The Art of the Late Middle Ages (1250–1400) 3. Art of Rome and Southern Italy

Architecture

Rome at this time was abandoned by its genius and poor in art. Noble births in the struggle between themselves, with the people and the papacy erected themselves gloomy and harsh citadel houses, the towers of which for a long distance dominated the desert surroundings. Daddies could no longer live in their own city. In continuation of their Avignon “exile” (1309–1376), art in Rome was completely neglected. Even the wedding of Petrarch in the Capitol (1341) was only a passing game with laurels. Only the small architecture of Kosmati - the descendants of the master of Lawrence lived and worked in the second half of the XIII and XIV centuries - deserves recognition as a special artistic form. That Kosmati at this time knew how to use only the most ostentatious Gothic forms, vesting their facilities in them, shows, for example, the house papal chapel (Sancta Sanctorum) in Lateran under Pope Nicholas III (1378); 55 twisted columns with arched gables dismember the walls painted with frescoes, and only the windows, separated in the form of a clover leaf, speak of a “transitional style”. The only Gothic building in Rome is the Dominican Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minorva (built in 1280). One might think that it was built by the masters of the Florentine church of Santa Maria Novella by the monks of Fra Sisto and Fra Ristoro. The vaulted three-nave longitudinal body is transformed into a five-nave one by means of rows of side chapels with semicircular arches. The choir chapels, of which the middle ends with a semicircular prominent apse, and here occupy the entire width of the transept. But still Florentine masters competed with Cosmati in Rome. The great Arnolfo di Cambio performed in 1283 the main altar of the church of Sts. Cecilia behind the Tiber, and in 1285 - the altar of San Paolo fuori le Mura, with those colossal Gothic ciborias that suppress the rest of the interior with size and luxury. In 1315, the Theodat Cosmati decorated the church of Santa Maria in Cozmedin with a similar lush currystone.

To the south of the Albanian mountains, the early Bourgogne Cistercian Gothic has long found a second homeland; The type of the church of the abbey Fossanuova has found application in numerous churches in the territory from Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic Sea, and in some cases even penetrated into the depths of Calabria (Cosenza).

The Burgundian Gothic forms brought by the Crusaders to Byzantine-Saracen-Norman Lower Italy on the way to the Holy Land, as well as Degio proved, and on the way back from there, they were also kept during the rule of the Hohenstaufens, reporting to the churches and chateaux built there under Frederick II style and its grace. Frederick II himself built mainly castles. Of these, the famous Castel del Monte, the majestic castle erected about 1240 on a high cliff, south of the city of Andria. The history of its construction can be found in the writings of Berto, Bernich, Rocky and Schubring. It forms a huge octagon decorated with towers. Inside, the Gothic rib vaults rise partly above the Corinthian pilasters, partly above the beam (triple) pillars with capitals. Gothic marble windows are richly decorated, with austere taste combined with a wealth of forms. The influence of the French-Burgundian art here is beyond doubt.

Soon the French, led by the Angevin dynasty, came to Lower Italy as conquerors. Naples, which Charles I, already in 1265 made its residence, quickly took the first place among the southern Italian cities. Numerous buildings, churches and castles began to be erected in the capital of the kingdom and throughout the country. The masters for them were the kings of the Anjou dynasty, who were discharged from southern France. “Thus,” said Degio, “immediately after the Hohenstaufen early Gothic, a decomposed and simplified late Gothic appeared here.” Of the Neapolitan churches, mostly rebuilt in the Baroque style, San Lorenzo (1266–1324) has a choir with a crown of chapels; Santa Chiara (1310–1340) is essentially a single-nave church, but with side rows of chapels, and its vaults were later replaced by a flat ceiling.

Franciscan and Dominican churches did not have a similar influence on the development of the Gothic style in Lower Italy as in Upper Italy. The church of San Francesco in Palermo (1277) is half still Roman. Pure Gothic in this era has not yet penetrated into Sicily. The Sicilian architecture, however, has long been used in its archway, having taken it from the Arabs, in general, the war with Naples so exhausted the forces of Sicily in the XIV century, that the new style could not get significant development here.

Plastics

In Rome, due to adverse external circumstances and in the field of plastics, success is also not noticed. Civorium sculptures of Florentine Arnolfo di Cambio are made in the style of Niccolò Pisano school. The richly colored Kosmati art, the buildings of which were still decorated with mosaics and multi-colored stones, was now used mainly in gravestone plastics. At the end of the XIV century, the tombs of John Kosmati stand out. The tomb of Bishop Durand (Durante) of 1296 in the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (fig. 311) is interesting to be installed in the wall of the tomb of Bishop Durand (Durante). The lying figure of the bishop is already endowed with portrait resemblance; the figures of angels raising the veil are remarkable in their purely Gothic charms, and the Madonna, written in a niche, still retains the features of the old Roman stately style. The gravestone monument (1299) to Cardinal Gonsalvo in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore is even more natural and at the same time more stylishly executed by John.

Fig. 311. John Kosmati. The tomb of Bishop Durand in the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome. With photos Alinari

That, on occasion, Roman sculptors were invited to other cities, proves the magnificent recumbent statue of Beato Simone in the church of San Simone Grande in Venice (1317); the signature of the master who sculptured it is read: Marcus Romanus (Mark, Roman). The dignified style of this statue suggests that Roman art, if it were not for the sudden end of the exile of the popes, could have achieved considerable success on its own.

In the plastic of Lower Italy, as in architecture, various styles intersect with each other. The ancient Byzantine trend of the Hohenstaufen era continues to live here until the very end of the 13th century. Following this old trend of plastic church chairs, if not in the richness of their sculptures, then in style, almost equal to the Tuscan. One of the most beautiful works of this kind, the pulpit in the church in Sess, originated in 1260, that is, simultaneously with the pulpit of Niccolò Pisano in the baptismal of Pisa. The cathedral in the cathedral of Ravello with six columns standing on the lions, executed in 1272. Its balustrade is decorated with mosaics. The women's bust (probably Ruigolo Sigilgaits) in full size on the next door arch is closer to the antic in classical purity of style than any of Niccolo Pisano’s works.

The French Gothic, despite the fact that its masters were repeatedly called to Lower Italy by the kings of the Angevin dynasty, were not particularly different in the sculpture of these localities. Pure French grace has a gravestone monument to Philip Smeloma and his wife Isabella of Aragon in the church of Cosenza. On the contrary, the Tuscan style of the Pisans was popular in Lower Italy; we are even able, following the research of Frascetti, to recognize in the northern Italian plastic two currents - the Siena and Florentine. Of the Siena masters who worked in Lower Italy, the most prominent was Tino di Camaino, who arrived in Naples in 1325, where he died in 1337. Together with Neapolitan Gallard Primario (died in 1348), he performed the tomb of his wife Charles II Maria of Hungary (died in 1323) in the church of Santa Maria Donna Regina, and then in the tomb of the Angevin house in the church of Santa Chiara, the tombs of the Duke of Calabria, Karl Glorious (died in 1328) and his wife Maria Valois (mind in 1331). These works, originated in 1331 and 1333, with their luxurious architecture and statues of virtues supporting their upper parts, resemble similar Middle and Upper Italian tomb buildings, but their lush, somewhat heavy in sculpture style below the works of Tuscan art of the time, although and are the best of everything created by Tino.

The Florentine branch of Tuscan art is represented in the church of Santa Chiara by the works of the brothers Pacho and Giovanni Bertini from Florence. Their main work is the famous tombstone to King Robert the Wise (died in 1343). Its architecture is characteristic of all this kind of buildings. Pilasters are decorated with allegorical figures, on the sarcophagus rests the figure of the deceased king, before which graceful angels pull back the veil; in the upper niche of the canopy overlooking the sarcophagus, the king is depicted a second time sitting on the throne, and above him are placed the statues of the Madonna, St. Francis and sv. Clara. The magnificence of architecture and here makes forget about the shortcomings of execution. The manner of the same master can be found in 11 reliefs of the life of St.. Clara on the tribune for the organ in the same church; these reliefs clearly show their direct origin from the school of Niccolò Pisano.

Painting

The artistic rise, which began at the end of the 13th century on the banks of the Tiber, so that at the beginning of the next century, after the popes moved to Avignon, to give way to complete decay, nowhere is it revealed with such clarity as in painting. True, apart from the insignificant artist Conxol, who worked in Subiaco, only four names are associated with this rise: Jacopo Torriti, Philip Roussuti, John Kosmati and Pietro Cavallini. The number of their works that have come down to us is small, but these works, among which are mainly mosaics, reflect the major successes made by the Roman school, and make you regret that the Roman “exile” interrupted its further development. From the ancient Christian art, the magnificent church mosaics of which were in full view of everyone and did not lose their solemn grandeur, Roman painting retained the severity of style that Tuscans themselves could learn and actually learned. We know that just during the heyday of Roman painting, Giotto and Cimabue visited the Eternal City, and finally, according to some scholars, the Roman artists of this school during the birth of the new Tuscan art worked side by side with them in Assisi.

Jacopo Torriti owns two large mosaics in the abscesses of the churches of San Giovanni in Laterano and Santa Maria Maggiore - the last works of this kind that art history can mark. The Lateran mosaic, on which, jointly with Torriti, worked, as is evident from the signature, Jacopo di Camerino, originated around 1291. Among the ancient Christian images of Our Lady, John the Baptist and the Apostles Torriti placed much smaller figures of St. Francis and Anthony; in even smaller sizes, father Nikolay IV is kneeling at the feet of Our Lady, and below there are two very small figures of kneeling artists. The figures are still, their different size makes an anti-artistic impression, but the golden background harmoniously unites all parts of the composition. Much more significant and more independent is the mosaic of Torriti in the apse niche of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, representing the heavenly coronation of the Virgin Mary (finished in 1296). In the middle, the Savior and the Mother of God sit on the throne, but the latter is depicted not on the side, as on the mosaic in Santa Maria in Trastevere (see Fig. 135), but takes an equal position with the Son, next to him. While the types of apostles on the sides here, as in the Lateran, indicate a study of the Byzantine style, Christ and Mary have Torriti closer to the new, Roman style.

Close in style, but weaker in execution of Torriti's mosaic works by Filippo Roussouti in the upper front facade of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. And here the Roman direction is in competition with the Byzantine style. The mosaic Madonas of John Cosmati (made between 1296 and 1299) are interesting. They are located in the niches of his famous gravestone monuments in Santa Maria, Sopra Minor and Santa Maria Maggiore. It seems controversial, did the new, fresh, sincere, that we see in these Madonnas, already under the influence of Giotto, or, on the contrary, they have corrected his style. We are more than other art historians, we believe in parallel currents, making their way simultaneously in different localities, when the time comes for them. We do not see the need to allow for these mosaics a direct connection with the school of Giotto.

The most interesting Roman master of this time, as shown in particular by the discoveries and studies of Germano, was Pietro Cavallini. Vasari did not hesitate to call him a disciple of Giotto. Max Zimmerman believed that his main work — six large mosaic images on gold backgrounds from the life of Our Lady in the lower frieze of the altar niche of the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome (1291) —was made on Giotto's cardboards. Another point of view: if Giotto is not a student, then at least a follower of Cavallini. It is more likely that in the differences noted in their style, only the independence with which they were directed towards the same goals, independently of each other, was expressed. The overall goal was liberation from the Byzantine tradition. But the art of Cavallini is calmer and more impassive than the art of Giotto, full of drama and life. The mosaics mentioned earlier on the gold backgrounds of Cavallini in Santa Maria in Trastevere are, for clarity, not inferior to the Jotta ones. But all their individual figures bear the stamp of a certain indifference and coldness, so alien to Giotto, as well as types that are not quite Djot: they are more boring, despite the more open and classically correct features. The second most important work of Cavallini is the frescoes in the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. Among them, the composition “Last Judgment” (1293), apparently, really influenced Giotto's “Last Judgment” in Padua. In any case, Cavallini was an active, gifted and influential artist. His art is rightly considered to be an intermediary link between Roman and Tuscan painting.

In Naples, despite the fact that Cavallini worked here in 1308, and Giotto in 1330–1332, the Siena influence, as is evident from the studies of Berto, Schubring, and others, prevailed over the Roman and Florentine from the very beginning. It is necessary to take into account the fact that the sovereigns of the Anjou dynasty, established in Naples since 1265, deliberately patronized Western art, which was fashionable at that time, as opposed to Byzantine, Saracenic, and even the art of the Hohenstaufens of southern Italy. While the rest of Lower Italy continued to work in the spirit of the Byzantine imagination and form in the XIV century, the capital of the kingdom of both Sicilies, standing at Vesuvius, opened its gates to French and Tuscan art. Old Neapolitan scholars, led by Dominici, decorated the South Italian art history of this time with a whole series of names of painters, mostly legendary. The only Neapolitan painter known to us from his works is Robert de Oderisio, who, at his Crucifixion in the church of San Francesco in Eboli, himself signed: “De Neapoli”. The style of this pathetic, written on a gold background, goes back to the Siena school. Berenson thought it possible that Robert de Oderisio was a student of Simone Martini.

Fig. 312. The Sacrament of Marriage. Detail of the ceiling frescoes in the church of Santa Maria del Incoronata in Naples. By shubring

Simone Martini wrote in 1317 in the Church of San Lorenzo in Naples, the fresco "The Crowning of King Robert." The influence of the subtle art of this master is noticeable in the painting (opened and published by Berto) of the church of Santa Maria di Donna Reggina, which probably arose until 1330. When Giotto then performed his three large series of frescoes in Naples (see fig. 300) , his powerful style markedly influenced Neapolitan miniature painting of the second half of the XIV century. The famous frescoes of the Church of Santa Maria del Incoronata in Naples, which were previously mistakenly attributed to Giotto, originated in 1352, are in fact more of a Siena than Florentine character. However, only the general similarity of style has in common with the works of Robert de Oderie Zio. Although we cannot associate these frescoes with any particular name of the artist, yet they are among the best preserved works of Tuscan art. Particularly well preserved are the frescoes of the vaults with grandiose in their simplicity, surprisingly clear and expressive images of the seven sacraments, with features of folk symbolism and portraits of the court time of the cruel Queen Giovanna. Beautiful female figures with clean, noble facial features depict the bride's girlfriends in a magnificent fresco called The Sacrament of Marriage (Fig. 312). Written under the style of colored reliefs, the naked winged cupids holding wreaths are on the frescoes, as Siegfried Weber noted, the forerunners of the Renaissance. In contrast to the festive character of this composition, the “Mystery of Repentance” is imbued with the touching and gloomy severity of mood: in the church, the vicious queen kneels before her confessor, whose face expresses fear, disgust and anger. Outside, repentant sinners scourge themselves on bare backs.

In other cities of the south of Italy, Byzantine influence is strong. A beautiful mosaic in the Church of Santa Restituta in Naples depicting Our Lady, performed in 1322 by a certain Lell, gives the impression of Byzantine work. Actually, only in one Rome, mosaic art has managed to rise above its old heritage. In the same style, the frescoes of the same year were made in the church of Santa Maria del Casale near the city of Brindisi, and the frescoes of the church of San Stefano in Soleto, between the cities of Lecce and Taranto, prove that here, in Apulia, the Byzantine base, although with some independent features, held until the end of the XIV century.