This great artist was born about 1363, and belonged to the noble family of Spinelli. He was one of the cleverest and most prolific workers of his day. His principal trade was that of a wood-carver; and he is said to have obtained his surname of del Coro from his ability and success in designing and carving Choir-stalls. From 1413 to 1423, he held the post of Capo-maestro of the Opera del Duomo of Siena, and we have records of work done by him in glass, as well as in stone and wood. He worked on the older Fonte Gaia, made designs for an intended loggia (on the site of the present Casino dei Nobili), to face into the Piazza del Campo,[153] and was sent for to Orvieto to advise about the repair of the roof of the Duomo there. The panels, inlaid with the Symbols of the Creed, for the stalls of the Chapel of the Palazzo Pubblico, executed by him between the years 1415–1428,[154] after designs said to be by Taddeo Bartoli,[155] are works of exceptional beauty. After a long life, in January 1446–7, we find him, at 84 years of age, begging the Signoria of Siena to grant him a pension. A sum of two florins a month was allowed to him, but he could not have enjoyed it for long, since after 1450 we entirely lose sight of him.
11. 1423. Agostino di Niccolo.
The only specimen of this artist’s work we know of in Siena, is that on the Pavement. We have no other record of him except that in 1405, or perhaps even earlier, he was working at Orvieto, in company with a certain Nanni di Giacomo (a cadet of the noble house of Castori, or Amidei), a native of Lucca, but resident in Siena, and during the next year, with an artist named Orbetano, called il Mastro, also a Sienese.
12. 1423. Bastiano di Corso.
Concerning this artist, we know that he came from Florence, lived a long time in Siena, and died rather before 1455. His family name was Giuliani, and he married Francesca di Cristoforo Pastella, by whom he had four sons: Taddeo; Cristoforo (born 1422); Corso (of whom presently), and Giuliano, who married, in 1469, Marianna, daughter of Pietro Paoletti. Both of these were sculptors, like their father. Milanesi gives many notices of work in marble done by this artist, in company with his sons, in the Cathedral, the Baptistery, the Hospital of Sta. Maria della Scala, and the Loggia di S. Paolo.
13. 1426. Paolo di Martino.
Of this man, beyond the records of him in connexion with the Pavement, scarcely anything is known. He appears once, as witness to a contract for some carved figures for the Duomo. A curious fact occurs also, as to work done by him in the before-mentioned Chapel of the Palazzo Pubblico. In 1414, he, his brother Antonio, and a certain Simone d’Antonio, were commissioned to decorate the stalls of that Chapel. Their work seems not to have given public satisfaction, with the result that the commission was taken away from them, and given to Domenico del Coro, who, as we have seen, executed his task triumphantly.
ALINARI PHOTO.]
[DESIGNED BY PAOLO DI MARTINO