User:Johnbod/Science

Pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery
The Pulpit in the Pisa Baptistry was completed by Nicola Pisano and his assistants in 1260, and has long been regarded as a landmark in Italian art, especially for its large relief panels around the platform.

Large raised pulpits, elaborately carved with relief panels, were important monuments in the Italian Duecento, with the best known including those of the baptistery at Pisa (dated 1260), Siena Cathedral Pulpit (1268) also by Nicola Pisano, and the Pulpit of Sant' Andrea, Pistoia, by his son Giovanni Pisano, 1297-1301.

Italian article

Description
The pulpit is 415cm high, 371 wide at the base, and 259.5 deep. The pulpit has a large platform, a regular pentagon held up by five columns and reached by modern steps in wood. The outer face of low wall around this space has five panels in marble relief, showing scenes from the Life of Christ. Many have suffered considerable damage, with heads and parts of bodies missing; the Napoleonic looting of art is usually blamed for this.

The most famous panel is a Nativity scene, which is combined with an Annunciation, an Adoration of the Shepherds, and a Washing of the Christ Child. The Virgin Mary appears twice, as does the baby Jesus. The Jesus in the bath, as usual seeming rather well-developed for a newborn, has lost his head and an arm, and the ox and ass behind the manger holding the other Jesus are cut off at the bottom of the neck.

There is a clear hieratic progression in the size of the figures, with the "massive, reclining figure of the Virgin" the largest. She is far larger than the trio at the bottom and front of the picture space: Saint Joseph and the two nurses. This hieratic element is much less marked in the other reliefs, though still present.

The series continues with an Adoration of the Magi, a Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Crucifixion of Jesus, and finally a Last Judgment.



Below this there is a zone where six relatively small relief figures, "almost in the round", fill the spaces between the capitals of the columns and "an archivolt formed of trilobe arches with pierced cusps" under the panels. Their subjects are often taken to be the "Christian Virtues", but there has been a good deal of discussion over this. The most famous is the nude male representing "Fortitude", who is clearly based on classical images of Hercules, but might represent Daniel. These figures are joined by arched elements with figures in the spandrels of the Four Evangelists, with miniature attributes, and Old Testament kings and prophets.

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