The smaller Tuscan towns

Front matter

• o lvT» A vv

• ^V OJ

,40, t • o

Introduction

TUSCANY will always have a peculiar charm for the traveller. During three hundred yearS;, from the early times of communal life in the cities to the days of Leonardo and Michelangelo the Tuscan people lived life at first hand. It has seldom happened that personality, character^ mental power and intellectual sensibility have been so free from convention and have had such complete control of society as among the Tuscan people during these centuries. What the days of Elizabeth are to an Englishman, the thirteenth^ fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Tuscany are to an Italian. A keen political consciousness^ a widely spread gift of esthetic sensibility^ a high standard of achievement, an audacity tempting to spiritual encounter, a passion of wonder, brought ordinary life near to the life of intuitive imagination.

It is natural that the traveller should want to see how this remarkable society expressed itself, what sort of surroundings it provided for its activities, how it satisfied its love of beauty. Fortunately the search for such things will take him into every corner of a wonderful land ; he will inevitably mix with every condition of men, he wdll see the life of a race having an immemorial tradition of civilisation, he will journey through a country of strangely diverse beauty. If he be of Northern race he w^ill find the quality of the life and the art gain in piquancy by a setting different from his own. This variety in habit and the climate of a Southern land will yield a constant delight, whether the sojourn be in some great city in some wide upland valley, in some remote mountain town, among the chestnut forests, or on the strangely fascinating Maremma shore.

The history of mediaeval Tuscany was determined by the vigorous individuality of its people. Their vitality

vii viii INTRODUCTION

was so great, their appetite for life so absorbing, that only the strong hand of some external power sufficed to hold in check the centrifugal impulse. In the eighth century the Frankish kings, Pippin and Charles, conquered Northern and Central Italy, or rather they conquered the Lombards, who two centuries before had subdued the larger part of Italy. The Frankish conquerors governed Tuscany by setting up a powerful marquisate, which remained a real instrument of government until the death of the Countess Matilda in 1115. When the Imperial power fell into weaker hands the Tuscan towns seized their opportunity and developed municipal government under the administration of the greater citizen families. The men of Florence, Siena, Pisa and Lucca saw that '' behind the sublime figures of the Pope and the Emperor, stood the people, the true source of social existence." As the cities grew into powerful states, the territorial families such as the Guidi, the Aldobrandeschi, and the Malaspina were reduced to the state of ordinary nobles and soldiers of fortune. It is worth noting that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in the days of national decline, some of these ancient feudal races having become merged in the families of condottieri and of papal nephews reappear among the minor rulers of the country.

Particularism was the undoing of the Tuscan political genius ; but the vigorous individualism that was disastrous in politics was the source of the extraordinary interest we feel in the civilisation that sprang from it. Whether it was the ecclesiastical reformation under Hildebrand, or the moulding of the vulgar tongue into a beautiful language, or the revival of classical literature and art, or the stirring of conscience under Savonarola, Tuscan intellect, Tuscan imagination, Tuscan sensibility was always one of the chief among the forces at work. We still see the reflection of this intense vitality, not only in Florence, not only in the larger towns of secondary importance, but often in the villages and hamlets scattered broadcast over Tuscany. A short summary will make this clear.

INTRODUCTION ix

Architecture

In architecture as in everything else the ItaHan was practical ; houses were built in general conformity with the habit of the time^ but there was no desire to set a grand style in place of private convenience. Thus the buildings of an Italian town are characteristic^ although the character is different from that of Nuremberg or Chartres. In the South the eye follows horizontal lines instead of vertical^ as we may see in the Via S. Pietro at Siena^ where buildings in the pointed style have been adapted to the Italian preference for breadth instead of height^ for spacious harmony rather than picturesque detail. This harmony of simplicity and dignity is found in houses built for defence^ such as the Castle of Poppi (in the Casentino)^ in the Renaissance palace of Pius II. at Pienza^ and in the houses of Vignola (sixteenth century) at Montepulciano^ although it must be added that in these last examples dignity is tempered by dulness.

The civic palaces of Siena^ Volterra^ S. Gimignano^ Arezzo^ Pistoia and Prato date from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries ; they are generally adaptations of the pointed style. They are massive and dignified ; they have an extraordinary effect in giving character to their surroundings^ but their builders would never have dreamed of covering them with ornamental detail common in the town halls of Germany and Belgium.

The contrast between the churches of Italy and those of the North is quite as marked ^ and affects each of the styles of architecture as they follow one another. The debonair humanism of the South is opposed to the asceticism of the North ; a mundane and positive habit of mind conflicts with love of the supernatural and mystical ; the Southern (of the fine periods) avoids emphasis. He thinks in terms of space rather than in the surfaces enclosing it ; he regards the whole instead of the parts.

The fortunes of the different towns in Tuscany have

X INTRODUCTION

been various. In Florence and Siena there are few examples of churches in the style known generally as Romanesque which served not only Italy but Western Europe up to the twelfth century ; in Pisa, on the contrary, while there are interesting designs in the pointed manner such as S. Caterina, S. Francesco and S. M. della Spina, the Duomo and most of the smaller churches are in the Romanesque style ; while at Lucca the important buildings are almost all Romanesque, the pointed style only occurring in the reconstructed nave of the Duomo, in S. Francesco, in S. Maria della Rosa and other small examples.

The Benedictine Church of S. Antimo near Montalcino, S. Pietro in Grado near Pisa, the Pieve of Arezzo, the Duomo of Pisa and the churches of Lucca are characteristic Romanesque buildings in different stages of development. The Cistercian Church of S. Galgano, the Duomo of Siena, and the Duomo of Arezzo are examples of Italian adaptations of pointed buildings.

The Duomo of Pienza, S. Maria delle Carceri at Prato and S. Biagio at Montepulciano represent phases of Renaissance impulse. Five or six centuries intervene between S. Antimo and S. Biagio. They have this in common, that both represent an ideal and a conviction. In the case of S. Antimo, Benedictine discipline was coincident with a simplification of forms impressive in its spacious artifice ; the unbending assertion of a.uthority, which foreshadowed the Catholic reaction of the sixteenth century, was also coincident with a simplification of forms emphasising the magisterial institutionalism of S. Biagio.

Sculpture

The record of Tuscan sculptors begins with the carving of capitals, door jambs and lintels. For the most part this work is less interesting than contemporaneous Lombard carving. There is indeed often a curious lack of imagination and a want of confidence and skill in the early Romanesque carving to be found at S. Antimo, on the Pieve at

INTRODUCTION xi

Pienza, on the capitals of the churches in the Casentino and elsewhere ; it is unrelieved by the freshnesS;, the vivacity and ndiveie which we find in the sculpture of S. Ambrogio at Milan.

From the middle of the twelfth century there is a continuous succession of monuments^ sometimes dated and signed^ showing that the individuality of the artist was emerging from the anonimity of the school. The font of Robertus at Lucca (1151); the lintel of S. Andrea at Pistoia by Gruamons (1166)^ and various pieces by Biduinus are among the most notable of such works. The fagade and atrium of S. Martino at Lucca and the doors of the baptistery at Pisa belong to the earlier part of the thirteenth century. About the year 1250 it is probable that the group of S. Martin was made for the facade at Lucca^ and about the same time what is supposed to be a portrait statue of the sculptor Guido Bigarelli was placed under the pulpit in S. Bartolommeo in Pistoia. These two notable pieces form the last link in the chain which leads up to the decisive work of Niccolo Pisano. His work on the fagade of Lucca has been placed as early as 1240. It has been supposed that he worked on the outside of the baptistery at Pisa in or about 1250^ in 1260 he made the pulpit for the baptistery, and the pulpit for Siena in 1266. In the pulpit of 1260 Niccolo realises the classical style which had been the aim of Romanesque sculptors throughout the twelfth century. But the academic balance, the breadth of outlook, the passionless calm of Niccolo's classical study, was ill suited to the tumultuous life of the times. The Tuscan communes had won a long and hard struggle with the territorial nobles ; the moral and religious life of. the time had been deeply stirred by the example of S. Francis ; life was being valued by new standards and men were in no humour to accept abstract generalisations and reticent ceremonial as a sufficient measure of existence. That Niccolo himself felt the new and vigorous current of emotion is clear when we compare the baptistery pulpit at Pisa of 1260 with the xii INTRODUCTION

Siena pulpit of 1266. But it was in the pulpits made by Giovanni Pisano for S. Andrea^ Pistoia^ 1298-1301^ and for the Duomo of Pisa^ 1302-1310 (now in the Museo Civico); that we see how completely the ^^ sweet new style " had taken the place of the classical work of 1260. The sculptures on S. Maria della Spina at Pisa^ the work of Tino da Camaino at Pisa and Siena^ the statues of Nino Pisano at Pisa and the sculpture on the facade of the Duomo at Siena (now renewed) belong to the same style and century. ' Renaissance sculpture of the fifteenth century (apart from that of Florence) is most notable in the work of the Sienese^ Jacopo della Quercia (or perhaps Guercia). He made the tomb of Ilaria del Caretto at Lucca soon after her death in 1405^ the Fonte Gaya at Siena (1409-1419)^ the remains of which are now in the loggia of the Pal PubblicO; and; assisted by Donatello^ Ghiberti and others, the font in the baptistery at Siena. The virile style of Jacopo did not exercise lasting influence^ his successors preferred more placid and effeminate qualities. Delicacy of finish; sweetness of feeling and expression^ conventional nicetieS; were more popular. Matteo Civitale successfully practised this kind of art at Lucca.

In the fifteenth and in the early part of the sixteenth century^ Luca della Robbia and his descendants made many decorative reliefs in glazed earthenware. Examples occur all over Tuscany. Good pieces are found at La Verna in the Casentino^ at the church of the Osservanza near Siena^ at Radicofani^ at Santa Flora on Monte Amiata^ in Pistoia^ and at Montepulciano.

Painting

In Tuscany throughout the thirteenth century many men were painting : their work is more interesting in its tendencies than in its accomplishment. Paintings still in existence are ascribed to the Berlinghieri and Orlando Diodato of Lucca^ to Giunta da Pisa^ to Guido da Siena^ to Margaritone of Arezzo^ and to many others less well known.

INTRODUCTION xiii

The Sienese painters form the most interesting school that worked in the smaller towns of Tuscany. Duccio di Buoninsegna (d. 1319X Simone Martini (d. 1344X and the brothers Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti (not heard of after 1348) laid a broad and wide foundation, mainly on Byzantine tradition. They developed an art differing in kind^ but^ in its own way^ equal in importance to that of their contemporaries at Florence. Exquisite ornament^ brilliant colour and sensitive line gave expression to a beauty^ visionary but full of graciousness^, serene and detached from things of sense. Their successors, the Sienese painters of the fifteenth century^ remained strangely apart from the general current of national life. The sense for lovely colour and the gift for a certain elusive charm never entirely disappeared^ but with few exceptions the painters were craftsmen rather than artists. The most complete collection of their work is in the gallery at Siena^ but in many an isolated place^ standing far from the busy life of people, a Sienese altar-piece brings the life of the spirit within range of a race who are born and who grow old in tilling the soil their ancestors have dwelt upon for untold generations. Of artists, not native Sienese, Pinturicchio and Bazzi painted important frescoes in the town. Bazzi also worked at Monte Oliveto and near Pienza.

The best native Pisan painter was Traini (fl. 1 321-1344). His principal work is in S. Caterina ; in the Museo Civico of Pisa there is an interesting collection of early crucifixes, and in the Campo Santo an immense series of frescoes of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

At Prato, in the Duomo there are Florentine frescoes of the same centuries. At S. Gimignano there is much Sienese fresco painting, a series by Benozzo Gozzoli and some work by Ghirlandajo.

Two artists of distinct individuality remain to be mentioned : Piero della Francesca (d. 1492), born at Borgo S. Sepolcro ; and Luca Signorelli (1441-1523). The most important work of the former is at Borgo S. Sepolcro and Arezzo, of the latter at Cortona and Oriveto.