historiated relief fi elds separated by triple colonettes.
When the pulpit was in its original state, the creamy
marble reliefs framed by reddish colonettes and mold-
ings, the speckled and patterned supporting columns,
the relief backgrounds fi lled with colored glazed tes-
serae (some of which remain), and the polychromy
accenting some parts of the fi gures produced a richly
chromatic effect.
The reliefs embellish fi ve of the six sides (the sixth is
the entrance to the platform) with scenes from the life of
Christ. In a continuous narrative, the fi rst panel shows
the Annunciation, Nativity, Bathing of the Christ Child,
and Annunciation to the Shepherds. This is followed by
panels illustrating the Adoration of the Magi, Presenta-
tion in the Temple, Crucifi xion, and Last Judgment. The
fi gures are powerfully plastic and expressive and reveal
the sculptor’s study of ancient art and northern Gothic
art, enabling him to combine the serene majesty of the
former with the deeply felt human experience of the
latter. Nicola was not content to present symbolic
narratives of transcendental events; his goal was, rather,
to tell a human story in a credible and empathic manner.
The work is enriched by naturalistic details; the fi gures
convey a sense of bulk and weight, and gestures and
movements are rendered with convincing naturalism.
This new mode of sculpture was the visual counter-
part of the widely diffused apocryphal literature,
in which the sparse accounts of the Gospels were
enriched with domestic incidents, making the sacred
fi gures human.
In 1265, Nicola signed a contract for a second pulpit,
in this case for the cathedral of Siena. Several assistants,
including Arnolfo di Cambio and Nicola’s son Giovanni,
are named in the contract. This pulpit, completed in 1268
and placed within the enormous space of the duomo, is
octagonal and is larger and more complex than the one
in the baptistery in Pisa. Here, the narrative program
began at the stairway bridge leading to the pulpit casket,
with a fi gure of Gabriel (now in Berlin) corresponding
to Mary of the Annunciation seen at the left edge of
the fi rst relief (Seidel 1970). As at Pisa, there are three
tiers—supporting columns, arcade, and parapet. The
central support includes fi gures representing, for the
fi rst time, the liberal arts. The narratives now include
the emotionally wrenching Massacre of the Innocents
and a Last Judgment that spreads over two fi elds, with a
full-length fi gure of Christ the judge between the reliefs.
Furthermore, instead of column clusters (as at Pisa),
there are corner fi gures framing the reliefs, resulting in
a continuous visual and narrative fl ow. The classicizing
forms of the earlier pulpit give way to more elegantly
proportioned fi gures with softer draperies and refi ned
features—an ideal infl uenced by French Gothic art. In
the narratives, the fi gures are smaller and more densely
packed, and the compositions are organized to suggest
movement into depth. Furthermore, Nicola has greatly
enlarged his emotional range. The crucifi ed Christ in
Siena, for instance, conveys a pathos lacking in the
earlier relief: hanging with arms stretched in two great
diagonals, shoulders dislocated, abdomen sunken by the
weight of the upper torso, and head bent into the chest,
the fi gure conveys human pain and tragedy, intensifying
the meaning of the crucifi xion.
In 1267, Nicola completed the Arca di San Do-
menico (tomb of Saint Dominic) in the church of San
Domenico in Bologna. The form and structure of the
arca became the prototype for an entire class of tombs
through the fi fteenth century (Moskowitz 1994). Many
changes have been made to this tomb, but originally it
consisted of a freestanding sarcophagus resting atop a
series of supporting statue columns representing friars,
archangels, and virtues. The sarcophagus, the only part
of the original monument that is still in San Domenico,
is embellished on all sides with an extensive cycle of
biographical reliefs rather than the traditional biblical or
symbolic themes. The relief backgrounds show patterns
of red and gold verre églomisé (much of it restored).
The narrative fi elds are separated by full-length fi gures
projecting in high relief, including the Madonna and
child on one long side, the Redeemer on the other long
side, and the four church fathers—Augustine, Ambrose,
Jerome, and Gregory—at the corners of the sarcophagus.
The corner fi gures, both on and supporting the sarcopha-
gus, project out diagonally, encouraging the observer to
move around the ensemble.
The bold and original design of the arca has sources
as disparate as pulpits, bishops’ thrones, holy water
fonts, and ancient sarcophagi and was conceived as ad-
dressing both laypeople and the Dominican hierarchy.
When the tomb was in its original location between the
presbytery and south aisle, Dominic’s most public and
most spectacular miracles were on the side facing the lay
congregation, thus serving to promote the cult; and the
scenes of the founding and expansion of the Dominican
order, which were of greater interest to the clergy, were
on the side facing the choir area.
The last major work securely associated with Nicola’s
name is the Fontana Maggiore (“great fountain”) in Pe-
rugia, completed in 1278. This is a remarkable secular
and civic monument, as original in form and conception
among fountains as Nicola’s pulpits and the arca are,
respectively, among pulpits and tombs. The Fontana
Maggiore is polygonal and embellished with sculptures;
it stands in Perugia’s main civic and religious square,
and it began not as an artistic project but rather as an
engineering and hydraulic problem: it was intended to
bring an adequate water supply to Perugia, a town poor
in freshwater springs (Nicco Fasola 1951). Precedents
for some elements of the fountain’s formal structure are
found in two- and three-basin liturgical furnishings, suchPISANO, NICOLA