The Pavement Masters of Siena (1369-1562)Cust, Robert H. Hobart (Robert Henry Hobart)
History
The Pavement Masters of Siena (1369-1562)
Cust, Robert H. Hobart (Robert Henry Hobart)
Art -- Italy -- Siena; Duomo di Siena; Pavements, Mosaic
These designs were made by Professor Alessandro Franchi, the present
Director of the Accademia delle Belle Arti, and were executed under his
direction by Leopoldo Maccari and Antonio Radicchi.[142] The smaller
ones follow to some extent the older lines, but in the larger ones, the
artist has struck out for himself; and, if the result is in somewhat
startling contrast to everything preceding it, there is no doubt that
his work is full of skill and merit of a most scholarly and remarkable
kind. Under his care, and with the able support of the above-mentioned
two artists, aided by a generous legacy of a former Rector, Cav. Pietro
Bambagini Galletti, the whole Pavement has undergone the Restoration,
to which I have referred so often,[143] and is now in as perfect a
condition as constant loving and intelligent care can keep it, without
entirely hoarding it from view.
CHAPTER III
THE PAVEMENT MASTERS
The reader, having patiently followed me along the intricacies of the
Pavement, and the ramifications of its history, will now like to know
something more detailed about the men who made it. To satisfy this
wish, I have collected from various sources, chiefly from Milanesi, the
following notes.
Padre Micheli[144] gives no less than forty-one names of workers of
various sorts on the Pavement. To these the writer in Miscellanea[145]
adds three more; and if with them we include the six artists and
sculptors, who, since the middle of the eighteenth century, and up to
the present day, have restored, replaced, and made additions, we arrive
at a total of more than fifty men, who have, in one way or another,
contributed to this beautiful work.[146]
Of these, many remain but as names recorded in documents concerning
the Pavement, and are heard of nowhere else; of others we catch a few
glimpses in the pages of Milanesi; about a dozen were celebrated in
their day as painters and sculptors, in the somewhat limited world of
Sienese Art, and have left specimens of their work elsewhere; while two
alone, Pinturicchio and Beccafumi, have attained world-wide fame.
I propose then to take the names of these men, according to the dates
of the first work contributed by them to the Pavement.
Thus we begin with:
1. 1369. _Antonio di Brunaccio._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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