GIOVANNI DI SIMONE
(active 1260-1284 in Pisa)

General view

begun 1277
Photo
Camposanto, Pisa

Camposanto, the cemetery of Pisa was started in 1277 by Giovanni did Simon. The elegance and delicacy of its Arcadian represent the ultimate sophistication of Pisa Romanesque. Giovanni's sensitivity in the use of traditional marble striping and in the play of light and line in the round-headed arches and in their supporting piers is witnessed by the way in which his simple seeming framework could assimilate the delicate Gothic traceries inserted in the fifteenth century. No less remarkable is the sense of interval and proportion that allows the sixty-two arches and six closely similar entrances of this unbroken rectangle to blend into a work of art in which restraint and disciple are combined with lightness; gravity with grace.