as baptismal and cloister fonts; and also in illustrations
of the fans vitae, copies of the Holy Tomb, pulpits, and
altar ciboria (Hoffmann-Curtis 1968; Schulze 1994).
However, there is no close prototype for the scale, the
complexity of design, or the richness of the program
of this indispensably functional urban monument. The
sculpture on the basins is uniquely expansive, includ-
ing scenes from Genesis, prophets, saints, “labors of
the months,” the liberal arts, various fables, allegori-
cal fi gures, and even contemporary civic personages.
A ring of steps serves as a foundation; on this rests a
twenty-fi ve-sided basin with low reliefs separated by
colonettes. Above this rises a smaller basin of twelve
plain concave sides with fi gures at the angles and at the
center of each face. From here a thick bronze column
emerges supporting a third, still smaller basin, also of
bronze, which in turn contains three graceful bronze
female caryatids. The facets of the superimposed lower
basins do not line up, resulting in a syncopated rhythm
that impels the viewer to move around the structure.
Simultaneously, the vertical elements, together with
the diminishing sizes of the basins and the increasing
plasticity of the sculpture, draw the eye upward. The
effect is of a spiral movement that culminates in, and
is resolved by, the caryatid group. The fountain was
designed to be seen not only from the ground but also
from the balcony of the communal palace (altered at a
later date), which was used for announcements to the
piazza below and as an entrance to the audience hall
within for government offi cials and citizens. Even today,
the view from above has its own special effect, as the
play of descending water contrasts with the ascending
concentric superimposed basins.
Nicola’s sculpture provided the source and impetus
for the development of his two major assistants. His
son Giovanni took up the emotional current of Nicola’s
style, transforming it into a very personal and highly
charged idiom. Arnolfo di Cambio’s temperament led
him instead toward a starkly monumental and classiciz-
ing mode. Nicola’s art profoundly infl uenced not only
his immediate successors but also the painting of Giotto
and, indeed, the entire naturalistic and classicizing tradi-
tion of the art of the following centuries.
See also Arnolfo di Cambio; Pisano, Giovanni
Further Reading
Bagnoli, Alessandro. “Novità su Nicola Pisano scultore nel Duo-
mo di Siena.” Prospettiva, 27, October 1981, pp. 27–46.
Caleca, Antonino. La dotta mano: Il battistero di Pisa. Bergamo:
Bolis, 1991.
Carli, Enzo. Il duomo di Siena. Genoa: SAGEP, 1979.
Cristiani Testi, Maria Laura. Nicola Pisano: Architetto scultore.
Pisa: Pacini, 1987.
Gnudi, Cesare. Nicola, Arnolfo, Lapo: L’arca di San Domenico
in Bologna. Florence: Edizioni U, 1948.
Hoffmann-Curtis, Kathrin. Das Programm der Fontana Maggiore
in Perugia. Düsseldorf: Rheinland-Verlag, 1968.
Kosegarten, Antje Middeldorf. “Die Skulpturen der Pisani am
Baptisterium von Pisa.” Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, 10,
1968, pp. 14–100.
Moskowitz, Anita Fiderer. Nicola Pisano’s Arca di San Domenico
and Its Legacy. University Park: Pennsylvania State University
Press, 1994.
——. Italian Gothic Sculpture c. 1250–c. 1400. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Nicco Fasola, Giusta. Nicola Pisano: Orientamenti sulla formazi-
one del gusto italiano. Rome: Fratelli Palombi, 1941.
——. La fontana di Perugia. Rome: Libreria dello Stato, 1951.
Schulze, Ulrich. Brunnen im Mittelalter: Politische Ikonographie
der Kommunen in Italien. Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1994.
Seidel, Max. “Die Verkündigungsgruppe der Siena Domkanzel.”
Münchener Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst, 21, 1970, pp.
18–72.
Anita F. MoskowitzPLEYDENWURFF, HANS (ca. 1425–1472)
This panel and glass painter was active in Franconia
from circa 1450 until about 1472. He established the
fi rst signifi cant painting workshop in Nuremberg, which
produced works inspired by Netherlandish art. Michel
Wolgemut was his pupil and assistant.
Pleydenwurff was born circa 1425 in Bamberg.
Nothing is known of his initial training, but he probably
went to the Netherlands in the early 1450s. He worked
in Bamberg then in Nuremberg, where he became a
citizen in 1457. At his death there in 1472, Pleyden-
wurff was listed as a glass painter. That year, Michel
Wolgemut married his widow, Barbara, and inherited
the workshop.
Pleydenwurff’s only documented work is the Breslau
Altarpiece, of which only fragments survive. Installed in
the church of St. Elizabeth in Breslau on June 30, 1462,
this large double-winged retable with a carved shrine
featured scenes from Christ’s Infancy and Passion, and
Saints Jerome and Vincent of Teate. The upper part of
the Presentation survives (Warsaw, Nationalmuseum).
An undamaged wing with the Descent from the Cross
(Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum) is based
on Roger van der Weyden’s Deposition Altarpiece of
circa 1444 (Madrid, Prado).
Other works have been attributed to Pleydenwurff on
the basis of style. Earliest is the half-length Löwenstein
Diptych of about 1456. Based on a type popularized by
Roger van der Weyden in the Netherlands, it consists
of a Man of Sorrows (Basel, Kunstmuseum) and a
portrait of the Bamberg canon and subdeacon, Count
Georg von Löwenstein (Nuremberg, Germanisches
Nationalmuseum). Also ascribed to Pleydenwurff are
a large Crucifi xion (Munich, Alte Pinakothek), circa
1470, an altarpiece wing with St. Lawrence (Raleigh,
North Carolina Museum of Art), after 1462, and wings
with Infancy and Passion scenes from the Hof AltarpiecePLEYDENWURFF, HANS