Jacopo della Quercia, also known as Jacopo di Pietro d'Agnolo di Guarnieri, was an Italian sculptor of the Renaissance, a contemporary of Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Donatello. He is considered a precursor of Michelangelo.
Nicola Pisano was an Italian sculptor whose work is noted for its classical Roman sculptural style. Pisano is sometimes considered to be the founder of modern sculpture.
Giovanni Pisano was an Italian sculptor, painter and architect, who worked in the cities of Pisa, Siena and Pistoia. He is best known for his sculpture which shows the influence of both the French Gothic and the Ancient Roman art. Henry Moore, referring to his statues for the facade of Siena Cathedral, called him "the first modern sculptor".
A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin pulpitum. The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accessed by steps, with sides coming to about waist height. From the late medieval period onwards, pulpits have often had a canopy known as the sounding board, tester or abat-voix above and sometimes also behind the speaker, normally in wood. Though sometimes highly decorated, this is not purely decorative, but can have a useful acoustic effect in projecting the preacher's voice to the congregation below, especially prior to the invention of modern audio equipment. Most pulpits have one or more book-stands for the preacher to rest his bible, notes or texts upon.
Siena Cathedral is a medieval church in Siena, Italy, dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church, and now dedicated to the Assumption of Mary.
The Piazza dei Miracoli, formally known as Piazza del Duomo, is a walled 8.87-hectare (21.9-acre) compound in central Pisa, Tuscany, Italy, recognized as an important center of European medieval art and one of the finest architectural complexes in the world. It was all owned by the Catholic Church and is dominated by four great religious edifices: Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistery, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Camposanto Monumentale. Partly paved and partly grassed, the Piazza dei Miracoli is also the site of the Ospedale Nuovo di Santo Spirito, which now houses the Sinopias Museum and the Cathedral Museum.
Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Northern, Southern and Central Europe, never quite effacing more classical styles in Italy. In the late 14th century, the sophisticated court style of International Gothic developed, which continued to evolve until the late 15th century. In many areas, especially Germany, Late Gothic art continued well into the 16th century, before being subsumed into Renaissance art. Primary media in the Gothic period included sculpture, panel painting, stained glass, fresco and illuminated manuscripts. The easily recognizable shifts in architecture from Romanesque to Gothic, and Gothic to Renaissance styles, are typically used to define the periods in art in all media, although in many ways figurative art developed at a different pace.
Santa Maria della Spina is a small church in the Italian city of Pisa. The church, erected around 1230 in the Pisan Gothic style, and enlarged after 1325, was originally known as Santa Maria di Pontenovo for the newer bridge that existed nearby, collapsed in the 15th century, and was never rebuilt.
The Pisa Baptistery of St. John is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical building in Pisa, Italy. Construction started in 1152 to replace an older baptistery, and when it was completed in 1363, it became the second building, in chronological order, in the Piazza dei Miracoli, near the Duomo di Pisa and the cathedral's free-standing campanile, the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. The baptistery was designed by Diotisalvi, whose signature can be read on two pillars inside the building, with the date 1153.
The Arca di San Domenico is a monument containing the remains of Saint Dominic. It is located in Dominic’s Chapel in the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna, Italy.
Pisa Cathedral, officially the Primatial Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary, is a medieval Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, in the Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, Italy, the oldest of the three structures in the plaza followed by the Pisa Baptistry and the Campanile known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The cathedral is a notable example of Romanesque architecture, in particular the style known as Pisan Romanesque. Consecrated in 1118, it is the seat of the Archbishop of Pisa. Construction began in 1063 and was completed in 1092. Additional enlargements and a new facade were built in the 12th century and the roof was replaced after damage from a fire in 1595.
An eagle lectern is a lectern in the shape of an eagle on whose outstretched wings the Bible or other texts rest. They are common in Christian churches and may be in stone, wood or metal, usually brass.
Prato Cathedral, or Cathedral of Saint Stephen, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Prato, Tuscany, Central Italy, from 1954 the seat of the Bishop of Prato, having been previously, from 1653, a cathedral in the Diocese of Pistoia and Prato. It is dedicated to Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
Santa Caterina d'Alessandria is a Gothic-style Roman Catholic church in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy.
Pistoia Cathedral, or Cathedral of Saint Zeno is the main religious building of Pistoia, Tuscany, central Italy, located in the Piazza del Duomo in the centre of the city. It is the seat of the Bishop of Pistoia and is dedicated to Saint Zeno of Verona.
Sant'Andrea is a church in Pistoia, Tuscany, central Italy that served as a pieve or place that congregations from surrounding village churches use for baptism. It is dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle, and includes the famous Pulpit of Sant' Andrea by Giovanni Pisano. The church probably dates from as early as the 8th century, though in a smaller size. In the 12th century it was extended in length.
San Giovanni Fuoricivitas is a Romanesque religious church and adjacent buildings in Pistoia, Tuscany, central Italy. The adjective fuoricivitas refers to it location, outside of the first set of city walls, when it was founded during the era of Lombard rule in Italy.
Duecento or Dugento is the Italian word for the Italian culture of the 13th century - that is to say 1200 to 1299. During this period the first shoots of the Italian Renaissance appeared, in literature and art, to be developed in the following trecento period.
The Siena Cathedral Pulpit is an octagonal structure in Siena Cathedral sculpted by Nicola Pisano and his assistants Arnolfo di Cambio, Lapo di Ricevuto, and Nicolas' son Giovanni Pisano between the fall of 1265 and the fall of 1268. The pulpit, with its seven narrative panels and nine decorative columns carved out of Carrara marble, showcases Nicola Pisano's talent for integrating classical themes into Christian traditions, making both Nicola Pisano and the Siena pulpit forerunners of the classical revival of the Italian Renaissance.
The pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery 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. For Kenneth Clark the pulpit was "that false dawn of the Renaissance", as its innovations were not followed up for some time. The nude male figure, called Daniel or Fortitude, but based on a Roman Hercules, has long been a particular focus of attention as "the first heroic nude in Italian art".
