Lecture 5: Gothic Art in Germany and Italy
precisely this compression of form, contrasted with disproportionately large,
expressive heads, that engages our emotions. Curiously, this scene has no
scriptural foundation. It was invented, probably in northern Europe, as a kind
of omega to the alpha of the innumerable images of the Madonna tenderly
holding the Christ Child.South of the Alps, in Italy, the Romanesque and Gothic styles also found a
home before a rejection of these styles developed during the Renaissance.
One of the most beautiful and monumental architectural complexes in Italy
is in Pisa, then a rich port city on the Arno near the Tyrrhenian Sea. Our
next example shows an aerial view of the baptistery, cathedral, campanile,
and campo santo at Pisa. All these buildings were constructed from 1053–- The tiers of white stone arcades and colonnades on the principal
buildings are breathtaking. The baptistery in the foreground suggests a
papal tiara. The campo santo, or “holy ¿ eld,” just beyond the baptistery, is
the burial ground, a large, open, cloister-like space surrounded by covered
galleries that are decorated with tombs and wall paintings. The whole of
this complex is known by the evocative name Campo dei Miracoli, meaning
“Field of Miracles.”
Inside the baptistery is a magni¿ cent pulpit (c. 1260, Baptistery, Pisa, pulpit)
carved by Nicola Pisano (1220–1278). Nicola consciously reinvented Roman
Classical forms for use in his religious sculpture. There are ¿ ve rectangular
marble panels with relief carvings on the pulpit. One of the most striking of
the marble panels is the Adoration of the Magi. All the ¿ gures in this carving
impress us with their dignity and physical weight. The drapery owes much
to Roman marble carving, except that its sharp angularity is similar to Italo-
Byzantine stylization. Note the horses of the magi, the gifts in containers,
and the Christ Child’s acceptance of the gift.Nicola borrowed the Madonna’s pose from a Roman sarcophagus then, and
still, in the Campo Santo at Pisa (a museum of Roman sarcophagi). Nicola
used a sarcophagus with the legend of Hippolytus for inspiration here. We see
the sarcophagus (2nd c. A.D.) depicting the myth of Hippolytus, whose death
was caused by Poseidon. The theme was popular on Roman sarcophagi.