6. THE NORTH TRANSEPT.
This Transept is covered with three large designs, all executed during the Rectorship of Alberto Aringhieri; two of which, at least, may have some political significance.
The first we come to is—
The Expulsion of Herod (No. 27).
This vast composition, designed by Benvenuto Giovanni del Guasta in 1484–85, and for which he received 78 lire,[61] is full of charming grouping and delightful suggestion. It not impossibly alludes to the expulsion, which had then but recently taken place, of Pandolfo Petrucci and his followers. It must be remembered that, though Siena at this period was not involved in important external historical events, her internal history was one long record of party faction and strife, in which Aringhieri himself played a not unimportant part. (Ill. IX.)
Benvenuto was a consummate draughtsman, and he was ably supported here by Bastiano di Francesco, who designed the delightful border of winged lions that frames the picture (Ill. XI.), and made sixty letters of marble for the same work.[62]
LOMBARDI PHOTO.]
[DESIGNED BY BENVENUTO DI GIOVANNI DEL GUASTA
IX. THE EXPULSION OF HEROD (No. 27)
(The entire panel)
We find several notices as to sums paid to workmen for executing this frieze, but only one speaks also of work on the design itself. From this, however, we learn that it was executed by Bernardino Antonio and Cristofano di Pietro Paolo del Quarantotto.[63] The other workmen employed on the frieze were Vito di Marco,[64] and Bartolommeo di Domenico.[65] With the exception of Vito di Marco, we have no record of these men, apart from notices of their work done on this Pavement. Perhaps they were scholars or apprentices of the better-known masters, and therefore not recorded more particularly. We also read that certain millers, by name Giusto Giovanni and Michele di Ludovicho, were paid 15 lire 14 c. for the porterage of 7,870 lbs. of black marble used in this design, and that “del onperadore.”[66] (Ill. X.)
ALINARI PHOTO.]
[DESIGNED BY BENVENUTO DI GIOVANNI DEL GUASTA
X. THE EXPULSION OF HEROD
The composition is most graceful and full of force. It illustrates an episode in the struggle between Herod Antipas and his brother-in-law Aretas, as a result of which the former had to evacuate his kingdom. The picture has been well restored, a re-engraving of the marble slabs on the old lines having been, to a large extent, sufficient for the main work, though the frieze has had to be entirely renewed. A group of soldiers, among whom is one extremely striking man’s figure in full armour, has been particularly successful. Over this group, in a high tree, an eagle maybe seen protecting her nest of young ones from the attacks of a serpent, possibly alluding to the same political events referred to above. The charming cherubs, supporting a tablet in the upper part of the composition, upon which is engraved a long quotation from Josephus, describing the scene depicted, have been renewed, and the damaged originals transported to the Museum of the Opera.[67] With them is also the original tablet, which curiously enough on removal was found to be a memorial slab of an earlier date, bearing on the reverse side a fine effigy of a cleric.[68]
The last restoration of this design took place between the years 1869–1878 and, together with the Pavement around it, cost 2,156 lire 63 c.; while that of the friezes, around this and the next design, cost another 3,490 lire 12 c.
ALINARI PHOTO.]
[DESIGNED BY BASTIANO DI FRANCESCO
XI. DETAIL OF THE FRIEZE OF LIONS
Beyond this fine scene we come to another, still more remarkable, if not quite so pleasing.
The Massacre of the Innocents (No. 26).
This, perhaps, is the most striking of all the scenes on the Pavement, and as interesting historically as artistically. The artist who designed it, Matteo di Giovanni Bartoli, has thrown into it all the force of his fancy and skill. It is extraordinarily full of life, and vivid with imagination. The same artist executed certainly three, if not four, more designs of the same subject, two of them being pictures still existing in Siena itself;[69] and it is extremely interesting to compare his treatment of it in all these three. Authorities differ as to the dates of these two paintings, but admittedly there was an interval of ten years between them. That in S. Agostino, and most probably also the very similar painting by the same artist at Naples, come in point of date almost immediately subsequent to this design for the Pavement, and resemble it very closely. At this period all Italy was convulsed with horror at the awful Sack and Destruction of Otranto, which had occurred on the 11th of August, 1480.[70] We read that 1,200 persons were massacred, and that most of the children were sold as slaves. The shock to the Christian world was so terrible that the Pope, Sixtus IV., in an Encyclical addressed to all the cities of Italy, called their attention to the disaster, pointed out to them that none of them, however remote, was safe, and implored them, setting aside their party divisions, to combine in the cause of mutual protection against the Moslem. Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, son of Ferdinand, King of Naples, then living as ruler in Siena, was hastily recalled to take command of an expedition against the common enemy: and it is, I submit, not straining a theory too far, to suppose, that Matteo di Giovanni may have been directed to design these scenes on the Pavement of the Duomo, for the Church of S. Agostino, and for the Church of Sta. Caterina a Formello at Naples, as an object lesson to recall to the public mind, through the medium of a Scriptural Tragedy, the horrors to be endured at the hands of the unspeakable Turk. They are all executed with a force and a suggestiveness, so vivid as to be painful in their intensity. The successful results of these three probably inspired the fourth,[71] which is somewhat less ferocious, and certainly more graceful and pleasing.
LOMBARDI PHOTO.]
[DESIGNED BY MATTEO DI GIOVANNI BARTOLI
XII. THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS (No. 26)
(The entire panel)
Unable to use on the Pavement the brilliant pigments so lavishly employed in the paintings, the artist has introduced, wherever possible, marbles of many and varied colours; and when upon these multi-coloured materials are super-imposed most elaborate designs, the whole produces the effect of a gorgeous piece of bizarre jewellery. Herod sits on a splendid Renaissance throne of carved marble, in a colonnade, adorned with panels[72] of classical scenes. A sportive frieze of marble Bacchanals is introduced along the top of the composition, broken by circular windows, from which groups of impish children look down complacently and even laughingly, on the dreadful slaughter below. The armour of Herod and his soldiers is of the most magnificent kind, and we may notice again the artist’s affection for finishing a clasp with the head of an animal or a human being.[73] (Ill. XII.)
It is evident from the style of this work that it is by Matteo di Giovanni Bartoli, and his authorship has never been questioned, though there is no record of any commission or payment to him. The date of its execution (1481) is fixed by Tizio,[74] and by two records of payments for materials used upon it.[75]
ALINARI PHOTO.]
[DESIGNED BY MATTEO DI GIOVANNI BARTOLI
XIII. THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS
We have no record as to who executed the very charming frieze of putti and dragons, which borders the bottom and the left side of this picture; nor that of greyhounds and fountains, which incloses the other sides, and it is not easy to suggest any reason why two such different designs should have been employed for the same picture. They are evidently designed by different hands, and were probably executed like the other friezes by the Cathedral workmen mentioned above. (Ill. XIII.)
The whole work has been apparently restored several times; for we find in the notes of Abate Faluschi,[76] that it was restored in 1790 by Matteo Pini, after the designs of Carlo Amidei, and at this very day some of the worn-out stones are being renewed, and the line of drawing re-trepanned and stuccoed.
The third picture in this transept is:
The Relief of Bethulia by Judith. (Judith, cap. xiii., xiv., and xv.) (No. 25.)
Whether this picture had any political or semi-political reference we do not know. The small fortress-towns in the Sienese contado were at this time continually being relieved and changing hands, but we cannot now identify this scene with any particular event. It is interesting, though, to note that it was planned during the Rectorship of Savino di Matteo di Guido Savino, who was, on January 26th, 1480, deposed from his post for being one of the “Riformatori.”[77]
LOMBARDI PHOTO.]
[DESIGNED BY URBANO DA CORTONA (?) OR MATTEO DI GIOVANNI BARTOLI (?)
EXECUTED BY ANTONIO FEDERIGHI
XIV. THE RELIEF OF BETHULIA (No. 25)
(The entire panel)
The notices as to this work are few and vague: but we know from Tizio[78] that it was laid down in 1473, and further that the frieze of “reels” (naspatoio), surrounding it, was executed by Urbano di Pietro da Cortona, Giovanni di Stefano di Giovanni, Bartolomeo di Domenico Calabrone and Francesco di Bartolomeo (perhaps his son).[79] It is generally supposed that the design itself was the work either of Urbano da Cortona or of Matteo di Giovanni Bartoli, and the execution is attributed to Antonio Federighi.[80] (Ill. XIV.) However this may be, it is a work full of charm, recalling examples of the most poetic period of Florentine art. As usual in work of this period, several episodes of the story are told in various parts of the picture. On the extreme right, now much injured, and partly obliterated by the Pisani’s pulpit, we can still trace Holofernes’ tent, and the gruesome tragedy therein enacted. Above the middle of the picture, over the hillside, upon which bloom myriad flowers amid purling brooks, comes Judith, a figure of extreme grace, followed by her maid, who bears on her head a basket, containing the tyrant’s head.[81] (Ill. XV.) To the left is the towered city of Bethulia, from which issue troops of horsemen, intent upon victory in the fight, which is depicted in the centre of the composition. Beside the gate of the city, one may notice a group of a knight with his squire arranging the harness of his horse. (Ill. XVI.) We may also remark the introduction here of birds. In the extreme left corner are two parent birds, sitting in a bush, guarding their young ones in a nest, whilst above Holofernes’ tent are perched two waiting ravens.
ALINARI PHOTO.]
XV. DETAIL FROM THE RELIEF OF BETHULIA]
This work was also restored, or, as Abate Faluschi puts it with much truth, “modernized” (modernata) by Carlo Amidei and Matteo Pini in 1790, so that we cannot now know how much of the original work has perished. It is not unlikely that, in any case, it may have been a composite design from the hand of more than one artist. It is, however, worth noting that, whereas the design last described depends largely for its effect on varied colour, this one, the Expulsion of Herod, and the other contemporary picture of the Story of Jephthah, presently to be described, show how much can be done by the use of line alone.
ALINARI PHOTO.]
XVI. DETAIL FROM THE RELIEF OF BETHULIA]
Ascending a wide step, we come to a work of much older and more archaic character, which I propose to include in my seventh division.