DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57409#0067
AKNOLFO DI LAPO.
51
of San Pietro, in Bologna, which was, in truth, a very great
work for those times, and for the variety of sculptures which
it exhibits; as, for example, its colossal lions supporting co-
lumns, with men and other animals also bearing enormous
burthens. Above the door he placed the twelve months, each
accompanied by its attendant zodiacal sign, with many other
fancies, all in high relief, a work which, in those days, must
have been considered marvellous.*
It was about this time that the order of Friars Minors of
St. Francis was founded, and this order, being confirmed by
Pope Innocent III in 1206, extended itself in such a man-
ner, not only in Italy but in all other parts of the world, (de-
votion to the saint increasing together with the number of
the friars,) that there was scarcely any city of importance
which did not build churches and convents for them, at a
vast amount of cost, and each according to its means. These
things being so, the Frate Elia, two years before the death
of St. Francis, and while the Saint was preaching abroad, as
General of the Order, leaving Frate Elia prior in Assisi,—
this Elia commenced the building of a church to the honour
of the Virgin; but St. Francis dying in the mean time, all
Christendom came flocking to visit the body of him who,
in life and in death, was known to be so much the friend
of God, when every man, making an offering to the holy place
according to his ability, large sums were collected, and it was
decreed that the church, commenced by the Frate Elia, should
be continued on a much more extended and magnificent scale.
There was then a great scarcity of good architects, and as
the work to be done required an excellent artist, having to
be built upon a very high hill, at the foot of which flows a
torrent called the Tescio, a certain Maestro Jacopo,f a Ger-
man, was invited to Arezzo, after much deliberation, as the
best who was then to be found. This Jacopo, having re-
ceived the commands of the fathers, who were then holding
* This door is no longei’ to be seen. For the lions and columns, see
Rumohr, Italienische Forschungen, vol. ii, p. 155, Note.
t What Vasari says of this Jacopo, with the prevalent opinion that
he was taken into Italy by Frederick II, would make it probable, says
Cicognara, that those are right, who maintain the pointed Gothic man-
ner to have been immediately derived from Germany, were it not that
we have earlier examples—in the abbey of Subiaco, for instance.—Ed.
Flor.
51
of San Pietro, in Bologna, which was, in truth, a very great
work for those times, and for the variety of sculptures which
it exhibits; as, for example, its colossal lions supporting co-
lumns, with men and other animals also bearing enormous
burthens. Above the door he placed the twelve months, each
accompanied by its attendant zodiacal sign, with many other
fancies, all in high relief, a work which, in those days, must
have been considered marvellous.*
It was about this time that the order of Friars Minors of
St. Francis was founded, and this order, being confirmed by
Pope Innocent III in 1206, extended itself in such a man-
ner, not only in Italy but in all other parts of the world, (de-
votion to the saint increasing together with the number of
the friars,) that there was scarcely any city of importance
which did not build churches and convents for them, at a
vast amount of cost, and each according to its means. These
things being so, the Frate Elia, two years before the death
of St. Francis, and while the Saint was preaching abroad, as
General of the Order, leaving Frate Elia prior in Assisi,—
this Elia commenced the building of a church to the honour
of the Virgin; but St. Francis dying in the mean time, all
Christendom came flocking to visit the body of him who,
in life and in death, was known to be so much the friend
of God, when every man, making an offering to the holy place
according to his ability, large sums were collected, and it was
decreed that the church, commenced by the Frate Elia, should
be continued on a much more extended and magnificent scale.
There was then a great scarcity of good architects, and as
the work to be done required an excellent artist, having to
be built upon a very high hill, at the foot of which flows a
torrent called the Tescio, a certain Maestro Jacopo,f a Ger-
man, was invited to Arezzo, after much deliberation, as the
best who was then to be found. This Jacopo, having re-
ceived the commands of the fathers, who were then holding
* This door is no longei’ to be seen. For the lions and columns, see
Rumohr, Italienische Forschungen, vol. ii, p. 155, Note.
t What Vasari says of this Jacopo, with the prevalent opinion that
he was taken into Italy by Frederick II, would make it probable, says
Cicognara, that those are right, who maintain the pointed Gothic man-
ner to have been immediately derived from Germany, were it not that
we have earlier examples—in the abbey of Subiaco, for instance.—Ed.
Flor.