Pulpit

Giovanni Pisano's first pulpit, in Sant'Andrea, Pistoia, was begun c. 1298, partly executed in Pisa and finished in 1301, the date of the inscription, which describes the sculptor as the 'son of Nicola, and blessed with higher skill'. Many of the devices of Nicola's Pisa baptistery pulpit reappear (e.g. the hexagonal structure, trefoil arches, and iconographic sequences, although the Presentation is replaced by the Massacre of the Innocents, as in Nicola's Siena pulpit), but the compositional conception is radically revised. There is greater unity of architecture and sculpture, with the vigorously projecting statues between the panels and the deeply undercut reliefs, each independent of its neighbour; the verticals are more accentuated, with slimmer supports and acutely pointed arches; and, most important, the visual stability of the pulpit is undermined by the suggestion that the column on the shoulders of Atlas is beginning to slip.

The central support of the pulpit is raised above eagles; the six outer columns rest on lions, plain figures, and the Atlas figure, symbol of original sin and the force of will. The Prophets and Sibyls in the spandrels and at the corners prefigure Christ, who is witnessed in the topmost order by the Evangelists and Apostles standing between the narrative reliefs of the Life of Christ. The modelling ranges from very low (and even incised) relief to the fully rounded figures of the Sibyls, lions, and twisting Atlas. The varying treatment of the surfaces (in some places rough and unfinished, in others polished and translucent), the oblique poses of the figures, which increase in size and projection towards the top of the pulpit, the contrasts of crowded and bare areas, light and shade, the swirls and projections, all combine to create an extremely varied and intense visual language.

The composition of the first panel, showing the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Annunciation to the Shepherds, is firmly welded together; that of the Adoration of the Magi undulates in sinuous but balanced curves to create effects of movement, while in the Massacre of the Innocents, a scene well suited to Giovanni's dramatic inspiration, the diagonal axes of the composition, emanating from Herod's forceful gesture in the top right-hand corner, are broken into triangular fragments, wedges, broken rhythms, and harsh angles. The formal elements thus reinforce the emotions of pain, horror, and refusal captured in the roughly carved faces, with their tragic expressions. In the Crucifixion, iconographically similar to Nicola's version, the figures surrounding the gaunt Christ, modelled with harsh angles between the contorted thieves, seem to be shaken by a strong wind. Finally, in the Last Judgement, the artist created a horrific vision of swarming, overwhelmed humanity.