THE BROCHURE SERIES |
| PLATE XLIII | THE DUOMO AND THE CAMPANILE |
THE | ||
| 1900. | JUNE | No. 6. |
THE DUOMO AND THE CAMPANILE:FLORENCE.
"It was in the middle of the thirteenthcentury," writes Symonds, "duringthe long struggle for independencecarried on by the republics of Lombardyand Tuscany against the Empire and thenobles, that some of the most durable andsplendid public works were executed. Thedomes and towers of Florence and of Pisawere rising above the city walls, while theburghers who subscribed for their erectionwere staining the waves of Meloria and thecane-brakes of the Arbia with their blood.Sismondi remarks with just pride, thatthese great works were republican. Theywere set on foot for the public use, andwere constructed at the expense of thecommonwealths. It is, however, right toadd that what the communes had begunthe princes continued. The Despots heldtheir power at the price of magnificence inschemes of public utility. So much at leastof the free spirit of the communes survivedin them, that they were always rivallingeach other in great works of architecture.Italian tyranny implied æsthetic taste andliberality of expenditure."
"In the year 1294," wrote GiovanniVillani, who was a youth in Florence atthe time, "the city of Florence being in astate of tranquility, the citizens agreed torebuild the chief church, which was veryrude in form and in small proportion tosuch a city, and that it should be enlarged,and that it should be made all of marbleand with carven figures. And the foundationwas laid on the day of St. Mary, inSeptember, by the Cardinal Legate of thePope, in the presence of all the ranks ofthe Signory of Florence. And it was consecratedto the honor of God and St. Mary,under the name of St. Mary of the Flower(Santa Maria del Fiore). And for thebuilding of the church taxes were ordered,and the Legate and bishops bestowed greatindulgences and pardons to everyone whoshould contribute aid and alms to the work."
The design for the new cathedral wasentrusted to Arnolfo di Cambio, who wasat that time the official architect of theCommune of Florence,—a remarkable manto whom Florence in a great measure owesher present physiognomy; for not only arethe tower of the Palazzo Vecchio, SantaCroce and the bulk of the Duomo his, butGiotto's Campanile, Brunelleschi's cupolaand the church of Or San Michele areplaced where he had planned.