One of the lion-capped columns is entirely covered with sculptures representing the genealogical tree of the Virgin. The statue above the door, of St. Martin dividing his cloak with the beggar, is sufficiently well modelled as to suggest its belonging to a later century.
Signor Ridolfi, who has studied much in the archives of Lucca for his learned work L' Arte in Lucca, thinks that, in 1204, Guidetto the younger was only just beginning his career. His father must have died about this time, for the son loses his diminutive, and becomes in his turn Guido Magistro. In 1211 he was called to Prato to work at the Duomo there (then known as S. Stefano). The contract, which still exists, does not specify what part of the church he was to build. It is drawn up by the Notary Hildebrand, and binds "Guido, Maestro marmoraio" of S. Martino of Lucca, to go to Prato on fair terms, and there to remain working, and commanding others to work, at the church of S. Stefano. After this he was recalled to Lucca, to put the above-mentioned façade to S. Michele, which Teutprand had built in the eighth century, and which had been rebuilt, when in 1027 Beraldo de' Rolandinghi had left a large legacy for the purpose. This façade, which, as I have said, is precisely similar in style to that of the Duomo, was finished in 1246.[178] Guido was then called to Pisa, to sculpture the altar and font in the Baptistery there. Not much remains of the altar—which appears to have been the usual edifice on four columns—except some very ancient sculpture, and two small columns with extremely rude statues on them. The inscription, however, is preserved, and runs—"A.D. MCCXLVI, sub Jacobi Rectore loci—Guido Bigarelli da Como fecit hoc opus."[179] This valuable discovery was made by the German Schmarzow. Here we have the family name of this busy sculptor, and of his father Guido of Como. It is one of the first instances, for surnames only became fixed about this time.
Guido or Guidetto's last work appears to have been the pulpit in San Bartolommeo in Pantano, at Pistoja, executed in 1250. This is particularly interesting, as being the immediate precursor of Niccolò Pisano's pulpit at Pisa in 1260. It has been thought that Guido, either from death or other cause, left the work imperfect, and his pupil Turrisianus finished it. The inscription as quoted by Cav. Tolomei is—"Sculptor laudator qui doctus in arte probatur|Guido de Como quem cunctis carmine promo| Anno domini 1250|Est operi sanus superestans Turrisianus |Namque fide prova vigil K Deus indi corona."[180]
Tolomei is puzzled by the cypher K, and Ciampi, the collector of inscriptions, has, in reporting this one, left out the last line altogether. He interprets it as implying that Guido having left the work unfinished, Turrisianus finished it. Whilst I was studying lately some old documents in the archives of S. Jacopo at Pistoja, Signor Guido Macciò of that city, who kindly assisted me to read the crabbed old characters, threw a new light on that inscription. He says Tolomei has misread it; that the cypher is not a K but H C, which was plainly legible in a rubbing he took of it, and that superstans merely means overseer; in fact, the Latin form of operaio. The same term superstans was used for the head of the laborerium in Rome up to the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, and survived in the later lodges as soprastante. Signor Macciò interprets the inscription thus—"The famous sculptor Guido of Como has proved himself learned in art, and his name should be sung in verse, A.D. 1250. Turrisianus (Torrigiani) acted as overseer to this fine work, and may God crown him for superintending the work so well." I leave more learned classics to say which interpretation is the true one. But as in most of the inscriptions, documents, etc. of the guild, the name of the head of the lodge, and often those of the councillors are put in, I incline to think Signor Macciò may be right, and the inscription is another proof of a Masonic lodge in which Torrigiani was, at the time, the head of the administration.
Pulpit in Church of S. Bartolommeo, Pistoja. By Guido da Como.
Guido's pulpit is of white marble, and in the ancient square form, with eight panels in bas-relief. It rests on three columns; the first stands on a lion with a dragon at its feet, the second on a lioness suckling a cub, the third on a human figure. In this pulpit, and the older one at Groppoli, we have a perceptible link, connecting Niccolò Pisano with the Comacine Guild, which we shall trace more closely when speaking of Romanesque sculpture.
There were at that epoch three lodges in the immediate neighbourhood. One in connection with the Opera del Duomo at Pisa, one at Pistoja in the Opera di S. Jacopo, and a third one at Lucca, where Guido and Guidetto were chief sculptors. Besides this there was another in Apulia, where it is thought Niccolò's father Pietro worked. Niccolò's work, and that of Guido the younger, are so very much alike as to warrant the suspicion that they were both pupils of one master, but that Niccolò had in him these greater qualities which go to form an epoch-making artist.