Another German in the laborerium was an architect, Magister Enrico or Ulrico di Ensingen, near Ulm. He came in July 1391, but only remained a few months, and then disappeared. Another Enrico or Ulrico (the spenditore's orthography is diverse and mixed) da Gamodia or Gmunden, then appears. This is the Heinrich of Gmunden, whom the guide-books generally name as the architect of the Duomo. We will now see precisely how much was due to him. His name appears at a meeting on May 1, 1392, in which Jacopo da Campione, as usual, holds the first place. Enrico da Gamodia, as he is written in the books, was but lately returned (ritornato) from Germany, and had offered himself to design and work in the building of the Duomo. He allowed himself to raise doubts and express censure of the solidity and strength of the work already done. Public discussions were raised as to the validity of his objections. A great meeting was called, in which his name appears at the bottom of a long list of Masters, all Italian. To the questions as to the solidity and beauty of the building, and whether it should be continued on the same plan or not, all the other Masters agreed that the design could not be improved. Heinrich of Gmunden alone answered stubbornly, non assensit.
The guild soon after decided on cutting off useless expenses, and among others the salary of Magister Heinrich, who was "dismissed," and "sent about his business" (licentietur ad eundum pro factis suis). The German appealed to the Duke of Milan, who begged the Deputati to reconsider their decision. They, however, held firm, and calling Heinrich before them on the 7th of the following July, told him that he had not served the cause well (in designamentis et aliis necessariis pro Fabrica male serviverit). They gave him six florins for his journey and dismissed him. "Yet," as Merzario says,[268] "to this man who came to Milan at the end of 1391, and left in the middle of 1392, is given by many people the credit of having designed the Duomo of Milan, which was begun in 1386, and also of the Certosa of Pavia begun in 1396."
Nor did Ulrich da Ulm, whom we have mentioned, achieve much more than his compatriot. He came in 1391, and only stayed a few months. In 1394, however, he again offered his services, and was reinstalled on a profitable contract. But he too had the national spirit of criticism, and vaunted his own plans of improving the church, while he detailed his opinion of the flaws in the existing plans, and doubts on the stability of the building. Of course a meeting of the lodge was called, and as before the majority went against Ulrich's new improvements. However, they sent to Pavia to ask the Duke to let his architect, Nicola de Lelli, come to Milan and arbitrate. He replied that they had better send a deputation with all the plans to Pavia, as he could not spare the architect. So the capo maestro, Jacopo da Campione, and Giovannino de' Grassi accompanied Ulrich to Pavia, to confer with the Duke and his architects, with the result that the present work was pronounced good, and Ulrich's designs and innovations rejected. The spenditore records that Ulrich's salary was paid: he too was sent off (ad eundum pro factis suis).
During the three following years no German names are met with in the books. Then came the death of Jacopo da Campione in 1398, and the laborerium seems to have had no capable Master to replace him. And now we shall see how this Masonic Guild was ramified throughout Europe.
The Deputies sent to Giovanni Alcherio, a Milanese living in Paris, to see if some architect could be spared from the works at Notre Dame. He proposed Jean Campanias from Normandy and Jean Mignot of Paris, mentioned above, who were accepted, and came to Milan in 1399, with a painter named Jacopo Cova. Mignot was made architect of the two sacristies. He coveted the supreme post of chief architect of the whole building, but he met with serious rivals in Marco da Carona and Antonio da Padernò, two young Magistri who were fast rising in the guild to fill the place of Jacopo and Marco da Campione and Simone da Arsenigo.
There was schism in the guild. Mignot found fault with everything in the Duomo, the size, the proportions, the piloni, the capitals, the windows, the tracery, and all the ornamentation. Marco and Antonio declared that Mignot's sacristy was of a false rule of measurement, and the arch of his window wrong in its lines. There were meetings in the lodge, and endless disputes, till Mignot also disappeared from the scene.
The Campione school of Masters still held its own: we now find that Matteo da Campione was sent for from Monza. Zeno da Campione, brother of the late Jacopo, also came with two hundred and fifty stone-cutters under him to carve the capitals, pinnacles, etc. etc. There was Lorenzo degli Spazi di Laino in Val d'Intelvi, also of the same school, who brought one hundred and eighty-eight stone-carvers to the laborerium, and who won fame for the fine sculpture they produced. Can one wonder at the wealth of sculpture in and on the cathedral, when only two Magistri can furnish more than four hundred workmen between them? When one looks at the lavish marble work on the roof, the plurality of artists is well accounted for.
Giovannino dei Grassi, or Gracii, seems to have succeeded Jacopo as capo maestro, and his designs and Jacopo's were kept with reverence in the rooms of the Administration.
In 1400 Jacopo da Tradate is the "supreme sculptor" to the fabric. He did the statue of Martin V. in commemoration of that Pope's visit to Milan in 1418, after the Council of Constance, when he consecrated the principal altar. Jacobino da Tradate also sculptured the mausoleum of Pietro, son of Guido Torello, Marquis of Guastalla, in S. Eustorgio at Milan. His son, Samuele, was a friend of Andrea Mantegna's, and once visited him on the Lago di Garda. He too was a sculptor, and made his father's tomb in the cloister of S. Agnese, which he inscribed—"Jacobino de Tradate patri suaviss:—Qui tamquam Praxiteles vivos in marmore fingebat vultus—Samuel observantis. V. F."
In 1402 Duke Gian Galeazzo died, and during the minority of his son, art, architecture, and sculpture languished. Few famous names are preserved, and all of those were from the neighbourhood of Como. Those mentioned in the books as continuing the work between 1402 and 1440, are Jacopo da Tradate, Bertollo da Campione, Giorgio de Sollario, sculptors, and Paolino da Montorfano, a painter. At a later period other Masters appeared, and we find Giovanni de Solari from Val d'Intelvi, Guglielmo di Giorgio and Giovanni di Reghezio, Jacopo da Lanzo, Michele di Benedetto da Campione, Francesco Solari, and Giovanni da Cairate, all sculptors, with Cristoforo da Chiona, Arasmino Solari da Arogna, Franceschino da Canobbio, Leonardo da Sirtori, Paolino da Arsenigo, and Giovanni Solari, all Lombard engineers and architects.