The Cathedral Builders: The Story of a Great Masonic GuildScott, Leader
History
The Cathedral Builders: The Story of a Great Masonic Guild
Scott, Leader
Cathedrals; Church architecture; Guilds
The Campione school of Masters still held its own: we now find that
Matteo da Campione was sent for from Monza. Zeno da Campione, brother
of the late Jacopo, also came with two hundred and fifty stone-cutters
under him to carve the capitals, pinnacles, etc. etc. There was
Lorenzo degli Spazi di Laino in Val d'Intelvi, also of the same
school, who brought one hundred and eighty-eight stone-carvers to the
_laborerium_, and who won fame for the fine sculpture they produced.
Can one wonder at the wealth of sculpture in and on the cathedral,
when only two _Magistri_ can furnish more than four hundred workmen
between them? When one looks at the lavish marble work on the roof,
the plurality of artists is well accounted for.
Giovannino dei Grassi, or Gracii, seems to have succeeded Jacopo as
_capo maestro_, and his designs and Jacopo's were kept with reverence
in the rooms of the Administration.
In 1400 Jacopo da Tradate is the "supreme sculptor" to the fabric. He
did the statue of Martin V. in commemoration of that Pope's visit to
Milan in 1418, after the Council of Constance, when he consecrated the
principal altar. Jacobino da Tradate also sculptured the mausoleum of
Pietro, son of Guido Torello, Marquis of Guastalla, in S. Eustorgio at
Milan. His son, Samuele, was a friend of Andrea Mantegna's, and once
visited him on the Lago di Garda. He too was a sculptor, and made his
father's tomb in the cloister of S. Agnese, which he inscribed--"Jacobino
de Tradate patri suaviss:--Qui tamquam Praxiteles vivos in marmore
fingebat vultus--Samuel observantis. V. F."
In 1402 Duke Gian Galeazzo died, and during the minority of his son,
art, architecture, and sculpture languished. Few famous names are
preserved, and all of those were from the neighbourhood of Como. Those
mentioned in the books as continuing the work between 1402 and 1440,
are Jacopo da Tradate, Bertollo da Campione, Giorgio de Sollario,
sculptors, and Paolino da Montorfano, a painter. At a later period
other Masters appeared, and we find Giovanni de Solari from Val
d'Intelvi, Guglielmo di Giorgio and Giovanni di Reghezio, Jacopo da
Lanzo, Michele di Benedetto da Campione, Francesco Solari, and
Giovanni da Cairate, all sculptors, with Cristoforo da Chiona,
Arasmino Solari da Arogna, Franceschino da Canobbio, Leonardo da
Sirtori, Paolino da Arsenigo, and Giovanni Solari, all Lombard
engineers and architects.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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