Giovanni Pisano summary

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Giovanni Pisano, (born c. 1250, Pisa—died after 1314, Siena?), Italian sculptor and architect. His early work is similar to that of Nicola Pisano, his father and teacher. About 1285 he began work on the facade of Siena’s cathedral, whose lavish and ordered design and ornamentation became the model for future Gothic facade decoration in central Italy. His other great achievement, the Pistoia pulpit (c. 1298–1301), is characterized by extreme agitation, its figures, animals, drapery, and landscape being wrenched into physically impossible configurations. His pulpit for the Pisa cathedral (1302–10) is much more Classical, perhaps to accord with Giotto’s monumental style, then in the ascendancy. Though regarded as Italy’s only true Gothic sculptor, he never lost sight of the heritage of Classical Rome.

Gothic art Summary

Gothic art, the painting, sculpture, and architecture characteristic of the second of two great international eras that flourished in western and central Europe during the Middle Ages. Gothic art evolved from Romanesque art and lasted from the mid-12th century to as late as the end of the 16th

relief Summary

Relief, (from Italian relievare, “to raise”), in sculpture, any work in which the figures project from a supporting background, usually a plane surface. Reliefs are classified according to the height of the figures’ projection or detachment from the background. In a low relief, or bas-relief

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sculpture Summary

Sculpture, an artistic form in which hard or plastic materials are worked into three-dimensional art objects. The designs may be embodied in freestanding objects, in reliefs on surfaces, or in environments ranging from tableaux to contexts that envelop the spectator. An enormous variety of media