the Arno, as +though he had been an infidel; and all this he did for hatred of the +Friar." + +The column in the Piazza--taken from the Baths of Caracalla at +Rome--was set here by Duke Cosimo I., to celebrate his victory over +the heroic Piero Strozzi, _il maravigliosissimo bravo Piero Strozzi_ +as Benvenuto Cellini calls him, in 1563. The porphyry statue of +Justice was set high up on this pedestal by the most unjust of all +rulers of Florence, the Grand Duke Francesco I., Cosimo's son. This +same piazza witnessed a not over friendly meeting of Leonardo da Vinci +and Michelangelo. Leonardo, at the time that he was engaged upon his +cartoon for the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, was walking in the square, +dressed in his usual sumptuous fashion, with a rose coloured tunic +reaching down to his knees; when a group of citizens, who were +discussing Dante, called him and asked him the meaning of a passage in +question. At that moment Michelangelo passed by, and Leonardo +courteously referred them to him. "Explain it yourself," said the +great sculptor, "you, who made the model of a horse to cast in bronze, +and could not cast it, and to your shame left it in the lurch."[50] +And he abruptly turned his back on the group, leaving Leonardo red +with either shame or anger. + + [50] See Addington Symonds' _Michelangelo_. The horse in question was + the equestrian monument of Francesco Sforza. + +The church of Santa Trinita was originally built in the Gothic style +by Niccolo Pisano, shortly after 1250, in the days of the Primo Popolo +and contemporaneously with the Palazzo del Podesta. It was largely +altered by Buontalenti in the last part of the sixteenth century, and +has been recently completely restored. It is a fine example of Italian +Gothic. In the interior, are a Mary Magdalene by Desiderio da +Settignano and a marble altar by Benedetto da Rovezzano; and also, in +one of the chapels of the right aisle, an Annunciation by Don +Lorenzo, one of his best works, with some frescoes, partly obliterated +and much "restored," by the same good Camaldolese monk. + +But the great attraction of this church is the Sassetti Chapel next to +the sacristy, which contains a splendid series of frescoes painted in +1485 by Domenico Ghirlandaio. The altar piece is only a copy of the +original, now in the Accademia. The frescoes represent scenes from the +life of St. Francis, and should be compared with Giotto's simpler +handling of the same theme in the Bardi Chapel at Santa Croce. We have +the Saint renouncing the world, the confirmation of his rule by +Honorius, his preaching to the Soldan, his reception of the Stigmata, +his death and funeral (in which the life-like spectacled bishop +aroused Vasari's enthusiastic admiration), and the raising to life of +a child of the Sassetti family by an apparition of St. Francis in the +Piazza outside the church. The last is especially interesting as +giving us a picture of the Piazza in its former state, such as it +might have been in the Mayday faction fight, with the Spini Palace, +the older bridge, and the houses of the Frescobaldi beyond the river. +Each fresco is full of interesting portraits; among the spectators in +the consistory is Lorenzo the Magnificent; Ghirlandaio himself appears +in the death scene; and, perhaps, most interesting of all, if Vasari's +identification can be trusted, are the three who stand on the right +near the church in the scene of the resuscitation of the child. These +three are said to be Maso degli Albizzi, the founder of the party of +the Ottimati, those _nobili popolani_ who held the State before they +were eclipsed by the Medici; Agnolo Acciaiuoli, who was ruined by +adhering to Luca Pitti against Piero dei Medici; and that noblest of +all the Medicean victims, Palla Strozzi (_see_ chapter iii.). It +should, however, be remembered that Maso degli Albizzi had died +nearly seventy years before, and that not even Palla Strozzi can be +regarded as a contemporary portrait. The sacristy of this church was +founded by the Strozzi, and one of the house, Onofrio, lies buried +within it. Extremely fine, too, are the portraits of Francesco +Sassetti himself and his wife, kneeling below near the altar, also by +Ghirlandaio, who likewise painted the sibyls on the ceiling and the +fresco representing the sibyl prophesying of the Incarnation to +Augustus, over the entrance to the chapel. The sepulchral monuments of +Francesco and his wife are by Giuliano da San Gallo. + +The famous Crucifix of San Miniato, which bowed its head to San +Giovanni Gualberto when he spared the murderer of his brother, was +transferred to Santa Trinita in 1671 with great pomp and ceremony, and +is still preserved here. + +In June 1301 a council was held in the church by the leaders of the +Neri, nominally to bring about a concord with the rival faction, in +reality to entrap the Cerchi and pave the way for their expulsion by +foreign aid. Among the Bianchi present was the chronicler, Dino +Compagni; "desirous of unity and peace among citizens," and, before +the council broke up, he made a strong appeal to the more factious +members. "Signors," he said, "why would you confound and undo so good +a city? Against whom would you fight? Against your own brothers? What +victory shall ye have? Nought else but lamentation." The Neri answered +that the object of their council was merely to stop scandal and +establish peace; but it soon became known that there was a conspiracy +between them and the Conte Simone da Battifolle of the Casentino, who +was sending his son with a strong force towards Florence. Simone dei +Bardi (who had been the husband of Beatrice Portinari) appears to +have been the connecting link of the conspiracy, which the prompt +action of the Signoria checked for the present. The evil day, however, +was postponed, not averted. + +Following the Via di Parione we reach the back of the Palazzo +Corsini--a large seventeenth century palace whose front is on the +Lungarno. Here is a large picture gallery, in which a good many of the +pictures are erroneously ascribed, but which contains a few more +important works. The two gems of the collection are Botticelli's +portrait of a Goldsmith (210), formerly ascribed to one of the +Pollaiuoli; and Luca Signorelli's tondo (157), of Madonna and Child +with St. Jerome and St. Bernard. A Madonna and Child with Angels and +the Baptist (162) by Filippino Lippi, or ascribed to him, is a +charming and poetical picture; but is not admitted by Mr Berenson into +his list of genuine works by this painter. The supposed cartoon for +Raphael's Julius II. is of very doubtful authenticity. The picture of +the martyrdom of Savonarola (292) is interesting and valuable as +affording a view of the Piazza at that epoch, but cannot be regarded +as an accurate historical representation of the event. That +seventeenth century reincarnation of Lorenzo di Credi, Carlo Dolci, is +represented here by several pictures which are above his usual level; +for instance, Poetry (179) is a really beautiful thing of its kind. +Among the other pictures is a little Apollo and Daphne (241), probably +an early work of Andrea del Sarto. The Raffaellino di Carlo who +painted the Madonna and Saints (200), is not to be confused with +Filippino's pupil, Raffaellino del Garbo. + +In the Via Tornabuoni, the continuation of the Piazza Santa Trinita, +stands the finest of all Florentine palaces of the Renaissance, the +Palazzo Strozzi. It was begun in 1489 for the elder Filippo Strozzi, +with the advice and encouragement of Lorenzo the Magnificent, by +Benedetto da Maiano, and continued by Simone del Pollaiuolo (called +"Cronaca" from his yarning propensities), to whom the cornice and +court are due. It was finished for the younger Filippo Strozzi, the +husband of Clarice dei Medici, shortly before his fall, in the days of +Duke Alessandro. The works in iron on the exterior--lanterns, +torch-holders and the like, especially a wonderful _fanale_ at the +corner--are by Niccolo Grosso (called "Caparra" from his habit of +demanding payment in advance), and the finest things of their kind +imaginable. Filippo Strozzi played a curiously inconstant part in the +history of the closing days of the Republic. After having been the +most intimate associate of his brother-in-law, the younger Lorenzo, he +was instrumental first in the expulsion of Ippolito and Alessandro, +then in the establishment of Alessandro's tyranny; and finally, +finding himself cast by the irony of fate for the part of the last +Republican hero, he took the field against Duke Cosimo, only to find a +miserable end in a dungeon. One of his daughters, Luisa Capponi, was +believed to have been poisoned by order of Alessandro; his son, Piero, +became the bravest Italian captain of the sixteenth century and +carried on a heroic contest with Cosimo's mercenary troops. + + [Illustration: ARMS OF THE STROZZI] + +Down the Via della Vigna Nuova is another of these Renaissance +palaces, built for a similar noble family associated with the +Medici,--the Palazzo Rucellai. Bernardo Rucellai--who was not +originally of noble origin, but whose family had acquired what in +Florence was the real title to nobility, vast wealth in +commerce--married Nannina, the younger sister of Lorenzo the +Magnificent, and had this palace begun for him in 1460 by Bernardo +Rossellino from the design of Leo Battista Alberti,--to whom also the +Rucellai loggia opposite is due. More of Alberti's work for the +Rucellai may be seen at the back of the palace, in the Via della +Spada, where in the former church of San Pancrazio (which gave its +name to a _sesto_ in old Florence) is the chapel which he built for +Bernardo Rucellai in imitation of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. + +The Via delle Belle Donne--most poetically named of Florentine +streets--leads hence into the Piazza di Santa Maria Novella. On the +way, where five roads meet, is the Croce al Trebbio, with symbols of +the four Evangelists below the Crucifix. It marks the site of one of +St Peter Martyr's fiercest triumphs over the Paterini, one of those +"marvellous works" for which Savonarola, in his last address to his +friars, complains that the Florentines had been so ungrateful towards +his Order. But the story of the Dominicans of Santa Maria Novella is +not one of persecution, but of peace-making. They played at times as +noble a part in mediaeval Florence as their brethren of San Marco were +to do in the early Renaissance; and later, during the great siege, +they took up the work of Fra Girolamo, and inspired the people to +their last heroic defence of the Republic. + +Opposite Santa Maria Novella is the Loggia di San Paolo, designed by +Brunelleschi, and erected in 1451, shortly after his death. The +coloured terracotta reliefs, by Andrea della Robbia, include two fine +portraits of governors of the hospital (not of the Della Robbia +themselves, as frequently stated). The relief in a lunette over the +door on the right, representing the meeting of St Francis and St +Dominic, is one of Andrea's best works:-- + + "L'un fu tutto serafico in ardore, + l'altro per sapienza in terra fue + di cherubica luce uno splendore. + Dell'un diro, pero che d'ambedue + si dice l'un pregiando, qual ch'uom prende, + perche ad un fine fur l'opere sue."[51] + + [51] "The one was all seraphic in his ardour, the other by his + wisdom was on earth a splendour of cherubic light. + "Of one will I discourse, because of both the two he speaketh + who doth either praise, which so he will; for to one end + their works." + --Wicksteed's translation, _Paradiso_ xi. + +In 1212, three years before the murder of Buondelmonte, the first band +of Franciscans had come to Florence, sent thither by St Francis +himself from Assisi. A few years later, at the invitation of a +Florentine merchant Diodato, who had built a chapel and house as an +act of restitution, St Dominic, from Bologna, sent the Blessed John of +Salerno with twelve friars to occupy this mission at Ripoli, about +three miles beyond where now stands the Gate of S. Niccolo. Thence +they extended their apostolic labours into the city, and when St +Dominic came, at the end of 1219, they had already made progress. +Finally they moved into the city--first to San Pancrazio, and at +length settled at Santa Maria tra le Vigne, a little church then +outside the walls, where B. Giovanni was installed by the Pope's +legate and the bishop in 1221. Before the church, in the present +piazza, St Peter Martyr, the "hammer of the heretics," fought the +Paterini with both spiritual and material arms. At last, the growth of +the order requiring larger room, on St Luke's day, 1278, Cardinal +Latino de' Frangipani laid here the first stone of Santa Maria +Novella. + +Where once the little church of Our Lady among the Vines stood outside +the second circuit of the city's walls, rises now the finest Italian +Gothic church in Florence. Less than a year after it had been +commenced, the same Dominican cardinal who had laid the first stone +summoned a mass meeting in the Piazza, and succeeded in patching up a +temporary peace between Guelfs and Ghibellines, and among the Guelf +magnates themselves, 1279. This Cardinal Latino left a memory revered +in Florence, and Fra Angelico, in the picture now in our National +Gallery, placed him among the glorified saints attending upon the +resurrection of Our Lord. Some twenty years later, in November 1301, a +parliament was held within the still unfinished church, at which +another Papal peacemaker, the infamous Charles of Valois, in the +presence of the Priors of the Republic, the Podesta and the Captain, +the bishop and chief citizens, received the _balia_ to guard Florence +and pacify the Guelfs, and swore on the faith of the son of a king to +preserve the city in peace and prosperity. We have seen how he kept +his word. Santa Maria Novella, in 1304, was the centre of the sincere +and devoted attempts made by Boniface's successor, the sainted +Benedict XI., to heal the wounds of Florence; attempts in which, +throughout Italy, the Dominicans were his "angels of peace," as he +called his missioners. When the Republic finally fell into the hands +of Cosimo dei Medici in 1434, the exiled Pope Eugenius IV. was staying +in the adjoining monastery; it was here that he made his unsuccessful +attempt to mediate, and heard the bitter farewell words of Rinaldo +degli Albizzi: "I blame myself most of all, because I believed that +you, who had been hunted out of your own country, could keep me in +mine." + + [Illustration: IN THE GREEN CLOISTERS, S. MARIA NOVELLA] + +The church itself, striped tiger-like in black and white marble, +was constructed from the designs of three Dominican friars, Fra +Ristoro da Campi, Fra Sisto, and Fra Giovanni da Campi. Fra Giovanni +was a scholar or imitator of Arnolfo di Cambio, and the two former +were the architects who restored the Ponte alla Carraia and the Ponte +Santa Trinita after their destruction in 1269. The facade (with the +exception of the lower part, which belongs to the fourteenth century) +was designed by Leo Battista Alberti, whose friends the Rucellai were +the chief benefactors of this church; the lovely but completely +restored pointed arcades on the right, with niches for tombs and +armorial bearings, were designed by Brunelleschi. On the left, though +in part reduced to vile usage, there is a bit comparatively less +altered. The interior was completed soon after the middle of the +fourteenth century, when Fra Jacopo Passavanti--the author of that +model of pure Tuscan prose, _Lo Specchio della vera Penitenza_--was +Prior of the convent. The campanile is said to have been designed by +another Dominican, Fra Jacopo Talenti, the probable architect of the +so-called Spanish Chapel in the cloisters on the left of the church, +of which more presently. + +During the great siege of Florence the mantle of Savonarola seemed to +have fallen upon the heroic Prior of Santa Maria Novella, Fra +Benedetto da Foiano. When the news of the alliance between Pope and +Emperor came to Florence, while all Bologna was in festa for the +coronation of the Emperor, Varchi tells us that Fra Benedetto +delivered a great sermon in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, which was +thrown open to all who would come to hear; in which sermon he proved +from passages in the Old and New Testaments that Florence would be +delivered from all dangers, and then enjoy perpetual perfect felicity +in the liberty she so desired. With such grace and eloquence did he +speak, that the vast audience was moved to tears and to joy by turns. +At the end, "with ineffable gestures and words," he gave to the +Gonfaloniere, Raffaello Girolami, a standard upon one side of which +was a Christ victorious over the hostile soldiery, and upon the other +the red Cross of the Florentine Commune, saying: _Cum hoc et in hoc +vinces._ After the capitulation Malatesta Baglioni seized the friar +and sent him to Rome, where he was slowly starved to death in the +dungeon of Sant' Angelo. + +The interior was thus not quite finished, when Boccaccio's seven +maidens met here on a Wednesday morning in early spring in that +terrible year of pestilence, 1348; yet we may readily picture to +ourselves the scene described in the introduction to the _Decameron_; +the empty church; the girls in their dark mourning garb, after hearing +Mass, seated together in a side chapel and gradually passing from +telling their beads to discussing more mundane matters; and then, no +sooner do three members of the other sex appear upon the scenes than a +sudden gleam of gladness lights up their faces, and even the plague +itself is forgotten. One of them, indeed, blushed; "she became all +crimson in the face through modesty," says Boccaccio, "because there +was one of their number who was beloved by one of these youths;" but +afterwards found no difficulty in rivalling the others in the +impropriety of her talk. + +Entering the western portal, we find ourselves in a nave of rather +large proportions, somewhat dark but not without a glow from the +stained glass windows--adapted above all for preaching. As in Santa +Croce, it is cut across by a line of chapels, thus giving the whole a +T shape, and what represents the apse is merely a deeper and taller +recess behind the high altar. There is nothing much to interest us +here in the nave or aisles, save, by the side of the central door, +one of the very few extant works of Masaccio, a fresco representing +the Blessed Trinity adored by the Madonna and St. John, with two +kneeling donors--portraits of which no amount of restoration can +altogether destroy the truth and grandeur. The Annunciation, on the +opposite side of the door, is a mediocre fresco of the fourteenth +century. The Crucifix above is one of several works of the kind +ascribed to Giotto. + +It will be best to take the chapels at the end of the nave and in the +transepts in the order into which they fall, as illustrating the +development of Florentine art. + +On the right a flight of steps leads up into the Rucellai chapel +where, half concealed in darkness, hangs the famous picture once +supposed to mark the very birthday of Florentine painting. That +Cimabue really painted a glorious Madonna for this church, which was +worshipped by a king and hailed with acclamation by a rejoicing +people, is to be most firmly and devoutly held. Unfortunately, it +seems highly probable that this picture is not Cimabue's Madonna. It +is decidedly Sienese in character, and, as there is documentary +evidence that Duccio of Siena painted a Madonna for Santa Maria +Novella, and as the attendant Angels are in all respects similar to +those in Duccio's authenticated works, the picture is probably his. It +deserves all veneration, nevertheless, for it is a noble picture in +the truest sense of the word. In the same chapel is the monument of +the Dominican nun, the Beata Villana, by Bernardo Rossellino. + +Crossing the church to the chapel in the left transept, the Strozzi +Chapel, we mount into the true atmosphere of the Middle Ages--into one +of those pictured theatres which set before us in part what Dante gave +in full in his _Commedia_. The whole chapel is dedicated to St. Thomas +Aquinas, the glory of the philosophy of the mediaeval world and, above +all, of the Dominican order, whose cardinal virtues are extolled in +allegorical fashion on the ceiling; but the frescoes are drawn from +the work of his greatest Florentine disciple, Dante Alighieri, in +whose poem Thomas mainly lives for the non-Catholic world. It contains +all Orcagna's extant work in painting. The altar piece, executed by +Andrea Orcagna in 1357, is the grandest of its kind belonging to the +Giottesque period. Its central motive, of the Saviour delivering the +keys to St. Peter and the Summa to St. Thomas, the spiritual and +philosophical regimens of the mediaeval world, is very finely rendered; +while the angelic choir is a foretaste of Angelico. Madonna presents +St. Thomas; the Baptist, St. Peter; Michael and Catherine are in +attendance upon the Queen of Heaven, Lawrence and Paul upon the +Precursor. The predella represents St. Peter walking upon the waves, +with on either side an episode in the life of St. Thomas and a miracle +of St. Lawrence. The frescoes are best seen on a very bright morning, +shortly before noon. The Last Judgment, by Andrea, shows the +traditional representation of the Angels with trumpets and with the +emblems of the Passion, wheeling round the Judge; and the dead rising +to judgment, impelled irresistibly to right or left even before the +sentence is pronounced. Above the one band, kneels the white-robed +Madonna in intercession--type of the Divine Mercy as in Dante; over +the others, at the head of the Apostles, is the Baptist who seems +appealing for judgment--type of the Divine Justice. This placing Mary +and St John opposite to each other, as in Dante's Rose of Paradise, is +typical of Florentine art; Santa Maria del Fiore and San Giovanni are, +as it were, inseparable. Among the blessed is Dante, gazing up in +fixed adoration at the Madonna, as when following St Bernard's prayer +at the close of his Vision; on the other side some of the faces of the +lost are a miracle of expression. The Hell on the right wall, by +Andrea's brother Leonardo, is more immediately taken from the +_Commedia_. The Paradise on the left, or, rather, the Empyrean +Heaven--with the faces _suadi di carita_, Angels and Saints absorbed +in vision and love of God--is by Andrea himself, and is more directly +pictorial than Dante's _Paradiso_ could admit. Christ and the Madonna +are enthroned side by side, whereas we do not actually see Him in +human form in the _Commedia_,--perhaps in accordance with that +reverence which impels the divine poet to make the name _Cristo_ rhyme +with nothing but itself. For sheer loveliness in detail, no other +fourteenth century master produced anything to compare with this +fresco; it may be said to mark the advent of a new element in Italian +art. + +Thence we pass into the early Renaissance with Brunelleschi and +Ghiberti, with Ghirlandaio and Filippino Lippi. In the chapel to the +left of the choir hangs Filippo Brunelleschi's famous wooden Crucifix, +carved in friendly rivalry with Donatello. The rival piece, +Donatello's share in this sculptured _tenzone_, has been seen in Santa +Croce. + +In the choir are frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio, and a fine brass by +Lorenzo Ghiberti. These frescoes were begun in 1486, immediately after +the completion of the Santa Trinita series, and finished in 1490; and, +though devoid of the highest artistic qualities, are eminently +characteristic of their epoch. Though representing scenes from the +life of the Madonna and the Baptist, this is entirely subordinated to +the portrait groups of noble Florentines and their ladies, introduced +as usually utterly uninterested spectators of the sacred events. As +religious pictures they are naught; but as representations of +contemporary Florentine life, most valuable. Hardly elsewhere shall +you see so fine a series of portraits of the men and women of the +early Renaissance; but they have other things to think of than the +Gospel history. Look at the scene of the Angel appearing to Zacharias. +The actual event is hardly noticed; hidden in the throng of citizens, +too busily living the life of the Renaissance to attend to such +trifles; besides, it would not improve their style to read St. Luke. +In the Visitation, the Nativity of the Baptist, the Nativity of the +Blessed Virgin, a fashionable beauty of the period sweeps in with her +attendants--and it is hardly uncharitable to suppose that, if not +herself, at least her painter thought more of her fine clothes than of +her devotional aspect. The portraits of the donors, Giovanni +Tornabuoni and his wife, are on the window wall. In the scene of the +expulsion of Joachim from the Temple, a group of painters stands +together (towards the window); the old cleanly-shaven man in a red hat +is Alessio Baldovinetti, Ghirlandaio's master; next to him, with a lot +of dark hair, dressed in a red mantle and blue vest, is Domenico +Ghirlandaio himself; his pupil and brother-in-law, Sebastiano +Mainardi, and his brother, David Ghirlandaio, are with him--the latter +being the figure with shoulder turned and hat on head. In the +apparition to Zacharias, among the numerous portraits, a group of four +half figures discussing at the foot of the history is of special +interest; three of them are said to represent Marsilio Ficino, +Cristoforo Landini, and Angelo Poliziano (in the middle, slightly +raising his hand); the fourth, turned to speak to Landini, is said by +Vasari to be a famous teacher of Greek, Demetrius, but now supposed to +be Gentile Becchi, a learned bishop of Arezzo. The stained glass was +designed by Filippino Lippi. Under the high altar rests the body of +the Blessed John of Salerno, the "Apostle of Florence," who brought +the first band of Dominicans to the city. + +Less admired, but in some respects more admirable, are the frescoes by +Filippino Lippi in the chapel on the right of the choir, almost his +last works, painted about 1502, and very much injured by restoration. +The window is also from his design. The frescoes represent scenes from +the lives of St. John and St. Philip, and are remarkable for their +lavish display of Roman antiquities, in which they challenge +comparison with Andrea Mantegna. The scene of St. Philip exorcising +the dragon is especially fine. Observe how the characteristic +intensity of the school of Botticelli is shown in the way in which the +very statues take part in the action. Mars flourishes his broken +spear, his wolves and kites cower to him for protection from the +emissaries of the new faith, whose triumph is further symbolised in +the two figures above of ancient deities conquered by Angels. An +analogous instance will be found in Botticelli's famous Calumny in the +Uffizi. In this statue of Mars is seen the last rendering of the old +Florentine tradition of their _primo padrone_. Thus, perhaps, did the +new pagans of the Renaissance lovingly idealise "that mutilated stone +which guards the bridge." + +The monument of the elder Filippo Strozzi, in the same chapel, is a +fine piece of work by Benedetto da Maiano, with a lovely tondo of the +Madonna and Child attended by Angels. And we should also notice +Giovanni della Robbia's fountain in the sacristy, before passing into +the cloisters. + +Here in the cloisters we pass back again into more purely mediaeval +thought. Passing some early frescoes of the life of the Madonna--the +dream of Joachim, his meeting St. Anne, the Birth and Presentation of +the Blessed Virgin--which Ruskin believed to be by Giotto himself--we +enter to the left the delicious Green Cloisters; a pleasant lounging +place in summer. In the lunettes along the walls are frescoed scenes +from Genesis in _terra verde_, of which the most notable are by Paolo +Uccello--the Flood and the Sacrifice of Noah. Uccello's interests were +scientific rather than artistic. These frescoes are amazingly clever +exercises in the new art of perspective, the _dolce cosa_ as he called +it when his wife complained of his absorption; but are more curious +than beautiful, and hardly inspire us with more than mild admiration +at the painter's cleverness in poising the figure--which, we regret to +say, he intends for the Almighty--so ingeniously in mid air. + +But out of these cloisters, on the right, opens the so-called Spanish +Chapel--the Cappella degli Spagnuoli--one of the rarest buildings in +Italy for the student of mediaeval doctrine. Here, as in the Strozzi +Chapel, we are in the grasp of the same mighty spirit that inspired +the _Divina Commedia_ and the _De Monarchia_, although the actual +execution falls far below the design. The chapel--designed by Fra +Jacopo Talenti in 1320--was formerly the chapter-house of the convent; +it seems to have acquired the title of Spanish Chapel in the days of +Duke Cosimo I., when Spaniards swarmed in Florence and were wont to +hold solemn festival here on St. James' day. The frescoes that cover +its ceiling and walls were executed about the middle of the fourteenth +century--according to Vasari by Simone Martini and Taddeo Gaddi, +though this seems highly doubtful. Their general design is possibly +due to Fra Jacopo Passavanti. They set forth the Dominican ideal, the +Church and the world as the Friars Preachers conceived of them, even +as Giotto's famous allegories at Assisi show us the same through +Franciscan glasses. While Orcagna painted the world beyond the grave +in honour of the Angelical Doctor, these artists set forth the present +world as it should be under his direction and that of his brothers, +the "hounds of the Lord," _domini canes_, who defended the _orto +cattolico_. + +The vaulted roof is divided into four segments; and the picture in +each segment corresponds to a great fresco on the wall below. On the +wall opposite, as we enter, is represented the supreme event of the +world's history, from which all the rest starts and upon which the +whole hinges, the Passion of Christ, leading up to the Resurrection on +the roof above it. On the segment of the roof over the door is the +Ascension, and on the wall below was shown (now much damaged) how the +Dominicans received and carried out Christ's last injunction to His +disciples. In the left segment of the roof is the Descent of the Holy +Spirit; and beneath it, on the wall, the result of this outpouring +upon the world of intellect is shown in the triumph of Philosophy in +the person of Aquinas, its supreme mediaeval exponent. In the right +segment is the Ship of Peter; and, on the wall below, is seen how +Peter becomes a fisher of men, the triumph of his Church under the +guidance of the Dominicans. These two great allegorical frescoes--the +triumph of St. Thomas and the _civil briga_ of the Church--are thus a +more complete working out of the scheme set forth more simply by +Orcagna in his altar piece in the Strozzi Chapel above--the functions +delegated by Christ to Peter and St. Thomas--the power of the Keys and +the doctrine of the _Summa Theologica_. + +In the centre of the philosophical allegory, St. Thomas Aquinas is +seated on a Gothic throne, with an open book in his hands bearing the +text from the Book of Wisdom with which the Church begins her lesson +in his honour: _Optavi, et datus est mihi sensus. Invocavi, et venit +in me spiritus sapientiae; et praeposui illam regnis et sedibus._[52] +Over his head hover seven Angels, invested with the emblems of the +three theological and four cardinal virtues; around him are seated the +Apostles and Prophets, in support of his doctrine; beneath his feet +heresiarchs are humbled--Sabellius and Arius, to wit--and even +Averrhoes, who "made the great comment," seems subdued. Below, in +fourteen little shrines, are allegorical figures of the fourteen +sciences which meet and are given ultimate form in his work, and at +the feet of each maiden sits some great exponent of the science. From +right to left, the seven liberal arts of the Trivium and Quadrivium +lead up to the Science of Numbers, represented on earth by Pythagoras; +from left to right, the earthly and celestial sciences lead up to +Dogmatic Theology, represented by Augustine.[53] + + [52] "I desired, and understanding was given me. I prayed, and the + spirit of Wisdom came upon me; and I preferred her before kingdoms and + thrones." + + [53] The identification of each science and its representative is + rather doubtful, especially in the celestial series. From altar to + centre, Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic are represented by Aelius + Donatus, Cicero and Aristotle (or Zeno); Music, Astronomy, Geometry, + Arithmetic by Tubal Cain, Zoroaster (or Ptolemy), Euclid and + Pythagoras. From window to centre, Civil Law is represented by + Justinian, Canon Law by Innocent III., Philosophy apparently by + Boethius; the next four seem to be Contemplative, Moral, Mystical and + Dogmatic Theology, and their representatives Jerome, John of Damascus, + Basil and Augustine--but, with the exception of St. Augustine, the + identification is quite arbitrary. Possibly if the Logician is Zeno, + the Philosopher is not Boethius but Aristotle; the figure above, + representing Philosophy, holds a mirror which seems to symbolise the + divine creation of the cosmic Universe. + +On the opposite wall is the Church militant and triumphant. Before +Santa Maria del Fiore, here symbolising the Church militant, sit the +two ideal guides of man, according to the dual scheme of Dante's _De +Monarchia_--the Pope and the Emperor. On either side are seated in a +descending line the great dignitaries of the Church and the Empire; +Cardinal and Abbot, King and Baron; while all around are gathered the +clergy and the laity, religious of every order, judges and nobles, +merchants and scholars, with a few ladies kneeling on the right, one +of whom is said to be Petrarch's Laura. Many of these figures are +apparently portraits, but the attempts at identification--such as that +of the Pope with Benedict XI., the Emperor with Henry VII.--are +entirely untrustworthy. The Bishop, however, standing at the head of +the clergy, is apparently Agnolo Acciaiuoli, Bishop of Florence; and +the French cavalier, in short tunic and hood, standing opposite to him +at the head of the laity (formerly called Cimabue), is said--very +questionably--to be the Duke of Athens. At the feet of the successors +of Peter and Caesar are gathered the sheep and lambs of Christ's fold, +watched over by the black and white hounds that symbolise the +Dominicans. On the right, Dominic urges on his watchdogs against the +heretical wolves who are carrying off the lambs of the flock; Peter +Martyr hammers the unbelievers with the weapon of argument alone; +Aquinas convinces them with the light of his philosophic doctrine. But +beyond is Acrasia's Bower of Bliss, a mediaeval rendering of what +Spenser hereafter so divinely sung in the second book of the _Faerie +Queene_. Figures of vice sit enthroned; while seven damsels, Acrasia's +handmaidens, dance before them; and youth sports in the shade of the +forbidden myrtles. Then come repentance and the confessional; a +Dominican friar (not one of the great Saints, but any humble priest of +the order) absolves the penitents; St Dominic appears again, and shows +them the way to Paradise; and then, becoming as little children, they +are crowned by the Angels, and St. Peter lets them through the gate +to join the Church Triumphant. Above in the Empyrean is the Throne of +the Lord, with the Lamb and the four mystical Beasts, and the Madonna +herself standing up at the head of the Angelic Hierarchies. + +In the great cloisters beyond, the Ciompi made their headquarters in +1378, under their Eight of Santa Maria Novella; and, at the request of +their leaders, the prior of the convent sent some of his preachers to +furnish them with spiritual consolation and advice. + +Passing through the Piazza--where marble obelisks resting on tortoises +mark the goals of the chariot races held here under Cosimo I. and his +successors, on the Eve of St. John--and down the Via della Scala, we +come to the former Spezeria of the convent, still a flourishing +manufactory of perfumes, liqueurs and the like, though no longer in +the hands of the friars. In what was once its chapel, are frescoes by +Spinello Aretino and his pupils, painted at the end of the Trecento, +and representing the Passion of Christ. They are inferior to +Spinello's work at Siena and on San Miniato, but the Christ bearing +the Cross has much majesty, and, in the scene of the washing of the +feet, the nervous action of Judas as he starts up is finely conceived. + +The famous Orti Oricellari, the gardens of the Rucellai, lie further +down the Via della Scala. Here in the early days of the Cinquecento +the most brilliant literary circles of Florentine society met; and +there was a sort of revival of the old Platonic Academy, which had +died out with Marsilio Ficino. Machiavelli wrote for these gatherings +his discourses on Livy and his Art of War. Although their meetings +were mainly frequented by Mediceans, some of the younger members were +ardent Republicans; and it was here that a conspiracy was hatched +against the life of the Cardinal Giulio dei Medici, for which Jacopo +da Diacceto and one of the Alamanni died upon the scaffold. In later +days these Orti belonged to Bianca Cappello. At the corner of the +adjoining palace is a little Madonna by Luca della Robbia; and further +on, in a lunette on the right of the former church of San Jacopo in +Ripoli, there is a group of Madonna and Child with St. James and St. +Dominic, probably by Andrea della Robbia. In the Via di Palazzuolo, +the little church of San Francesco dei Vanchetoni contains two small +marble busts of children, exceedingly delicately modelled, supposed to +represent the Gesu Bambino and the boy Baptist; they are ascribed to +Donatello, but recent writers attribute them to Desiderio or +Rossellino. + +In the Borgo Ognissanti, where the Swiss of Charles VIII. in 1494, +forcing their way into the city from the Porta al Prato, were driven +back by the inhabitants, are the church of Ognissanti and the +Franciscan convent of San Salvadore. The church and convent originally +belonged to the Frati Umiliati, who settled here in 1251, were largely +influential in promoting the Florentine wool trade, and exceedingly +democratic in their sympathies. Their convent was a great place for +political meetings in the days of Giano della Bella, who used to walk +in their garden taking counsel with his friends. After the siege they +were expelled from Florence, and the church and convent made over to +the Franciscans of the Osservanza, who are said to have brought hither +the habit which St. Francis wore when he received the Stigmata. The +present church was built in the second half of the sixteenth century, +but contains some excellent pictures and frescoes belonging to the +older edifice. Over the second altar to the right is a frescoed Pieta, +one of the earliest works of Domenico Ghirlandaio, with above it the +Madonna taking the Vespucci family under her protection--among them +Amerigo, who was to give his name to the new continent of America. +Further on, over a confessional, is Sandro Botticelli's St. Augustine, +the only fresco of his still remaining in Florence; opposite to it, +over a confessional on the left, is St. Jerome by Domenico +Ghirlandaio; both apparently painted in 1480. In the left transept is +a Crucifix ascribed to Giotto; Vasari tells us that it was the +original of the numerous works of this kind which Puccio Capanna and +others of his pupils multiplied through Italy. In the sacristy is a +much restored fresco of the Crucifixion, belonging to the Trecento. +Sandro Botticelli was buried in this church in 1510, and, two years +later, Amerigo Vespucci in 1512. In the former Refectory of the +convent is a fresco of the Last Supper, painted by Domenico +Ghirlandaio in 1480, and very much finer than his similar work in San +Marco. In the lunette over the portal of the church is represented the +Coronation of the Blessed Virgin, by Giovanni della Robbia. + +The Borgo Ognissanti leads hence westward into the Via del Prato, and +through the Porta al Prato, one of the four gates of the third wall of +the city, begun by Arnolfo in 1284; now merely a mutilated torso of +Arnolfo's stately structure, left stranded in the prosaic wilderness +of the modern Viale. The fresco in the lunette is by Michele di +Ridolfo Ghirlandaio. Down towards the Arno a single tower remains from +the old walls, mutilated, solitary and degraded so as to look a mere +modern bit of masonry. + +Beyond are the Cascine Gardens, stretching for some two miles between +the Arno and the Mugnone, delicious to linger in, and a sacred place +to all lovers of English poetry. For here, towards the close of 1819, +"in a wood that skirts the Arno, near Florence, and on a day when +that tempestuous wind, whose temperature is at once mild and +animating, was collecting the vapours which pour down the autumnal +rains," Shelley wrote the divinest of all English lyrics: the _Ode to +the West Wind_. + + "Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is: + What if my leaves are falling like its own! + The tumult of thy mighty harmonies + + Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone, + Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, spirit fierce, + My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one! + + Drive my dead thoughts over the universe + Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth! + And, by the incantation of this verse, + + Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth + Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! + Be through my lips to unawakened earth + + The trumpet of a prophecy! O, wind, + If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" + + + + + + [Illustration: IN THE BOBOLI GARDENS] + +CHAPTER XII + +_Across the Arno_ + + "Come a man destra, per salire al monte, + dove siede la Chiesa che soggioga + la ben guidata sopra Rubaconte, + si rompe del montar l'ardita foga. + per le scalee che si fero ad etade + ch'era sicuro il quaderno e la doga." + --_Dante._ + + +Across the river, partly lying along its bank and partly climbing up +St. George's hill to the south, lies what was the Sesto d'Oltrarno in +the days when old Florence was divided into sextaries, and became the +Quartiere di Santo Spirito when the city was reorganised in quarters +after the expulsion of the Duke of Athens. It was not originally a +part of the city itself. At the time of building the second walls in +the twelfth century (_see_ chapter i.), there were merely three +_borghi_ or suburbs beyond the Arno, inhabited by the poorest +classes, each of the three beginning at the head of the Ponte Vecchio; +the Borgo Pidiglioso to the east, towards the present Via dei Bardi +and Santa Lucia, where the road went on to Rome by way of Figline and +Arezzo; the Borgo di Santa Felicita, to the south, ending in a gate at +the present Piazza San Felice, where the road to Siena commenced; and +the Borgo San Jacopo to the west, with a gate in the present Piazza +Frescobaldi, on the way to Pisa. A few rich and noble families began +to settle here towards the beginning of the thirteenth century. When +the dissensions between Guelfs and Ghibellines came to a head in 1215, +the Nerli and Rossi were Guelfs, the Gangalandi, Ubbriachi and +Mannelli, Ghibellines; and these were then the only nobles of the +Oltrarno, although Villani tells us that "the Frescobaldi and the +Bardi and the Mozzi were already beginning to become powerful." The +_Primo Popolo_ commenced to wall it in, in 1250, with the stones from +dismantled feudal towers; and it was finally included in the third +circle of the walls at the beginning of the fourteenth century--a +point to which we shall return. + +As we saw in chapter iii., it was in the Oltrarno that the nobles made +their last stand against the People in 1343, when the Nerli held the +Ponte alla Carraia, the Frescobaldi and Mannelli the Ponte di Santa +Trinita, and the Rossi and Bardi defended the Ponte Vecchio and the +Ponte Rubaconte, with the narrow streets between. In the following +century it was the headquarters of the faction opposed to the Medici, +the Party of the Mountain, as it was called, from the lofty position +of Luca Pitti's great palace. A century more, and it became the seat +of government under the Medicean Grand Dukes, and the whole was +crowned by the fortress of the Belvedere which Buontalenti built in +1590 for Ferdinand I. + +At the head of the Ponte Vecchio, to right and left, the Borgo San +Jacopo and the Via dei Bardi still retain something of their old +characteristics and mediaeval appearance. In the former especially are +some fine towers remaining of the Rossi, Nerli, Barbadori, and other +families; particularly one which belonged to the Marsili, opposite the +church of San Jacopo. A side street, the Via dei Giudei, once +inhabited by Jews, is still very picturesque. The little church of San +Jacopo, originally built in the eleventh century, but entirely +reconstructed in more recent times, still possesses an old Romanesque +portico. In this church some of the more bitter spirits among the +nobles held a council in 1294, and unanimously decided to murder Giano +della Bella. "The dogs of the people," said Messer Berto Frescobaldi, +who was the spokesman, "have robbed us of honour and office, and we +cannot enter the Palace. If we beat one of our own servants, we are +undone. Wherefore, my lords, it is my rede that we should come forth +from this servitude. Let us take up arms and assemble in the piazza; +let us slay the plebeians, friends and foes alike, so that never again +shall we or our children be subjected to them." His plan, however, +seemed too dangerous to the other nobles. "If our design failed," said +Messer Baldo della Tosa, "we should all be killed"; and it was decided +to proceed by more prudent means, and to disorganise the People and +undermine Giano's credit with them, before taking further action. + +At the end of the Borgo San Jacopo, the Frescobaldi had their palaces +in the piazza which still bears their name, at the head of the Ponte +Santa Trinita. Here Charles of Valois took up his headquarters in +November 1301, with the intention of keeping this portion of the city +in case he lost his hold of the rest. Opposite the bridge the Capponi +had their palace; the heroic Piero Capponi lived here; and then the +Gonfaloniere Niccolo, who, accused of favouring the Medici, was +deprived of his office, and died broken-hearted just before the siege. + +On the left of the Ponte Vecchio the Via dei Bardi, where the nobles +and retainers of that fierce old house made their last stand against +the People after the Frescobaldi had been forced to surrender, has +been much spoilt of recent years, though a few fine palaces remain, +and some towers, especially two, of the Mannelli and Ridolfi, at the +beginning of the street. In the Via dei Bardi, the fine Capponi Palace +was built for Niccolo da Uzzano at the beginning of the Quattrocento. +The church of Santa Lucia has a Della Robbia relief over the entrance, +and a picture of the school of Fra Filippo in the interior. The street +ends in the Piazza dei Mozzi, opposite the Ponte alle Grazie or Ponte +Rubaconte, where stands the Torrigiani Palace, built by Baccio +d'Agnolo in the sixteenth century. + +From the Ponte Vecchio the Via Guicciardini leads to the Pitti Palace, +and onwards to the Via Romana and great Porta Romana. In the Piazza +Santa Felicita a column marks the site of one of St. Peter Martyr's +triumphs over the Paterini; the loggia is by Vasari; the historian +Guicciardini is buried in the church, which contains some second-rate +pictures. Further on, on the right, is the house where Machiavelli +died, a disappointed and misunderstood patriot, in 1527; on the left +is Guicciardini's palace. + +The magnificent Palazzo Pitti was commenced shortly after 1440 by +Brunelleschi and Michelozzo, for Luca Pitti, that vain and incompetent +old noble who hoped to eclipse the Medici during the closing days of +the elder Cosimo. Messer Luca grew so confident, Machiavelli tells us, +that "he began two buildings, one in Florence and the other at +Ruciano, a place about a mile from the city; both were in right royal +style, but that in the city was altogether greater than any other that +had ever been built by a private citizen until that day. And to +complete them he shrank from no measures, however extraordinary; for +not only did citizens and private persons contribute and aid him with +things necessary for the building, but communes and corporations lent +him help. Besides this, all who were under ban, and whosoever had +committed murder or theft or anything else for which he feared public +punishment, provided that he were a person useful for the work, found +secure refuge within these buildings." After the triumph of Piero dei +Medici in 1466, Luca Pitti was pardoned, but ruined. "Straightway," +writes Machiavelli, "he learned what difference there is between +success and failure, between dishonour and honour. A great solitude +reigned in his houses, which before had been frequented by vast +throngs of citizens. In the street his friends and relations feared +not merely to accompany him, but even to salute him, since from some +of them the honours had been taken, from others their property, and +all alike were menaced. The superb edifices which he had commenced +were abandoned by the builders; the benefits which had been heaped +upon him in the past were changed into injuries, honours into insults. +Many of those who had freely given him something of great value, now +demanded it back from him as having been merely lent, and those +others, who had been wont to praise him to the skies, now blamed him +for an ungrateful and violent man. Wherefore too late did he repent +that he had not trusted Niccolo Soderini, and sought rather to die +with honour with arms in hand, than live on in dishonour among his +victorious enemies." + +In 1549 the unfinished palace was sold by Luca Pitti's descendants to +Eleonora of Toledo, Duke Cosimo's wife, and it was finished by +Ammanati during the latter half of the sixteenth century; the wings +are a later addition. The whole building, with its huge dimensions and +boldly rusticated masonry, is one of the most monumental and grandiose +of European palaces. It was first the residence of the Medicean Grand +Dukes, then of their Austrian successors, and is now one of the royal +palaces of the King of Italy. + +In one of the royal apartments there is a famous picture of +Botticelli's, Pallas taming a Centaur, which probably refers to the +return of Lorenzo the Magnificent to Florence after his diplomatic +victory over the King of Naples and the League, in 1480. The beautiful +and stately Medicean Pallas is wreathed all over with olive branches; +her mantle is green, like that of Dante's Beatrice in the Earthly +Paradise; her white dress is copiously besprinkled with Lorenzo's +crest, the three rings. The Centaur himself is splendidly conceived +and realised--a characteristic Botticellian modification of those +terrible beings who hunt the damned souls of tyrants and robbers +through the river of blood in Dante's Hell. Opposite the Pallas there +is a small tondo, in which the Madonna and four Angels are adoring the +divine Child in a garden of roses and wild strawberries. The latter +was discovered in 1899 and ascribed to Botticelli, but appears to be +only a school piece. + +The great glory of the Pitti Palace is its picture gallery, a +magnificent array of masterpieces, hung in sumptuously decorated rooms +with allegorical ceiling-paintings in the overblown and superficial +style of the artists of the decadence--Pietro da Cortona and others of +his kind:-- + + "Both in Florence and in Rome + The elder race so make themselves at home + That scarce we give a glance to ceilingfuls + Of such like as Francesco." + +So Robert Browning writes of one of Pietro's pupils. The Quattrocento +is, with a few noteworthy exceptions, scarcely represented; but no +collection is richer in the works of the great Italians of the +Cinquecento at the culmination of the Renaissance. We can here, as in +the Uffizi, merely indicate the more important pictures in each room. +At the top of the staircase is a marble fountain ascribed to +Donatello. The names of the rooms are usually derived from the +subjects painted on the ceilings; we take the six principal saloons +first. + + +In the _Sala dell' Iliade_. + +First, the three masterpieces of this room. Fra Bartolommeo's great +altar-piece painted in 1512 for San Marco (208), representing Madonna +and Child surrounded by Saints, with a group of Dominicans attending +upon the mystic marriage of St. Catherine of Siena, is a splendid +picture, but darkened and injured; the two _putti_, making melody at +the foot of Madonna's throne, are quite Venetian in character. + +Titian's Cardinal Ippolito dei Medici (201) is one of the master's +grandest portraits; the Cardinal is represented in Hungarian military +costume. Ippolito, like his reputed father the younger Giuliano, was +one of the more respectable members of the elder branch of the Medici; +he was brought up with Alessandro, but the two youths hated each other +mortally from their boyhood. Young and handsome, cultured and lavishly +generous, Ippolito was exceedingly popular and ambitious, and felt +bitterly the injustice of Pope Clement in making Alessandro lord of +Florence instead of him. Clement conferred an archbishopric and other +things upon him, but could by no means keep him quiet. "Aspiring to +temporal greatness," writes Varchi, "and having set his heart upon +things of war rather than affairs of the Church, he hardly knew +himself what he wanted, and was never content." The Pope, towards whom +Ippolito openly showed his contempt, complained that he could not +exert any control over so eccentric and headstrong a character, _un +cervello eteroclito e cosi balzano_. After the Pope's death, the +Cardinal intrigued with the Florentine exiles in order to supplant +Alessandro, upon which the Duke had him poisoned in 1535, in the +twenty-fifth year of his age. Titian painted him in 1533. + +The famous Concert (185), representing a passionate-faced monk of the +Augustinian order at the harpsichord, while an older and more prosaic +ecclesiastic stands behind him with a viol, and a youthful worldling +half carelessly listens, was formerly taken as the standard of +Giorgione's work; it is now usually regarded as an early Titian. +Although much damaged and repainted, it remains one of the most +beautiful of Venetian painted lyrics. + +Andrea del Sarto's two Assumptions, one (225) painted before 1526 for +a church at Cortona, the other (191) left unfinished in 1531, show the +artist ineffectually striving after the sublime, and helplessly pulled +down to earth by the draperies of the Apostles round the tomb. Of +smaller works should be noticed: an early Titian, the Saviour (228); +two portraits by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (224, 207), of which the latter, +a goldsmith, has been ascribed to Leonardo; a lady known as _La +Gravida_ (229), probably by Raphael early in his Florentine period; +Daniele Barbaro by Paolo Veronese (216); Titian's Philip II. of Spain +(200); a male portrait by Andrea del Sarto (184), said, with little +plausibility, to represent himself; a Holy Family (235) by Rubens. + + +In the _Sala di Saturno_. + +Here are some of the choicest pictures in the collection, including a +whole series of Raphael's. Raphael's Madonna del Gran Duca (178)--so +called from its modern purchaser, Ferdinand III.--was painted in 1504 +or 1505, either before leaving Urbino or shortly after his arrival in +Florence; it is the sweetest and most purely devotional of all his +Madonnas. Morelli points out that it is strongly reminiscent of +Raphael's first master, Timoteo Viti. The portraits of Angelo Doni and +Maddalena Doni (61 and 59) also belong to the beginning of Raphael's +Florentine epoch, about 1505 or 1506, and show how much he felt the +influence of Leonardo; Angelo Doni, it will be remembered, was the +parsimonious merchant for whom Michelangelo painted the Madonna of the +Tribuna. The Madonna del Baldacchino (165) was commenced by Raphael in +1508, the last picture of his Florentine period, ordered by the Dei +for Santo Spirito; it shows the influence of Fra Bartolommeo in its +composition, and was left unfinished when Pope Julius summoned the +painter to Rome; in its present state, there is hardly anything of +Raphael's about it. The beautiful Madonna della Seggiola (151) is a +work of Raphael's Roman period, painted in 1513 or 1514. The Vision of +Ezekiel (174) is slightly later, painted in 1517 or thereabout, and +shows that Raphael had felt the influence of Michelangelo; one of the +smallest and most sublime of all his pictures; the landscape is less +conventional than we often see in his later works. Neither of the two +portraits ascribed to Raphael in this room (171, 158) can any longer +be accepted as a genuine work of the master. + +Andrea del Sarto and Fra Bartolommeo are likewise represented by +masterpieces. The Friar's Risen Christ with Four Evangelists (159), +beneath whom two beautiful _putti_ hold the orb of the world, was +painted in 1516, the year before the painter's death; it is one of the +noblest and most divine representations of the Saviour in the whole +history of art. Andrea's so-called _Disputa_ (172), in which a group +of Saints is discussing the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, painted in +1518, is as superbly coloured as any of the greatest Venetian +triumphs; the Magdalene is again the painter's own wife. Perugino's +Deposition from the Cross (164), painted in 1495, shows the great +Umbrian also at his best. + +Among the minor pictures in this room may be noted a pretty little +trifle of the school of Raphael, so often copied, Apollo and the Muses +(167), questionably ascribed to Giulio Romano; and a Nymph pursued by +a Satyr (147), supposed by Morelli to be by Giorgione, now assigned to +Dosso Dossi of Ferrara. + + +In the _Sala di Giove_. + +The treasure of this room is the _Velata_ (245), Raphael's own +portrait of the woman that he loved, to whom he wrote his sonnets, and +whom he afterwards idealised as the Madonna di San Sisto; her +personality remains a mystery. Titian's _Bella_ (18), a rather stolid +rejuvenation of Eleonora Gonzaga, is chiefly valuable for its +magnificent representation of a wonderful Venetian costume. Here are +three works of Andrea del Sarto--the Annunciation (124), the Madonna +in Glory, with four Saints (123), and St John the Baptist (272); the +first is one of his most beautiful paintings. The picture supposed to +represent Andrea and his wife (118) is not by the master himself. +Bartolommeo's St Mark (125) was painted by him in 1514, to show that +he could do large figures, whereas he had been told that he had a +_maniera minuta_; it is not altogether successful. His Deposition from +the Cross (64) is one of his latest and most earnest religious works. +The Three Fates (113) by Rosso Fiorentino is an undeniably powerful +and impressive picture; it was formerly ascribed to Michelangelo. The +Three Ages (110), ascribed to Lorenzo Lotto here, was by Morelli +attributed to Giorgione, and is now assigned by highly competent +critics to a certain Morto da Feltre, of whom little is known save +that he is said to have been Giorgione's successful rival for the +favours of a ripe Venetian beauty; the picture itself, though injured +by restoration, belongs to the same category as the Concert. "In such +favourite incidents of Giorgione's school," writes Walter Pater, +"music or music-like intervals in our existence, life itself is +conceived as a sort of listening--listening to music, to the reading +of Bandello's novels, to the sound of water, to time as it flies." + + +In the _Sala di Marte_. + +The most important pictures of this room are: Titian's portrait of a +young man with a glove (92); the Holy Family, called of the +_Impannata_ or "covered window" (94), a work of Raphael's Roman +period, painted by his scholars, perhaps by Giulio Romano; Cristofano +Allori's Judith (96), a splendid and justly celebrated picture, +showing what exceedingly fine works could be produced by Florentines +even in the decadence (Allori died in 1621); Andrea del Sarto's scenes +from the history of Joseph (87, 88), panels for cassoni or bridal +chests, painted for the marriage of Francesco Borgherini and +Margherita Acciaiuoli; a Rubens, the so-called Four Philosophers (85), +representing himself with his brother, and the scholars Lipsius and +Grotius; Andrea del Sarto's Holy Family (81), one of his last works, +painted in 1529 for Ottaviano dei Medici and said to have been +finished during the siege; Van Dyck's Cardinal Giulio Bentivoglio +(82). It is uncertain whether this Julius II. (79) or that in the +Tribuna of the Uffizi is Raphael's original, but the present picture +appears to be the favourite; both are magnificent portraits of this +terrible old warrior pontiff, who, for all his fierceness, was the +noblest and most enlightened patron that Raphael and Michelangelo had. +It was probably at his bidding that Raphael painted Savonarola among +the Church's doctors and theologians in the Vatican. + + +In the _Sala di Apollo_ and _Sala di Venere_. + +Here, first of all, is Raphael's celebrated portrait of Pope Julius' +unworthy successor, Leo X. (40), the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent; +on the left--that is, the Pope's right hand--is the Cardinal Giulio +dei Medici, afterwards Pope Clement VII.; behind the chair is the +Cardinal Luigi dei Rossi, the descendant of a daughter of Piero il +Gottoso. One of Raphael's most consummate works. + +Andrea del Sarto's Pieta (58) was painted in 1523 or 1524 for a +convent of nuns in the Mugello, whither Andrea had taken his wife and +household while the plague raged in Florence; it is one of his finest +works. Titian's Magdalene (67) has been called by Ruskin a +"disgusting" picture; as a pseudo-religious work, it would be hard to +find anything more offensive; but it has undeniably great technical +qualities. His Pietro Aretino (54), on the other hand, is a noble +portrait of an infamous blackguard. Noteworthy are also Andrea del +Sarto's portrait (66), apparently one of his many representations of +himself, and Murillo's Mother and Child (63). + +In the _Sala di Venere_, are a superb landscape by Rubens (14), +sometimes called the Hay Harvest and sometimes the Return of the +Contadini; also a fine female portrait, wrongly ascribed to Leonardo +(140); the Triumph of David by Matteo Rosselli (13). It should be +observed that the gems of the collection are frequently shifted from +room to room for the benefit of the copyist. + + +The _Sala dell' Educazione di Giove_ and following rooms. + +A series of smaller rooms, no less gorgeously decorated, adjoins the +Sala dell' Iliade. In the _Sala dell' Educazione di Giove_ are: Fra +Bartolommeo's Holy Family with St. Elizabeth (256), over the door; the +Zingarella or Gipsy Girl (246), a charming little idyllic picture by +Boccaccino of Cremona, formerly ascribed to Garofalo; Philip IV. of +Spain (243) by Velasquez. Carlo Dolci's St Andrew (266) is above his +usual level; but it is rather hard to understand how Guido Reni's +Cleopatra (270) could ever be admired. + +In the _Sala di Prometeo_ are some earlier paintings; but those +ascribed to Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, and Ghirlandaio are merely +school-pieces. Fra Filippo Lippi's Madonna and Child with the +Pomegranate (343) is a genuine and excellent work; in the background +are seen the meeting of Joachim and Anne, with the Nativity of the +Blessed Virgin. Crowe and Cavalcasella observe that "this group of the +Virgin and Child reminds one forcibly of those by Donatello or +Desiderio da Settignano," and it shows how much the painters of the +Quattrocento were influenced by the sculptors; the Madonna's face, for +no obvious reason, is said to be that of Lucrezia Buti, the girl whom +Lippo carried off from a convent at Prato. A curious little allegory +(336) is ascribed by Morelli to Filippino Lippi. We should also notice +the beautiful Madonna with Angels adoring the Divine Child in a rose +garden (347), a characteristic Florentine work of the latter part of +the Quattrocento, once erroneously ascribed to Filippino Lippi; an +Ecce Homo in fresco by Fra Bartolommeo (377); a Holy Family by +Mariotto Albertinelli (365); and a tondo by Luca Signorelli (355), in +which St. Catherine is apparently writing at the dictation of the +Divine Child. But the two gems of this room are the head of a Saint +(370) and the portrait of a man in red dress and hat (375) by one of +the earlier painters of the Quattrocento, probably Domenico Veneziano; +"perhaps," writes Mr Berenson, "the first great achievements in this +kind of the Renaissance." Here, too, is a fine portrait by Lorenzo +Costa (376) of Giovanni Bentivoglio. + +In the _Sala del Poccetti_, _Sala della Giustizia_, _Sala di Flora_, +_Sala dei Putti_, the pictures are, for the most part, unimportant. +The so-called portrait of the _bella Simonetta_, the innamorata of +Giuliano dei Medici (353), is not authentic and should not be ascribed +to Sandro Botticelli. There are some fairly good portraits; a Titian +(495), a Sebastiano del Piombo (409), Duke Cosimo I. by Bronzino +(403), Oliver Cromwell by Lely (408). Calumny by Francia Bigio (427) +is curious as a later rendering of a theme that attracted the greatest +masters of the Quattrocento (Botticelli, Mantegna, Luca Signorelli all +tried it). Lovers of Browning will be glad to have their attention +called to the Judith of Artemisia Gentileschi (444): "a wonder of a +woman painting too." + +A passage leads down two flights of steps, with occasional glimpses +of the Boboli Gardens, through corridors of Medicean portraits, +Florentine celebrities, old pictures of processions in piazza, and the +like. Then over the Ponte Vecchio, with views of the Arno on either +hand as we cross, to the Uffizi. + + * * * * * + +Behind the Pitti Palace are the delicious Boboli Gardens, commenced +for Duke Cosimo I., with shady walks and exquisitely framed views of +Florence. In a grotto near the entrance are four unfinished statues by +Michelangelo; they are usually supposed to have been intended for the +tomb of Julius II., but may possibly have been connected with the +projected facade of San Lorenzo. + +Nearly opposite the Palazzo Pitti is the Casa Guidi, where the +Brownings lived and wrote. Here Elizabeth Barrett Browning died in +June 1861, she who "made of her verse a golden ring linking England to +Italy"; these were the famous "Casa Guidi windows" from which she +watched the liberation and unification of Italy:-- + + "I heard last night a little child go singing + 'Neath Casa Guidi windows, by the church, + _O bella liberta, O bella!_--stringing + The same words still on notes he went in search + So high for, you concluded the upspringing + Of such a nimble bird to sky from perch + Must leave the whole bush in a tremble green, + And that the heart of Italy must beat, + While such a voice had leave to rise serene + 'Twixt church and palace of a Florence street." + +The church in question, San Felice, contains a good picture of St. +Anthony, St. Rock and St. Catherine by some follower of Botticelli and +Filippino Lippi; also a Crucifixion of the school of Giotto. Thence +the Via Mazzetta leads into the Piazza Santo Spirito, at the corner +of which is the Palazzo Guadagni, built by Cronaca at the end of the +Quattrocento; with fine iron work, lantern holders and the like, on +the exterior. + +The present church of Santo Spirito--the finest Early Renaissance +church in Florence--was built between 1471 and 1487, after +Brunelleschi's designs, to replace his earlier building which had been +burned down in 1471 on the occasion of the visit of Galeazzo Maria +Sforza to Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother. It is a fine +example of Brunelleschi's adaptation of the early basilican type, is +borne upon graceful Corinthian columns and nobly proportioned. The +octagonal sacristy is by Giuliano da San Gallo and Cronaca, finished +in 1497, and the campanile by Baccio d'Agnolo at the beginning of the +sixteenth century. + +The stained glass window over the entrance was designed by Perugino. +In the right transept is an excellent picture by Filippino Lippi; +Madonna and Child with the little St. John, St. Catherine and St. +Nicholas, with the donor, Tanai de' Nerli, and his wife. Also in the +right transept is the tomb of the Capponi; Gino, the conqueror of Pisa +and historian of the Ciompi; Neri, the conqueror of the Casentino; and +that great republican soldier and hero, Piero Capponi, who had saved +Florence from Charles of France and fell in the Pisan war. The vision +of St. Bernard is an old copy from Perugino. None of the other +pictures in the church are more than school pieces; there are two in +the left transept ascribed to Filippino's disappointing pupil, +Raffaellino del Garbo--the Trinita with St. Mary of Egypt and St. +Catherine, and the Madonna with Sts. Lawrence, Stephen, John and +Bernard. The latter picture is by Raffaellino di Carlo. + +During the last quarter of the fourteenth century the convent of +Santo Spirito--which is an Augustinian house--was the centre of a +circle of scholars, who represent an epoch intermediate between the +great writers of the Trecento and the humanists of the early +Quattrocento. Prominent among them was Coluccio Salutati, who for many +years served the Republic as Chancellor and died in 1406. He was +influential in founding the first chair of Greek, and his letters on +behalf of Florence were so eloquent and powerful that the "great +viper," Giovanni Galeazzo Visconti, declared that he dreaded one of +them more than many swords. Also Filippo Villani, the nephew of the +great chroniclers, Giovanni and Matteo, who had succeeded Boccaccio as +lecturer on Dante. They met here with other kindred spirits in the +cell of Fra Luigi Marsili, a learned monk and impassioned worshipper +of Petrarch, upon whose great crusading canzone--_O aspettata in ciel, +beata e bella_--he wrote a commentary which is still extant. Fra Luigi +died in 1394. A century later, the monks of this convent took a +violent part in opposition to Savonarola; and it was here, in the +pulpit of the choir of the church, that Landucci tells us that he +heard the bull of excommunication read "by a Fra Leonardo, their +preacher, and an adversary of the said Fra Girolamo,"--"between two +lighted torches and many friars," as he rather quaintly puts it. + +"The Carmine's my cloister: hunt it up," says Browning's Lippo Lippi +to his captors; and the Via Mazzetta and the Via Santa Monaca will +take us to it. This church of the Carmelites, Santa Maria del Carmine, +was consecrated in 1422; and, almost immediately after, the mighty +series of frescoes was begun in the Brancacci Chapel at the end of the +right transept--frescoes which were to become the school for all +future painting. In the eighteenth century the greater part of the +church was destroyed by fire, but this chapel was spared by the +flames, and the frescoes, though terribly damaged and grievously +restored, still remain on its walls. + +This Brancacci Chapel of the Carmine plays the same part in the +history of painting as the bronze gates of the Baptistery in that of +sculpture. It was in that same eventful year, 1401, of the famous +competition between Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, that the new Giotto was +born--Tommaso, the son of a notary in Castello San Giovanni di +Valdarno. With him, as we saw in chapter iii., the second great epoch +of Italian painting, the Quattrocento, or Epoch of Character, opens. +His was a rare and piquant personality; _persona astrattissima e molto +a caso_, says Vasari, "an absent-minded fellow and very casual." +Intent upon his art, he took no care of himself and thought nothing of +the ordinary needs and affairs of the world, though always ready to do +others a good turn. From his general negligence and untidiness, he was +nicknamed _Masaccio_--"hulking Tom"--which has become one of the most +honourable names in the history of art. The little chapel in which we +now stand and survey his handiwork, or what remains of it, is nothing +less than the birthplace of modern painting. Sculpture had indeed +preceded painting in its return to nature and in its direct study of +the human form, and the influence of Donatello lies as strongly over +all the painters of the Quattrocento. Vasari even states that Masolino +da Panicale (Masolino = "dear little Tom"), Masaccio's master, had +been one of Ghiberti's assistants in the casting of the bronze gates, +but this is questionable; it is possible that he had been Ghiberti's +pupil, though he learned the principles of painting from Gherardo +Starnina, one of the last artists of the Trecento. It was shortly +after 1422 that Masolino commenced this great series of frescoes +setting forth the life of St. Peter; within the next few years +Masaccio continued his work; and, more than half a century later, in +1484, Filippino Lippi took it up where Masaccio had left off, and +completed the series. + +Masolino's contribution to the whole appears to be confined to three +pictures: St. Peter preaching, with Carmelites in the background to +carry his doctrines into fifteenth century Florence, on the left of +the window; the upper row of scenes on the right wall, representing +St. Peter and St. John raising the cripple at the Beautiful Gate of +the Temple, and the healing of Tabitha (according to others, the +resuscitation of Petronilla); and the narrow fresco of the Fall of +Adam and Eve, on the right of the entrance. Some have also ascribed to +him the striking figure of St. Peter enthroned, attended by +Carmelites, while the faithful approach to kiss his feet--the picture +in the corner on the left which, in a way, sets the keynote to the +whole--but it is more probably the work of Masaccio (others ascribe it +to Filippino). Admirable though these paintings are, they exhibit a +certain immaturity as contrasted with those by Masaccio: in the +Raising of Tabitha, for instance, those two youths with their odd +headgear might almost have stepped out of some Giottesque fresco; and +the rendering of the nude in the Adam and Eve, though wonderful at +that epoch, is much inferior to Masaccio's opposite. Nevertheless, +Masolino's grave and dignified figures introduced the type that +Masaccio was soon to render perfect. + +From the hand of Masaccio are the Expulsion from Paradise; the Tribute +Money; the Raising of the Dead Youth (in part); and (probably) the St. +Peter enthroned, on the left wall; St. Peter and St. John healing the +sick with their shadow, under Masolino's Peter preaching (and the +figure behind with a red cap, leaning on a stick, is Masaccio's pious +portrait of his master Masolino himself); St. Peter baptising, St. +Peter and St. John giving alms, on the opposite side of the window. +Each figure is admirably rendered, its character perfectly realised; +Masaccio may indeed be said to have completed what Giotto had begun, +and freed Italian art from the mannerism of the later followers of +Giotto, even as Giotto himself had delivered her from Byzantine +formalism. "After Giotto," writes Leonardo da Vinci, "the art of +painting declined again, because every one imitated the pictures that +were already done; thus it went on from century to century until +Tommaso of Florence, nicknamed Masaccio, showed by his perfect works +how those who take for their standard any one but Nature--the mistress +of all masters--weary themselves in vain."[54] This return to nature +is seen even in the landscape, notably in the noble background to the +Tribute Money; but above all, in his study of man and the human form. +"For the first time," says Kugler, "his aim is the study of form for +itself, the study of the external conformation of man. With such an +aim is identified a feeling which, in beauty, sees and preserves the +expression of proportion; and in repose or motion, the expression of +an harmonious development of the powers of the human frame." For sheer +dignity and grandeur there is nothing to compare with it, till we come +to the work of Raphael and Michelangelo in the Vatican; the +composition of the Tribute Money and the Healing of the Sick initiated +the method of religious illustration that reached its ultimate +perfection in Raphael--what has been called giving Greek form to +Hebrew thought. The treatment of the nude especially seemed a novel +thing in its day; the wonderful modelling of the naked youth shivering +with the cold, in the scene of St. Peter baptising, was hailed as a +marvel of art, and is cited by Vasari as one of the _cose rarissime_ +of painting. In the scene of the Tribute Money, the last Apostle on +our right (in the central picture where our Lord and His disciples are +confronted by the eager collector) whose proud bearing is hardly +evangelical, is Masaccio himself, with scanty beard and untidy hair. +Although less excellent than the Baptism as a study of the nude, the +Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden is a masterpiece of which it is +impossible to speak too highly. Our _primi parenti_, weighed down with +the consciousness of ineffable tragedy, are impelled irresistibly +onward by divine destiny; they need not see the Angel in his flaming +robe on his cloud of fire, with his flashing sword and out-stretched +hand; terrible in his beauty as he is to the spectator, he is as +nothing to them, compared with the face of an offended God and the +knowledge of the _tanto esilio_. Surely this is how Dante himself +would have conceived the scene. + + [54] In Richter's _Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci_. Leonardo + rather too sweepingly ignores the fact that there were a few excellent + masters between the two. + +Masaccio died at Rome in 1428, aged twenty-seven years. In his short +life he had set modern painting on her triumphant progress, and his +frescoes became the school for all subsequent painters, "All in +short," says Vasari, "who have sought to acquire their art in its +perfection, have constantly repaired to study it in this chapel, there +imbibing the precepts and rules necessary to be followed for the +command of success, and learning to labour effectually from the +figures of Masaccio." If he is to rank among "the inheritors of +unfulfilled renown," Masaccio may be said to stand towards Raphael as +Keats towards Tennyson. Masolino outlived his great pupil for several +years, and died about 1435. + +The fresco of the Raising up of the dead Youth, left unfinished by +Masaccio when he left Florence for Rome, was completed by Filippino +Lippi (the son of that run-a-way Carmelite in whom the spirit of +Masaccio was said to have lived again), in 1484. The five figures on +the left appear to be from Filippino's hand (the second from the end +is said to be Luigi Pulci, the poet), as also the resuscitated boy +(said to be Francesco Granacci the painter, who was then about fifteen +years old) and the group of eight on the right. Under Masaccio's Adam +and Eve, he painted St. Paul visiting St. Peter in prison; under +Masolino's Fall, the Liberation of Peter by the Angel, two exceedingly +beautiful and simple compositions. And, on the right wall of the +chapel, St. Peter and St. Paul before the Proconsul and the +Crucifixion of St. Peter are also by Filippino. In the Crucifixion +scene, which is inferior to the rest, the last of the three spectators +on our right, wearing a black cap, is Filippino's master, Sandro +Botticelli. In the presence of the Proconsul, the elderly man with a +keen face, in a red cap to the right of the judge, is Antonio +Pollaiuolo; and, on our right, the youth whose head appears in the +corner is certainly Filippino himself--a kind of signature to the +whole. + +Apart from the Brancacci chapel, the interest of the Carmine is mainly +confined to the tomb of the noble and simple-hearted ex-Gonfaloniere, +Piero Soderini (who died in 1513), in the choir; it was originally by +Benedetto da Rovezzano, but has been restored. There are frescoes in +the sacristy, representing the life of St. Cecilia, by one of Giotto's +later followers, possibly Spinello Aretino, and, in the cloisters, a +noteworthy Madonna of the same school, ascribed to Giovanni da Milano. + +Beyond the Carmine, westwards, is the Borgo San Frediano, now, as in +olden time, the poorest part of Florence. It was the ringing of the +bell of the Carmine that gave the signal for the rising of the Ciompi +in 1378. Unlike their neighbours, the Augustinians of Santo Spirito, +the good fathers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel were for the most part +ardent followers of Savonarola, and, on the first of October 1497, one +of them preached an open-air sermon near the Porta San Frediano, in +which he declared that he himself had had a special revelation from +God on the subject of Fra Girolamo's sanctity, and that all who +resisted the Friar would be horribly punished; even Landucci admits +that he talked arrant nonsense, _pazzie_. The parish church of this +district, San Frediano in Cestello, is quite uninteresting. At the end +of the Via San Frediano is the great Porta San Frediano, of which more +presently. + +The gates and walls of Oltrarno were built between 1324 and 1327, in +the days of the Republic's great struggle with Castruccio +Interminelli. Unlike those on the northern bank, they are still in +part standing. There are five gates on this side of the river--the +Porta San Niccolo, the Porta San Miniato, the Porta San Giorgio, the +Porta Romana or Por San Piero Gattolino, and the Porta San Frediano. +It was all round this part of the city that the imperial army lay +during the siege of 1529 and 1530. + +On the east of the city, on the banks of the Arno, rises first the +Porta San Niccolo--mutilated and isolated, but the only one of the +gates that has retained a remnant of its ancient height and dignity. +In a lunette on the inner side is a fresco of 1357--Madonna and Child +with Saints, Angels and Prophets. Around are carved the lilies of the +Commune. On the side facing the hill are the arms of the Parte Guelfa +and of the People, with the lily of the Commune between them. Within +the gate the Borgo San Niccolo leads to the church of San Niccolo, +which contains a picture by Neri di Bicci and one of the Pollaiuoli, +and four saints ascribed to Gentile da Fabriano. It is one of the +oldest Florentine churches, though not interesting in its present +state. There is an altogether untrustworthy tradition that +Michelangelo was sheltered in the tower of this church after the +capitulation of the city, but he seems to have been more probably in +the house of a trusted friend. Pope Clement ordered that he should be +sought for, but left at liberty and treated with all courtesy if he +agreed to go on working at the Medicean monuments in San Lorenzo; and, +hearing this, the sculptor came out from his hiding place. It may be +observed that San Niccolo was a most improbable place for him to have +sought refuge in, as Malatesta Baglioni had his headquarters close by. + +Beyond the Porta San Niccolo is the Piano di Ripoli, where the Prince +of Orange had his headquarters. Before his exile Dante possessed some +land here. It was here that the first Dominican house was established +in Tuscany under St Dominic's companion, Blessed John of Salerno. Up +beyond the terminus of the tramway a splendid view of Florence can be +obtained. + +Near the Porta San Niccolo the long flight of stairs mounts up the +hill of _San Francesco e San Miniato_, which commands the city from +the south-east, to the Piazzale Michelangelo just below the church. A +long and exceedingly beautiful drive leads also to this Piazzale from +the Porta Romana--the Viale dei Colli--and passes down again to the +Barriera San Niccolo by the Viale Michelangelo. This Viale dei Colli, +at least, is one of those few works which even those folk who make a +point of sneering at everything done in Florence since the unification +of Italy are constrained to admire. It would seem that even in the +thirteenth century there were steps of some kind constructed up the +hill-side to the church. In that passage from the _Purgatorio_ (canto +xii.) which I have put at the head of this chapter, Dante compares the +ascent from the first to the second circle of Purgatory to this climb: +"As on the right hand, to mount the hill where stands the church which +overhangs the well-guided city, above Rubaconte, the bold abruptness +of the ascent is broken by the steps that were made in the age when +the ledger and the stave were safe."[55] + + [55] The ledger and the stave (_il quaderno e la doga_): "In 1299 + Messer Niccola Acciaiuoli and Messer Baldo d' Aguglione abstracted + from the public records a leaf containing the evidence of a + disreputable transaction, in which they, together with the Podesta, + had been engaged. At about the same time Messer Durante de' + Chiaramontesi, being officer of the customs for salt, took away a + stave (_doga_) from the standard measure, thus making it + smaller."--_A. J. Butler._ + +The Piazzale, adorned with bronze copies of Michelangelo's great +statues, commands one of the grandest views of Florence, with the +valley of the Arno and the mountains round, that "in silence listen +for the word said next," as Mrs Browning has it. Up beyond is the +exceedingly graceful Franciscan church of San Salvadore al Monte--"the +purest vessel of Franciscan simplicity," a modern Italian poet has +called it--built by Cronaca in the last years of the fifteenth +century. It contains a few works by Giovanni della Robbia. It was as +he descended this hill with a few armed followers that Giovanni +Gualberto met and pardoned the murderer of his brother; a small chapel +or tabernacle, on the way up from the convent to San Miniato, still +marks the spot, but the Crucifix which is said to have bowed down its +head towards him is now preserved in Santa Trinita. + + [Illustration: THE FORTIFICATIONS OF MICHELANGELO] + +This Monte di San Francesco e di San Miniato overlooks the whole city, +and Florence lay at the mercy of whoever got possession of it. +Varchi in his history apologises for those architects who built the +walls of the city by reminding us that, in their days, artillery was +not even dreamed of, much less invented. Michelangelo armed the +campanile of San Miniato, against which the fiercest fire of the +imperialists was directed, and erected bastions covering the hill, +enclosing it, as it were, within the walls up from the Porta San +Miniato and down again to the Porta San Niccolo. It was intrusted to +the guard of Stefano Colonna, who finally joined Malatesta Baglioni in +betraying the city. Some bits of Michelangelo's work remain near the +Basilica, which itself is one of the most venerable edifices of the +kind in Tuscany; the earliest Florentine Christians are said to have +met here in the woods, during the reign of Nero, and here Saint +Miniatus, according to tradition the son of an Armenian king, lived in +his hermitage until martyred by Decius outside the present Porta alla +Croce. In the days of Gregory the Great, San Frediano of Lucca came +every year with his clergy to worship the relics of Miniatus; a +basilica already stood here in the time of Charlemagne; and the +present edifice is said to have been begun in 1013 by the Bishop +Alibrando, with the aid of the Emperor St Henry and his wife +Cunegunda. It was held by the Benedictines, first the black monks and +then the Olivetans who took it over from Gregory XI. in 1373. The new +Bishops of Florence, the first time they set foot out of the city, +came here to sing Mass. In 1553 the monastery was suppressed by Duke +Cosimo I., and turned into a fortress. + +San Miniato al Monte is one of the earliest and one of the finest +examples of the Tuscan Romanesque style of architecture. Both interior +and exterior are adorned with inlaid coloured marble, of simple +design, and the fine "nearly classical" pillars within are probably +taken from some ancient Roman building. Fergusson remarks that, but +for the rather faulty construction of the facade, "it would be +difficult to find a church in Italy containing more of classical +elegance, with perfect appropriateness for the purposes of Christian +worship." In the crypt beneath the altar is the tomb of San Miniato +and others of the Decian martyrs. The great mosaic on the upper part +of the apse was originally executed at the end of the thirteenth +century. The Early Renaissance chapel in the nave was constructed by +Michelozzo in 1448 for Piero dei Medici, to contain Giovanni +Gualberto's miraculous Crucifix. In the left aisle is the Cappella di +San Jacopo with the monument of the Cardinal James of Portugal, who +"lived in the flesh as if he were freed from it, like an Angel rather +than a man, and died in the odour of sanctity at the early age of +twenty-six," in 1459. This tomb by Antonio Rossellino is the third of +the "three finest Renaissance tombs in Tuscany," the other two being +those of Leonardo Bruni (1444) by Antonio's brother Bernardo, and +Carlo Marsuppini by Desiderio (1453), both of which we have seen in +Santa Croce. Mr Perkins observes that the present tomb preserves the +golden mean in point of ornament between the other two. The Madonna +and Child with the Angels, watching over the young Cardinal's repose, +are especially beautiful. The Virtues on the ceiling are by Luca della +Robbia, and the Annunciation opposite the tomb by Alessio +Baldovinetti. The Gothic sacristy was built for one of the great +Alberti family, Benedetto di Nerozzo, in 1387, and decorated shortly +after with a splendid series of frescoes by Spinello Aretino, setting +forth the life of St. Benedict. These are Spinello's noblest works and +the last great creation of the genuine school of Giotto. Especially +fine are the scenes with the Gothic king Totila, and the death and +apotheosis of the Saint, which latter may be compared with Giotto's +St. Francis in Santa Croce. The whole is like a painted chapter of St. +Gregory's Dialogues. + + [Illustration: PORTA SAN GIORGIO] + +The Porta San Miniato, below the hill, almost at the foot of the +Basilica, is little more than a gap in the wall. On both sides are the +arms of the Commune and the People, the Cross of the latter outside +the lily of the former. Upwards from the Porta San Miniato to the +Porta San Giorgio a glorious bit of the old wall remains, clad inside +and out with olives, running up the hillside of San Giorgio; even some +remnants of the old towers are standing, two indeed having been only +partially demolished. Beneath the former Medicean fortress and upper +citadel of Belvedere stands the Porta San Giorgio. This, although +small, is the most picturesque of all the gates of Florence. On its +outer side is a spirited bas-relief of St. George and the Dragon in +stone--of the end of the fourteenth century--over the lily of the +Commune; in the lunette, on the inner side, is a fresco painted in +1330--probably by Bernardo Daddi--of Santa Maria del Fiore enthroned +with the Divine Babe between St. George and St. Leonard. This was the +only gate held by the nobles in the great struggle of 1343, when the +banners of the people were carried across the bridge in triumph, and +the Bardi and Frescobaldi fought from street to street; through it the +magnates had secretly brought in banditti and retainers from the +country, and through it some of the Bardi fled when the people swept +down upon their palaces. Inside the gate the steep Via della Costa San +Giorgio winds down past Galileo's house to Santa Felicita. Outside the +gate the Via San Leonardo leads, between olive groves and vineyards, +into the Viale dei Colli. In the curious little church of San Leonardo +in Arcetri, on the left, is an old _ambone_ or pulpit from the +demolished church of San Piero Scheraggio, with ancient bas-reliefs. +This pulpit is traditionally supposed to have been a part of the +spoils in the destruction of Fiesole; it appears to belong to the +latter part of the twelfth century. + +The great Porta Romana, or Porta San Piero Gattolino, was originally +erected in 1328; it is still of imposing dimensions, though its +immediate surroundings are somewhat prosaic. Many a Pope and Emperor +has passed through here, to or from the eternal city; the marble +tablets on either side record the entrance of Leo X. in 1515, on his +way from Rome to Bologna to meet Francis I. of France, and of Charles +V. in 1536 to confirm the infamous Duke Alessandro on the throne--a +confirmation which the dagger of Lorenzino happily annulled in the +following year. It was here that Pope Leo's brother, Piero dei Medici, +had made his unsuccessful attempt to surprise the city on April 28th +1497, with some thousand men or more, horse and foot. A countryman at +daybreak had seen them resting and breakfasting on the way, some few +miles from the city; by taking short cuts over the country, he evaded +their scouts who were intercepting all persons passing northwards, and +reached Florence with the news just at the morning opening of the +gate. The result was that the Magnifico Piero and his braves found it +closed in their faces and the forces of the Signoria guarding the +walls, so, after ignominiously skulking for a few hours out of range +of the artillery, they fled back towards Siena. + +Near the Porta Romana the Viale dei Colli commences to the left, as +the Viale Machiavelli; and, straight on, the beautifully shady +Stradone del Poggio Imperiale runs up to the villa of that name, built +for Maria Maddalena of Austria in 1622. The statues at the beginning +of the road were once saints on the second facade of the Duomo. It was +on the rising ground that divides the Strada Romana from the present +Stradone that the famous convent of Monticelli stood, recorded in +Dante's _Paradiso_ and Petrarca's _Trionfo della Pudicizia_, in which +Piccarda Donati took the habit of St. Clare, and from which she was +dragged by her brother Corso to marry Rossellino della Tosa:-- + + "Perfetta vita ed alto merto inciela + donna piu su, mi disse, alla cui norma + nel vostro mondo giu si veste e vela, + + perche in fino al morir si vegghi e dorma + con quello sposo ch'ogni voto accetta, + che caritate a suo piacer conforma. + + Dal mondo, per seguirla, giovinetta + fuggi'mi, e nel suo abito mi chiusi, + e promisi la via della sua setta. + + Uomini poi, a mal piu ch'al bene usi, + fuor mi rapiron della dolce chiostra; + e Dio si sa qual poi mia vita fusi."[56] + + [56] "Perfected life and high desert enheaveneth a lady more aloft," + she said, "by whose rule down in your world there are who clothe and + veil themselves, + + That they, even till death, may wake and sleep with that Spouse who + accepteth every vow that love hath made conform with his good + pleasure. + + From the world, to follow her, I fled while yet a girl, and in her + habit I enclosed myself, and promised the way of her company. + + Thereafter men more used to ill than good tore me away from the sweet + cloister; and God doth know what my life then became."--_Paradiso_ + iii. Wicksteed's translation. + +It was at Poggio Imperiale, then called the Poggio dei Baroncelli, +that a famous combat took place during the early days of the siege, in +which Ludovico Martelli and Dante da Castiglione fought two +Florentines who were serving in the imperial army, Giovanni Bandini +and Bertino Aldobrandini. Both Martelli, the original challenger, and +Aldobrandini were mortally wounded. Martelli's real motive in sending +the challenge is said to have been that he and Bandini were rivals for +the favours of a Florentine lady, Marietta de' Ricci. Among the many +beautiful villas and gardens which stud the country beyond Poggio +Imperiale, are Galileo's Tower, from which he made his astronomical +observations, and the villa in which he was visited by Milton. Near +Santa Margherita a Montici, to the east, is the villa in which the +articles of capitulation were arranged by the Florentine ambassadors +with Ferrante Gonzaga, commander of the Imperial troops, and Baccio +Valori, commissary of the Pope. But already Malatesta had opened the +Porta Romana and turned his artillery against the city which he had +solemnly sworn to defend. + +Beyond the Porta Romana the road to the right of Poggio Imperiale +leads to the valley of the Ema, above which the great Certosa rises on +the hill of Montaguto. Shortly before reaching the monastery the Ema +is crossed--an insignificant stream in which Cacciaguida (in +_Paradiso_ xvi.) rather paradoxically regrets that Buondelmonte was +not drowned on his way to Florence: "Joyous had many been who now are +sad, had God committed thee unto the Ema the first time that thou +camest to the city." The Certosa itself, that "huge battlemented +convent-block over the little forky flashing Greve," as Browning calls +it, was founded by Niccolo Acciaiuoli, the Florentine Grand Seneschal +of Naples, in 1341; it is one of the finest of the later mediaeval +monasteries. Orcagna is said to have built one of the side chapels of +the church, which contains a fine early Giottesque altarpiece; and in +a kind of crypt there are noble tombs of the Acciaiuoli--one, the +monument of the founder, being possibly by Orcagna, and one of the +later ones ascribed (doubtfully) to Donatello. In the chapter-house +are a Crucifixion by Mariotto Albertinelli, and the monument of +Leonardo Buonafede by Francesco da San Gallo. From the convent and +further up the valley, there are beautiful views. About three miles +further on is the sanctuary and shrine of the Madonna dell' Impruneta, +built for the miraculous image of the Madonna, which was carried down +in procession to Florence in times of pestilence and danger. +Savonarola especially had placed great faith in the miraculous powers +of this image and these processions; and during the siege it remained +in Florence ceremoniously guarded in the Duomo, a kind of mystic +Palladium. + +Between the Porta Romana and Porta San Frediano some tracts of the +city wall remain, but the whole is painfully prosaic. The Porta San +Frediano itself is a massive structure, erected between 1324 and 1327, +possibly by Andrea Pisano; it need hardly be repeated that we cannot +judge of the original mediaeval appearance of the gates of Florence, +with their towers and ante-portals, even from the least mutilated of +their present remnants. It was through this gate that the Florentine +army passed in triumph in 1363 with their long trains of captured +Pisans; and here, after Pisa had shaken off for a while the yoke, +Charles of France rode in as a conqueror on November 17, 1494, +Savonarola's new Cyrus, and was solemnly received at the gate by the +Signoria. Within the gate a strip of wall runs down to the river, with +two later towers built by Medicean grand dukes. At the end is a chapel +built in 1856, and containing a Pieta from the walls of a demolished +convent--ascribed without warrant to Domenico Ghirlandaio. + +It was somewhere near here that S. Frediano, coming from Lucca to pay +his annual visit to the shrine of San Miniato, miraculously crossed +the Arno in flood. Outside the gate, a little off the Leghorn road to +the left, is the suppressed abbey of Monte Oliveto, and beyond it, to +the south, the hill of Bellosguardo--both points from which splendid +views of Florence and its surroundings are obtained. + +These dream-like glimpses of the City of Flowers, which every coign of +vantage seems to give us round Florence--might we not, sometimes, +imagine that we had stumbled unawares upon the Platonic City of the +Perfect? There are two lines from one of Dante's canzoni in praise of +his mystical lady that rise to our mind at every turn:-- + + "Io non la vidi tante volte ancora, + ch'io non trovassi in lei nuova bellezza," + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +_Conclusion_ + + +The setting of Florence is in every way worthy of the gem which it +encloses. On each side of the city and throughout its province +beautiful walks and drives lead to churches, villas and villages full +of historical interest or enriched with artistic treasures. I can here +merely indicate a very few such places. + +To the north of the city rises Fiesole on its hill, of which the +historical connection with Florence has been briefly discussed in +chapter i. At its foot stands the Dominican convent, in which Fra +Giovanni, whom we know better as the Beato Angelico, took the habit of +the order, and in which both his brother, Fra Benedetto, and himself +were in turn priors. Savonarola's fellow martyr, Fra Domenico da +Pescia, was likewise prior of this house. The church contains a +Madonna by Angelico, with the background painted in by Lorenzo di +Credi (its exquisitely beautiful predella is now one of the chief +ornaments of the National Gallery of London), a Baptism of Christ by +Lorenzo di Credi, and an Adoration of the Magi designed by Andrea del +Sarto and executed by Sogliani. A little to the left is the famous +Badia di Fiesole, originally of the eleventh century, but rebuilt for +Cosimo the Elder by Filippo Brunelleschi. It was one of Cosimo's +favourite foundations; Marsilio Ficino's Platonic Academy frequently +met in the loggia with its beautiful view towards the city. In the +church, Lorenzo's second son, Giovanni, was invested with the +Cardinalate in 1492; and here, in 1516, his third son, Giuliano, Duke +of Nemours, the best of the Medici, died. On the way up to Fiesole +itself is the handsome villa Mozzi, built for Giovanni di Cosimo de' +Medici by Michelozzo. It was in this villa that the Pazzi had +originally intended to murder Lorenzo and the elder Giuliano, but +their plan was frustrated by the illness of Giuliano, which prevented +his being present. + +In Fiesole itself, the remains of the Etruscan wall and the old +theatre tell of the classical Faesulae; its Tuscan Romanesque Duomo +(of the eleventh and twelfth centuries) recalls the days when the city +seemed a rival to Florence itself and was the resort of the robber +barons, who preyed upon her ever growing commerce. It contains +sculptures by Mino da Fiesole and that later Fiesolan, Andrea Ferrucci +(to whom we owe the bust of Marsilio Ficino), and a fine terracotta by +one of the Della Robbias. From the Franciscan convent, which occupies +the site of the old Roman citadel, a superb view of Florence and its +valley is obtained. From Fiesole, towards the south-east, we reach +Ponte a Mensola (also reached from the Porta alla Croce), the Mensola +of Boccaccio's _Ninfale fiesolano_, above which is Settignano, where +Desiderio was born and Michelangelo nurtured, and where Boccaccio had +a podere. The Villa Poggio Gherardo, below Settignano, shares with the +Villa Palmieri below Fiesole the distinction of being traditionally +one of those introduced into the _Decameron_. + +Northwestwards of the Badia of Fiesole runs the road from Florence to +Bologna, past the village of Trespiano, some three or four miles from +the Porta San Gallo. In the twelfth century Trespiano was the northern +boundary of Florentine territory, as Galluzzo--on the way towards the +Certosa and about two miles from the Porta Romana--was its southern +limit. Cacciaguida, in _Paradiso_ xvi., refers to this as an ideal +golden time when the citizenship "saw itself pure even in the lowest +artizan." A little way north of Trespiano, on the old Bolognese road, +is the Uccellatoio--referred to in canto xv.--the first point from +which Florence is visible. Below Trespiano, at La Lastra, rather more +than two miles from the city, the exiled Bianchi and Ghibellines, with +auxiliaries from Bologna and Arezzo, assembled in that fatal July of +1304. The leaders of the Neri were absent at Perugia, and, at the +first sight of the white standards waving from the hill, terror and +consternation filled their partisans throughout the city. Had their +enterprise been better organised, the exiles would undoubtedly have +captured Florence. Seeing that they were discovered, and urged on by +their friends within the city, without waiting for the Uberti, whose +cavalry was advancing from Pistoia to their support and whose +appointed day of coming they had anticipated, Baschiera della Tosa, in +spite of the terrible heat, ordered an immediate advance upon the +Porta San Gallo. The walls of the third circle were only in part built +at that epoch, and those of the second circle still stood with their +gates. The exiles, for the most part mounted, drew up round San Marco +and the Annunziata, "with white standards spread, with garlands of +olive and drawn swords, crying _peace_," writes Dino Compagni, who was +in Florence at the time, "without doing violence or plundering anyone. +A right goodly sight was it to see them, with the sign of peace thus +arrayed. The heat was so great, that it seemed that the very air +burned." But their friends within did not stir. They forced the Porta +degli Spadai which stood at the head of the present Via dei Martelli, +but were repulsed at the Piazza San Giovanni and the Duomo, and the +sudden blazing up of a palace in the rear completed their rout. Many +fell on the way, simply from the heat, while the Neri, becoming +fierce-hearted like lions, as Compagni says, hotly pursued them, +hunting out those who had hidden themselves among the vineyards and +houses, hanging all they caught. In their flight, a little way from +Florence, the exiles met Tolosato degli Uberti hastening up with his +Ghibellines to meet them on the appointed day. Tolosato, a fierce +captain and experienced in civil war, tried in vain to rally them, +and, when all his efforts proved unavailing, returned to Pistoia +declaring that the youthful rashness of Baschiera had lost him the +city. Dante had taken no part in the affair; he had broken with his +fellow exiles in the previous year, and made a party for himself as he +tells us in the _Paradiso_. + +To the west and north-west of Florence are several interesting villas +of the Medici. The Villa Medicea in Careggi, the most famous of all, +is not always accessible. It is situated in the loveliest country, +within a short walk of the tramway station of Ponte a Rifredi. Built +originally by Michelozzo for Cosimo the Elder, it was almost burned +down by a band of republican youths shortly before the siege. Here +Cosimo died, consoling his last hours with Marsilio Ficino's +Platonics; here the elder Piero lived in retirement, too shattered in +health to do more than nominally succeed his father at the head of the +State. On August 23rd 1466, there was an attempt made to murder Piero +as he was carried into Florence from Careggi in his litter. A band of +armed men, in the pay of Luca Pitti and Dietisalvi Neroni, lay in wait +for the litter on the way to the Porta Faenza; but young Lorenzo, who +was riding on in advance of his father's cortege, came across them +first, and, without appearing to take any alarm at the meeting, +secretly sent back a messenger to bid his father take another way. +Under Lorenzo himself, this villa became the centre of the +Neo-Platonic movement; and here on November 7th, the day supposed to +be the anniversary of Plato's birth and death, the famous banquet was +held at which Marsilio Ficino and the chosen spirits of the Academy +discussed and expounded the _Symposium_. Here on April 8th 1492, the +Magnifico died (see chap. iii.). In the same neighbourhood, a little +further on in the direction of Pistoia, are the villas of Petraia and +Castello (for both of which _permessi_ are given at the Pitti Palace, +together with that for Poggio a Caiano), both reminiscent of the +Medicean grand ducal family; in the latter Cosimo I. lived with his +mother, Maria Salviati, before his accession to the throne, and here +he died in 1574. + +Also beyond the Porta al Prato (about an hour and a half by the +tramway from behind Santa Maria Novella), is the Villa Reale of Poggio +a Caiano, superbly situated where the Pistoian Apennines begin to rise +up from the plain. The villa was built by Giuliano da San Gallo for +Lorenzo, and the Magnifico loved it best of all his country houses. It +was here that he wrote his _Ambra_ and his _Caccia col Falcone_; in +both of these poems the beautiful scenery round plays its part. When +Pope Clement VII. sent the two boys, Ippolito and Alessandro, to +represent the Medici in Florence, Alessandro generally stayed here, +while Ippolito resided within the city in the palace in the Via Larga. +When Charles V. came to Florence in 1536 to confirm Alessandro upon +the throne, he declared that this villa "was not the building for a +private citizen." Here, too, the Grand Duke Francesco and Bianca +Cappello died, on October 19th and 20th, 1587, after entertaining the +Cardinal Ferdinando, who thus became Grand Duke; it was said that +Bianca had attempted to poison the Cardinal, and that she and her +husband had themselves eaten of the pasty that she had prepared for +him. It appears, however, that there is no reason for supposing that +their deaths were other than natural. At present the villa is a royal +country house, in which reminiscences of the Re Galantuomo clash +rather oddly with those of the Medicean Princes. All round runs a +loggia with fine views, and there are an uninteresting park and +garden. The classical portico is noteworthy, all the rest being of the +utmost simplicity. + +Within the palace a large room, with a remarkably fine ceiling by +Giuliano da San Gallo, is decorated with a series of frescoes from +Roman history intended to be typical of events in the lives of Cosimo +the Elder and Lorenzo the Magnificent. Vasari says that, for a villa, +this is _la piu bella sala del mondo_. The frescoes, ordered by Pope +Leo X. and the Cardinal Giulio, under the direction of Ottaviano dei +Medici, were begun by Andrea dei Sarto, Francia Bigio and Jacopo da +Pontormo, left unfinished for more than fifty years, and then +completed by Alessandro Allori for the Grand Duke Francesco. The +Triumph of Cicero, by Francia Bigio, is supposed to typify the return +of Cosimo from exile in 1434; Caesar receiving tribute from Egypt, by +Andrea del Sarto, refers to the coming of an embassy from the Soldan +to Lorenzo in 1487, with magnificent gifts and treasures. Andrea's +fresco is full of curious beasts and birds, including the long-eared +sheep which Lorenzo naturalised in the grounds of the villa, and the +famous giraffe which the Soldan sent on this occasion and which, as Mr +Armstrong writes, "became the most popular character in Florence," +until its death at the beginning of 1489. The Regent of France, Anne +of Beaujeu, made ineffectual overtures to Lorenzo to get him to make +her a present of the strange beast. This fresco was left unfinished +on the death of Pope Leo in 1521, and finished by Alessandro Allori in +1582. The charming mythological decorations between the windows are by +Jacopo da Pontormo. The two later frescoes by Alessandro Allori, +painted about 1580, represent Scipio in the house of Syphax and +Flamininus in Greece, which typify Lorenzo's visit to Ferrante of +Naples, in 1480, and his presence at the Diet of Cremona in 1483, on +which latter occasion, as Mr Armstrong puts it, "his good sense and +powers of expression and persuasion gave him an importance which the +military weakness of Florence denied to him in the field"--but the +result was little more than a not very honourable league of the +Italian powers against Venice. The Apples of the Hesperides, and the +rest of the mythological decorations in continuation of Pontormo's +lunette, are also Allori's. The whole has an air of regal triumph +without needless parade. + +The road should be followed beyond the villa, in order to ascend to +the left to the little church among the hills. A superb view is +obtained over the plain to Florence beyond the Villa Reale lying below +us. Behind, we are already among the Apennines. A beautiful glimpse of +Prato can be seen to the left, four miles away. + +Prato itself is about twelve miles from Florence. It was a gay little +town in the fifteenth century, when it witnessed "brother Lippo's +doings, up and down," and heard Messer Angelo Poliziano's musical +sighings for the love of Madonna Ippolita Leoncina. A few years later +it listened to the voice of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, and at last its +bright day of prosperity ended in the horrible sack and carnage from +the Spanish soldiery under Raimondo da Cardona in 1512. Its +Duomo--dedicated to St. Stephen and the Baptist--a Tuscan Romanesque +church completed in the Gothic style by Giovanni Pisano, with a fine +campanile built at the beginning of the fourteenth century, claims to +possess a strange and wondrous relic: nothing less than the Cintola or +Girdle of the Blessed Virgin, delivered by her--according to a pious +and poetical legend--to St. Thomas at her Assumption, and then won +back for Christendom by a native of Prato, Michele Dagonari, in the +Crusades. Be that as it may, what purports to be this relic is +exhibited on occasions in the Pulpito della Cintola on the exterior of +the Duomo, a magnificent work by Donatello and Michelozzo, in which +the former master has carved a wonderful series of dancing genii +hardly, if at all, inferior to those more famous bas-reliefs executed +a little later for the cantoria of Santa Maria del Fiore. Within, over +the entrance wall, is a picture by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio of the Madonna +giving the girdle to the Thomas who had doubted. And in the chapel on +the left (with a most beautifully worked bronze screen, with a lovely +frieze of cupids, birds and beasts--the work of Bruno Lapi and +Pasquino di Matteo, 1444-1461), the Cintola is preserved amid frescoes +by Agnolo Gaddi setting forth the life of Madonna, her granting of +Prato's treasure to St Thomas at the Assumption, and its discovery by +Michele Dagonari. + +The church is rich in works of Florentine art--a pulpit by Mino da +Fiesole and Antonio Rossellino; the Madonna dell' Ulivo by Giuliano da +Maiano; frescoes said to be in part by Masolino's reputed master +Starnina in the chapel to the right of the choir. But Prato's great +artistic glory must be sought in Fra Lippo Lippi's frescoes in the +choir, painted between 1452 and 1464. These are the great achievements +of the Friar's life. On the left is the life of St. Stephen, on the +right that of the Baptist. They show very strongly the influence of +Masaccio, and make us understand why the Florentines said that the +spirit of Masaccio had entered into the body of Fra Filippo. Inferior +to Masaccio in most respects, Filippo had a feeling for facial beauty +and spiritual expression, and for a certain type of feminine grace +which we hardly find in his prototype. The wonderful figure of the +dancing girl in Herod's banquet, and again her naive bearing when she +kneels before her mother with the martyr's head, oblivious of the +horror of the spectators and merely bent upon showing us her own sweet +face, are characteristic of Lippo, as also, in another way, his +feeling for boyhood shown in the little St. John's farewell to his +parents. The Burial of St. Stephen is full of fine Florentine +portraits in the manner of the Carmine frescoes. The dignified +ecclesiastic at the head of the clergy is Carlo dei Medici, the +illegitimate son of Cosimo. On the extreme right is Lippo himself. +Carlo looks rather like a younger, more refined edition of Leo X. + +It was while engaged upon these frescoes that Lippo Lippi was +commissioned by the nuns of Santa Margherita to paint a Madonna for +them, and took the opportunity of carrying off Lucrezia Buti, a +beautiful girl staying in the convent who had sat to him as the +Madonna, during one of the Cintola festivities. Lippo appears to have +been practically unfrocked at this time, but he refused the +dispensation of the Pope who wished him to marry her legally, as he +preferred to live a loose life. Between the station and the Duomo you +can see the house where they lived and where Filippino Lippi was born. +Opposite the convent of Santa Margherita is a tabernacle containing a +wonderfully beautiful fresco by Filippino, a Madonna and Child with +Angels, adored by St. Margaret and St. Catherine, St. Antony and St. +Stephen. All the faces are of the utmost loveliness, and the +Catherine especially is like a foretaste of Luini's famous fresco at +Milan. In the town picture gallery there are four pictures ascribed to +Lippo Lippi--all four of rather questionable authenticity--and one by +Filippino, a Madonna and Child with St. Stephen and the Baptist, +which, although utterly ruined, appears to be genuine. The Protomartyr +and the Precursor seem always inseparable throughout the faithful +little city of the Cintola. + +Prato can likewise boast some excellent terracotta works by Andrea +della Robbia, both outside the Duomo and in the churches of Our Lady +of Good Counsel and Our Lady of the Prisons. This latter church, the +Madonna delle Carceri, reared by Giuliano da San Gallo between 1485 +and 1491, is perhaps the most beautiful and most truly classical of +all Early Renaissance buildings in Tuscany. + +Ten miles beyond Prato lies Pistoia, at the very foot of the +Apennines, the city of Dante's friend and correspondent, Messer Cino, +the poet of the golden haired Selvaggia, he who sang the dirge of +Caesar Henry; the centre of the fiercest faction struggles of Italian +history. It was the Florentine traditional policy to keep Pisa by +fortresses and Pistoia by factions. It lies, however, beyond the scope +of the present book, with the other Tuscan cities that owned the sway +of the great Republic. San Gemignano, that most wonderful of all the +smaller towns of Tuscany, the city of "the fair towers," of Santa Fina +and of the gayest of mediaeval poets, Messer Folgore, comes into +another volume of this series. + +But it is impossible to conclude even the briefest study of Florence +without a word upon that Tuscan Earthly Paradise, the Casentino and +upper valley of the Arno, although it lies for the most part not in +the province of Florence but in that of Arezzo. It is best reached by +the diligence which runs from Pontassieve over the Consuma Pass--where +Arnaldo of Brescia, who lies in the last horrible round of Dante's +Malebolge, was burned alive for counterfeiting the golden florins of +Florence--to Stia.[57] A whole chapter of Florentine history may be +read among the mountains of the Casentino, writ large upon its castles +and monasteries. If the towers of San Gemignano give us still the +clearest extant picture of the life led by the nobles and magnates +when forced to enter the cities, we can see best in the Casentino how +they exercised their feudal sway and maintained for a while their +independence of the burgher Commune. The Casentino was ruled by the +Conti Guidi, that great clan whose four branches--the Counts of +Romena, the Counts of Porciano, the Counts of Battifolle and Poppi, +the Counts of Dovadola (to whom Bagno in Romagna and Pratovecchio here +appear to have belonged)--sprang from the four sons of Gualdrada, +Bellincion Berti's daughter. Poppi remains a superb monument of the +power and taste of these "Counts Palatine of Tuscany"; its palace on a +small scale resembles the Palazzo Vecchio of Florence. Romena and +Porciano, higher up stream, overhanging Pratovecchio and Stia, have +been immortalised by the verse and hallowed by the footsteps of Dante +Alighieri. Beneath the hill upon which Poppi stands, an old bridge +still spans the Arno, upon which the last of the Conti Guidi, the +Count Francesco, surrendered in 1440 to the Florentine commissary, +Neri Capponi. After the second expulsion of the Medici from Florence, +Piero and Giuliano for some time lurked in the Casentino, with +Bernardo Dovizi at Bibbiena. + + [57] The lover of Florentine history cannot readily tear himself away + from the Casentino. The Albergo Amorosi at Bibbiena, almost at the + foot of La Verna, makes delightful headquarters. There is an excellent + _Guida illustrata del Casentino_ by C. Beni. For the Conti Guidi, + Witte's essay should be consulted; it is translated in _Witte's Essays + on Dante_ by C. M. Lawrence and P. H. Wicksteed. La Verna will be + fully dealt with in the Assisi volume of this series, so I do not + describe it here. + +Throughout the Casentino Dante himself should be our guide. There is +hardly another district in Italy so intimately connected with the +divine poet; save only Florence and Ravenna, there is, perhaps, none +where we more frequently need to have recourse to the pages of the +_Divina Commedia_. With the _Inferno_ in our hands, we seek out Count +Alessandro's castle of Romena and what purports to be the Fonte +Branda, below the castle to the left, for whose waters--even to cool +the thirst of Hell--Maestro Adamo would not have given the sight of +his seducer sharing his agony. With the _Purgatorio_ we trace the +course of the Arno from where, a mere _fiumicello_, it takes its rise +in Falterona, and runs down past Porciano and Poppi to sweep away from +the Aretines, "turning aside its muzzle in disdain." There is a +tradition that Dante was imprisoned in the castle of Porciano. We know +that he was the guest of various members of the Conti Guidi at +different times during his exile; it was from one of their castles, +probably Poppi, that on March 31st and April 16th, 1311, he directed +his two terrible letters to the Florentine government and to the +Emperor Henry. It was in the Casentino, too, that he composed the +Canzone _Amor, dacche convien pur ch'io mi doglia_, "Love, since I +needs must make complaint," one of the latest and most perplexing of +his lyrics. + +The battlefield of Campaldino lies beyond Poppi, on the eastern side +of the river, near the old convent and church of Certomondo, founded +some twenty or thirty years before by two of the Conti Guidi to +commemorate the great Ghibelline victory of Montaperti, but now to +witness the triumph of the Guelfs. The Aretines, under their Bishop +and Buonconte da Montefeltro, had marched up the valley along the +direction of the present railway to Bibbiena, to check the ravages of +the Florentines who, with their French allies, had made their way +through the mountains above Pratovecchio and were laying waste the +country of the Conti Guidi. It was on the Feast of St. Barnabas, 1289, +that the two armies stood face to face, and Dante riding in the +Florentine light cavalry, if the fragment of a letter preserved to us +by Leonardo Bruni be authentic, "had much dread and at the end the +greatest gladness, by reason of the varying chances of that battle." +There are no relics of the struggle to be found in Certomondo; only a +very small portion of the cloisters remains, and the church itself +contains nothing of note save an Annunciation by Neri di Bicci. But +about an hour's walk from the battlefield, perhaps a mile from the +foot of the hill on which Bibbiena stands, is a spot most sacred to +all lovers of Dante. Here the stream of the Archiano, banked with +poplars and willows, flows into the Arno; and here, at the close of +that same terrible and glorious day, Buonconte da Montefeltro died of +his wounds, gasping out the name of Mary. At evening the nightingales +are loud around the spot, but their song is less sweet then the +ineffable stanzas in the fifth canto of the _Purgatorio_ in which +Dante has raised an imperishable monument to the young Ghibelline +warrior. + +But, more famous than its castles or even its Dantesque memories, the +Casentino is hallowed by its noble sanctuaries of Vallombrosa, +Camaldoli, La Verna. Less noted but still very interesting is the +Dominican church and convent of the Madonna del Sasso, just below +Bibbiena on the way towards La Verna, hallowed with memories of +Savonarola and the Piagnoni, and still a place of devout pilgrimage to +Our Lady of the Rock. There is a fine Assumption in its church, +painted by Fra Paolino from Bartolommeo's cartoon. Vallombrosa and +Camaldoli, founded respectively by Giovanni Gualberto and Romualdus, +have shared the fate of all such institutions in modern Italy. + +La Verna remains undisturbed, that "harsh rock between Tiber and +Arno," as Dante calls it, where Francis "received from Christ the +final seal;" the sacred mountain from which, on that September morning +before the dawn, so bright a light of Divine Love shone forth to +rekindle the mediaeval world, that all the country seemed aflame, as +the crucified Seraph uttered the words of mystery--_Tu sei il mio +Gonfaloniere_: "Thou art my standard-bearer." To enter the precincts +of this sacred place, under the arch hewn out from between the rocks, +is like a first introduction to the spirit of the _Divina Commedia_. + + "Non est in toto sanctior orbe mons." + +For here, at least, is one spot left in the world, where, although +Renaissance and Reformation, Revolution and Risorgimento, have swept +round it, the Middle Ages still reign a living reality, in their +noblest aspect, with the _poverelli_ of the Seraphic Father; and the +mystical light, that shone out on the day of the Stigmata, still +burns: "while the eternal ages watch and wait." + + [Illustration: FLORENCE] + + + + + TABLE OF THE MEDICI + + GIOVANNI DI AVERARDO (GIOVANNI BICCI) 1360-1429, m. Piccarda Bueri. + ____________|______________________(continued below) + COSIMO (Pater Patriae), 1389-1464, m. Contessina dei Bardi. + _____________________________|________________ + | | | + PIERO (il Gottoso) GIOVANNI, CARLO, + 1416-1469, 1424-1463, (illegitimate), + m. Lucrezia Tornabuoni. m. Ginevra degli d. 1492. + Alessandri. + ___|______________________________________________ + | | | | + LORENZO, GIULIANO, BIANCA, NANNINA, + (the Magnificent), 1453-1478. m. Guglielmo m. Bernardo + 1449-1492, | dei Pazzi. Rucellai. + m. Clarice Orsini. | + | GIULIO (illegitimate), + | d. 1534, + | (Pope Clement VII.) + __|_____________________________________________________________ + | | | | | + PIERO, GIOVANNI, GIULIANO, LUCREZIA, MADDALENA, + 1471-1503, 1475-1521, (Duke of Nemours), m. Giacomo m. Franceschetto + m. Alfonsina (Pope Leo X.) 1479-1516, Salviati. Cibo. + Orsini. m. Filiberta of | + | Savoy. | + ___|________________ | __|_____________ + | | | | | + LORENZO, CLARICE, IPPOLITO,[58] MARIA, FRANCESCA, + (titular Duke m. Filippo (Illegitimate), m. Giovanni m. Ottaviano + of Urbino), Strozzi 1511-1535, delle Bande dei Medici. + 1492-1519, (Cardinal). Nere. | + m. Madeleine de Alessandro, + la Tour d'Auvergne. d. 1605, + _|______________ (Pope Leo XI.) + | | + ALESSANDRO,[59] CATERINA, + (Illegitimate), 1519-1589, + d. 1537, m. Henri II. + m. Margherita of France. + of Austria. + + [58][59] _The parentage of Ippolito and Alessandro is somewhat uncertain. The + former was probably Giuliano's son by a lady of Pesaro, the latter probably + the son of Lorenzo by a mulatto woman._ + + -----------continued from above + ___________________ + | + LORENZO, 1395-1440, m. Ginevra Cavalcanti. + | + PIERO FRANCESCO, + d. 1467 (or 1476), + m. Laudomia Acciaiuoli. + _______________|_______ + | | + LORENZO, d. 1503, GIOVANNI, d. 1498, + m. Semiramide Appini. m. Caterina Sforza. + | | + PIER FRANCESCO, GIOVANNI, ("delle Bande + d. 1525, Nere"), 1498-1526, + m. Maria Soderini. m. Maria Salviati. + __|__________________________ |____________ + | | | | + LORENZO, LAUDOMIA, MADDALENA, COSIMO I. + ("Lorenzino" m. Piero m. Roberto (Grand Duke), + or Strozzi. Strozzi. 1519-1574, + "Lorenzaccio"), m. Eleonora of Toledo + 1514-1547. (and Cammilla Martelli) + _____________________________________|_____ + | | | | + FRANCESCO I., GIOVANNI, GARZIA, FERDINAND I., + 1541-1587, d. 1562. d. 1562. 1549-1609, + m. Joanna of m. Christina of + Austria (and Lorraine. + Bianca Cappello). ______| + | | + MARIA COSIMO II., + m. Henri IV. 1590-1621, + of France m. Maria Maddalena + of Austria. + | + FERDINAND II., + 1610-1670. + | + COSIMO III., + 1642-1723. + | + GIOVANNI GASTONE, + 1671-1737. + + + + +CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX OF ARCHITECTS, SCULPTORS & PAINTERS + +(_Names of non-Italians in italics_) + + + ARCHITECTS AND SCULPTORS + + Niccolo Pisano (circa 1206-1278), 32, 254, 349. + + Fra Sisto (died 1289), 359. + + Fra Ristoro da Campi (died 1283), 359. + + Arnolfo di Cambio (1232?-1300 or 1310), 41, 65, 66, 146-149, 184, + 205, 211, 228, 231, 242, 248, 265, 269, 274, 333, 334, 372. + + Giovanni Pisano (circa 1250-after 1328), 32, 254, 416. + + Giotto da Bondone. See under Painters. + + Andrea Pisano (1270-1348), 65, 67, 225, 254, 255, 260-263, 408. + + Fra Giovanni da Campi (died 1339), 359. + + Taddeo Gaddi. See under Painters. + + Fra Jacopo Talenti da Nipozzano (died 1362), 359, 366. + + Nino Pisano (died 1368), 271. + + Andrea Orcagna. See under Painters. + + Francesco Talenti (died after 1387), 65, 67, 189, 260, 265, 266. + + Pietro di Migliore (middle of fourteenth century), 196. + + Alberto Arnoldi (died circa 1378), 264. + + Simone di Francesco Talenti (end of fourteenth century), 156, + 189, 190, 198, 203. + + Benci di Cione (latter half of fourteenth century), 156, 189, + 203, 216. + + Neri di Fioraventi (latter half of fourteenth century) 203, 216. + + Giovanni di Ambrogio (last quarter of fourteenth century), 157. + + Jacopo di Piero (last quarter of fourteenth century), 157. + + Piero di Giovanni Tedesco (end of Trecento), 216, 270. + + Niccolo di Piero Lamberti da Arezzo (1360?-1444?), 193, 216, 263, + 270, 272, 276. + + Nanni di Antonio di Banco (died in 1421), 97, 190, 193, 194, + 272-274, 276, 304. + + Jacopo della Quercia (1371-1438), 272. + + Bicci di Lorenzo. See under Painters. + + Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), 80, 97, 222, 237, 242, 243, + 266, 269, 274, 289, 290, 291, 301, 325, 328, 347, 354, 363, + 377, 389, 409. + + Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), 11, 95, 97, 193, 195, 222, 232, + 255-258, 275-277, 329, 363. + + Bernardo Ciuffagni (1381-1457), 275, 276. + + Donatello, Donate di Betto Bardi (1386-1466), 76, 80, 97, 150, + 157, 190, 193-195, 209, 220, 221, 223, 232, 236, 237, 243, 253, + 263, 264, 270, 272, 274, 275, 277, 280-282, 286, 363, 371, 380. + + Michelozzo Michelozzi (1396-1472), 77, 80, 98, 150, 193, 242, + 253, 277, 284, 302, 310, 322, 327, 377, 402, 410, 412, 416. + + Luca della Robbia (1399-1482), 98, 193, 194, 195, 210, 223, 225, + 243, 263, 276, 277, 281, 288, 371, 402. + + Leo (Leone) Battista Alberti (1405-1472), 98, 328, 354, 359. + + Bernardo Rossellino (1409-1464), 98, 235, 236, 354, 361. + + Vecchietta (1410-1480), 222. + + Antonio Rossellino (1427-1478), 98, 224, 371, 402, 416. + + Desiderio da Settignano (1428-1464), 98, 225, 237, 243, 290, 349, + 371, 410. + + Antonio Pollaiuolo (1429-1498), 87, 98, 99, 167, 168, 175, 222, + 224, 280, 281, 395. + + Mino da Fiesole (1431-1484), 82, 98, 212, 225, 242, 410, 416. + + Giuliano da Maiano (1432-1490), 98, 416. + + Andrea Verrocchio (1435-1488), 11, 86, 98, 99, 150, 168, 174, + 195, 222, 224, 225, 280, 281, 292, 298, 318, 329. + + Matteo Civitali (1435-1501), 224, 225. + + Andrea della Robbia (1435-1525), 98, 223, 325, 329, 347, 354, + 355, 371, 418. + + Benedetto da Maiano (1442-1497), 98, 153, 224, 225, 235, 274, + 353, 365. + + Bertoldo (died 1491), 101, 222, 290, 298. + + Giuliano da San Gallo (1445-1516), 98, 330, 351, 389, 413, 414, + 418. + + Cronaca, Simone del Pollaiuolo (1457-1508), 98, 150, 230, 353, + 389, 398. + + Benedetto Buglione (1461-1521), 211. + + Caparra, Niccolo Grosso (worker in metal, latter half of + fifteenth century), 353. + + Andrea Ferrucci da Fiesole (1465-1526), 220, 274, 410. + + Baccio d'Agnolo (1462-1543), 377, 389. + + Giovanni della Robbia (1469-1527), 98, 223, 238, 365, 371, 398. + + Andrea Sansovino (circa 1460-1529), 258. + + Baccio da Montelupo (1469-1535), 194. + + Benedetto da Rovezzano (1474-1552), 13, 219, 276, 349, 395. + + Giovanni Francesco Rustici (1474-1554), 255, 256, 325. + + Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), 2, 101, 102, 137, 138, + 142-145, 151, 152, 162, 164-166, 183, 216, 219, 220, 223, + 225-227, 235, 258, 266, 275, 276, 282, 289, 291-296, 298, + 314, 315, 322, 339, 349, 385, 388, 397, 398, 401, 410. + + Jacopo Sansovino (1486-1570), 225, 275, 326. + + Baccio Bandinelli (1487-1559), 150, 152, 288. + + Francesco da San Gallo (1494-1576), 198, 291, 407. + + Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), 145, 150, 154, 157, 223, 284, 285, + 349. + + Raffaello di Baccio da Montelupo (1505-1566), 296. + + Fra Giovanni Agnolo da Montorsoli (1506-1563), 296. + + Battista del Tasso (died 1555), 200. + + Bartolommeo Ammanati (1511-1592), 154, 346, 379. + + Giorgio Vasari (1512-1574), 67, 87, 140, 145, 149, 151, 152, 155, + 160, 172, 231, 235, 275, et passim. + + Giovanni da Bologna (1524-1608), 145, 154, 157, 195, 216, 223, + 301, 325. + + Vincenzo Danti, (1530-1576), 216, 233, 255, 258. + + Bernardo Buontalenti (1536-1608), 199, 298, 375. + + + PAINTERS + + Fra Jacopo, worker in mosaic (working in 1225), 249. + + Giovanni Cimabue (1240-1302), 66, 243, 244, 321, 361. + + Andrea Tafi, worker in mosaic (1250?-1320?), 249. + + Gaddo Gaddi (circa 1259-1333), 273. + + Duccio di Buoninsegna (circa 1260-1339), 361. + + Giotto da Bondone (1276?-1336), 32, 56, 65, 66, 67, 69, 163, 222, + 238-241, 242, 259-263, 265, 274, 298, 322, 323, 361, 366, 372, + 403. + + Simone Martini (1283-1344), 67, 163, 366 + + Lippo Memmi (died 1356), 163. + + Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti (died circa 1348), 67, 163, 323. + + Taddeo Gaddi (circa 1300-1366), 67, 189, 222, 241, 322, 341, 366. + + Bernardo Daddi (died in 1350), 67, 197, 238, 404. + + Giottino, Giotto di Stefano (died after 1369), 163, 226. + + Puccio Capanna (flourished circa 1350), 372. + + Maso di Banco (working in middle of Trecento), 226, 237. + + Pietro Cavallini (died circa 1360), 323. + + Giovanni da Milano (died after 1360), 67, 163, 323, 395. + + Leonardo Orcagna (born before 1308), 362. + + Andrea Orcagna (1308-1368), 11, 65, 68, 69, 156, 185, 189, 196, + 197, 210, 224, 264, 362, 363, 366, 367, 407. + + Agnolo Gaddi (died 1396), 67, 157, 163, 238, 242, 322, 416. + + Cennino Cennini (end of Trecento), 226. + + Spinello Aretino (1333-1410), 68, 370, 395, 402, 403. + + Gherardo Starnina (1354-1408), 391, 416. + + Don Lorenzo, il Monaco (1370-1425), 163, 178, 180, 308, 322, 350. + + Gentile da Fabriano (1370-1450), 321, 322, 396. + + Bicci di Lorenzo (1373-1452), 277, 329. + + Masolino (born circa 1384, died after 1435), 99, 391-395, 416. + + Masaccio (1401-1428), 74, 76, 95, 99, 102, 169, 318, 391-395, + 417. + + Fra Giovanni Angelico (1387-1455), 99, 167, 175, 176, 178, 181, + 183, 301-304, 306-310, 315, 316, 322, 328, 356, 409. + + Andrea del Castagno (1396?-1457), 99, 273, 327, 329, 335, 336. + + Domenico Veneziano (died 1461), 99, 180, 236, 335, 387. + + Paolo Uccello (1397-1475), 99, 163, 257, 273, 275, 366. + + Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-1469), 80, 99, 170, 175, 287, 290, 316, + 318-321, 333, 386, 390, 415-418. + + Piero della Francesca (1415-1492), 174. + + Neri di Bicci (1419-1491), 163, 396, 421. + + Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1498), 79, 87, 257, 287, 288, 316, 330. + + Domenico di Michelino (working in 1461), 277. + + Francesco Pesellino (1422-1457), 227, 318. + + Alessio Baldovinetti (1427-1499), 163, 326, 364, 402. + + Antonio Pollaiuolo. See under Sculptors. + + Giovanni Bellini (circa 1428-1516), 162, 177. + + Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506), 165, 168, 176, 177, 183, 365. + + Andrea Verrocchio. See under Sculptors. + + _Hans Memlinc_ (circa 1435-1495), 177. + + Cosimo Rosselli (1439-1507), 100, 164, 326, 329, 330, 333. + + Piero Pollaiuolo (1443-1496), 164, 174. + + Luca Signorelli (1441-1523), 100, 164, 166, 174, 175, 320, 321, + 352, 387. + + _Hugo Van der Goes_ (died 1482), 330. + + Pietro Vannucci, Perugino (1446-1523), 165, 167, 168, 316, 319, + 321, 328, 389, 330, 336, 383. + + Alessandro Filipepi, Sandro Botticelli (1447-1510), 87, 89, 94, + 97, 100, 160, 168, 169, 170, 173, 174, 175, 178-181, 210, 279, + 291, 317, 318, 320, 321, 352, 365, 372, 379, 395. + + Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494), 11, 74, 100, 101, 168, 174, + 181, 242, 272, 320, 323, 324, 326, 350, 351, 363, 364, 371, + 372. + + Francesco Raibolini, Francia (1450-1517), 165. + + David Ghirlandaio (1452-1525), 101, 364. + + Sebastiano Mainardi (died 1513), 222, 242, 364. + + Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), 66, 99, 100, 101, 137, 138, 151, + 162, 169, 170, 174, 183, 256, 298, 318, 349, 386, 393. + + Filippino Lippi (1457-1504), 7, 14, 94, 100, 162, 169, 172, 173, + 212, 321, 352, 365, 387, 389, 392, 395, 417, 418. + + Lorenzo di Credi (1459-1537), 11, 100, 101, 168, 173, 174, 175, + 210, 277, 321, 409. + + Piero di Cosimo (1462-1521), 100, 101, 139, 164, 170, 210, 325. + + Lorenzo Costa (circa 1460-1535), 387. + + Raffaellino del Garbo (1466-1524), 321, 351, 389. + + Raffaellino di Carlo (1470-1516), 352, 389. + + Boccaccino da Cremona (died 1518), 386. + + Timoteo Viti (1469-1523), 382. + + Francesco Granacci (1469-1543), 101, 173, 298, 318, 395. + + _Albert Duerer_ (1471-1528), 165, 177, 324. + + Mariotto Albertinelli (1474-1515), 137-139, 171, 210, 320, 323, + 329, 387, 407. + + Michelangelo Buonarroti. See under Architects and Sculptors. + + Fra Bartolommeo (1475-1517), 137-139, 164, 167, 170-172, 183, + 301-303, 307, 309, 320, 321, 323, 329, 380, 383, 384, 387. + + Bernardino Luini (1475-1533), 165, 418. + + Morto da Feltre (1475?-1522?), 384. + + Giorgio Barbarelli, Giorgione (1477-1511), 162, 164, 167, 177, + 381, 384. + + Tiziano Vecelli, Titian (1477-1576), 162, 165, 167, 177, 178, + 253, 380, 381, 383, 384-386, 387. + + Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, Sodoma (1477-1549), 170. + + Dosso Dossi (1479-1542), 162, 383. + + Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1555), 384. + + Francia Bigio (1482-1525), 164, 324-327, 414. + + Raffaello Sanzio, Raphael (1483-1520), 138, 151, 152, 162, 164, + 165, 183, 258, 321, 335, 336, 352, 381-385, 393, 394. + + Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (1483-1561), 12, 153, 171, 381, 416. + + Sebastiano del Piombo (1485-1547), 164, 387. + + Andrea del Sarto (1486-1531), 138, 139, 142, 162, 169, 171, 182, + 318, 320, 324-328, 334, 352, 381-386, 414. + + Giovanni da Udine (1487-1564), 296. + + Fra Paolino da Pistoia (1490-1547), 323, 412. + + Giovanni Antonio Sogliani (1492-1544), 303, 409. + + Giulio Romano (1492-1546), 383, 384. + + Antonio Allegri da Correggio (1494-1534), 166, 167, 176, 253. + + Rosso Fiorentino (1494-1541), 223, 327, 329, 384. + + Jacopo da Pontormo (1494-1557), 144, 145, 172, 310, 327, 414, + 415. + + _Lucas Van Leyden_ (1494-1533), 165. + + Angelo Bronzino (1502-1572), 82, 145, 154, 170, 171, 182, 290. + + Michele di Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (1503-1577), 334, 372. + + Daniele Ricciarelli, da Volterra (1509-1566), 223, 227. + + Francesco Salviati (1510-1563), 153. + + Giorgio Vasari. See under Architects and Sculptors. + + Jacopo Robusti, Tintoretto (1518-1594), 162. + + Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), 241, 381. + + Taddeo Zuccheri (1529-1566), 275. + + Marcello Venusti (died circa 1580), 227. + + Alessandro Allori (1535-1607), 414, 415. + + Bernardo Poccetti (1542-1612), 303. + + Jacopo da Empoli (1554-1640), 227, 327. + + Guido Reni (1575-1642), 386. + + Cristofano Allori (1577-1621), 384. + + _Peter Paul Rubens_ (1577-1640), 152, 162, 382, 385, 386. + + Matteo Rosselli (1578-1650), 303, 386. + + Artemisia Gentileschi (died 1642), 387. + + Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669), 379, 380. + + _Justus Sustermans_ (1597-1681), 182. + + _Antony Van Dyck_ (1599-1641), 385. + + _Diego Velasquez_ (1599-1660), 386. + + _Rembrandt Van Ryn_ (1606-1669), 162. + + Carlo Dolci (1616-1686), 352, 386. + + _Peter Lely_ (1618-1680), 387. + + Luca Giordano (1632-1705), 286. + + + + +GENERAL INDEX + + (_Names of Artists not included_) + + + A. + + _Accademia delle Belle Arti_, 314-324. + + Acciaiuoli, Agnolo (bishop), 369; + Agnolo (anti-Medicean), 85, 350; + Niccolo (grand seneschal), 336, 407; + Niccola (swindler), 398. + + Adimari, family, 58, 203, 204. + + Adimari, Boccaccio, 188, 203. + + Alamanni, Luigi, 371. + + Alberti, palace of the, 341; + Benedetto degli, 402; + Donato, 215, 216. + + _Albizzi, Borgo degli_, 208-210. + + Albizzi, Maso degli, 74, 76, 209-211, 350, 351. + + Albizzi, Rinaldo degli, 74-77, 209, 346, 356. + + Alighieri, family, 36, 37, 207, 208. + + ALIGHIERI, DANTE, 2, 5, 6, 8, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 24; + his birth, 25, 32-37; + his love, 38; + at Campaldino, 39, 40; + political life, 41, 43; + priorate, 44, 45; + exile, 46, 49, 50, 53, 54; + death, 55; + on the Florentine Constitution, 59, 60, 65, 66, 69, 70, 91, + 103, 112, 124, 199, 200, 203-206; + his house and family, 207, 208; 215; + in the Council of the Commune, 221; + portrait in the Bargello, 221, 222; + monument, 228, 235, 238-241, 243, 246, 248-250, 262, 274; + picture of him in the Duomo, 277-279; + portrait in the Biblioteca Riccardiana, 288; + his letters, 292, 329, 333, 340, 342, 346, 355, 361-363, 368, + 379, 394, 397, 398, 405, 408, 412; + with him in the Casentino, 419-422. + + Aldobrandini, Bertino, 406; + Salvestro, 228. + + Alexander VI., Pope, 95, 113, 117, 123, 124. + + Altoviti, palace of the, 209. + + _Ambrogio, S._, 333. + + Amidei, family, 19-21, 346; + tower, 346. + + Ambrogini, Angelo. _See_ Poliziano. + + _Annunziata, SS._, Piazza, 325; + church and convent, 40, 127, 326-328. + + Antoninus, S., 10, 82, 197, 274, 301, 303, 304, 309. + + _Apostoli, SS._, 13, 347. + + _Appollonia, S._, 99, 335, 336. + + Argenti, Filippo, 204. + + Arts or Guilds, 17, 25-28, 38, 39, 42, 43, 61, 72, 73, 74, 78, + 184, 189-196. + + Athens, Duke of, 57, 58, 72, 149, 198, 221, 225, 226, 229, 369. + + + B. + + _Badia_, 127, 211-213. + + Baglioni, Malatesta, 143, 360, 401, 406, 407. + + Baldovinetti, tower of the, 346. + + Bandini, Giovanni, 406. + + _Baptistery_, 7, 11, 246-259. + + Baroncelli, Bernardo, 279. + + _Bardi, cappella dei_, 239; + _via dei_, 38, 376, 377. + + Bardi, family, 59, 375; + Simone dei, 351. + + Bargello, office of, 42 (note), 215; + former quarters of, 128, 134, 155, 215. + + _Bargello, Museo Nazionale_, (Palazzo del Podesta), 214-225. + + Battifolle, Counts of, 351, 419. + + _Belle Donne, Via delle_, 354. + + Benedict XI., Pope, 50, 304, 356, 369. + + Benevento, Battle of, 25, 32, 69. + + Beatrice, 36, 37, 206, 329. + + Benedetto da Foiano, Fra, 359, 360. + + Bellincion Berti, 16, 206. + + Bella, Giano della, 42, 43, 206, 215, 371, 376. + + Bello, Geri del, 208. + + _Belvedere, Fortezza_, 375, 403. + + _Biagio, S._ (S. Maria sopra la Porta), 28, 29, 200. + + "Bianchi e Neri," Whites and Blacks, 35, 43-50, 70, 215, 216, + 347, 348, 350, 351. + + Bibbiena, 419-422. + + _Biblioteca Laurenziana_, 102, 291, 292. + + _Biblioteca Nazionale_, 160. + + _Biblioteca Riccardiana_, 288. + + _Bigallo_, the, 65, 264. + + Bisticci, Vespasiano, 75, 81, 103, 237. + + _Boboli Gardens_, 388. + + Boiardo, 109. + + Boniface VIII., Pope, 41, 43-46, 269, 270, 273, 274, 356. + + Borgia. _See_ Alexander VI. + + _Borgo degli Albizzi_ (San Piero), 208-210. + + _Borgo SS. Apostoli_, 26, 37, 346, 347. + + _Borgo San Frediano_, 345, 395, 396. + + _Borgo San Jacopo_, 38, 375, 376. + + _Borgo Ognissanti_, 342, 371, 372. + + _Borgo Allegri, Via_, 66, 243, 244. + + Boccaccio, 31, 32, 55, 60, 61, 69, 70, 198, 204, 213, 248, 259, + 346, 347, 360, 410. + + Boscoli, P. P., 140, 141. + + Bracciolini, Poggio, 104, 274. + + _Brancacci Chapel_, 391-395. + + Browning, E. B., 244, 294, 388. + + Browning, Robert, 171, 288, 319, 380, 388, 407. + + Bruni, Leonardo, 103, 104, 208, 231, 236, 256, 325, 333, 421. + + _Buonarroti, Casa_, 226, 227. + + Buondelmonti, the, 346, 347. + + Buondelmonti, Buondelmonte degli, 19-21, 342, 407. + + Brunelleschi, Betto, 259. + + Burlamacchi, Padre, 311. + + + C. + + Cacciaguida, 14, 16, 21, 49, 407, 411. + + Calimala, Arte di, 26, 28, 38, 195, 200, 253, 256. + + _Calimara_ (_Calimala_), 200. + + Calvoli, Fulcieri da, 215. + + _Calzaioli, Via_ (Corso degli Adimari), 183, 203-205. + + Camaldoli, 421. + + _Campanile_, 56, 67, 259-264. + + Campaldino, Battle of, 39-41, 420, 421. + + Cappello, Bianca, 297, 371, 413-414. + + _Cappella dei Principi_, 297, 298. + + _Cappella degli Spagnuoli_, 366-370. + + Capponi, Agostino, 140; + Gino, 389; + Gino (Marchese), 235; + Luisa, 353; + Neri, 79, 389, 420; + Niccolo, 142, 143, 150, 377; + Piero, 116, 119, 126, 286, 340, 377, 389. + + Captain of the People, 23, 27, 28, 42 (note), 155. + + Carducci, Francesco, 142. + + Careggi, 412, 413. + + _San Carlo_ (S. Michele), 203. + + _Carmine_. See _S. Maria del Carmine_. + + Casentino, the, 418-422. + + _Cascine_, 372, 373. + + _Castagna, Torre della_, 38, 207, 208. + + Castello, 413. + + Catherine of Siena, S., 32, 62, 273. + + Cavalcanti, family, 37, 50, 59, 203. + + Cavalcanti, Guido, 36, 37, 44, 45, 187, 188, 248, 259. + + Cerchi, the, 37, 43, 44, 205, 206; + palace, etc., 205; + Vieri dei, 40, 43. + + Certosa di Val d'Ema, 407. + + Certomondo, 421. + + Charlemagne, 12, 13, 347; + Charles of Anjou, 25, 27, 28; + Charles V., Emperor, 137, 143, 404, 413; + Charles VIII. of France, 116-119, 121, 132, 224, 284, 342, 408. + Charles of Valois, 45, 46, 348, 356. + + Cino da Pistoia, 418. + + Compagni, Dino, 32, 53, 70, 209, 351. + + "Colleges," the, 71. + + _Consuma_, 419. + + Conti Guidi, 206, 419, 420. + + _Corbizzi Tower_ ("Corso Donati's Tower"), 40, 53, 209. + + _Corsini Palace and Picture Gallery_, 352. + + _Santa Croce, Piazza_, 228-230; + _Church and cloisters_, 230-243. + + + D. + + Diacceto, Jacopo da, 371. + + Donati, the, 37, 43, 203, 206, 207; + Corso, 37, 40, 43, 44-46, 49, 50, 53, 209, 333; + Forese, 37, 333; + Gemma, 37, 207; + Gualdrada, 19; + Lucrezia, 107, 230; + Piccarda, 405, 406; + Simone, 229; + Sinibaldo, 188. + + _Duomo_, (see _Santa Maria del Fiore_); + _Opera del_, 280-282. + + Domenico da Pescia, F., 131-135, 151, 159, 409. + + + E. + + Eugenius IV., Pope, 77, 79, 310, 356. + + Executore, the, 42, 62, 155. + + + F. + + Florence, _passim_. + + Faggiuola, Uguccione della, 50, 53, 55, 56. + + _Felice, S._, 388. + + _Felicita, S._, 377. + + Ferrante, King of Naples, 89, 93, 95. + + Ferdinand III., Grand Duke, 335, 382. + + Francis II., Grand Duke, 334. + + Ferrucci, F., 143, 340. + + Ficino, Marsilio, 81, 82, 104, 105, 108, 274, 275, 364, 409. + + Fiesole, 2, 5, 6, 12, 16, 17, 409, 410. + + Filipepi, Simone, 158-160, 280, 305, 308. + + Foiano. See _Fra Benedetto_. + + _Fortezza da Basso_, 339. + + _Francesco dei Vanchetoni, S._, 371. + + Frescobaldi, the, 59, 348, 375, 376; + Piazza, 347, 376. + + + G. + + Galileo, 182, 237, 404, 406. + + _Ghibellina, Via_, 24, 225-228. + + Gianni, Lapo, 1, 36, 65, 340. + + Giovanni Gualberto, S., 13, 398, 422. + + _Giovanni Battista, S._ See _Baptistery_. + + Girolamo, Fra. _See_ Savonarola. + + Girolami and Gherardini, Towers of, 346. + + Gonfaloniere, the office of, 41, 42. + + Gregory X., 340; + Gregory XI., 62, 65, 401. + + Gonzaga, Eleonora, 167, 177, 383; + Ferrante, 143, 406. + + _Guadagni, Palazzo_, 389. + + Guelfs and Ghibellines, 16-18, 21-27, _et passim_. + + Guido Novello, 24-27, 215. + + + H. + + Hawkwood, John (Giovanni Aguto), 73, 273. + + Henry IV., 16; + Henry VI., 19; + Henry VII., 54, 55, 333, 369, Emperors. + + Hildebrand, Pope Gregory VII., 13. + + Hugh, or Hugo, Margrave of Tuscany, 14, 211. + + + I. + + _Impruneta_, 407. + + _Innocenti, Santa Maria degli_, 326. + + _Innocenti, Spedale degli_, 325. + + Interminelli, Castruccio (Castracani) degli, 55, 56, 396. + + + J. + + Julius II., Pope, 117, 136, 138, 165, 385. + + John XXIII., Pope, 75, 253. + + _Jacopo in Ripoli, S._, 371. + + _Jacopo Oltrarno, S._, 376. + + + L. + + Ladislaus, King of Naples, 75. + + _Lambertesca, Via_, 37, 346. + + Lamberti, family, 23. + + Lamberti, Mosca degli, 20, 22. + + Landini, Cristoforo, 105, 364. + + Landucci, Luca, 118, 122, 123, 128, 134, 205, 348, 390, 396. + + Lane, Arte della, 28, 38, 72, 193, 195, 199, 262, 265. + + La Lastra, affair of, 411, 412. + + _Leonardo in Arcetri, S._, 404. + + _Lorenzo, San, Piazza_, 288; + _Basilica_, 289, 290; + _Sagrestia Vecchia_, 290, 291; + _cloisters and Biblioteca_, 291, 292; + _Sagrestia Nuova_, 292-296; + _Cappella dei Principi_, 297. + + St Louis IX. of France, 239, 240. + + _Lungarno_, 340-345. + + Latini, Brunetto, 6, 36. + + Latino, Cardinal, 355, 356. + + Leo X., Pope. See _Dei Medici, Giovanni di Lorenzo_. + + Leopold I. and II., Grand Dukes, 335. + + _Loggia dei Lanzi_, 65, 156-160. + + _Loggia di San Paolo_, 354. + + + M. + + Machiavelli, Niccolo, 35, 59, 89, 91, 109, 137, 141, 142, 204, + 235, 377, 378. + + _Malcontenti, Via dei_, 243, 244. + + Manetti, Giannozzo, 104, 274. + + Manfredi, 24, 25. + + Mannelli, the, 375. + + _Marco, S._, 81, 82, 93; + the church of 298-302; + the convent, 302-313. + See also Savonarola. + + _Margherita, S., a Montici_, 406. + + _Margherita, S._ (at Prato), 417. + + _Maria, S., degli Angioli_, 328, 329. + + _Maria S., delle Carceri_ (in Prato), 418. + + _Maria, S., del Carmine_, 390-396. + + _Maria, S., del Fiore_ (S. Reparata, the Duomo), 10-12, 65, 118, + 265-282. + + _Maria, S., Novella_, 50, 65, 354-370; + _Spezeria di_, 370. + + _Maria, S., Nuova_, 329, 330. + + _Maria Maddalena, S., de' Pazzi_, 330. + + _Maria, S., del Sasso_ (at Bibbiena), 422. + + Marignolli, Rustico, 23. + + Mars, temple and statue of, 7-9, 20, 21, 246-248, 342, 365. + + Marsili, Fra Luigi, 390. + + Marsuppini, Carlo, 104, 237. + + Martelli, Cammilla, 297; + Ludovico, 406. + + Martin, V., Pope, 75, 253. + + Matilda, Countess, 14-16. + + MEDICI, family: + head the people, 59; + their first expulsion, 77; + their second expulsion, 117; + their return, 140; + third expulsion, 142; + apotheosis, 181; + their Austrian successors, 335. + + ---- gardens (_Casino Mediceo_), 298. + + ---- palaces. See _Pitti_, _Riccardi_, _Palazzo Vecchio_. + + ---- villas, 410, 412-415. + + MEDICI (DEI), Alessandro, 142-144, 245, 284-286, 293, 295, 339, + 353, 380, 381, 404, 413. + + ---- Antonio, 204. + + ---- Bianca, 92. + + ---- Carlo, 417. + + ---- Caterina, 141, 227, 228, 294. + + ---- Clarice, 142, 284, 286, 353. + + ---- COSIMO THE ELDER (Pater Patriae): + leads opposition to the Ottimati, 74, 76; + banished and recalled, 77; + home policy, 78, 79; + foreign policy, 79, 80; + private life, patronage of art and letters, 80, 81; + death, 82; + portraits, 171, 172, 180; 232, 242, 253, 284; + in Gozzoli's fresco, 287; + tomb and monument in San Lorenzo, 290, 291; + founder of San Marco, 302, 304; + his cell and portrait there, 310; + founds library of San Marco and Badia of Fiesole, 310, 409; + dies at Careggi, 412; + fresco in his honour at Poggio a Caiano, 414. + + ---- Cosimo I., first Grand Duke, 144, 150, 154, 157, 160, 172, + 173, 182, 286, 293, 295-297, 328, 339, 349, 353. + + ---- Cosimo II., fourth Grand Duke, 297, 298. + + ---- Cosimo III., sixth Grand Duke, 297, 298. + + ---- Ferdinand I., Cardinal, and third Grand Duke, 155, 297, 298, + 375, 413. + + ---- Ferdinand II., fifth Grand Duke, 283, 277, 298. + + ---- Francesco, second Grand Duke, 150, 297, 349, 413, 415. + + ---- Garzia, 170, 154, 182. + + ---- Giovanni (son of Cosimo I.), 182. + + ---- Giovanni di Averardo (Giovanni Bicci), 74, 76, 163, 182, + 289, 290. + + ---- Giovanni di Cosimo, 82, 86, 181, 225, 291, 410. + + ---- Giovanni di Lorenzo (Cardinal, afterwards Pope Leo X.), 92, + 94, 117, 140, 141, 204, 205, 289, 291, 292, 293, 342, 385, 404, + 405, 410, 414, 415, 417. + + ---- Giovanni di Piero Francesco, 94, 142, 173. + + ---- Giovanni delle Bande Nere 142, 144, 173, 225, 288, 297, 340. + + ---- Giovanni Gastone, seventh Grand Duke, 298, 335. + + Giuliano di Piero (the Elder), 86-88, 93, 94, 106, 181, 230, + 279, 291, 296, 387, 410. + Giuliano di Lorenzo (Duke of Nemours), 94, 117, 140, 141, 143, + 209, 225, 293-295, 334, 380, 410, 420. + Giulio (Cardinal, afterwards Clement VII.), 94, 141-143, 152, + 228, 284, 285, 289, 291-293, 359, 371, 381, 382, 397, + 413-414. + Ippolito (Cardinal), 142, 143, 284, 286, 353, 380, 381, 413. + Lorenzo di Giovanni, 76, 77, 302. + LORENZO (THE MAGNIFICENT): + his youth, 82, 85, 86; + succeeds his father, 86; + his portraits, 87; + wounded in the Pazzi conspiracy, 88; + his struggle with Naples and Rome, 89; + his government, 89, 90; + character, 91; + last days and death, 92, 93; + his sons, 94; + his circle, 104, 105; + his poetry, 107, 108; + love for Pico, 109; 112, 150, 164, 172, 181; + his tournaments, 229, 230; 235, 279; + his palace, 284, 287; + his tomb and remains, 291, 293, 296, 318, 327, 350, 353, 379, + 389; + saved his father's life, 412; + death at Careggi, 413; + his villa of Poggio a Caiano, 413-415. + Lorenzo di Piero, the younger (titular Duke of Urbino), + 141-143, 284, 293-295, 353. + Lorenzo di Piero Francesco, the elder, 94, 143, 173 (note). + Lorenzo, called Lorenzino or Lorenzaccio, 143, 144, 173, + 284-286, 405. + Maria, 170 + Nannina, 354. + Ottaviano, 385, 414. + Piero Francesco, the elder, 94, 173. + Piero Francesco, the younger, 173. + Piero di Cosimo ("il Gottoso"), 82, 85, 86, 181, 225, 287, 291, + 326, 327, 378, 402. + Piero di Lorenzo, 93-95, 106, 116, 117, 121, 123, 124, 127, + 128, 140, 141, 170, 284, 334, 405, 420. + Salvestro, 71-73. + Vieri, 74. + + Medici e Speziali, Guild of, 28, 38, 194, 198, 221. + + _Mercato Nuovo_, 200, 203. + + _Mercato Vecchio_, 7, 199, 200. + + _Michele, S., in Orto_. See _Or San Michele_. + + Michele di Lando, 72, 73. + + _Miniato, S., hill_ of, 1, 2, 398-401. + + _Miniato al Monte, S._, 13, 398, 401, 403. + + Misericordia, Confraternity of, 264. + + Montaperti, Battle of, 23, 24. + + Montefeltro, Buonconte da, 40, 421. + + Montefeltro, Federigo da (Duke of Urbino), 174. + + _Monticelli, convent_, 405. + + Mozzi, the, 342, 375; + Piazza dei, 377; + villa, 410. + + _Murate, le_, 227, 228. + + + N. + + Nerli, the, 375, 376. + + Neri. _See_ Bianchi. + + Nero, Bernardo del, 128, 155. + + Neroni, Dietisalvi, 85, 412. + + Niccoli, Niccolo, 102, 103, 291. + + _Niccolo, S._, 396, 397. + + Nori, Francesco, 235, 279. + + Nardi, Jacopo, 72, 135, 228. + + + O. + + _Ognissanti_, 371-372. + + _Oltrarno_ (Sesto di, afterwards Quartiere di Santo Spirito), + 18-19, 374, 396. + + _Onofrio, S._, 336. + + Orange, Prince of, 143, 228, 397. + + Ordinances of Justice, 41-43, 71, 221. + + _Or San Michele_, 65, 66, 184-199. + + Orlandi, Guido, 187, 188. + + Orsini, Alfonsina, 118, 141; + Clarice, 86; + Napoleone, 50. + + _Orti Oricellari_, 370, 371. + + Otto della Guerra, 62. + + + P. + + _Palazzo Vecchio (della Signoria)_, 41, 65, 72, 78, 79, 146-154. + + Palmieri, Matteo, 210, 224. + + _Pandolfini, Palazzo_, 335. + + Parte Guelfa, 28, 44, 62, 71, 74, 195, 232; + Palace of, 28-31, 200. + + Passavanti, Fra Jacopo, 70, 359, 366. + + Passerini, Cardinal, 142. + + Pater, Walter, 71, 166, 169, 178, 179, 224, 240. + + Pazzi, conspiracy, 88, 89, 93 (note), 103, 155, 181, 279, 410; + carro dei, 279; + cappella dei, 243; + family, 59, 347; + palaces, 209. + + Pazzi (dei), Francesco, 279; + Jacopo, 89, 243; + Guglielmo, 85; + Pazzino, 53; + Piero, 103. + + Pecora, 43. + + _Peruzzi, Piazza dei_, 7, 341 (note); + _Cappella dei_, 240, 241. + + Peter Igneus, 13. + + Petracco, 50. + + Petrarca, Francesco, 32, 50, 55, 61, 69, 81, 405. + + _Piazzale Michelangelo_, 398. + + Pico della Mirandola, 92, 108, 109, 170, 301. + + _Piero Maggiore, S., Piazza di_, 53, 59, 209, 210. + + Pistoia, 418. + + Pitti, Luca, 85, 375, 377, 378, 412. + + _Pitti, Palazzo and R. Galleria_, 377-388. + + Podesta, office of, 19, 23, 27, 28, 214. + + _Podesta, Palazzo del_. See _Bargello_. + + _Poggio a Caiano_, 413-415. + + _Poggio Imperiale_, 405, 406. + + Poliziano, Angelo, 87, 92, 93, 106-108, 178, 181, 227, 298, 301, + 364, 415. + + Pulci, Luigi, 106. + + _Ponte alla Carraia_, 342, 345, 346: + _Ponte alle Grazie (Rubaconte)_, 340, 341, 375, 377, 398; + _Ponte S. Trinita_, 342, 346, 348, 350; + _Ponte Vecchio_, 20, 341, 342, 375. + + Poppi, 419, 420. + + _Popolo, Primo_, 23, 24, 214; + _Secondo_, 27, 28, 31, 35, 41, 42, 146. + + Porciano, 419, 420. + + Ponte a Mensola, 410. + + _Porta alla Croce_, 53, 333, 334; + _Porta San Frediano_, 67, 408; + _Porta San Gallo_, 334; + _Porta San Giorgio_, 403, 404; + _Porta San Miniato_, 403; + _Porta San Niccolo_, 25, 396, 397; + _Porta al Prato_, 334, 371, 372; + _Porta Romana_, 377, 404, 405, 407. + + Por S. Maria, Via, 346. + + Portinari, the, 206, 207; + Beatrice, 37, 206; + Folco, 206, 329; + Manetto, 206, 207; + Tommaso, 330. + + Prato, 415-418. + + Pratovecchio, 419. + + + Q. + + _Quaratesi, Palazzo_ (De Rast), 209. + + + R. + + _Reparata, S._ See _S. Maria del Fiore_. + + Ricci, the, 62; + Marietta dei, 406. + + _Riccardi, Palazzo_, 78, 79, 87, 98, 118, 283-288. + + _Riccardiana, Biblioteca_, 288. + + Ripoli, Piano di, 397. + + Rossi, the, 59, 376, 376. + + Robert, King of Naples, 54, 55, 225, 245. + + Romena, 419, 420. + + Rovere, Cardinal della. _See_ Julius II. + + Rovere, Francesco Maria, 167, 177. + + Rucellai, Bernardo, 85, 353, 354. + + _Rucellai, Palazzo, Loggia, Cappella_, 353, 354; + chapel in _S. Maria Novella_, 361; + _gardens_, 370, 371. + + Ruskin, _passim_. + + + S. + + Sacchetti, Franco, 32, 65, 70, 71, 199; + family of, 208. + + _S. Salvi_, 54, 333, 334. + + Salviati, house of, 207; + Abp, 88; + Marcuccio, 158, 159; + Maria, 142, 413. + + _S. Salvadore al Monte_, 398. + + SAVONAROLA, FRA GIROLAMO. + At the death-bed of Lorenzo, 92, 93, 108; + friendship with Pico, 109; + earlier life, 111; + commences his mission, 112; + his visions of the Two Crosses and the Sword, 113-115; + during the French invasion, 116, 117, 119; + guides the Republic, 119, 120; + his vision of the Lilies, 121; + his reformation of Florence, 121-123; + struggle with the Pope begins, 123, 124; + denounces corruption, 124-126; + is excommunicated, 127; + his orthodoxy, 128; + returns to the pulpit, 128; + promises miracles, 129; + his last sermon, 129, 130; + appeals to Christendom against the Pope, 130; + the Ordeal by Fire, 131, 132, 157-160; + his capture, 132-133; + is tortured, 133-134; + his martyrdom, 134-136; + prophecies fulfilled, 136, 145; + his discourse to the Signoria, 151; + his prayer and meditations, 153, 154; + medal and picture of, 224, 352; + sermons in the Duomo, 280; + in San Marco, 298, 301-303, 305, 307-309; + on the night of Palm Sunday, 310-313; + his portrait, 323. + + Salutati, Coluccio, 390. + + _Scalzo, Chiostro dello_, 324. + + Scolari, Filippo (Pippo Spano), 329, 336. + + Seta, Arte della (Arte di Por S. Maria), 28, 38, 189, 194, 318, 325. + + Settignano, 410. + + Sforza, Caterina, 142, 173, 227; + Francesco, 78, 79, 82; + Galeazzo Maria, 82, 86-88, 168; + Ludovico, 90, 95, 121, 124, 136, 137. + + Shelley, 2, 105, 169, 220, 373. + + _Signoria, Palazzo della_. See _Palazzo Vecchio_. + + _Signoria, Piazza della_, 118, 135, 136, 146, 154-160. + + Silvestro, Fra, 92, 133, 135, 151. + + Sixtus IV., Pope, 88-90, 93. + + Soldanieri, Gianni dei, 26. + + _Spini, Palazzo_, 348. + + Spini, Doffo, 123, 131, 133, 158-160; + Geri, 348. + + _Spirito, S._, 70, 87, 127, 389-390. + + _Stefano, S._ (in the Via Por S. Maria), 20, 346. + See also _Badia_. + + Stia, 419. + + _Stinche, Le_ (Teatro Pagliano), 226. + + _Strozzi, Palazzo_, 15, 85, 97, 98, 352, 353. + + _Strozzi, Cappella_, 68, 361-363. + + Strozzi, Filippo, the elder, 85, 352, 365; + Filippo, the younger, 142, 144, 284, 339, 353; + Palla, 76, 81, 95, 104, 350, 351; + Piero, 349, 353; + Tommaso, 74. + + + T. + + _Torrigiani, Palazzo_, 377. + + Tornabuoni, Lucrezia, 85. + + Tosa (della), Baldo, 376; + Baschiera, 334, 411; + Rossellino, 405; + Rosso, 49, 50, 53. + + Traversari, Ambrogio, 329. + + Trespiano, 410, 411. + + _Trebbio, Croce al_, 22, 354. + + _Trinita, S._, church, 100, 349-351; + piazza, 26, 44, 347-349. + + Towers, Societies of, 19. + + + U. + + Ubaldini, 49, 232. + + Uberti, the, 17, 19-21, 23, 40, 62, 149, 411; + Farinata degli, 24, 25, 36, 72, 149, 270, 336, 340; + Schiatta degli, 20; + Tolosato degli, 412. + + Uccellatoio, 411. + + _Uffizi, R. Galleria degli_, 160-183. + + Umiliati, Frati, 371. + + Urbino, Dukes of. _See_ Medici (Lorenzo), Montefeltro, Della Rovere. + + Uzzano, Niccolo da, 74, 76, 221, 256, 346, 377. + + + V. + + Vallombrosa, 13, 421, 422. + + Valori, Baccio, 144, 225, 339, 406. + + Valori, Francesco, 126, 128, 132, 211, 212. + + Varchi, 228, 359, 381, 401. + + _La Verna_, 421, 422. + + Vespucci, Amerigo, 372. + + Villani, Filippo, 70, 390. + + Villani, Giovanni, 5-8, 32, 36, 69, _et passim_. + + Villani, Matteo, 70. + + Visconti, Filippo, 76, 80, 273, 289; + Giovanni, 61; + Giovanni Galeazzo, 75, 390. + + + Z. + + Zagonara, Battle of, 76. + + _Zecca Vecchia, Torre della_, 245. + + Zenobius, S., 10, 11, 12, 152, 171, 210, 274, 276. + + +TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of Florence, by Edmund G. 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