The trumpet-blowing angels, heralding the Last Judgment once flanked a relief of Christ as Judge (now in Berlin) in the center. The central pilaster is composed of a compact group with symbols of the evangelists: the angel of Matthew at center, the ox of Luke at his left, and the lion of Mark on the right. The pilaster supported an eagle lectern, similar to the adjacent one, for the reading of the Gospels. The eagle of John thus completed a representation known as a tetramorph. Probably executed by assistants after designs by the sculptor Giovanni Pisano, the pulpit was finished in 1310. It was dismantled in 1603, then reconstructed in the cathedral in 1926.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Pilaster of Angels Sounding Trumpets from the Parapet of a Pulpit
Artist:Workshop of Giovanni Pisano (Italian, Pisa ca. 1240–before 1320 Siena)
Date:1302–10
Geography:Made in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy
Culture:Central Italian
Medium:Marble (Lunense from Carrara), traces of paint
Dimensions:Overall: 33 5/8 x 9 1/8 x 7 in. (85.4 x 23.2 x 17.8 cm)
Classification:Sculpture-Stone
Credit Line:Frederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1910
Accession Number:10.203.2
Probably from pulpit of the Cathedral of Pisa, built 1302-1310, demolished 1595.; John Ruskin (British), Brantwood, Coniston Lake (by 1873–1900); Mrs. Arthur Severn, Brantwood, Coniston Lake (until ca. 1904); [ R. Langton Douglas, London (sold 1910)]
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 14, 1970–June 1, 1971.
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. "Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki," June–December 1989.
State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. "Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki," February–July 1990.
Breck, Joseph. "Recent Accessions. Giovanni Pisano: A Recent Purchase of Two Sculptured Pilasters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, o.s., (February 1911).
Breck, Joseph. Catalogue of Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance Sculpture. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1913. no. 4, p. 6, ill. p. 5.
Valentiner, William Reinhold. "Werke um Giovanni Pisano in Amerika." Zeitschrift für Bildende Knust, n.s., 31 (1919-1920). p. 114.
Breck, Joseph. "Notes from the Department of Decorative Arts." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, o.s., 16, n. 12 (December 1921). p. 265.
Breck, Joseph. "Sculpture by Giovanni Pisano." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, o.s., 16, no. 7 (July 1921). pp. 145–46.
International Studio Corporation. "Studio Talk." The International Studio 74 (January 1922). p. CCL.
Fried, Franziska. "Zwei Engelgruppen von Giovannis Domkanzel in Pisa." In Josef-Strzygowski-Festschrift: Zum 70. Geburtstag dargebracht von seinen Schülern. Klagenfurt, 1932. fig. 25, 26.
Jászai, Géza. Die Pisaner Domkanzel: Neuer Versuch zur Wiederherstellung ihres ursprünglichen Zustandes. Munich, 1968. pp. 29–32, 69, no. 47, fig. 7,8.
Ayrton, Michael. Giovanni Pisano: Sculptor. London: Thames and Hudson Inc., 1969. no. 296, pp. 227, 230.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. New York: Dutton Publishing, 1970. no. 183, pp. 198–99.
Seidel, Max. "Die Verkündigungsgruppe der sieneser Domkanzel." Münchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst, 3rd ser., 21 (1970). p. 71, n. 137.
Beeson, Nora B., ed. Guide to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972. no. 48, p. 221.
Gómez-Moreno, Carmen. "Giovanni Pisano at the Metropolitan Museum Revisited." Metropolitan Museum Journal 5 (1972). pp. 51, fig. 3, 4, 15.
Carli, Enzo. Il pergamo del Duomo di Pisa. Pacini: Pacini, 1975. pp. 10, 21, 24–25.
Carli, Enzo. Giovanni Pisano. Scultura. Pisa: Pacini, 1977. pp. 95–96, 110, 114, pls. 142, 144.
Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas: Agent for the Metropolitan Museum." Apollo 109 (June 1979).
Ruskin, John, and Charles Eliot Norton. The Correspondence of John Ruskin and Charles Eliot Norton, edited by John Lewis Bradley, and Ian Ousby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. pp. 216, 267, 283.
Seidel, Max. Giovanni Pisano a Genova. Genoa: Sagep, 1987. no. 8, pp. 26–27.
Pushkin Museum and State Hermitage Museum. Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki: Kratkii Katalog Vystavki. Moscow: Pushkin Museum, 1990. no. 58, p. 12.
State Hermitage Museum. Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki. St. Petersburg: State Hermitage Museum, 1990. no. 58, pp. 122–23.
Baracchini, Clara, ed. I marmi di Lasinio: La collezione di sculture medievali e moderne nel Camposanto di Pisa. Florence: Studio per Edizioni Scelte, 1993. pp. 207, 209.
Kreytenberg, Gert. "L'ambone del Duomo di Pisa: Aspetti storici e artistici." In L'ambone del Duomo di Pisa, edited by Crispino Valenziano. Milan: Franco Maria Ricci, 1993. pp. 21, 34.
Valenziano, Crispino. "L'ambone del Duomo di Pisa: Lettura teologico-liturgica." In L'ambone del Duomo di Pisa, edited by Crispino Valenziano. Milan: Franco Maria Ricci, 1993. p. 46.
Jászai, Géza. "Giovanni Pisano." In Enciclopedia dell'arte medievale. Vol. 6. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1995. p. 749.
Novello, Roberto Paolo. "Il pergamo di Giovanni Pisano." In Il Duomo di Pisa, edited by Adriano Peroni. Mirabilia Italiae 3. Modena: Panini, 1995. pp. 241–42, 249, fig. 166, 167.
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McClintock, Kathryn. "The Classroom and the Courtyard: Medievalism in American Highbrow Culture." In Medieval Art in America: Patterns of Collecting, 1800–1940, edited by Elizabeth Bradford Smith. University Park, Pa.: Palmer Museum of Art, 1996. p. 42, fig. 3.
Pope-Hennessy, John. An Introduction to Italian Sculpture. Vol. 1. 4th ed. London: Phaidon Press, 1996. p. 237.
Lamberini, Daniela, and David Mason. "Il pergamo smembrato del Duomo di Pisa nell'immaginario inglese e il suo calco al Victoria & Albert Museum di Londra." In Pulpiti medievali toscani: Storia e restauri di micro-architetture; Atti della giornata di studio, Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, Firenze, 21 giugno, edited by Daniela Lamberini. Studi (Accademia Toscana di Scienze e Lettere la Colombaria), Vol. 173. Florence: Olschki, 1999. p. 142, fig. 4.
Melcher, Ralph. Die mittelalterlichen Kanzeln der Toskana. Manuskripte zur Kunstwissenschaft in der Wernerschen Verlagsgesellschaft, Vol. 56. Worms: Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, 2000. no. B41B, p. 307, n. 226, 389.
Poeschke, Joachim. Die Skulptur des Mittelalters in Italien: Volume 2, Gotik. Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2000. p. 118.
Moskowitz, Anita F. Italian Gothic Sculpture, c. 1250-c. 1400. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. p. 337, n. 46.
Giannini, Cristina. L'attimo fuggente: Storie di collezionisti e mercanti. Bergamo: Editore Lubrina, 2002. p. 52.
Moskowitz, Anita F. Nicola and Giovanni Pisano: the Pulpits; Pious Devotion, Pious Diversion. London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2005. p. 98, fig. 81, 82.
Calderoni Masetti, Anna Rosa. "Dal pergamo di Guglielmo a quello di Giovanni Pisano nel Duomo di Pisa." In Medioevo: Il tempo degli antichi; Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Parma, 24-28 settembre 2003, edited by Arturo Carlo Quintavalle. Convegni di Parma. Milan: Electa, 2006. p. 451, fig. 6.
Milone, Antonio, and Roberto Paolo Novello. "Il corpus italico degli amboni medievali." In L'Ambone: Tavola della parola di giugno 2005, edited by Goffredo Boselli. Liturgia e Vita. Bose Magnano: Edizioni Qiqajon, 2006. p. 125.
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Tolaini, Emilio. "La mostra della scultura pisana del Trecento, Pisa, 1946-1947." In Medioevo / Medioevi: Un secolo di esposizioni d'arte medievale, edited by Enrico Castelnuovo, and Alessio Monciatti. Seminari e Convegni, Vol. 13. Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, 2008. p. 214.
Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Lisbeth, and Jack Soultanian. Italian Medieval Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010. no. 36, pp. 160–165.
Seidel, Max. Father and Son: Nicola and Giovanni Pisano. Vol. 1. Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2012. pp. 16, 43, n. 21.
Piero di Giovanni Tedesco (Italian, died ca. 1402)
ca. 1395–96
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