Giovanni Pisano: “The First Modern Sculptor"

Giovanni Pisano - Plato - c. 1280 - Stone - Duomo, SienaItalian sculptor and architect Giovanni Pisano (c. 1250—c. 1314) is sometimes called the only true Gothic sculptor in Italy. He began his career under the classicist influence of his father (Nicola Pisano) and carried on this tradition after his father’s death, continuously reintegrating the antique style into more northerly and contemporary Gothic forms.

Nicola and Giovanni were the greatest sculptors of their period and stand at the head of the tradition of Italian sculpture, in the same way that Giotto (also featured on this site) stands at the head of the tradition of Italian painting. (In fact, we can assume that Giotto and Giovanni met one another, because Giovanni carved a marble statue of the Madonna and Child for the Arena Chapel in Padua, at the same time Giotto was painting there (in c. 1305).

Giovanni Pisano - Plato (detail) - c. 1280 - Stone - Duomo, SienaGiovanni's first major work independent of his father was the façade of Siena Cathedral. He never completed work above the line of the gables over the doors. But the lower part preserves its original decoration, and here is the first time one finds an Italian mason incorporating a major amount of large-scale figure sculpture into a façade design. This idea can only have come from France, however the figures are not in the embrasures of the portals but up above between the gables—representing a clear departure from the French tradition. It is not at all clear what prompted this choice—although some influence might have come from North of the Alps.

Although Giovanni’s style resembles that of his father, his works are more elegant and more emotionally charged. His art truly began what would develop into Italian Renaissance sculpture. The extraordinary works he created prompted the English sculptor Henry Moore to call him "the first modern sculptor".