Pisano, Giovanni 581success in coping with the madness of Charles VI
(r. 1380–1422), the king of France, and in resolving a
civil war between Burgundy and the rest of France. Frus-
trated, she retired probably to Poissy, reappearing only to
celebrate JOANof Arc in a poem in 1429. Her writing tells
us much about court life around 1400 and contemporary
ideas and reactions to female authors. She died in 1430 or
as late as 1434.
Further reading:Christine de Pisan, The Treasure of
the City of Ladies (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books,
1985); Christine de Pizan, The Book of the Body Politic,
ed. Kate Langdon Forhan (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1994); Christine de Pisan, Christine de
Pizan’s Letter of Othea to Hector,ed. Jane Chance (New-
buryport, Mass.: Focus Information Group, 1997); Angus
Kennedy, Christine de Pizan: A Bibliographical Guide
(London: Grant and Cutler, 1994); Charity Cannon
Willard, Christine de Piza: Her Life and Works(New York:
Persea Books, 1984).
Pisanello(Antonio Pisano, II Pisanello)(1395–ca.
1450/55)court painter
Antonio Pisano, called Pisanello, was a maker of medals
and a painter, who worked at the most impressive Italian
courts of his time, the VISCONTIand the SFORZAat
MILAN, the Gonzaga at Mantua, the ESTEat FERRARA, the
Malatesta at Rimini, the Aragonese kings at NAPLES, and
Pope EUGENIUSIV at ROME.
Born at PISAin about 1395, he grew up in VERONA.
He had many contacts with the artists of the time and
especially with GENTILE DAFABRIANO. Before that he had
studied at Verona and painted FRESCOESnow lost in the
Doge’s Palace in VENICEin 1415–22. Others are lost,
such as those in the castle of Mantua, and those at Saint
John Lateran in Rome. All done between 1422 and 1426.
Later, in 1441, he did a portrait of Lionello D’Este
(1407–50), part of a competition with Jacopo BELLINI,
another portrait of a princess of the house of Este, the
Vision of Saint Eustace; and the Madonna with Saints
Anthony Abbot and George.
Famous for his metals and as draftsman, Pisanello’s
international GOTHIC painting style included sharp
forms, naturalistic detail, as well as color. In his draw-
ings, in the Vallardi Codex, and in his medals, there are a
clear lines, such as in his images of the Byzantine
emperor JOHNVIII PALAIOLOGOS; Filippo Maria Visconti
(1392–1447); Cecilia, Gianfrancesco (1466–1519), and
Ludovico (1412–78) Gonzaga; Francesco I Sforza
(1401–66); Lionello d’Este; ALFONSOV of ARAGON; and
many other court and literary personalities of the time.
He died about 1455.
Further reading:Jakob Rosenberg, Great Draughts-
men from Pisanello to Picasso(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1959); Luke Syson and Dillian Gordon,
Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court(London: Yale
University Press, 2001); Johanna Woods-Marsden, The
Gonzaga of Mantua and Pisanello’s Arthurian Frescoes
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988).Pisano, Andrea (Andrea di Ugolino di Nino da Pont-
edera)(ca. 1290–ca. 1348/49)goldsmith, sculptor
Andrea da Pontedera, was trained in PISA as a gold-
smith, before winning fame for the bronze south doors
of the baptistery in FLORENCEdone between 1330 and- These doors were innovative in their assimilation
of French styles in an Italian context. On GIOTTO’S
death, Andrea was called upon in 1337 to continue
Giotto’s work on the bell tower of Santa Maria del Fiore,
the CATHEDRALof Florence. He later appeared in docu-
ments at Pisa and then at Orvieto, where he was in
charge of the works for the cathedral. He died at Orvieto
in 1348.
See alsoGOTHIC ART AND ARCHITECTURE.
Further reading: Charles Avery, Florentine Renais-
sance Sculpture(London: J. Murray, 1970); G. H. Crich-
ton and E. R. Cichton, Nicola Pisano and the Revival of
Sculpture in Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1938); Anita Fiderer Moskowitz, Nicola Pisano’s
Arca di San Domenico and Its Legacy(University Park:
Published for College Art Association by the Pennsylva-
nia State University Press, 1994); Anita Fiderer
Moskowitz, Italian Gothic Sculpture, c. 1250–c. 1400
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
Pisano, Giovanni (ca. 1245/50–ca. 1314/18)pioneer in
the development of modern sculpture
The son of Niccolò PISANO, Giovanni was trained in his
father’s studio, collaborating with him and his assistants
on the pulpit of the CATHEDRALbetween 1265 and 1268
at SIENAand on the large fountain, finished in 1278, at
Perugia. Between 1284 and 1299 he lived in Siena, as
the master builder of the cathedral. From 1295 he
moved to PISA, where again he was in charge of the
works on the cathedral between 1299 and 1308. He
created a pulpit for that cathedral between 1302 and- At about the same time, he worked in other cities
doing a pulpit of Sant’ Andrea in Pistoia in 1301 and the
tomb of Margaret, the wife of the emperor Henry VII of
Luxembourg (r. 1308–13), in GENOA. Besides assisting
in the design of the façade of the cathedral of Massa
Marittima in TUSCANY, he began the façade of the Cathe-
dral of Siena.
Giovanni followed his father’s forms in his earliest
works but soon grew to express his own sensibility. He
was much more intensely interested than his father in
French GOTHICart. He may have traveled to FRANCE
between 1270 and 1275, perhaps to RHEIMSand PARIS.
He, too, drew on French sculpture, inspired by the ivory
carvings circulating widely at Pisa. Giovanni was also
interested in the forms of classical art, but from it he