PISANO, Nicola
(active 1258-1278)

Reliefs on the Portal

1250s
Marble
Duoma, Lucca

It is not known exactly when Pisano went to Pisa, but the Deposition relief on the north tympanum of the façade of Lucca Cathedral, and the lintel reliefs of the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi, were probably executed before Nicola began work on the pulpit in the baptistery of Pisa. Elements of French Gothic art, as seen in the sketchbook of Villard de Honnecourt, appear in the large Christ of the Deposition, bowed under the curve of the arch, and in the cascades of crushed folds gathered around geometrical forms, but the heads and necks have a Romanesque vigour. The faces and drapery in the Nativity relief below show strong Classical influence.