Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
ADJUNCT MODULE C: WORLD ART
Preferred Title:
Pulpit, Pisa Baptistery
Image View:
Detail, figure of Virtue, Fortitude (height 56 cm), derived from figure of Hercules and showing contrapposto
Creator:
Nicola Pisano (Italian sculptor, active 1258-1278)
Location:
repository: Battistero di San Giovanni (Pisa, Tuscany, Italy)
Location Note:
Baptistery of St. John
GPS:
43.723333 10.393889
Date:
1255-1260 (creation)
Cultural Context:
Italian
Style Period:
Late Gothic
Work Type 1:
pulpit
Work Type 2:
relief (sculpture)
Work Type 3:
sculpture (visual work)
Classification:
Sculpture and Installations
Material:
white and colored marble
Technique:
carving (processes); construction (assembling)
Measurements:
465 cm (height)
Inscription:
NICOLA PISANUS
Relation Work:
part of Pisa Baptistery
Subjects:
architecture; New Testament; Jesus Christ
Description:
The baptistery's pulpit bears the signature NICOLA PISANUS and the date 1260 and is his first recorded work. The work constitutes the most accomplished synthesis of French Gothic and Classical elements and incorporates a program of great complexity, using concepts derived from the sermon Civitas Dei, Domus Dei of Federico Visconti, Archbishop of Pisa (reigned 1254-1277), the patron of the pulpit. The pulpit has a complex architecture as well with a variety of triangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, and octagonal forms. Nicola studied classical art including the Roman sarcophagi and Greek vase now in the Camposanto. Vasari credits this work as the beginning of the Renaissance for this reason. (Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordart online.com/)
Image Description:
The most extreme statement of Nicola's Classicism resides in his "Fortitude" on the pulpit, one of the cardinal virtues derived from Plato's Republic. This statuette is considered the first modern representation of a heroic nude in the Classical manner.
Collection:
Archivision Adjunct Module C: World Art
Identifier:
6A1-PAN-PBP-A46
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

Pulpit, Pisa Baptistery