and his father. In addition to the animals and fi gures
supporting the columns—a feature of the earlier pul-
pits—here there are unusually complex fi gural supports:
in the center the three theological virtues, supported by
personifi cations of the eight liberal arts; Ecclesia sup-
ported by the cardinal virtues; statue columns of Saint
Michael and Hercules (or Samson); and fi nally a statue
column of Christ supported by the evangelists. Not
only do the curved narrative panels boldly fl out visual
expectations; below the parapet, where in earlier works
we would see round-headed or pointed trefoil arcades,
we now fi nd, supporting the spandrel reliefs, exuberant
classical volutes that seem to anticipate the Baroque and
are impossible to enclose within the regular geometric
contours of architectural norms. Here, as in the convex
reliefs above, Giovanni must have relished his radical
departure from the expected. In its sheer inventiveness of
form, and in the range of emotions and the effectiveness
of gestures in the narratives, the pulpit in Pisa represents
a tremendous intellectual and artistic achievement.
The last major work by Giovanni is the tomb of Mar-
garet of Luxembourg, wife of Emperor Henry VII. After
her death in 1310, a cult grew up around her remains;
and reports of miracles led to her beatifi cation in 1313,
when the tomb was probably commissioned (Seidel
1987). Much of the original complex is lost, but a major
element is extant: an exceptionally fi ne carving of the
empress being raised heavenward by two angels. There
is scholarly debate as to whether the group represents the
elevatio animae, the soul elevated to heaven, fervently
desired in the prayers for the dead; or the bodily resur-
rection, which should occur only at the last judgment
but might be granted earlier to a saint. The visual evi-
dence suggests a bodily resurrection, since Margaret is
suffi ciently weighty to require the physical exertion of
the two angels. Also disputed is whether the tomb was
a wall monument or, like many later saints’ shrines,
freestanding (Pope-Hennessy 1987; Seidel 1987).
See also Pisano, Nicola
Further Reading
Ayrton, Michael. Giovanni Pisano: Sculptor. London: Thames
and Hudson, 1969.
Bacci, Peleo. La ricostruzione del pergamo di Giovanni Pisano
nel Duomo di Pisa. Milan and Rome: Bestetti e Tumminelli,
1926.
Beani, Gaetano. La pieve di Sant’ Andrea. Pistoia, 1907, p. 28
Carli, Enzo. Il pulpito di Siena. Bergamo: Istituto Italiano d’Arti
Grafi che, 1943, pp. 4lff.
——. Giovanni Pisano. Pisa: Pacini, 1977.
Jászai, Géza. Die Pisaner Domkanzel: Neuer Versuch zur Wieder-
herstellung ihres ursprünglichen Zustandes. Munich, 1968.
——. “Giovanni Pisano.” In Enciclopedia dell’arte medievale,
Vol. 6. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1995, pp.
740–754.
Keller, Harald. “Die Bauplastik des Sienese Doms.” Kunstgesch.
Jahrbuch der Biblioth. Hertziana, 1, 1937.
——. Giovanni Pisano, mit 152 Bildern. Vienna: A. Schroll,
1942, p. 66.
Kosegarten, Antje. “Die Skulpturen der Pisani am Baptisterium
von Pisa.” Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, 10, 1969, pp.
36–100.
Kosegarten, Antje Middeldorf. Sienesische Bildhauer am Duomo
Vecchio. Munich, 1984.
Milanesi, Gaetano. Documenti per la storia dell’arte senese, Vo l.
1, Secoli XIII e XIV. Siena: O. Porri, 1854.
Moore, Henry, Gert Kreytenberg, and Crispino Valenziano.
L’ambone del duomo di Pisa, Milan: Franco Maria Ricci,
1993.
Moskowitz, Anita Fiderer. Italian Gothic Sculpture c. 1250–c.
1400 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Pope-Hennessy, John. Italian Gothic Sculpture. London: Phaidon,
1972.
——. “Giovanni Pisano’s Tomb of Empress Margaret: A Critical
Reconstruction.” Apollo, September 1987, p. 223.
Ragghianti, Carlo Lodovico. “La Madonna eburnea di Giovanni
Pisano.” Critica d’Arte, n.s., 1, 1954, pp. 385–396.
Scultura dipinta—Maestri di legname e pittori a Siena, 1250–
1450: Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale, 16 luglio—31 dicembre- Firenze: Centre Di, 1987.
Seidel, Max. “Die Rankensäulen der sieneser Domfassade.” Jah-
rbuch der Berliner Museen, 11, 1968–1969, pp. 80–160..
——. La scultura lignea di Giovanni Pisano. Florence: Edam,
——. “Die Elfenbeinmadonna im Domschatz zu Pisa: Studien
zur Herkunft und Umbildung Franzöischer Formen im Werk
Giovanni Pisanos in der Epoche der Pistoieser Kanzel.” Mit-
teilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 16,
1972, pp. 1–50.
——. “Studien zur Antikenrezeptionrezeption Nicola Pisanos.”
Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 19,
1975, pp. 303–392.
——, ed. Giovanni Pisano a Genova. Genoa: SAGEP, 1987.
——. “Un ‘Crocifi sso’ di Giovanni Pisano a Massa Marittima.”
Prospettiva, 62, 1991, pp. 67–77.
Venturi, Adolfo. Giovanni Pisano: Sein Leben und sein Werk.
Florence: Pantheon, 1927.
Anita F. Moskowitz
PISANO, NICOLA (c. 1220–1278 or 1284)
Nicola Pisano is generally assumed to have come from
southern Italy and thus from the cultural milieu of Em-
peror Frederick II von Hohenstaufen. Nicola may have
arrived in Tuscany as early as c. 1245; a series of carv-
ings in the upper reaches of the cathedral of Siena have
been plausibly attributed to him (Bagnoli 1981).
In 1260, Nicola signed and dated the pulpit in the
baptistery of Pisa. This pulpit has an unprecedented
form; it is a hexagonal freestanding structure whose
shape was eminently suited to the centralized plan of
the baptistery and echoed Guido da Como’s octagonal
font occupying the center of the interior space. Its para-
pet and platform are sustained by seven columns; the
central column is surrounded by crouching fi gures and
animals, and the six outer columns alternately rest on
lions and on the ground. The columns support trilobed
archivolts fl anked by representations of the virtues and
John the Baptist. Above these rises a balustrade withPISANO, GIOVANNI