Nicola Pisano

The Italian sculptor Nicola Pisano (ca. 1220-1278) liberated sculpture from the hieratic Byzantine manner. His art marked the beginning of the Italian Gothic style.

The birthplace of Nicola Pisano has been the subject of speculation among scholars. His name would seem to indicate that he was a Pisan, but two documents relating to the marble pulpit of the Cathedral in Siena (1265-1268) that he executed refer to him as Nicola d'Apulia (Nicholas of Apulia, in southern Italy) rather than the more common Nicola Pisano. The significance of his birthplace derives from the remarkably classical quality of his earliest extant work, the marble pulpit in the Baptistery of Pisa, signed and dated 1260. Emperor Frederick II, whose court was near Naples, was an admirer of ancient Roman civilization. He encouraged artists to work in the more realistic style of Roman antiquity rather than the more abstract contemporary Romanesque and Byzantine styles. If Nicola had been a native of Apulia and trained in the sculptural workshops of the Emperor, the classical character of the Pisa Baptistery pulpit would be easier to explain. No definitive solution to this problem is possible, however, with the evidence presently available.

The pulpit for the Baptistery in Pisa is adorned with narrative reliefs depicting the Life and Passion of Christ on five of its six sides. Nicola reduced to a minimum the number of figures telling the story so that they dominate the rectangular field. Among them are a number of direct quotations from antique works brought to Pisa by its fleet. The style of the reliefs is remarkably classical and depends on a few monumental figures moving in a stately way across the foreground. Nothing else carved by Nicola bears such a strong resemblance to the antique.

A contract dated Sept. 29, 1265, commissioned Nicola to build a similar marble pulpit for the Cathedral in Siena. The pulpit, which was completed by 1268, varied somewhat in format and style from the Pisan one. He expanded the format by making the pulpit octagonal, and he made the narrative easier to read by substituting statuettes for the clustered columns used to divide the reliefs in the earlier work. In style they reveal a concern for the surface play of highlights and shadows, achieved by deeper cutting and undercutting, and for a growing elegance and grace among the figures, similar to that of Gothic sculpture.

The Gothicism of the Siena Cathedral pulpit continued in Nicola's great secular monument, the Fontana Maggiore in Perugia. This was a joint undertaking of Nicola and his son, Giovanni Pisano. Probably begun in 1277, the fountain was finished in 1278. It consists of two superimposed polygonal stone basins topped with a circular bronze basin carried by three caryatid figures. The lower basin is decorated with reliefs; the upper basin is decorated with statuettes affixed to the angles. In the portions usually attributed to Nicola, the style represents a resolution between the earlier classicizing tendencies and the later Gothicizing tendencies of his art. The work of Giovanni, on the other hand, was wholeheartedly in the new style, that is, the Gothic.

Further Reading

George H. and Elsie R. Crichton, Nicolo Pisano and the Revival of Sculpture in Italy (1938), is a sound monograph. See also Georg Swarzenski, Nicolo Pisano (1926). Up-to-date information can be found in John Pope-Hennessy, An Introduction to Italian Sculpture, vol. 1: Italian Gothic Sculpture (1955). □

Pisano, Nicola (d. 1278/84) and Giovanni (d. 1314/19). Italian sculptors and architects, father and son. They were the greatest sculptors of their period and stand at the head of the tradition of Italian sculpture in the same way that Giotto stands at the head of the tradition of Italian painting. They often worked together, but their styles are distinctive. Nicola came from Apulia, where the emperor Frederick II (d. 1250) had encouraged a classical revival, and his first known work, the pulpit in the Baptistery at Pisa (dated 1260 Pisan style, i.e. 1259) shows his brilliant adaptation of antique forms to a new context. He transformed a Dionysus into Simeon at the Presentation of Christ, a nude Hercules into a personification of Christian Fortitude, and a Phaedra into the Virgin Mary. Instead of following the Romanesque convention of separating episodes into compartments arranged in bands, he combined them into the formal unity of single pictures on each side of the pulpit with great power and dramatic effect. Several of the figures were directly inspired by ancient sarcophagi that Nicola saw in the Campo Santo in Pisa, but they are much more than simple borrowings, for he made them the vehicle for expressing richly varied human feeling. Nicola followed the Pisa pulpit with a similar but more complex work for Siena Cathedral (1265–8). The carving is deeper, the contrasts between light and shadow sharpened, the reliefs more densely packed and full of movement. By then Nicola had a large workshop, his assistants including his son Giovanni and Arnolfo di Cambio. His last great project was the large fountain in the public square of Perugia, which he and Giovanni finished in 1278. The dozens of reliefs are a typical medieval mixture—biblical scenes, heraldic beasts, personifications of seasons and places, and local dignitaries—but the vigour and spontaneity of the carving express a new freedom and naturalness.

By 1284 Nicola was dead. Between the Perugia fountain and this date, Giovanni, alone or in collaboration with his father, had carved the sculpture for the outside of the Pisa Baptistery (now in the Museo Nazionale). Here for the first time in Tuscany a scheme of monumental statuary was incorporated into an architectural setting. Giovanni developed this much further in Siena, where from 1284 onwards he designed the façade of the cathedral and carried out much of the sculptural decoration (some of the figures have been transferred to the cathedral museum and a magnificent fragment is in the Victoria and Albert Museum). It is the most richly decorated of all the great Italian Gothic cathedral façades, and the statuary has tremendous energy and inner life. Giovanni's last two great works were pulpits for S. Andrea, Pistoia (1300–1), and Pisa Cathedral (1302–10). They are based on those of his father, but more elegant in style (showing French Gothic influence) and also more emotionally charged. The Pisa pulpit was damaged in a fire in 1599, then dismantled and reassembled, some parts being dispersed; several museums, including the Metropolitan Museum, New York, have fragments that are said to come from it. Giovanni also made a number of free-standing statues, the best known of which is the Madonna and Child on the altar of the Arena Chapel in Padua (c.1305). Its grandeur and humanity suggests a close kinship with Giotto, amid whose celebrated frescos it stands.

Nicola Pisano , b. c.1220, d. between 1278 and 1287, major Italian sculptor, believed to have come from Apulia. He founded a new school of sculpture in Italy. His first great work was the marble pulpit for the baptistery in Pisa, completed in 1259. Its form was hexagonal, with panels in high relief consisting of scenes from the life of Jesus. The pulpit is supported by elaborate columns, three of which rest on carved lions. The shape of the pulpit and the use of antique prototypes are thought to derive from an early training in S Italy. Imbued with the classic spirit, Nicola concentrated on the human figure, creating a style of monumental dignity. From 1265 to 1268 he worked on a larger pulpit for the cathedral at Siena. Assisted by his son Giovanni and other pupils, he allowed them a greater part of the execution. The narrative scenes show more freedom of treatment and a tendency toward the more linear French Gothic form. His last great project was the fountain at Perugia. With Giovanni he designed 24 statues and twice as many reliefs, all finished (1278) within one year. Nicola Pisano was the earliest noted Italian sculptor.

Bibliography: See study by G. H. Crichton and E. R. Crichton (1938).

His son, Giovanni Pisano, b. c.1250, d. after 1314, was a sculptor and architect. With his dramatic use of line and his taste for elaborate decoration, he is thought to have had a firsthand acquaintance with the Gothic art of France. Besides assisting his father in work on the pulpit for the cathedral at Siena and on the fountain at Perugia, he independently executed a pulpit (1298–1301) for Sant' Andrea, Pistoia, and a pulpit (1302–10) for the cathedral at Pisa. The last was reconstructed in 1926, though several fragments are dispersed (Metropolitan Mus.; Berlin). He carved several free-standing statues of the Madonna, which are in Pisa, Padua, and Prato. In 1312 he made the tomb of Margaret, wife of Emperor Henry VII. Fragments of it are still in Genoa. Giovanni also designed an ornate facade for the cathedral at Siena.

Bibliography: See study by M. Ayrton (1969).

Pisano, Nicola (c.1220/5–c.1280). Tuscan sculptor and architect, he influenced the evolution of Gothic architecture in Italy. He made the hexagonal Pisa Baptistery pulpit (1260) and may have designed the second-storey arcade of the Pisa Baptistery (1260–4). Responsible for the large octagonal pulpit in Siena Cathedral (1265–8), he may have played some part in the design of the west front, commenced by his son, Giovanni Pisano (c.1248–c.1314), Master-Mason there, who built the lower section of the west front (1287–96). Giovanni became capomaestro (master-builder) of Pisa Cathedral in 1299, where he designed the pulpit (1302–11).

Bibliography

J. Turner (1996)
John White (1987)

Pisano, Nicola (c.1225–c.1278) Italian sculptor. His first masterpiece was the pulpit for the Baptistry in Pisa (1260). In his work on the cathedral pulpit in Siena (1265–68), Pisano was aided by his son, Giovanni (c.1250–c.1320), whose taste in decoration was influenced by the French Gothic style. Giovanni produced two other pulpits: Santa Andrea, Pistoia (1298–1301), and Pisa Cathedral (1302–10).