Façade of Ferrara Cathedral, 12th century.
Before the middle of the thirteenth century, Padua had become the shrine of a miraculous saint. St. Anthony had come over from Lisbon in 1220, and founded at Padua a new order of monks, called Minori Conventuali, under similar rules to the Franciscans. St. Anthony attracted great crowds of people by his preaching and miracles, and at his death in 1231 he was canonized, and his devotees desired to build a beautiful church over his tomb. The first attempt failed from not having means to pay a good architect, or competent builders, and in 1265 the commune set to work to remedy their mistake. They assigned four thousand lire a year to the re-edification, until such time as the church should be completed. By 1307 all was complete except the cupola, which was added a century later. Vasari attributes the design to Niccolò Pisano; but his able commentator, Milanesi, who lived all his life studying archives, asserts that neither document, inscription, nor tradition remain to prove Niccolò's connection with Padua, while the style of the building is utterly unlike the edifices known to be his.
Some documents in the archives of Padua, unearthed by Padre Gonzali, prove that in 1263, on May 11, there were working in the church as builders, Egidio, son of Magister Gracii; Ubertino, son of Lanfranco; Niccola, son of Giovanni; and Pergandi, son of Ugone of Mantua; and that, in 1264, a Zambono of Como and a Benedetto of Verona, who lived in the district of Rovina, are recorded as builders. There is no record of the architect who designed the church; but judging from the Moorish innovations of style it was very probably either planned by the monks, or designed by them. St. Anthony was a Portuguese. On his way here he would have passed through Spain, and may have been attracted by the Moorish architecture. He may have even brought a drawing or two of some many-domed building, and have given them to the Lombard architects to work from. Probably some of his monks were—like many Franciscans and Dominicans—members of the Guild of Freemasons, and so trained in the science of architecture.
In any case, the buildings at Padua are neither true Lombard nor true Gothic, and not even Oriental, but a mixture of all three. The Lombard has partly had his way in the façade, where the upper part is full of galleries and archlets; the lover of the new Gothic arches has put his mark on the lower part of the façade; and the monks, who remembered the native land of their saint, have put the seven domes and minarets; the domes, however, were beyond the Comacines of that time, and were not placed till the fifteenth century, when it is to be imagined that the Renaissance doorway and various pilasters and adjuncts were added. Altogether, for a church where Como Masters undoubtedly worked, St. Anthony of Padua is the most unlike their style. They seem to have taken so little interest in the outlandish plan, that they did not sanctify it by a bit of their biblical sculpture.
That monks at that era really did occupy themselves in architecture, we have consistent proofs in the monkish builders of fine churches; and that when they followed this branch, they were probably trained in, and became members of, the great Masonic Guild, is also indicated by the close connection between the Magistri-frati and the secular Magistri. In the transactions of the guild, monks were frequently called into council by the Opera or Fabbriceria; and they often worked at their churches in conjunction with the secular members.[148] In the church of S. Francesco at Lodi is an interesting old painting, representing S. Bernardino directing a group of monks engaged in building a convent. Beneath it is written—"Qualiter in ædificatione monasterii Bernardinus fratres hortatus fuerit."[149]
Church of S. Antonio, Padua, 13th century.