Muslims off Palermo in Sicily in 1062 provided the funds for the
Pisan building program. The cathedral, its freestanding bell tower,
and the baptistery, where infants and converts were initiated into the
Christian community, present a rare opportunity to study a coher-
ent group of three Romanesque buildings. Save for the upper por-
tion of the baptistery, with its remodeled Gothic exterior, the three
structures are stylistically homogeneous.
Construction of Pisa Cathedral began first—in 1063, the same
year work began on Saint Mark’s (FIG. 12-24) in Venice, another
powerful maritime city. Pisa Cathedral is large, with a nave and four
aisles, and is one of the most impressive and majestic of all Ro-
manesque churches. According to a document of the time, the
Pisans wanted their bishop’s church not only to be a monument to
the glory of God but also to bring credit to the city. At first glance,
the cathedral resembles an Early Christian basilica with a timber
roof, columnar arcade, and clerestory. But the broadly projecting
transept with apses, the crossing dome, and the facade’s multiple ar-
caded galleries distinguish it as Romanesque. So too does the rich
marble incrustation (wall decoration consisting of bright panels of
different colors, as in the Pantheon’s interior,FIG. 10-51). The cathe-
dral’s campanile, detached in the standard Italian fashion, is Pisa’s
famous Leaning Tower (FIG. 17-25,right). Graceful arcaded galleries
mark the tower’s stages and repeat the cathedral’s facade motif,
effectively relating the round campanile to its mother building. The
tilted vertical axis of the tower is the result of a settling foundation.
The tower began to “lean” even while under construction and by the
late 20th century had inclined some 5.5 degrees (about 15 feet) out
of plumb at the top. In 1999 an international team of scientists
began a daring project to remove soil from beneath the
north side of the tower. The soil extraction has already
moved the tower more than an inch closer to vertical and
ensured the stability of the structure for at least 300 years.
(Because of the touristic appeal of the Leaning Tower,
there are no plans to restore the campanile to its original
upright position.)BAPTISTERY, FLORENCE The public always asso-
ciates Florence with the Renaissance of the 15th and 16th
centuries, but Florence was already an important indepen-
dent city-state in the Romanesque period. The gem of
Florentine Romanesque architecture is the baptistery (FIG.
17-26) of San Giovanni (Saint John), the city’s patron saint. Pope
Nicholas II dedicated the building in 1059. It thus predates Pisa’s bap-
tistery (FIG. 17-25,left), but construction of the Florentine baptistery
continued into the next century. Both baptisteries face their city’s
cathedral. These freestanding Italian baptisteries are unusual and re-
flect the great significance the Florentines and Pisans attached to bap-
tisms. On the day of a newborn child’s anointment, the citizenry gath-
ered in the baptistery to welcome a new member into the community.
The Tuscan baptisteries therefore were important civic as well as reli-
gious structures. Some of the most renowned artists of the late Middle
Ages and the Renaissance provided the Florentine and Pisan baptister-
ies with pulpits (FIG. 19-2), bronze doors (FIGS. 21-2, 21-3,and 21-10),
and mosaics.
The simple and serene classicism of San Giovanni’s design recalls
ancient Roman architecture. The baptistery stands in a direct line
of descent from the Pantheon (FIG. 10-49) and imperial mausoleums
such as Diocletian’s (FIG. 10-74), the Early Christian Santa Costanza
(FIG. 11-11), the Byzantine San Vitale (FIG. 12-6), and other central-plan
structures, pagan or Christian, including Charlemagne’s Palatine Chapel
(FIG. 16-18) at Aachen. The distinctive Tuscan Romanesque marble in-
crustation that patterns the walls stems ultimately from Roman wall
designs (FIGS. 10-17and 10-51). The simple oblong and arcuated pan-
els assert the building’s structural lines and its elevation levels. In plan,
San Giovanni is a domed octagon, wrapped on the exterior by an ele-
gant arcade, three arches to a bay. It has three entrances, one each on
the north, south, and east sides. On the west side an oblong sanctuary
replaces the original semicircular apse. The domical vault is some
90 feet in diameter, its construction a remarkable feat for its time.17-26Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, Italy, dedicated
1059.
The Florentine baptistery is a domed octagon descended
from Roman and Early Christian central-plan buildings.
The distinctive Tuscan Romanesque marble paneling stems
from Roman wall designs.Italy 451