With the examination of the Libyan Sibyl, we find ourselves again at the Western end of the Church, and must betake ourselves back to--
This Transept is covered with three large designs, all executed during the Rectorship of Alberto Aringhieri; two of which, at least, may have some political significance.
This vast composition, designed by Benvenuto Giovanni del Guasta in 1484–85, and for which he received 78 lire,[61] is full of charming grouping and delightful suggestion. It not impossibly alludes to the expulsion, which had then but recently taken place, of Pandolfo Petrucci and his followers. It must be remembered that, though Siena at this period was not involved in important external historical events, her internal history was one long record of party faction and strife, in which Aringhieri himself played a not unimportant part. (Ill. IX.)
Benvenuto was a consummate draughtsman, and he was ably supported here by Bastiano di Francesco, who designed the delightful border of winged lions that frames the picture (Ill. XI.), and made sixty letters of marble for the same work.[62]
LOMBARDI PHOTO.] [DESIGNED BY BENVENUTO DI GIOVANNI DEL GUASTA
We find several notices as to sums paid to workmen for executing this frieze, but only one speaks also of work on the design itself. From this, however, we learn that it was executed by Bernardino Antonio and Cristofano di Pietro Paolo del Quarantotto.[63] The other workmen employed on the frieze were Vito di Marco,[64] and Bartolommeo di Domenico.[65] With the exception of Vito di Marco, we have no record of these men, apart from notices of their work done on this Pavement. Perhaps they were scholars or apprentices of the better-known masters, and therefore not recorded more particularly. We also read that certain millers, by name Giusto Giovanni and Michele di Ludovicho, were paid 15 lire 14 c. for the porterage of 7,870 lbs. of black marble used in this design, and that “del onperadore.”[66] (Ill. X.)
ALINARI PHOTO.] [DESIGNED BY BENVENUTO DI GIOVANNI DEL GUASTA
The composition is most graceful and full of force. It illustrates an episode in the struggle between Herod Antipas and his brother-in-law Aretas, as a result of which the former had to evacuate his kingdom. The picture has been well restored, a re-engraving of the marble slabs on the old lines having been, to a large extent, sufficient for the main work, though the frieze has had to be entirely renewed. A group of soldiers, among whom is one extremely striking man’s figure in full armour, has been particularly successful. Over this group, in a high tree, an eagle maybe seen protecting her nest of young ones from the attacks of a serpent, possibly alluding to the same political events referred to above. The charming cherubs, supporting a tablet in the upper part of the composition, upon which is engraved a long quotation from Josephus, describing the scene depicted, have been renewed, and the damaged originals transported to the Museum of the Opera.[67] With them is also the original tablet, which curiously enough on removal was found to be a memorial slab of an earlier date, bearing on the reverse side a fine effigy of a cleric.[68]