Tuscan Sculpture of the Fifteenth Century Part 7

[Footnote 48: St. Matthew, chapter xxviii., verses 19, 20.]

[Footnote 49: St. Luke, chapter xxiv., verses 50, 51; Acts, chapter i., verses 9-11.]

[Footnote 50: St. John, chapter xx., verse 17.]

XIII

TOMB OF THE CARDINAL OF PORTUGAL

BY ANTONIO ROSSELLINO

In the church of San Miniato, on a hill overlooking Florence, is a memorial chapel built in honor of a Portuguese cardinal who is buried here. Architecture, painting, and sculpture are here united to make a perfect artistic whole. The room was designed by the architect Antonio Manetti; the altar and walls are adorned with paintings by Pollaiuolo and Baldovinetti, the roof is decorated with medallions of Delia Robbia ware, and at one side is the cardinal's tomb.

This prelate, Jacopo di Portogallo, died in Florence while visiting the city on a diplomatic mission. He was a young man under thirty years of age, a cousin of the reigning king of Portugal, and was besides the cardinal archbishop of Lisbon. Naturally he was received as a guest of unusual distinction, and his amiable qualities won him warm friends among the Florentines. Though dying in a foreign land, he was buried with such honors as his own countrymen could hardly have surpa.s.sed. This was in 1459, at a time when Antonio Rossellino was a prominent sculptor of Tuscany. He was the artist chosen by the Bishop of Florence to construct the Portuguese cardinal's tomb.

On a richly carved base stands the sarcophagus or marble coffin in an arched niche. Just over this, on a bier, lies the portrait figure of the cardinal in his ecclesiastical robes. All this is surrounded by a square framework, not unlike a mantelpiece in style, on the two upper corners of which are kneeling angels. The wall s.p.a.ce above is ornamented by angels holding over a simulated window a medallion containing a Madonna and child.

Our ill.u.s.tration shows this portion of the wall, and includes a part of the angel figures kneeling at the upper corners of the tomb. The angel on the left side holds the crown, which is the reward of a faithful life. It is the "crown of righteousness," the "crown of life," or the "crown of glory which fadeth not away."[31] His companion must once have carried a palm branch, according to an old description, but this has disappeared. The angels bearing the medallion fly forward as if swimming through the air, alternately bending the knee and thrusting out the leg. Their draperies flutter about them in the swiftness of their motion. Such vigorous action is an unusual motive in decorative art, and perhaps not altogether appropriate. All four of the angels have delicate features and sweet expressions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOMB OF THE CARDINAL OF PORTUGAL (ANTONIO ROSSELLINO) _Church of San Miniato, Florence_]

The medallion is, artistically considered, the loveliest portion of the whole work. The face of the Madonna is of that perfect oval which artists choose for their ideal of beauty. We admire too the delicately cut features, the waving hair, and the shapely hands. Both she and the child look down from their high frame, smiling upon those who may stand on the pavement below. The child raises his hand in a gesture of benediction, the three fingers extended as a sign of the trinity.

It is not an easy problem to fit the compositional lines of a group into a circular frame. Rossellino solved it very prettily by outlining the figures in a diamond-shaped diagram. You may easily trace the four sides, drawing one line from the Madonna's head along her right shoulder, another from her elbow to the finger tip, a third from the child's toes to his left elbow, a fourth from his elbow to the top of the mother's veil.

It will be noticed that in the whole decorative scheme of the monument there is nothing to suggest the idea of mourning. There is here no sense of gloom in the presence of death. The rejoicing of the angels, the smile of the mother and child, and the peaceful sleep of the cardinal, all express the Christian hope of immortality beyond the grave.

The sentiment is particularly appropriate to the character of the man whose memory is honored here. The Florentine writer Vespasiano Bisticci described him as being "of a most amiable nature, a pattern of humanity, and an abundant fountain of good, through G.o.d, to the poor.... He lived in the flesh as if he were free from it, rather the life of an angel than a man, and his death was holy as his life."[52]

Allowing something for the extravagance of speech which was the fas.h.i.+on of that time, we may still believe that the Cardinal of Portugal was a man whose character was singularly pure in an age when good men were none too common. Of the sculptor Rossellino also fair words are spoken. Vasari declared that he "was venerated almost as a saint for the admirable virtues which he added to his knowledge of art."

The custom of erecting elaborate marble tombs was an interesting feature of the Renaissance art in Italy. Such monuments formed an important part of the interior decoration of churches. Church dignitaries took great pride in the thought that their names would be immortalized in these works of art. Some had their tombs made while still living, that they might make sure of a satisfactory design.[53]

Others gave directions on the subject with their dying breath, as in Browning's poem, "The Bishop Orders his Tomb at St. Praxed's." Of the many fine tombs in the churches of Tuscany, this monument of the Cardinal of Portugal is counted one of the three best.[54]

[Footnote 51: 2 Timothy, chapter iv., verse 8; St. James, chapter i., verse 12; 1 Peter, chapter v., verse 4. The symbolism of the crown is explained in Mrs. Jameson's _Sacred and Legendary Art_, page 28.]

[Footnote 52: In _Vite di Uomini Ill.u.s.tri del Secolo XV_.]

[Footnote 53: As Bishop Salutati, whose tomb is mentioned in Chapter IV.]

[Footnote 54: By C. C. Perkins in _Tuscan Sculptors_.]

XIV

EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF GATTAMELATA

BY DONATELLO

In the fifteenth century Italy was divided into numerous independent states, among which there was more or less rivalry. The two great powers of the north were Venice and Milan, both striving for the possession of Lombardy. To the Venetian republic already belonged an extensive territory on the mainland, and she was determined on conquest at any cost. To this end condottieri were employed to carry on the several campaigns.

These condottieri were military leaders who made war a business. It mattered nothing to them on what side they fought or against what enemy, so long as they were well paid for their services. As a rule they were men of unscrupulous character, many of whom betrayed the cause entrusted to them. To this rule a notable exception was Gattamelata,[55] the subject of the equestrian statue in our ill.u.s.tration.

The man's real name was Erasmo da Narni. It was as first lieutenant in the Venetian army that he came into notice, serving under Gonzaga.

When later this Gonzaga went over to the cause of the Milanese enemy, the lieutenant was promoted to the command. He threw into the work before him, says the historian, "an honest heart and splendid faculties."

The Milanese army was much larger than the Venetian, and was commanded by the famous strategist Niccol Piccinino. Gattamelata could make little headway against such odds, but all that was possible to do he accomplished "with equal courage, fidelity, and zeal." At length, in attempting to bring relief to the besieged city of Brescia, he found himself shut in between the Lake of Garda and the Alps.

It was in the month of September, 1438. Snow already lay on the mountains, and the rivers were swollen with the autumn rains. The roads were out of repair, bridges were washed away, and even the fords were impa.s.sable. To make matters worse, the army was short of provisions. Such conditions would have forced any other general to lay down his arms, but not Gattamelata. With admirable coolness, he led his men in a retreat across the mountains and around the lake. Three thousand hors.e.m.e.n and two thousand infantry made up their number, and all were devoted to their leader. Torrents were bridged, old roads repaired, new ones opened, and at the end of a month the army emerged upon the Lombard plain.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF GATTAMELATA (DONATELLO) _Piazza del Santo, Padua_]

Thus were the Venetian arms saved, and at the same time the Milanese were baffled in a design to come between Venice and her army.

Gattamelata's retreat was a victory of peace, less showy, perhaps, than a victory of war, but requiring the finest qualities of generals.h.i.+p. In recognition of his services the Venetian Signory conferred the t.i.tle of n.o.bility upon him, with a palace and a pension.

In the following year, the Venetian cause was strengthened by alliance with Florence, and Gattamelata yielded the first place in command to Sforza, the general of the Florentine forces. In 1440 the united armies succeeded in relieving Brescia, but in the same year a calamity befell Gattamelata. Exposure to cold brought on paralysis, and after a lingering illness of two years he died. The honor of a great funeral was accorded him at the public expense, and he was buried in the church of S. Antonio at Padua. The next year the sculptor, Donatello, was commissioned to make an equestrian statue of the great condottiere to be set up in the square in front of the church.[56]

With quiet dignity Gattamelata rides forward on his horse as if reviewing his army. There is nothing pompous in his att.i.tude or manner. He seems a plain man intent upon his task, with no thought of display. He has the strong face of one born for leaders.h.i.+p, and we can believe the stories of his troops' devotion to him. With his right hand he lifts his wand in a gesture of command, letting it rest across the horse's neck.

He is dressed in the picturesque war costume of the period, and wears metal plates upon his arms. A long sword swings at his side, and spurs are attached to his heels. Yet apparently he is not actually equipped for the battle, for his head is uncovered. He has a high receding forehead and thick curls. The peculiar shape of the head, looking almost conical from some points of view, indicates a forcible character. It is evident that this is a man of action rather than of words. His appearance fits admirably the facts of his life as one whose energy and courage could overcome any obstacle. Gattamelata was not a patriot, as we understand patriotism, being but a mercenary captain. But he showed a rare loyalty to the cause he espoused. It is not as a fighting man that we admire him to-day, but as a man of remarkable resources.

Obedient to the master's hand, the horse ambles at a moderate pace.

Except the bridle, he has no trappings, and we thus see to the best advantage the fine proportions of his figure. Before undertaking this work Donatello had had no experience in modelling the horse, and his success is the more remarkable. It is, however, the man rather than the horse which shows the full power of the sculptor's art. The subject was one exactly suited to his taste, which preferred vigorous masculine qualities to all others.

In ancient sculpture equestrian subjects were very important. On the Parthenon at Athens a frieze of bas-relief contained rows of hors.e.m.e.n riding in the Panathenaic procession.[57] In a public square in Rome was a famous statue of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius on horseback.

Donatello was the first sculptor of the Christian era to revive this n.o.ble form of art. The statue of Gattamelata is therefore the parent of the long line of modern equestrian statues.

[Footnote 55: The literal meaning of this sobriquet is _Honeyed cat_.]

[Footnote 56: W. C. Hazlitt's _Venetian Republic_ furnishes the quotations and information for this account of Gattamelata. Other sources of material on the subject are Fabretti, _Biog. dei Capitani dell' Umbria_, Hoefer's _Biog. universelle_, and Michaud's _Biog.

generale_. Symonds gives a general account of the condottieri in the _Age of Despots_.]

[Footnote 57: See Chapter III. of the volume on _Greek Sculpture_, in the Riverside Art Series.]

XV

SHRINE