Giovanni Pisano

Giovanni (di Niccolò) Pisano (* approx. 1248 in Pisa , † approx. 1315 in Siena ) was an Italian builder and sculptor . His tomb is on the church wall in Siena.

Facade of the Duomo of Siena

life and work

Pisano, son and pupil of Niccolò Pisano , learned his trade from his father and was therefore also active in the pulpit of the cathedral in Siena and in the figurative decoration at the Fontane Maggiore in Perugia . In the Vite of Giorgio Vasari he is mentioned together with his father.

In 1284 he was appointed cathedral builder of Siena. For this he had participated since 1290 on the sculptures of the facade of the cathedral at Orvieto , in which first the subjective, striving for individualization element of Italian sculpture manifests itself. It seems that German sculptors influenced him in this work and led him to a deeper development of the emotional moment. 1298–1301 he made the hexagonal marble pulpit of Sant'Andrea with christological reliefs and the holy water font in San Giovanni in Pistoia . In 1297 he became a cathedral builder in Pisa. It was there that some of his main works were created, such as the busts and full figures of the Gothic floors of the Baptistery and the circular pulpit of the Cathedral of Pisa (1302–1311) supported by ten columns and a figured central pillar. You can feel the French influence from the cathedral sculpture as a guideline, but the figures are becoming more and more detached from their iconic rigidity, which gives them liveliness and versatility in physical and mental expression. This is where the sculptor's artistic temperament is most evident.

Impressive depiction of the scene in a half-relief

For San Domenico in Perugia Pisano created the monument of Pope Benedict XI in 1305 . (Pointed niche with a sarcophagus in it). His last important work was the tomb of a Scrovegno in the Cappella degli Scrovegni in Padua . Of his Madonna statues, the most splendid is the Madonna del Fiore on the second south portal of the Florence Cathedral . As an architect, he built the Campo Santo of Pisa and Santa Maria della Spina from 1278 to 1283; he provided the baptistery with Gothic gables and tabernacles .

1286–1289 he designed the facade of the Cathedral of Siena, which served his pupil Lorenzo di Maitano as a model for that of Orvieto . In addition to the architectural work in Siena and Pisa, he created the choir of the church in Massa Marittima , 1287, and that of the cathedral of Prato (around 1317), in particular the chapel della Cintola is said to be his work. His collaboration in the completion of the church of San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno is considered likely. In sculpture as in architecture, he opened a new direction that spread across Italy. He turns his figures, in which he struggles for the most powerful expression, into carriers of genuinely religious sentiment. In the compositional motifs he essentially followed the tradition; but he was the first to introduce the female allegories in the costume of the time, as well as the standing Madonnas, into Italian sculpture. He was also known for his marble technique. As an architect, he was still fully connected to the Gothic .

The tomb of the German Queen Margaret of Brabant , which her husband Henry VII commissioned Pisano to design after her death in 1311, is counted among the most important late works of Pisano . The burial place was the monastery church of San Francisco di Catelletto in Genoa. The fragmentary tomb is now exhibited in the Museo di Sant 'Agostino di Genova .

Numerous statues of the Madonna in marble (Madonna des Dommus, Pisa, c. 1275; ivory Madonna, Pisa, Cathedral, 1298; Madonna in the Arena Chapel, Padua, 1305; Madonna della Cintola, c. 1315, Prato) come from his hand - this one with an impressively realistically executed plastic language, which gives the statue an idealizing, majestic expression based on antiquity.

Pisano was also active as a goldsmith and ore caster as well as a medalist, but he made his greatest merit through sculpture, where he was just as groundbreaking for the modern age as the younger Giotto in painting.

literature

• Kai Hohenfeld: The Madonna sculptures of Giovanni Pisano. Style criticism, cultural transfer and material imitation . VDG Weimar, Kromsdorf 2014, ISBN 978-3-89739-821-4
• Joachim Poeschke: The Sculpture of the Middle Ages in Italy, Volume 2: Gothic. Hirmer Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7774-8400-8
• Valerio Ascani:  GIOVANNI Pisano. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 56:  Giovanni di Crescenzio – Giulietti. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2001.
• G. Jászai: GIOVANNI PISANO. In: Enciclopedia dell'Arte Medievale (1995)

Web links

Commons : Giovanni Pisano  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• List of works (selection) by Pisano Giovanni from the Fondazione Zeri of the University of Bologna

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Data according to the Fondazione Zeri di Bologna
2. ^ Giorgio Vasari : Le vite dei più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architetti. Newton Compton Editori, Rome 2010, ISBN 978-88-541-1425-8 , p. 127 ff.
3. ↑ Max Seidel , L'artista e l'Imperatore in the exhibition catalog Giovanni Pisano a Genova, Sagep Editrice, Genua 1987, p. 63 ff.

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