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The only certain work by Tommaso is the large polychrome marble polyptych placed on the high altar of the Pisan church of San Francesco, signed by the master in the base of the central compartment.
In the predella of the work appears the coat of arms of the powerful Gambacorta family, patron of the altar, where some of its important members were buried; the commission by the family is generally placed after 1369, with the return to Pisa of Pietro Gambacorta from exile. The polyptych was executed in the last years of Tommaso's life, after the death of his more gifted brother Nino (already dead in 1368).
Mentioned in its original location by Vasari, the work subsequently passed into the chapter of the Franciscan convent; in 1810 it entered the collections of the Camposanto di Pisa, to be relocated to its original location at the beginning of the twentieth century, with the reinstatement of some missing parts. It is a rare fourteenth-century example of an altarpiece carved with full figures, perhaps based on a precedent by Giovanni di Balduccio.
The large altarpiece has seven compartments in the main register. In the centre, in a panel with three arches, there is the standing Virgin with the Child, accompanied by four angels; in the sides are saints Benedict, Andrew, John the Baptist, Peter, Lawrence and Francis. The predella features the scenes of the Annunciation, the Nativity, Christ among the Doctors, Baptism, Resurrection and Pentecost; the centre panel contains Christ in Pietà between the Virgin, St John the Evangelist and four angels.
Tommaso's art presupposes that of his brother Nino, from whom many stylistic features are taken (for example, in the drapery), with an evident formal simplification and a minor, albeit discreet, technical ability in marble processing. Compared to Nino, however, there is an evident conceptual embarrassment and less grace. The most typical stylistic elements of Tommaso appear the compactness and static nature of the male figures, the markedly oval faces of the Virgin and the angels that flank her, the rather dry and abbreviated carving, as well as the popular tone of the narrative figurations of the predella.
The differences in the execution of various elements are noted to suggest extensive collaboration of the workshop.
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