On the right of the Altar:
1. Elisha raising the son of the Shunammite.
2. A prophet with an open book before him.
3. Eve on her knees.
4. A woman, holding in her hand an open book.
5. Another woman, with a mirror, representing Prudence.
6. The Sacrifice of Melchisedec.
7. A seated woman, with a child.
On the left:
1. The old Tobit, with his son, Tobias, and the Angel Raphael. At their feet a dog.
2. A woman, representing Charity.
3. Adam kneeling.
4. A prophet, gazing up to Heaven.
5. Another woman, seated, holding a book in her hand.
6. The Sacrifice of Abel.
7. Another woman, seated, with a child.
A great procession runs all round these, composed of men and women of all ages, shown in half-length, representing
All these designs were the work of Domenico di Jacopo di Pace Beccafumi, called Il Mecharino, and we read in Alfonso Landi’s Descrizione del Pavimento and in the notes of Abate Faluschi118 that they were executed between the years 1544 and 1546. The writers refer to (as their authority) the Libro Giallo dell’ Assunta of the Cathedral Archives, and state that the artist received 8,004 lire 19 c. for his work. The subjects chosen fitly complete the general scheme of the floor, surrounding, as they do, the Altar, with symbolical imagery from the Old Testament. The repentant Adam and Eve, the three Typical Sacrifices, Prophets, Virtues, the Guardian Angel, and around the whole a host of believers hastening to the Promised Land. Some of the drawing is very beautiful and extremely decorative, notably the frieze. The beautiful figure of Eve, indeed, has been even attributed to Giovanni Antonio Bazzi (Il Sodoma), who is known to have received a commission to make at least one design for this floor.119 This, however, is wholly uncertain, and cannot now be verified. The workmen employed here, and the sums they received respectively, we learn from the above sources and from Milanesi.120 They were Bernardino di Giacomo, who received for his labour 475 scudi, and Pellegrino di Pietro, 151 sc., 1. 4. These men were probably masons in the regular employ of the Cathedral, for Bernardino, at least, seems to have been employed on all the work done at this time.
Descending three steps we come to Domenico del Coro’s design of David, to which we have had occasion to refer already more than once.
In a circular panel, David, as King, sits on a throne with a sort of zither on his knee, while, with his right hand, he points to an open book of Psalms, propped upon a lectern by his side. Around him stand four courtiers holding each a primitive musical instrument:—a small organ, a tambourine, a mandoline, and a viol. The whole picture is surrounded by a graceful cornice of leaves. On either side of the central picture, in a lozenge-shaped space, is a single figure; on the one side is the youth David slinging his stone, and upon the other the giant Goliath falling backwards. It is curious that Goliath has a hole in his forehead, although the stone has not reached him; while, at the same time, the stone is both still in David’s sling and in the air above Goliath. The figures in the central composition are fine, but much altered by restoration. Those of David and Goliath are more original, and have probably suffered less. These designs are undoubtedly the work of Domenico del Coro, executed during the Rectorship of Bartolommeo Cecchi: and the cornice and frieze work around them is that of Agostino da Niccolo, for we read special notice of this fact in a memorandum of payment to the latter, dated June 6th, 1423.121
Below another step we come to the largest and most pretentious of Beccafumi’s designs.
The story is told in six parts, combined into one large picture. Above, in the centre, Moses kneels on the mountain top (α). The light of Heaven streams over him, and he receives the Tables of the Law into his outstretched hands. Below in the centre he lifts the Tables over his head, to dash them to pieces on the ground (δ). In the upper left-hand corner, the Elders of Israel are seen persuading Aaron, who points to Moses on the mountain, to make the Golden Calf (β): in the lower, we see him casting their gold and jewels into the fire to make it (θ). In the lower right-hand corner the Israelites are worshipping the Calf (η), while above they are smitten with plague and dying in agony (γ). This work appears to have been originally commissioned by a certain Antonio d’Agostino del Vescovo, then Rector (1524);122 but, as we read from an inscription let into the beautiful frieze that surrounds it, it was completed under the direction of his successor, Francesco di Carlo Tolomei. Beccafumi received on the 30th of August, 1531, 120 scudi for these designs,123 according to a valuation made for Tolomei by Baldassare Peruzzi himself;124 which suggests the idea that these two great artists may have together planned the new arrangements of the Choir, and a scheme of decoration to adorn it, when complete. From Landi and Faluschi we learn that the workmen here employed125 were the same Bernardino di Giacomo, who now received for his work 969 scudi 13: Giacomo di Pietro Gallo, 133 sc. 6.8; Bartolommeo di Pietro Gallo, 41 sc.; and Giovanni d’Antonio Marinelli, called il Mugnaino, 486 sc. To these Milanesi adds two more, not mentioned by either of the above authorities: Niccolo Filippi and Cristofano di Carbone.126
Immediately below these scenes a long narrow design, also by Beccafumi, shows
This is by far the most pleasing and successful of Beccafumi’s works. We can see, from its very simplicity, how much its charm depends upon sheer skill of drawing. This work was executed in 1525,127 but we do not find any record as to the amount paid to him for it, or the workmen employed upon it. Probably they were the same as had carried out his previous designs.128 These scenes by Beccafumi provoked the most extravagant admiration and applause from the writers of the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; and as tours de force, and specimens of a new kind of work, they are certainly remarkable. They do not, however, succeed in provoking that feeling of pleasure and charm, that one experiences when studying the older and simpler productions.
And now we come to the last section, and some of the latest work.
This vast hexagonal space is divided into seven hexagons and six lozenges. They all now contain scenes from the Story of Elijah, completing what probably was Beccafumi’s original design. That that artist did prepare designs for four of the hexagons, for two of the lozenges and for a frieze, we have abundant evidence, for we have no less than five notices,129 between the 11th of March, 1518–19, and the 18th of June, 1524, in the books of the Opera, of payment to him, not only for his labour, but also for the paper used for his cartoons. It is also to be noted that the commission for this work was given him earlier than that of any of the other works above described. Upon these grounds, Professor Luigi Mussini, writing on the Pavement,130 supposes that they were executed in 1517, and likens them to Pinturicchio’s work of eleven years before. A recent writer in the Miscellanea Storica Senese,131 however, contests this statement, and quotes a document in the Archives dated 1562,132 which states that a certain person, called there Giovan Battista nostro, designed four scenes from the Story of Elijah for the Duomo floor, which, we gather from the same sources, were executed by the Cathedral masons, Niccolo di Girolamo Gori, Domenico di Pier Giovanni, and the same Bernardino di Jacomo.
This Giovan Battista was Giovanni Battista di Girolamo Sozzini, brother of Alessandro Sozzini, Diarist of the last Siege of Siena. He was a pupil of Beccafumi’s, and of his work, Scipio Bargagli in his Imprese speaks in high praise, specially mentioning some mandorle designed by him, “placed near the grand works of the great Mecarino.”133 To add to these facts, we know that Sozzini retained in his possession many drawings by Beccafumi, and among them his cartoons for the floor. These designs he sold to the architect Tiburzio Spannocchi, and it is recorded in the Archives of the Duomo,134 that the Cathedral authorities endeavoured, but apparently unsuccessfully, to recover them. Some of these have now, as we know, found their way into the Public Picture Gallery. These six designs differ in treatment from Beccafumi’s other work, and the drawing and composition of them is not so striking. The large hexagons represent:
1. The Compact between Elijah and Ahab (in the centre). (Ill. XIX.) No. 42.135
2. Ahab’s Sacrifice (to the left). No. 44.
3. Elijah’s Sacrifice (above). No. 41.
4. The Slaughter of the Prophets of Baal (to the right). No. 43.
The small ones:
5. Ahab comes to meet Elijah. No. 46.
6. Elijah sends Obadiah to fetch Ahab. No. 45.
It does not seem to me, however, that the learned writer of the above-referred-to article brings forward any real ground for doubting Beccafumi’s authorship of these designs. The Document quoted, and Scipio Bargagli, both speak of “mandorle,” which appears to have been the technical expression for the lozenges filling up the great hexagon, in contradistinction to the words “tondo” or “esagono,” used to describe the larger sections. The documents dated 6th of September, 1521, and 18th of June, 1524, together expressly mention four tondi and two mandorle, which exactly accounts for the designs in question. It seems unnecessary, therefore, to strain the word mandorle to mean something else than its more obvious meaning: and it is surely much more probable, that the document and quotation, both refer to designs for the remaining four mandorle, which are generally supposed to have been filled in by Carlo Amidei, and Matteo Pini in 1780.136 However this may be, the smallness of the sum paid for the designs, 75 soldi, makes the idea, that it was a payment for drawings of any size, even more improbable and absurd.
ALINARI PHOTO.]
[DESIGNED BY DOMENICO BECCAFUMI
XIX. ELIJAH’S COMPACT WITH AHAB (No. 42)
The three remaining hexagons, up to 1878, contained fragments, and most interesting fragments, of older work, which evidently once formed part of the floor, where the High Altar now stands. To the left, looking east, was a delightful design representing the Blind leading the Blind. An old man is holding one end of a stick, while a young man, also blind, is grasping it at the other end. The older man is just stepping over a precipice into space. Below them is a delightful putto, holding in one hand a mirror, and a label with the word “Notate” upon it. This design we know to have been the work of Antonio Federighi in 1459; and for it he received 46 lire.137 It was apparently ordered by the Rector, Benedetto di Biagio di Roberto, and completed during the Directorate of Cristofano Felice.138
The middle design illustrates the Parable of the Mote and the Beam; and though it dates from 1374–5,139 strangely enough is now in the best preservation of the three.
The third design was a scene of a stately-looking bearded man, giving alms to a woman with a child in her arms. This is generally supposed to be that work of Domenico del Coro140 which is referred to in a document dated 1433, as being placed by him in the choir (then under the cupola) from the lectern downwards, in that place where they stand to sing,141 and for which he received 357 lire.
It is impossible now to tell what was the original shape of these designs, or where they were placed. But to fit them into the hexagons, they were made into more or less complete triangles, the remainder of the space being filled up with fragments of old friezes, brought probably from the same place.
In 1875, the fragments left of them, and of the four later mandorle, were removed to the Museum of the Opera, where they now are, and in 1878, all seven were replaced by others, completing the Story of Elijah and Ahab.
The subjects chosen are, for the larger ones:
1. Ahab mortally wounded. No. 40.
2. Elijah carried to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire. No. 38. (Ill. XXVI.)
3. Elijah predicts the manner of Ahab’s death. No. 39.
For the smaller ones:
1. Elijah fed by Ravens. No. 47.
2. Elijah raises the widow’s son. No. 50.
3. Elijah asks bread of the widow. No. 49.
4. Elijah anoints Jehu, King of Israel. No. 48.
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.