Giovanni Pisano
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Who was Giovanni Pisano?
Giovanni Pisano (c. 1250–after 1314) was an Italian sculptor from Pisa, and he has been called the only true Gothic sculptor in Italy.
Pisano's early work began in his father, Nicola's, workshop, and because of this, his early work is hard to distinguish from his father's. Giovanni's style does not develop from that of his father. Giovanni's emotionalism in his work may have been inspired by Hellenistic sculpture, or possibly from travels in the north, especially Germany. His greatest achievements include the Siena cathedral facade and his pulpit in Pistoia.
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What is Giovanni Pisano best known for?
Giovanni Pisano, born around 1250 in Pisa, Italy, and died after 1314 in Siena, was a sculptor recognized as the only true Gothic sculptor in Italy.
Pisano is best known for the facade of the Siena cathedral and his pulpit in Pistoia. The Siena facade set a standard for Gothic facade decoration in central Italy because of its lavishness and ordering. His Pistoia pulpit, completed in 1301, is considered his greatest achievement. The pulpit's five narrative reliefs share subject matter with his father Nicola’s Pisa pulpit from 40 years prior, but the style exhibits a new level of intensity.
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In which period did Giovanni Pisano create his sculptures?
Giovanni Pisano, an Italian sculptor, created his sculptures primarily during the late 13th and early 14th centuries. He began his career in his father Nicola's workshop, assimilating classical influences.
Some of his key works and periods include:
- Siena Cathedral Facade (c. 1285–95): His first major independent work.
- Pistoia Pulpit (completed 1301): This pulpit is known for its expressive and intense style.
- Pisa Cathedral Pulpit (1302-1310): Here, his relief style is more docile compared to the Pistoia pulpit.
- Tomb of Margaret of Luxembourg (1311): His last recorded work.
Pisano's work evolved from classical styles to incorporate more Gothic forms, and later in his career, he returned to a more classical spirit.
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What are some of Giovanni Pisano's most famous works?
Giovanni Pisano, an Italian sculptor of the Gothic period, is renowned for integrating classical elements into Gothic forms.
Some of his most famous works include:
* The sculptural ornamentation of the Siena Cathedral facade, noted for its architectural approach and expressive figures.
* The Pulpit in Pistoia, characterized by its intense emotional and agitated style, stands as one of his greatest achievements.
* The Pisa Cathedral Pulpit, where the relief style is more subdued compared to the Pistoia pulpit.
* Tomb sculpture for Margaret of Luxembourg in Genoa.2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How was Giovanni Pisano’s style different from other sculptors of his time?
Giovanni Pisano, son of Nicola Pisano, initially embraced his father's classicist style, integrating antique elements into Gothic forms. However, Giovanni's style diverged from his father's and other sculptors of the time through heightened emotional drama and technical innovation.
His figures displayed agitated poses, and his deeply cut surfaces created a dynamic play of light and shadow. This expressionistic approach, evident in his pulpit in Sant’Andrea, Pistoia (completed 1301), set him apart from the more classically inspired works of his father and other contemporaries, although possible influences from Hellenistic sculpture have been noted.
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How did Giovanni Pisano influence later artists and sculpture in Italy?
Giovanni Pisano, son of Nicola Pisano, Italy's only true Gothic sculptor, significantly impacted Italian art by integrating classical elements with contemporary Gothic forms.
Giovanni's emotional and dramatic style, evident in his pulpit in Sant’Andrea, Pistoia, set him apart from his father's more classical approach. His work on the Siena cathedral facade became a model for Gothic facade decoration in central Italy, characterized by an architectural approach with discrete niches for figures that converse across the facade.
His influence extended through his students, including Arnolfo di Cambio and Tino di Camaino, who further developed his style in their works.
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Giovanni Pisano (born c. 1250, Pisa [Italy]—died after 1314, Siena) was a sculptor, sometimes called the only true Gothic sculptor in Italy. He began his career under the classicist influence of his father, Nicola, and carried on this tradition after his father’s death, continuously reintegrating the antique style into more northerly and contemporary Gothic forms.
Pisano began his career in his father’s workshop and so thoroughly assimilated the ideas he found there that his early work is difficult to distinguish from that of his father. It was in the contract (1265) for the pulpit in the Siena cathedral that Giovanni Pisano is first specifically mentioned as an assistant to his father. Since he was at that time not referred to as magister, or independent master craftsman, Pisano must still have been in his teens. At any rate, by September 1285 he had rejected his Pisan citizenship and had become a resident of Siena. About that time he began his work on the design and sculptural ornamentation of the facade for the cathedral of Siena which became, in its lavishness and ordering, the model for virtually all future Gothic facade decoration in central Italy. Unlike French examples, in which figural ornament pulsates over the entire facade, Pisano’s designs for the Siena facade offer a much more architectural approach to the problem. The lower story is simply decorated with colonnettes (small columns) and a restrained foliate pattern, which follows the vertical movement of the colonnettes. Aside from the carved lintels over the doors, figural sculpture begins at the level of the arches over the entrances with slightly larger than life-size figures of prophets and sibyls and continues throughout the rest of the facade. Although each figure inhabits a discrete niche, agitated, forward-bending poses cause them to converse across the vast space of the facade and soften the otherwise clearly stated architectonic lines that order the structure. Recent research has emphasized particularly close relationships in design between the sculpture of the Siena facade and French foliate patterns and figural reliefs, especially from the cathedral at Auxerre in France. Since there are no known documentary references to Giovanni Pisano between 1268 and 1278, the possibility of a trip through France during these years seems extremely likely.
Next to the Siena cathedral facade, Pisano’s pulpit in Pistoia, completed in 1301, is his greatest achievement. The five narrative reliefs of this pulpit roughly parallel the subject matter of his father Nicola’s Pisa pulpit 40 years earlier, as does the overall architectural format, but the style pushes the expressive qualities innate in Nicola’s Pisa pulpit to a new level of intensity. In the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Annunciation to the Shepherds, the extreme agitation that characterizes all the reliefs for the Pistoia pulpit pulsates throughout the panel. Figures, animals, drapery, and landscape features are wrenched into physically impossible configurations; light shatters over the broken surfaces and deeply cut relief; and each figure responds convulsively to the individual situations in which he participates. What is critical to the change in style from the first Pisa pulpit reliefs to the Pistoia reliefs is a preference for an overall agitated and deeply cut surface as opposed to the earlier more massive and monumental organization of forms.
Pisano never repeated the frenzy of forms that covers the Pistoia pulpit. Instead he returned to the more stately, classical spirit that had been at the heart of his father’s earliest work. The reasons for this cannot be documented, but they most likely stem in part from Giovanni’s experience with Giotto’s monumental and heroic style which was already in the ascendancy by the time that the Pistoia pulpit was completed. Pisano, in fact, carved a marble Madonna and Child for the Arena Chapel in Padua at approximately the same time that Giotto painted his profoundly moving fresco cycle there (c. 1305). In addition, the quasi-imperial political movements established by Pope Boniface VIII at the turn of the 14th century may also have prompted him to return to more overtly classical quotations.
From 1302 to 1310 Pisano again worked in Pisa, this time for a pulpit for the cathedral. In this pulpit, now badly reconstructed after having been disassembled, the relief style is considerably more docile than that of the Pistoia reliefs. His last recorded work was a tomb sculpture for Margaret of Luxembourg in Genoa in 1311. He was last recorded in Siena in 1314, and it is presumed that he died shortly thereafter. If, as is clear from his work in Siena, Pisano was Italy’s only Gothic sculptor, it is also true that he never lost sight of the heritage of classical Rome that underlies all of the artistic thinking of central Italy.