Niccolò, Giovanni, and Andrea da Pisa are fine proofs that the school at Pisa flourished and brought forth brave artists. Even as late as the sixteenth century, when Sansovino was sculpturing the casing of the Holy House at Loreto, we are told that thirty of the best carvers in stone were sent from Pisa to work under the Capo Maestro, Andrea Contucci of Monte Sansovino.[165]
Among the Magistri from other parts in Buschetto's time, one of the chief was doubtless Rainaldo, who, judging from the inscription near the principal door of the façade, was not only a working sculptor in the guild, but also a full-fledged Master—
HOC OPUS EXIMIUM TAM MERUM TAM PRETIOSUM:
RAINALDUS PRUDENS OPERATOR, ET IPSE MAGISTER:
COSTITVIT MIRE, SOLLERTER, ET INGENIOSE.
It is much to be deplored that this inscription bears no date, so that we cannot tell whether Rainaldo were chief architect after Buschetto, or whether he were only sculptor and executed the front; Buschetto being architect, and designing the whole. Here we have several things to suggest both these artists as Italians, (1) Their names. (2) The Comacine form of their institutions, with the Opera at the head. (3) The concourse of Italian Magistri which followed them; but as usual, absolute proof is wanting.
Let us see if their work can throw more light on the question. Is the Pisan church Byzantine? Decidedly not. There are no domes except the central one, which is seen in most Lombard churches; no Oriental arches resting on bulging capitals; but round arches supported on the identical Romano-Lombard composite capitals one sees in every Italian church of the time. The façade too is a very wilderness of Lombard galleries in every direction. Instead of following the line of roof, they cover the whole front, one below another. If Buschetto had brought back from Byzantium an idea of more richness of ornamentation, he certainly worked it out in Italian forms, by merely multiplying his little pillared galleries till a network was formed over the whole building. This was not confined to him; it became a mark of Comacine work for the next two or three centuries, as we may see at Lucca, Ancona, Arezzo, and other places. The style is called Romanesque, and it stands between the heavier Lombard style of the earlier Comacines, and the more finished Italian Gothic of the later ones, as shown in Florence and Milan. They are all, however, only different developments of the same guild.
Interior of Pisa Cathedral, 11th century.