Nicola and Giovanni Pisano

This richly illustrated publication on the work of Nicola and Giovanni Pisano goes beyond a typical artist’s biography to portray a unique phenomenon in cultural history, namely the dialogue between an equally talented father and son. Never before nor since in art, literature or music have a father and son ever met on an artistic level in quite this way. This book offers a broad examination of the development of both artists’ styles, focussing on the origin of Giovanni’s style during the time as his father’s assistant, and their joint work on the pulpit in Siena. It also contains extensive information on the social and iconographic aspects of Nicola and Giovanni Pisano’s work which helps to explain how their style evolved. Extensive socio-historical studies based on years of archival research on the two Pisanis are published here for the first time.
This book gives particular consideration to both sculptors’ Gothic art in France and thirteenth century Rome. Using text and image sources, the history of research on Nicola and Giovanni Pisano is traced back to the early nineteenth century. The volume of texts is supplemented by a second book containing approximately 500 new high-quality illustrations which create an impressive record of the art of the Pisani.