Art in the pulpit: Helen Geddes welcomes a handsomely illustrated account of the three pulpits by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano that are among the great masterpieces of medieval sculpture

Apollo, Oct, 2006 by Helen Geddes

Pious Devotion, Pious Diversion. Nicola and Giovanni Pisano: The Pulpits

Anita Fiderer Moskowitz Harvey Miller, $156/125 [euro]

ISBN 1 872501 49 4

Between the late 1250s and 1311, the sculptor Nicola Pisano and his son Giovanni created four carved marble pulpits for the Tuscan cities of Pisa, Pistoia and Siena. The first of these, for the Baptistery at Pisa, broke new ground in terms of pulpit design, being a polygonal structure rich in narrative imagery, while the final one, for Pisa Cathedral, in terms of structural and iconographic complexity, proved to be a design watershed, and was never seemingly superseded. With their vivid narrative panels, and engaging personifications, these four pulpits proved to be remarkably influential, with artists as diverse as Jacopo della Quercia and Michelangdo responding to their images.

This volume examines all four pulpits sequentially, and is the first monograph to do so exclusively, although each of the pulpits has been the subject of a major study, some more than one. The text is, however, largely a recapitulation and amplification of the author's analysis of the four pulpits in her Italian Gothic Sculpture c. 1250-c. 1400 (2001), with some passages repeated verbatim. The aim of the work is to integrate the scattered material on these pulpits, to place them within the broader scheme of pulpit design, and address such questions as their iconography and function.

An introduction presents the context for the study, early history and development of the pulpit. A chapter is devoted to each monument, closing with a final chapter examining their impact on subsequent pulpit design, and on other artists. There is a brief biography of the father and son sculptors, and an iconographic index and general index round off the book. Several general proposals are made about the pulpits: that their function varied, and was not exclusively liturgical, that their imagery cannot always be directly linked to the liturgy, that their structural elements and decoration derive from other categories of objects, not only other pulpits, and that the narrative panels, one of the most important elements of these pulpits, were probably developed where extensive mural cycles were not possible. The pulpits were not merely practical objects, but were a manifestation of civic pride, created in times of decline as well as prosperity.

In the chapter on the legacy of the pulpits, a range of comparisons and analogies is drawn, some more persuasive than others. The pulpits are viewed as having provided models and inspiration for Donatello and Jacopo della Quercia, and for Michelangelo at various points in his career. The comparison between a seated marble sibyl from the Pistoia pulpit by Giovanni Pisano and one of Michelangelo's seated sibyls on the Sistine Chapel ceiling is certainly thought-provoking. On the other hand, while Michelangelo may plausibly have had in the back of his mind the powerful male nude representing Fortitude from the Pisa Baptistery pulpit by Nicola Pisano when creating his magnificent David (Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence), the statue is as much informed by his early contact with the work of Niccolo dell'Arca on the Arca of St Domenic, in S Domenico at Bologna, and with Jacopo della Quercia's Apostle (Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Lucca), formerly on the cathedral of S Martino at Lucca. The interest in antiquity shared by these artists may account for any similarities, rather than direct inspiration.

It is also suggested that the sculptor Niccolo dell'Arca (active 1462-94) 'fashioned his identity after his great predecessor from Apulia'. This would have been about 200 years after the death of Nicola Pisano. It is certainly the case that although Pisano calls himself 'Nicola Pisano' on the pulpit inscriptions, he was named in documents as Nicola de Apulia, although it is uncertain whether Niccolo knew this. It is true that Niccolo dell'Arca is referred to in documents as 'Nicolaus de Apulia' and signed his extraordinary terracotta Lamentalion in Sta Maria della Vita, Bologna, as OPUS NICOLAI DE APULIA, but that is because he hailed from there (although he is also referred to elsewhere as Nicolaum Barrensem, Nicolo de Raguxa and Nicolo Schiavo: Cesare Gnudi, Niccolo dell'Area, Turin, 1942, pp. 59-66). Thus, their shared nomenclature was more likely a matter of coincidence of birth rather than any conscious act on the part of Dell'Arca.

In the introduction, Moskowitz comments on the role of photography in the study of sculpture, and its ability to reveal previously unobserved details, or indeed distort the perception, of a given work. The book contains a large number of photographs, over 300, by David Finn, with the vast majority in black and white. The photographs in themselves provide a rich resource for study of these monuments, which are located in penumbral interiors, are elevated, and thus difficult to see with the naked eye. These photographs reveal not only the remarkable details of these pulpits, the sheer variety of figures and their physiognomies, but also the tool marks. Very beautiful images are made visible, such as the Virgin of the Annunciation of the Siena Cathedral pulpit (plate 59), and the bearded man on the Pisa Baptistery pulpit (plate 30), to name but two. Nevertheless, strong tonal contrast in a number of photographs obscures rather than reveals details, and several plates (at least in the review copy) are grainy and unfocused. Curiously, despite all the technical advances in photography, the illustrations do not surpass those in previous publications--in particular, the magnificent colour plates of the Pistoia pulpit in Enzo Carli's Giovanni Pisano. Il Pulpito di Pistoia, Milan, 1986. These reveal the brilliant polychrome effects, verre eglomise, coloured tesserae, and gilding of the marble pulpit, which are less successfully conveyed in this new volume. For a book of this substantial price, more colour plates might have been included.