Giovanni Pisano

Giovanni Pisano (c. 1250–c. 1315) was an Italian sculptor and architect, the most expressive sculptor of the Italian Gothic. He designed and carved the lower facade of Siena Cathedral, and his figures of prophets and sibyls for it led Henry Moore to call him "the first modern sculptor."

Life in brief

Giovanni was the son and pupil of Nicola Pisano, who had revived the study of Roman sculpture in Pisa. As a young man he worked with his father on the pulpit of Siena Cathedral (1265–68) and on the Fontana Maggiore in Perugia (completed 1278). From around 1284 he was master of works at Siena Cathedral, where he designed the lower half of the facade and filled it with life-size statues. Later he carved two great pulpits, for Sant'Andrea in Pistoia (finished 1301) and for Pisa Cathedral (1302–10), as well as Madonnas in marble and ivory, including the Virgin and Child in the Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel in Padua. He probably died in Siena around 1315.

Style

Where Nicola's figures are calm and Roman, Giovanni's twist, lean and stare. He knew French Gothic sculpture, and he combined its elegance with an emotional force that has no real precedent in Italy. His Siena prophets were made to be seen high up, so he carved them with exaggerated gestures and craning necks, bending forward from the facade as if in conversation with one another. His pulpit reliefs are crowded and dramatic; in the Massacre of the Innocents, mothers clutch dead children in a mass of bodies.

The Siena facade

Pisano's lower facade of three portals, with its statues of Old Testament prophets, sibyls and pagan philosophers who foretold Christ, was the most ambitious sculptural program in Italy at the time. The upper half was completed later by others, including Giovanni di Cecco, in a more decorative style; Camaino di Crescentino was among the masters who succeeded him. The original statues were removed for conservation and are now in the cathedral museum, replaced by copies on the building.

Where to see his work

The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Siena holds the original facade statues. His pulpits are in Sant'Andrea, Pistoia, and in Pisa Cathedral. See Gothic Art.