The Sienese had, as we have said, proposed to so enlarge the church by adding a huge nave, that the present church would only form the transept. This was begun, but when the works had already advanced the plan was abandoned. Provisional Magistri were called to form a committee, which met in council on February 17, 1321, and here, for the first time in Siena, we find Lorenzo Maitani giving his vote. He was called to attend the meeting from Orvieto, where he had been capo maestro of the works from 1310. He, with Niccola Nuti, Gino di Francesco, Tone di Giovanni, and Vanni di Cione (one of Orcagna's relatives from Florence), formed the council. After due deliberation they pronounced on the inconvenience of proceeding with the addition to the Duomo, and decided to build a new church of more moderate dimensions, which should still be large and magnificent. The work now continued without interruption; and on November 20, 1333, we find another Council of Masters was called, in which twelve of the guild severally swear "testis juratis die supra scripta et sancta Dei evangelia, corporaliter tactis scripturis dicere veritatem, suo juramento testificando dixit," etc., that the walls and foundations were strong and firm.
Front of Siena Cathedral. Designed by Magister Giovanni Pisano.
The next capo maestro was Master Lando or Orlando di Pieri, son of Piero, a metal-worker of the guild, who was recalled from Naples in 1339. He was a Lombard, though a naturalized citizen of Siena. They say Lando is "a most legal man (omo legalissimus), not only in his own special branch (gold-working), but in many others; is a man of the greatest ingenuity and invention, both with regard to the building of churches and the erection of palaces and private houses; a good engineer for roads, bridges, or fountains, and, above all, a citizen of Siena."[225] Here we see signs of the jealousy of the Lombard Guild, which caused the schism of which we have spoken. Lando was truly an acknowledged genius. He made the coronet with which the Emperor Henry VII. was crowned at Milan in 1311. Muratori (cap. xiii.), quoting an old Latin dissertation on the "corona ferrea," says the maker of the crown was present, "presente magistro Lando de Senis, aurifabro predicti domini Regis, qui predictam coronam propriis manibus fabricavit." We hear no more of his gold work; but in 1322 he was employed in Florence to hang the great bell of the palace of the Signoria, and make it ring (Ita quod de facili pulsatur et pulsari potest), for which he was paid 300 gold florins. In his architectural capacity he was employed at Naples by King Robert of Anjou, but was recalled from there to Siena in 1339, and made caput magister of the builders of the Duomo. The contract, signed on December 3, 1339, binds him for three years at a salary of 200 lire a year.
The accounts of the Opera have some interesting articles connected with the laying of the foundations of the revised plan. In August 1339 the Masters were called into council on the enlargement of the Duomo, as the nave was considered too short, and Ser Bindo, the notary of the guild, had to supply them with five sheets of parchment at one lire a sheet to make designs. Also two lire ten soldi were spent in bread, meat, and wine, which were sent by the guild to the priests who officiated when the first stone was laid. In March, Maestro Lando again applied to Ser Bindo for parchment to make designs, which cost him twenty-three soldi six denari.
Whether these plans were accepted or not, I cannot tell—probably not—for in the following March, Lando fell ill and died. He left a son, Pietro di Lando, also in the guild, and who was naturalized Florentine when he joined that lodge. A document cited by Gaye (Carteggio, etc. vol. i. p. 73) shows Pietro to have worked with Giovanni di Lazzero de Como and a Buono Martini at the fortifications of Castel S. Angelo in Val di Sieve; the three architects solicited the Signoria for the pay due to them. This Pietro was the father of Vecchietta, who inherited more than his great-grandsire's talent for working metal.
The next capo maestro after Lando was Giovanni, son of the famous sculptor Agostino of Siena, who was, on March 23, 1340, elected for five years. He had been head of the works at Orvieto in 1337, but did not long remain there, for in 1338 we find him again in the pay of the lodge of Siena, where a document in the archives of the Hospital notes a payment for some work on April 26, to Maestro Giovanni, son of Maestro Agostino of the Opera, and of the parish of S. Quirico.[226]
After Giovanni I can find no mention of a capo maestro till February 16, 1435, when Jacopo della Quercia, otherwise "Magister Jacobus, Magistri Petri," was elected operajo (president of the Council), i.e. Grand Master. His salary was fixed at one hundred gold florins as long as he lived, and his wife was to have a pension at his death. There were several conditions specified to which he had to agree. But he had so many other engagements, at S. Petronio in Bologna, at Parma, and Lucca, that he absented himself too much from Siena to please the Opera there. As early as March 1434-35, a month after his election, we find him leaving two of the Council of Administration to rule in his absence. The absence must have been a lengthy one, for on October 22, 1435, the Signoria of the Commune write to him as follows—"Magister Jacobo Pieri electus Operaio, etc. etc.... As you have been fully informed, you ought before the past month to have taken action, and performed the duties undertaken by you in regard to the office of Operaio of our Church, to which our Councils elected you. We and our councillors have waited all the past month, expecting that, for the honour of the Commune, and its needs at the hands of the said Opera, you would return. Now we are at October 22, and you do not appear to think of it. God knows how the citizens are complaining and murmuring against you. Therefore we have decided to write to you, that without fail, and with no delay, you must immediately present yourself to perform your duties, and let nothing hinder you. If you do not do this, it will cause us great astonishment and inconvenience."[227]