Here Prof. Merzario quotes several of these uomini dottissimi. First, Quatremal de Quincy, in his Dictionary of Architecture, who, under the heading "Comacine," remarks that "to these men, who were both designers and executors, architects, sculptors, and mosaicists, may be attributed the renaissance of art, and its propagation in the southern countries, where it marched with Christianity. Certain it is that we owe it to them, that the heritage of antique ages was not entirely lost, and it is only by their tradition and imitation that the art of building was kept alive, producing works which we still admire, and which become surprising when we think of the utter ignorance of all science in those dark ages." Our English writer, Hope, taking their later appellative of Lombards, credits Lombardy with being the cradle of the associations of Freemasons, "who were," he says, "the first after Roman times to enrich architecture with a complete and well-ordinated system, which dominated wherever the Latin Church extended its influence from the shores of the Baltic to those of the Mediterranean."[84] We will omit the witnesses, Kugler of Germany and Ramée of France, and take the Italian great authority, Pietro Selvatico.[85] He notes that art in Europe, from the seventh to the thirteenth century, consisted of a combination of Byzantine and Roman elements, but in the ninth century a third element mingled, which had in itself so much that was original, as to constitute an independent style. "This," he goes on to say, "was the Lombard or Comacine architecture, as it is called, which is distinguished by its low-pitched roofs, its circular arches, rounded on columns, which assimilate to the Greek and Roman styles. This gained a certain systematic unity after the first half of the ninth century." Prof. Selvatico seems to have ignored all the Comacine architecture under the Longobards, who were certainly the nurses of the guild, and takes it up just when it was freeing itself from the bonds of superstitious tradition, i.e. the transition between Roman-Lombard and Romanesque.
Comacine Capital in San Zeno, Verona, emblematizing Man clinging to Christ (the Palm).
No doubt the genealogy of the style was this. First, the Comacines continued Roman traditions as the Romans continued Etruscan ones; next, they orientalized their style by their connection with the East through Aquileia, and the influx of Greek exiles into the guild. Later came a different influence through the Saracens into the South, and the Italian-Gothic was born.
The Comacine art of the interregnum after Charlemagne may be judged by the church of S. Zeno at Verona. This had been rebuilt in 810 by King Pepin, whose palace was in Verona. His church fell a prey to the devastation dealt by the Huns in 924, and Bishop Rothair restored it in the tenth century, the Emperor Otho the First furnishing the funds. There was a third restoration in 1139, when the present front and portico were added. The general form of Otho's church still remains, and shows the usual "three naves" (emblematical of the Trinity), and the circular arches supported by alternate columns and pilasters. The roof, as in all the older Lombard churches, was of wood, and not vaulted. It is not recorded whence Otho obtained his architects, but though no names are written, the Comacine mark is there. Later restorations have wiped out most of the old signs, but they have left us some capitals on the columns and the reliefs on the arches leading into the crypt under the tribune. Two of the columns are here illustrated. In one may be seen human figures clinging to palm-branches, by which the Magister who carved it symbolized man clinging to Christ. The other is a veritable Comacine knot, formed of mystic winged creatures, with their serpent tails entwined. On the arches of the crypt are a wealth of mediæval imaginings, mystic beasts, Christian symbols, scriptural characters and ancient myths, all mingled together as only a Freemason of the Middle Ages could mingle them. Otho's architects were certainly Magistri of our guild, and probably our friend from Pontida, who called on S. Zeno to save him from the brigands, was one of them.
It is undeniable that later Comacines put the elegant façade to the church in 1139, when Magistri Nicolaus and Guglielmus carved the wonderful porch with its columns resting on lions, and its very mediæval reliefs, in which we see Theodoric, King of the Goths, going straight to the devil in the guise of a wild huntsman. On the architraves are allegorical reliefs of the twelve months. But this front is not of the era we are now discussing, and we shall mention it again.
A work which is indubitably of the ninth century, and has all the marks of the time, is the atrium of S. Ambrogio at Milan, which was a commission to Magister Adam of the Comacines, by Anspert of Bissone, who was Archbishop of Milan from 868 to 881. The atrium of a church was anciently used for the catechumens, as they were not admitted into the body of the church till they were baptized. The atrium of S. Ambrogio is a square space surrounded by a portico composed of columns supporting round arches. The proportions are so fine and majestic that it is looked on as the best mediæval edifice existing in Lombard style. The capitals are composed of foliage, strange ornaments, and groups of grotesque animals and monsters rudely sculptured; and yet with the imperfect chiselling there is such a freedom of design and wealth of imagination as you find in no Byzantine work, however precise its execution. We give an illustration of one of its capitals. The Comacine intreccio is there, but floriated and luxurious. The significance of these sculptures, though unintelligible to us, is believed to be the occult and conventional art language of the Comacines or Freemasons. On the doorway, among the foliage and symbolic animals, one may still read the name of "Adam Magister."