Beneath the choir is the crypt, also built in classic style by il Pellegrini. The outer chamber was restored in 1817. In the inner sanctuary lies the body of San Carlo in a silver coffin given by Filippo IV. of Spain. Vault and coffin are remarkable only for gorgeousness. Pomp and magnificence outside, an emaciated ascetic within, contrast significant of the Church of the Catholic Revival. An aperture in front of the choir above allows a view of the saintly resting-place.
The door into the sacristy on the south side of the ambulatory is decorated with a rich and interesting Gothic canopy of the earliest period of the Cathedral. This sculpture was designed and partly executed by Hans von Fernach in 1393 and finished soon after by an Italian, Porrino de’ Grassi, who doubtless did the graceful subject reliefs, while the rude, vivacious little figures, from the Gospel story, in the decorative border round, are evidently by a hand of different nationality, that of the German Hans. Within the sacristy there is a richly-sculptured Gothic arch over the lavabo, enshrining a relief of Christ and the Samaritan Woman, signed by the sculptor, Giacomo da Campione.[[5]] Also a statue of Christ at the Column, by Cristoforo Solari, a heavy and flaccid work.
[5]. See Malaguzzi Valeri, op. cit. vol. i. p. 56.
The famous treasure of the Cathedral is kept in this sacristy. Here are great seicento figures of St. Ambrogio and S. Carlo in solid silver, and other silver objects of the same period, precious in material but artistically of little account. In a small case there are, however, some veritable treasures. The covers of a Book of the Gospels, presented to the Cathedral by Ariberto, beautiful examples of the goldsmith’s art in the Romanesque period, adorned with chiselled reliefs, with enamel, gold filigree work and precious stones. On one is represented Christ between the Virgin and St. John, with Ariberto presenting the book to her, and below, St. Ambrogio between SS. Protasio and Gervasio. The work shows the Byzantine influence, which was still supreme in this branch of art in the eleventh century. A pastoral staff of silver gilt, ornamented with enamel, is of the same period. Two ivory diptychs, one of very early date, carved with the freedom and grace still surviving in Greek artists in the fourth and fifth centuries; the other of heavy and debased Lombard workmanship of the ninth century must be noticed, and also a little ivory vessel carved with figures of the Virgin and Evangelists, tenth century Lombard work. Among many precious mediæval and Renaissance objects there is a golden pax, with a finely carved Deposition between columns of lapis-lazuli, and a group of angels above, with the arms of the donor, Pius IV. This is attributed, but erroneously, to Caradosso.
The magnificent tapestries in the possession of the Cathedral were shown at the Great Exhibition of 1906, and several of them perished in the fire which occurred on that occasion.
Beyond the sacristy, in the ambulatory, is a copy of the sacred painting of the Annunciation, in the SS. Annunziata in Florence. It is said to have been painted by Bronzino, and given by Francesco I. de’ Medici to Cardinal Borromeo. The Madonna del Parto further on is apparently a restoration of an ancient painting, and the object of a very special devotion. A bare inscription beneath it records that Niccolò Piccinino is buried with his son Francesco in this spot. The great Condottiere had prepared a splendid tomb for himself, but the marble was seized at his death for other purposes, and when Francesco Sforza became Duke, he preferred that the memory of his rival should go uncelebrated. The statue of Martin V. close by, a colossal seated figure, was sculptured by Jacopino da Tradate in 1421. In the long inscription in verse, by a Milanese gentleman of humanistic tastes, the sculptor is likened to Praxiteles. Beyond we come to the monument of Cardinal Marino Caraccioli, Governor of Milan from 1536 to 1538—a late and very uninspired work by il Bambaia. Close to it is a little Pietà, by one of the early Cathedral sculptors. The three great windows of the apse were originally filled with stained glass, by Stefano da Pandino and Franceschino de’ Zavatarii, early in the fifteenth century, but only in the upper part of the middle window does any of it survive; the rest is modern. In the sculptured tracery of the middle window appear the favourite emblem of Gian Galeazzo Visconte, the Dove in the midst of rays, and figures, sculptured after the design of Isacco da Imbonate, of the Virgin and the Angel of the Annunciation, and of the two bishop saints, Ambrogio and Galdino. The latter was Archbishop of Milan from 1166 to 1176, and a notable foe of heretics and Ghibellines.
Under the window further on is an ancient Crucifix, with head restored, brought here from the chapel of Filippo Maria’s castle when it was demolished by the Ambrosian Republic. Tablets under the great windows record members of the Sforza family buried here. It was in the apse that the biers of the Dukes of Milan used to be suspended, between the columns, till San Carlo reformed them away. The body of Gaston de Foix was given royal place among them, being hung between the two great pillars on the left hand of the altar. Cardinal Borromeo did not have the displacing of that, however. He was anticipated by the Swiss mercenaries under the brutal Cardinal de Sion, who, only a few years after the hero was buried, tore down the bier and scattered the remains, to the scandal of all Christendom. A fresco further on in the ambulatory, of the Crucified, with Saints, a poor work with a certain charm of simplicity and prettiness, by Isacco da Imbonate, in 1423, seems to show an intention, quickly abandoned, of clothing the walls with paintings. Beyond we come to a fifteenth century painting of Madonna, and St. John the Baptist, standing in a flowery landscape, showing little merit except decorative charm. High up against the wall is a statue of Pius IV., by the sixteenth century sculptor, Angelo Siciliano.
The Gothic ornamentation over the door of the north sacristy takes us back to early days again. It is by Giacomo da Campione.[[6]] The canopy encloses a relief of Christ in Glory, surrounded by angels and saints, and in the tympanum below, Christ appears between the Virgin and St. John. These sculptures are more accomplished than those of the south sacristy, though they show the Lombard lack of idealism; the small profile busts of men in the costume of the period on the architrave—perhaps portraits of the artist’s fellow-workmen on the Cathedral—are excellent, well-modelled, and full of vivacity.
[6]. See Malaguzzi Valeri, op. cit., vol. i. p. 56.
In the north transept stands the Albero, a colossal seven-branched candlestick of bronze, in the form of a tree. An inscription on the base records that it was presented to the Cathedral by one of the Trivulzio family in 1562, but it is usually described as thirteenth century work. The style, however, proclaims it not earlier than the late fifteenth, and it might well be later. The seven branches spring from a bossy stem supported on winged dragons; the interstices are filled up with a web of vine tendrils in which figures of delicate workmanship are wrought—sacred and symbolic characters, and biblical scenes; the story of Adam and Eve, Noah and the Dove, the Sacrifice of Isaac, David with the head of Goliath, etc. The Procession and Adoration of the Magi are cunningly arranged round the stem. Up the sides of the chapel of the Madonna dell’ Albero there are some bas-reliefs representing the Life of the Virgin, by Cristoforo Solari, il Bambaia and others of the early Cinquecentists; these were originally round the door in this transept which Cardinal Borromeo abolished. The stained glass window over the altar of St. Catherine in the corner of the transept to the left is by Stefano da Pandino (1432). The altar has statues of St. Jerome and St. Augustine, early works of Cristoforo Solari, and some little sculptures of earlier date, doubtless from some older shrine. The tabernacle on the right, with a figure of God the Father, is by one of the Campionesi.