PISANO, GIONANNI (c.1•350.13°_0). One of the greatest sculptors of inetra•ral Italy. He was a son of Niceola Pisano, and was probably burn at %%la re he entered his father's workshop as 11is earliest recorded work is his share in the superb pulpit at Siena (1266-67). rsee PISA NO, Niceol.A.) The crowded composi tion mid dramatic quality of his pulpit was prob ably due largely to Giovanni, who differed in these qualities from his father. This tendency was still held in cheek in such early works as the reliefs and statuettes of the fountain at Perugia (1•'7478) and the decorations of Santa :Maria della Spina at Pisa. It was full• developed in the pulpit of Sant' Andrea at Pistoia (13410), where the "Crucifixion" and the "Massacre of the Inno cents" are particularly dramatic and tense, not to say exaggerated. This tendency to realism was also shown in the heads of many of his statues, which are character studies rather than types. A good instance of this, as well as of his love of allegorical subjects, is the group in the Campo Santo. Pisa, of four figures symbolizing the vir tues characteristic of Pisa• whose figure crowns the group. The explanation of Giovanni's style lies in the fact that he was the first Italian sculptor thoroughly influenced by the Gothic transalpine school and that this influence came to him from Germany rather than France. One of his works, at least, the tomb of Pope Benedict NI. at Perugia. shows another influence. that of
the Roman school, with its mosaics, its Gothic canopy and angels, and mini reclining figure. One of his most ambitious works, a large pulpit for the Cathedral of Pisa. has been reconstructed from remaining, fragments. Aside from a "Ma donna and Child" in the Cathedral of Florence, sonic few pieces attributed to him at Siena. ('or tona. and Arezzo (where the monuments of Saint ..largaret and San Donato are certainly not by his hand), the majority of his works are in the Campo Santo at l'isa. He influenced the style of the Pisan school of sculpture far more than his father, Nieeola, and his influence extended to Siena and other Tuscan cities, The Life of Giovanni by Vasari would make of him, as in the ease of his father, Niceola, a promi nent architect as well as sculptor, and with greater reason; from his design for the Campo Santo at Pisa, the facades of the cathedrals at Siena and Prato, if these are correctly attributed to him, he appears to have been the lender in the so-called round arch Gothic. The arcades of the Campo Santo are one of the masterpieces of Italian art. Consult: Perkins, Tuscan Srulptors (London, 1864); id.. Ilistrwical Handbook: of Italian Sculptor(' (New York, 1883) ; Dohhert, in Dohme, Kunst innl K iinstler [Wiens, i. (Leipzig. 1878); and \Iart•c1 La srulp lure toseane (Florence, 1900).