When I began writing this work, my object was to prove that the Comacine Masters were the true mediaeval link between Cla.s.sic and Renaissance Art. The results have been greater than I then foresaw. In attaching this link in its true place, the chain of Art History takes a new and changed aspect, and instead of several loose strands with here and there detached links, it becomes one continuous whole, from early Christian Rome to the Rome of Raphael and Michael Angelo.

The famous artists who formed the rise of the different schools of the Renaissance, were not each a separate genius inspired from within, but brethren of one Guild, whose education was identical, and whose teachers pa.s.sed on to them what they received from their predecessors--the acc.u.mulated art-teaching of ages.

I am aware that in tracing the progress of this great Guild, the weak points are the derivation of the Comacines of Lombard times from the Roman public architects, who built for Constantine and Pope Adrian; and the connection of this Lombard Guild with the early Cathedral builders of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Between each of these transitions there lies a century or two of decadence, during the barbaric invasions and general demoralization which I have indicated in the earlier chapters. But I think I have given arguments enough to prove these affinities. For the first, we have the ident.i.ty of form and ornamentation in their works, and the similarity of nomenclature and organization between the Roman _Collegio_ and the Lombard Guild of _Magistri_. Besides this, the well-known fact that the free republic of Como was used as a refuge by Romans who fled from barbaric invasion, makes a strong argument.

For the second, we may plead again the same ident.i.ty of form and ornamentation, and a like similarity of organization and nomenclature.

Just as King Luitprand's architects were called _Magistri_, and their grand master the _Gastaldo_, so we have found the great architectural Guild in Venice, in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, using the very same t.i.tles, and having the same laws.

In the Tuscan schools which have been traced direct from Lombard times, we have the same offices with the t.i.tles translated into a more mediaeval Italian--or late Latin--form; the _Gastaldo_ here becomes _Arch Magister_. In some Lodges it is more significant still, the ancient Roman _Superstans_ is modified into _Soprastante_, thus forming a very suggestive connection between early Christian Rome and Tuscany. Again, the hereditary descent is marked by the patron saints of the Lombard and Tuscan Lodges, being four martyr brethren from a Roman _Collegio_. All these and other indications are surely as strong as doc.u.mental proof.

The lists of the Comacine Guild begin with a few masters, who are seemingly members of three or four families only, the men of the Buoni, Antelami, and Campione schools forming the aristocracy of the Guild.

We have seen how, as the church-building era developed, the brotherhood grew and multiplied.

The Antelami family founded Lodges in Parma, Padua, and Verona; the Campione at Modena, Bergamo, and Cremona; the Buoni family spread eastwards to Venice, and southwards to Tuscany, founding everywhere _laboreriums_ and schools.

Three hundred years later we see the descendants of the Buoni and Campione artists together, building the Gothic and Renaissance palaces at Venice; masters of the Graci and Antelami families rearing the cathedrals of Siena and Orvieto; and in all the ages dispersing about Italy from north to south. We have seen how all these schools increased; native artists joining the Lombard ones, and working together with them, and though a distinctive local style was the characteristic of each school, yet in their fundamental principles they all had one rule and one teaching.

As the Guild increased and multiplied, in the times of the foundation of rival Communes, all vying with each other in building glorious churches, n.o.ble palaces, and fine houses, it frequently happened that the primitive Lombard element was overpowered by the newer local one, and then schisms and disintegration took place.

Separate local Guilds were thus formed at Venice, Siena, and Florence.

The painters next seceded, and started painting as an art independent of church decoration; and thus the Academies of Art were formed. This split took place so late after the city _Arti_ or Guilds were established, that the painters of Florence, having left the Freemasons, had no Guild of their own; and if they wished to enjoy civic privileges, they had to enroll themselves in the Company of the Gold-workers, or that of the Apothecaries. Here we get at once a clear explanation of the goldsmith painters in Florence.

This disintegration reached its climax when Brunellesco defied the _Maestranze_ or Masonic Magisters, proving that the Freemasons had not the exclusive right to genius; and that genius had its own claims to be heard, even without the pale of that monopolizing Guild. I think that his dome literally crushed out the almost effete inst.i.tution of Freemasons, and that the Florentine Lodge was broken up soon after; for by Michael Angelo's time the Medici had to supply a school for sculptors, which we have seen was placed under the instruction of old Bertoldo,--a lingering relic of the great company.

At first sight it might appear that this revelation of the universal fraternity would materially alter the history of art. In some aspects it does; for we can no longer say that Maitani built Siena cathedral, or Arnolfo that of Florence, nor a.s.sert that St. Mark's at Venice was entirely Byzantine, or Milan cathedral the work of a German architect.

They were all the joint labours of the same brotherhood of artists, the plans made by the first Arch-master being modified a score of times as the centuries went on, and art developed. But in the great points the story of Art remains as it was. Certain masters still stand out as leaders and founders of schools, and every school had its own separate bias and special development of style; but Niccol di Pisa's influence on future ages is not lessened by our finding out the masters who trained him; the Lorenzetti, Memmi, and Gaddi are not the less famous because their frescoes ill.u.s.trated with divine truths the walls built by the hands of their brethren of the great Guild.

The recognition of the complex brotherhood only renders history more compact and concentrated, giving it a rich and perfect unity, and showing a gradual and consistent development, like some perfect flower which grows leaf by leaf, bud by bud, until the petals fall from its own over-blossoming. But its seeds are left to future ages.

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