PISANO, NICCOLA (c. 1225–c. 1278), Italian sculptor and architect settled at Pisa. A document among the archives of the Sienese Cathedral calls him son of "Petrus de Apulia," and most modern writers believe that he not only was a native of the province of Apulia in southern Italy, but also that he gained there his early instruction in the arts of sculpture and architecture. Except through his works, little is known of the history of Niccola's life. In 1259 as an incised inscription records, he finished the marble pulpit for the Pisan baptistery; this is his most important early work, and is entirely classical in spirit.
It is a high hexagon, on semicircular arches, with trefoil cusps, supported by seven marble columns, three pf which rest on white marble lions. In design it presents a combination of Gothic forms with classical details. Five of the sides of the main sexagon have panels with subjects—the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, the Crucifixion and the Last Judgment. These are all works of the highest beauty, and a wonderful advance on anything of the sort that had been produced by Niccola's predecessors. The drapery is gracefully arranged in broad simple folds ; the heads are full of the most noble dignity ; and the stately beauty of the Madonna could hardly be surpassed. The panel with the Adoration of the Magi is perhaps the one in which Niccola's study of the antique is most apparent. The veiled and diademed figure of the Virgin Mother, seated on a throne, recalls the Roman Juno; the head of Joseph behind her might be that of Vulcan; while the youthful beauty of an Apollo and the mature dignity of a Jupiter are suggested by the standing and kneeling figures of the Magi.
The beautiful relief of the Deposition from the Cross in the tympanum over a side door at San Martino at Lucca was probably Niccola's most important work. Then followed the Arca di San Domenico, in the church at Bologna consecrated to that saint.
This work was completed in 1267 in collaboration with the Domenican Fra Guglielmo. The most magnificent of Niccola's works is the great pulpit in Siena cathedral. It is much larger than that at Pisa, being an octagon on cusped arches and columns. The contract for this work (1266) discloses the names of Nic cola's assistants :—Arnolfo (di Cambio) Donato, and Lapo—be sides his son Giovanni. In the reliefs of this pulpit can be traced the influence of the great Gothic sculptors of France. They mark the beginning of a new epoch in the history of Italian sculp ture; classical repose is sacrificed for expression of religious emotions.
Niccola's last great work of sculpture was the fountain in the piazza opposite the west end of the cathedral at Perugia. This is a series of three basins rising one above another, each with sculptured decoration; it was begun in 1274 and completed, with the co-operation of Niccola's son Giovanni, and of Arnolfo di Cambio. Niccola appears also to have had knowledge of archi tecture, for, when he signed the contract for the pulpit in Siena, he stipulated that he might go to Pisa four times a year to attend consultations about the building of the cathedral and baptistery. Many important buildings are ascribed to him by Vasari without corroboration. In 1278 Niccola is mentioned for the last time as working on the fountain in Perugia. The first record of his death occurs in Sienese archives under the date Aug. 3o, 1287.
See SCULPTURE, and general histories of Italian art ; Symonds, Renaissance in Italy; K. Frey, Vasari I. (1911,1909, P. 423) ; I. Supino, Arte Pisana (Florence 1904) ; M. Reymond, La sculpture florentine I (Florence, 1897) ; A. Brach, Nicola and Giovanni Pisano (Strassburg 1904) •