Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

You may wish to see a page on Piazza dei Miracoli and the Leaning Tower first.

Illustration from "Thomas Graham Jackson - Byzantine and Romanesque architecture in France, England, and Italy - 1913"; you may wish to see a view of S. Paolo a Ripa d'Arno, a church coeval to the Cathedral

The most remarkable things we took notice of in this City were: (..) 3. The Domo or Cathedral Church, a sumptuous building of Marble, having all the doors of brass curiously engraven, a double isle on each side the Nave, and two rows of Marble pillars,- adorned with stately Altars and rare Pictures; the roof richly gilded.
John Ray - Observations topographical, moral, and physiological: published in 1673.
It stands on a platform raised five steps above the level of the ground, and formed of great flags of marble. The sides are divided into three stories, all adorned with marble half-pillars; the undermost support a row of arches; the second a cornice under the roof of the aisles; the third bear another row of arches and the roof of the nave. The front consists of five stories, formed all of half-pillars supporting semicircular arches; the cornices of the first, second, and fourth stories, run all round the edifice: the third story occupies the space which corresponds with the roof of the aisles, and the fifth is contained in the pediment.
John Chetwood Eustace - Classical Tour of Italy in 1802 (publ. 1813)
It has been remarked that this church, to the adornment of which the spoils of the infidel were devoted, is a building in advance of its age; and it certainly is somewhat of an architectural prodigy, for it shows a perfectly developed style, not approached by any other work of its time. The steps by which its perfection was reached are missing, for if there were any that led up to it they are unknown to us. The architect was Boschetto, or Busketus, a Greek of Dulichium, a man of rare skill in that age, who was buried in his cathedral with three epitaphs over him. Though the architect is reported to be Greek, Latin tradition dictated a basilican rather than the domical plan which would naturally have suggested itself to him. (..) The outside of the church is more remarkable than the inside. It has three stages corresponding to the three of the interior. The lower which represents the main arcade is decorated with lofty blank arcading, in the head of which are squares set diamond-wise and filled with mosaic of marble. Above that, except round the apse and in the west front, the wall is ornamented with flat pilasters carrying the eaves of the triforium roof. Here too are diamond panels of mosaic in the head of each compartment. (..) The cathedral of Pisa, which was consecrated in 1118, by Pope Gelasius II, had a great influence on the progress of Italian architecture. Vasari says it aroused in all Italy and especially in Tuscany the spirit for many and fine undertakings.
Thomas Graham Jackson - Byzantine and Romanesque architecture in France, England, and Italy - 1913

Upper part of the façade

In the Lombard Romanesque, the two principles (square and circle) are more fused into each other, as most characteristically in the cathedral of Pisa: length of proportion, exhibited by an arcade of twentyone arches above, and fifteen below, at the side of the nave; bold square proportion in the front; that front divided into arcades, placed one above the other, the lowest with its pillars engaged, of seven arches, the four uppermost thrown out boldly from the receding wall, and casting deep shadows; the first, above the basement, of nineteen arches; the second, of twenty-one; the third and fourth of eight each; sixty-three arches in all; all circular headed, all with cylindrical shafts, and the lowest with square panellings, set diagonally under their semicircles, an universal ornament in this style.
John Ruskin - The seven lamps of architecture - 1889
There is much to study in this western façade, which combines apparent symmetry with actual variety. Ruskin in his Seven Lamps, dwells on this: on the interest given by the slight inequalities in width of the seven ground floor arches; on the narrowing of the intervals in the wedge-shaped ends of the third storey so that the columns are not over those below, but have six intervals to their five; on the change in the fourth storey which has a column in the middle, and eight openings over nine in the third; on the narrowing of the eight openings in the top storey of all, leaving room for an angelic figure at each end; and above all on the variety in the height of the several storeys, and their subordination to the great arcade of the ground storey. All these varieties, though they do not challenge the eye, have an insensible influence and make a lively and satisfactory impression that perfect regularity would never effect. Graham Jackson

Top gallery of the façade (see the statue of the Madonna at Museo dell'Opera del Duomo)

(1873) The front of the Duomo is a small pyramidal screen, covered with delicate carvings and chasings, distributed over a series of short columns upholding narrow arches. It might be a sought imitation of goldsmith's work in stone, and the area covered is apparently so small that extreme fineness has been prescribed.
Henry James - Italian Hours - 1909
Pisa, unlike Venice, was an old Roman town and a place of some consequence during the Empire. At the beginning of the 10th century the Pisans were already a maritime power, and in 1006 they began their great cathedral. But after repeated successes against the Saracens, from whom they conquered the island of Sardinia in 1025, and whose fleet they destroyed off Palermo in 1063 (having engaged to assist the Normans in freeing Sicily from the Saracens), capturing six great vessels of the enemy laden with merchandize, they determined to devote part of their spoils to the adornment of their cathedral, and to build it in a more splendid manner than that they first intended. It was, as Vasari says, "no small matter at that time to set their hands to the bulk of a church of this kind of five naves, and almost all of marble inside and out." Graham Jackson

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (it is housed in a former convent near the Leaning Tower): details of the façade

The Cathedral is built out of a great heap of wrought marble, such as pillars, pedestals, capitals, cornishes, and architraves, part of the spoils, which the Pisans took in their eastern expeditions, when the republic was in a flourishing condition.
Thomas Nugent - The Grand Tour - 1749
On some columns we see lions, foxes, dogs, boars, and men figured in the capitals; but such ornaments, though frequent in Gothick churches, had been introduced long before them into those of Greece and Italy, as a pious decoy to the contemplation of the cross. In fact, the very materials of this cathedral must have influenced the design; for columns taken from ancient temples would naturally lead back to some such architecture as they had left. It is a style too impure to be Greek, yet still more remote from the Gothick, and rather approaches the Saxon; a style which may here be called the Lombard, as it appeared in Italy first under the Lombard princes; a style which includes whatever was grand or beautiful in the works of the middle ages, and this was perhaps the noblest of them all.
Joseph Forsyth - Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters in Italy in 1802-1803

(left) Central gate; (right) detail of the early XVIIth century right bronze gate

I resolved to stay here one day onely, in which time I saw: (..) i. The Domo whose Canons officiate in Scarlet like Cardinals. This is a neat Church for structure and for its three Brazen Dores historied with a fine Basso relievo.
Richard Lassels - The Voyage of Italy, or a Compleat Journey through Italy in ca 1668
The Dome is built in the Place where were formerly Adrian's Baths. (..) It is a fine structure and full of paintings, some of which are very good: But what I thought the most remarkable ornament was the three brazen Gates at the West End, design'd as they told us principally by John de Boulougne, assisted by Francavilla. This is the account they give there but the Work seems to be much more antient than the time of those masters here mentioned. The several stories are separated by most curious ornaments of Foliage, Fruit, Birds, Lizards, and other animals, all exquisitely perform'd.
Edward Wright's Observations made in France, Italy &c. in the years 1720, 1721 and 1722.
The brazen doors are curiously wrought with the history of our Saviour's life. Nugent
The doors are bronze, finely sculptured, though inferior in boldness of relievo and delicacy of touch to those of the Baptistery of Florence. Eustace
The original bronze doors of the Duomo were destroyed by the great fire; the present ones, modelled in 1602 from designs given by Giovanni di Bologna, were executed by the best workmen of the time, Mocchi, Francavilla, Tacca, Mora, Giovanni del Opera, Susini, and Pagani. The centre doors contain in 8 compartments the history of the Virgin from her birth to her glorification; the rt. and l. doors, in 6 each, the history of our Lord; and each compartment, besides the historical representation, has a device or emblem allusive to it.
John Murray - Handbook for travellers in Central Italy - 1861

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo: Porta di S. Ranieri with scenes of the Life of Jesus by Bonanno Pisano (late XIIth century)

The pointed arches under the cupola were introduced after a fire which destroyed the original dome, and damaged the whole church. The fire took place on the 15th October, 1596, as usual from the carelessness of plumbers who were repairing the roof. (..) In the south transept, called the Crociera di San Ranieri, is the only bronze door which escaped the fire. It contains 24 compartments, in which are represented as many Gospel histories, in the rudest relief, and most primitive taste and workmanship. Murray
Another very eminent worker in bronze was Bonnano di Pisa, who (..) cast the bronze gates of the Duomo at Pisa, the largest of which was destroyed by fire, but the smaller, called the Porta di San Ranieri, whose reliefs are so thoroughly Byzantine in style that they seem to have been copied out of some Greek missal, still exists on the side of the building towards the Leaning Tower.
Charles Perkins - Tuscan Sculptors - 1864
Bonanno is best known for the bronze gates of the Cathedral of Monreale which are regarded as his masterpiece. They were made in Pisa and shipped to Sicily.

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo: (left) King David playing the lyre by a Provençal sculptor of the XIIth century (in origin it stood near the main gate - see some fine examples of Provençal sculpture in the Cathedral of Arles); (centre) statue supposed to portray Emperor Henri VII of Luxemburg by Tino di Camaino (most likely it was part of the Emperor's funerary monument - see below); (right) Allegory of Pisa by Giovanni Pisano from Porta di S. Ranieri

During the long history of the Cathedral some elements of its original decoration were removed to make room for new ones and in the XIXth century they were rediscovered inside the walls of the building or in the ground around it.
In criticising the allegorical statue of Pisa which is interesting as being, perhaps, the first large statue made in Italy since the time of Constantine, it should be taken into consideration, that in such a work immense and untried difficulties presented themselves to a sculptor accustomed to treat sculpture as an architectural accessory. This statue represents the city of Pisa as a crowned and draped woman, holding two diminutive children at her breasts, as emblems of her fertility, and girdled with a cord seven times knotted, in token of her dominion over the seven islands of Corsica, Sardinia, Elba, Pianosa, Capraja, Giglio and Gorgona. She stands upon a pedestal. (..) It would be hard to find anything more original than this strange work, whose ugliness is somewhat redeemed by an intensity of expression which arrests the attention, and the dramatic turn of the head of the principal figure, whose sly glance seems on the watch for some strange coming. Perkins

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo: "gradule", decoration of steps (It. gradini) which supported sarcophagi around the Cathedral - school of Giovanni Pisano

The Cathedral stands on a platform raised five steps above the level of the ground, and formed of great flags of marble. Eustace
The exterior of the edifice is surrounded by a wide marble platform with steps, adding greatly to its effect. Murray
Until the Camposanto was built in the early 1300s, the Roman sarcophagi were placed around the outer walls of the Duomo, on public view in the heart of the city. This was a fitting burial-place for the Pisan elite.
Jas Elsner and Janet Huskinson - Life, Death and Representation. Some New Work on Roman Sarcophagi - 2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York
In 1865 the gradule were removed and the area immediately adjoining the Cathedral was redesigned. The steps are still visible in an 1836 engraving.

Cathedral: gallery of the apse (see a page on the stones of Rome)

The bases and capitals of the columns, its cornices, and other parts, were fragments of antiquity collected from different places, and here with great skill brought together by Buschetto. Murray
The apse is a semicircle, with a semidome for its roof, and three ranges of circular arches for its exterior ornament. Ruskin
In the apse and the west front the pilasters are exchanged for arcaded galleries with passages behind the columns, of which there are four tiers in the front and two round the apse. (..) SS. Giovanni e Paolo: the portico, pavement and apse of the 12th century remain, and the latter has a good exterior arcaded gallery, the only case, so far as I know, where this Pisan and Lombard feature appears in Rome. Graham Jackson
A small gallery can be seen also in the Cathedral of Anagni.

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo: bronze griffin which stood at the top of the apse; (inset) detail of a Xth century Islamic capital from the interior which bears a reference to the architect of Medina Azahara near Cordoba

The celebrated Bronze Griffon, which stood on the pinnacle of the Duomo. It is the work of Arabic artists, and inscribed with Cufic characters, but once supposed to be Egyptian or Etruscan. Though Arabian, it is as clearly not Mahometan, and it is most probably an idol or a talisman belonging to the Druses, or some other of the tribes who even still secretly reject the doctrines of the Koran. Murray
The prohibition to depict animals and human beings was strictly complied with inside mosques, but Medina Azahara was a suburban residence founded Abd ar-Rahman III, Caliph of Cordoba, and completed by his son al-Hakam II in the Xth century. It did not exist for more than fifty years, because it was destroyed during a civil war and then it became an open air quarry. Archaeological excavations have discovered there a bronze spout in the form of a doe. It is possible that also the griffin decorated the gardens of Medina Azahara and it eventually ended in a coastal town of Spain where it was by Pisan merchants. The mythological beast was often depicted in Roman buildings, e.g. at Basilica Ulpia.

Illustration from "Ranieri Grassi - Descrizione Storica e Artistica di Pisa e de suoi Contorni - 1836"

The interior consists of a nave and double aisles, with choir and transept. The aisles are formed by four rows of columns of oriental granite. The altar and the pulpit rest upon porphyry pillars; the gallery around the dome is in a very light and airy style. Eustace
From the capitals of the columns arches spring, and over them is another order of smaller and more numerous columns, which form an upper gallery or triforium, anciently appropriated to females. An architrave, carried along the whole flank of the nave, between the arches and the gallery, reproduces the long horizontal line of the Christian basilicas and completes the ancient character of the building. The four aisles have also isolated columns of the Corinthian order, but smaller. Murray
Of the smaller cathedrals of Italy I know none I prefer to that of Pisa; none that, on a moderate scale, produces more the impression of a great church. It has without so modest a measurability, represents so clean and compact a mass, that you are startled when you cross the threshold at the apparent space it encloses. An architect of genius, for all that he works with colossal blocks and cumbrous pillars, is certainly the most cunning of conjurors. (..) How it is therefore that on the inner side of this facade the wall should appear to rise to a splendid height and to support one end of a ceiling as remote in its gilded grandeur, one could almost fancy, as that of St. Peter's; how it is that the nave should stretch away in such solemn vastness, the shallow transepts emphasise the grand impression and the apse of the choir hollow itself out like a dusky cavern fretted with golden stalactites, is all matter for exposition by a keener architectural analyst than I. James

Interior

The plan and elevation are basilical. The five aisles are formed by insulated columns; the choir and the transepts are rounded like the tribuna; the general decoration of the walls consists in round arches resting on single columns or pilasters. (..) How beautiful do columns become when they support a roof! how superiour to their effect as an idle decoration! what variety in these, still changing their combinations as you pace along the aisles! how finely do their shafts of oriental granite harmonize with the grandeur of the pile, while their tone of colour deepens the sombre which prevails here in spite of an hundred windows! How sublime might such a nave be made if taken as a whole! but the clergy, ever anxious to extend and diversify, branched this out into a Latin cross; and thus broke the unity of the design. Forsyth
"The Duomo of Pisa is one of the most remarkable monuments of the middle ages; exhibiting a degree of architectural excellence which had not been approached for centuries, and which, if it eventually assisted to produce a general improvement in the ecclesiastical architecture of Italy, remained for long, not only unrivalled, but alone in its superiority. The fact is, that for that superiority it was much more indebted to the genius of the individual by whom it was erected than to any general amelioration which took place at the time. The whole effect of the interior is magnificent; but when we recollect how different was the style of the contemporary buildings of Italy, our respect for Busketus will be proportionably increased." Henry Gally Knight - The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy (1842-4). Murray
The church is a Latin cross with deep transepts, almost like a northern cathedral, and the transepts have aisles on both sides of them like those at Winchester. The aisles are vaulted, but the nave has a wooden ceiling. Over the crossing of nave and transepts is a dome, in plan an elongated octagon, a mere covering in of the central space, not as in the Greek churches supplying the motive of the design. The 68 columns of the nave are said to be antiques, - Greek and Roman, - spoils of war. The capitals are classic, some of them Corinthian others Composite: they have no pulvino on them, but a plain square slab, a veritable abacus. There is a triforium, banded in white and dark marble, a treatment which is carried up into the clerestory, the end walls and the dome. Graham Jackson

Ceiling (see a similar ceiling at S. Maria Maggiore in Rome)

The roof is supported by seventy six tall marble pillars of different colours, and finely gilt. The choir is painted by good hands, and the floor inlaid with marble. (..) The other things most deserving of notice in this church, are the chapiter of the column del Cero Pasquale, the tomb of the emperor Henry VII, the altar of S. Rainerius, the altar of the blessed sacrament, the picture of the same altar and the statues of Adam and Eve behind it, the tombs of Gamaliel, Nicodemus, and Abibas. Nugent
The roof of the church is not arched, but of wood divided into compartments, and gilt; a mode extremely ancient, and observable in many of the early churches. Eustace
The soffit of the great nave and of the transepts was made in its present form after the fire: it is of wood flat, with deep panels and rosettes carved and gilt; but the smaller ones are groined. Murray

(left) Apse; (right) mosaic by Jacopo Torriti (see that which he made at S. Maria Maggiore)

The vaulting of the eastern apse is covered with mosaics on a gold ground. In the gigantic figure of our Lord; the Virgin and St. John on either side. These mosaics, by Jacopo Turrita and others, were executed between 1290 and 1320. Murray
To sit somewhere against a pillar where the vista is large and the incidents cluster richly, and vaguely revolve these mysteries without answering them, is the best of one's usual enjoyment of a great church. It takes no deep sounding to conclude indeed that a gigantic Byzantine Christ in mosaic, on the concave roof of the choir, contributes largely to the particular impression here as of very old and choice and original and individual things. It has even more of stiff solemnity than is common to works of its school, and prompts to more wonder than ever on the nature of the human mind at a time when such unlovely shapes could satisfy its conception of holiness. Truly pathetic is the fate of these huge mosaic idols, thanks to the change that has overtaken our manner of acceptance of them. Strong the contrast between the original sublimity of their pretensions and the way in which they flatter that free sense of the grotesque which the modern imagination has smuggled even into the appreciation of religious forms. They were meant to yield scarcely to the Deity itself in grandeur, but the only part they play now is to stare helplessly at our critical, our aesthetic patronage of them. James

(left) Dome and "Lamp of Galilei"; (right) Assumption of the Virgin by Orazio Riminaldi

In the centre are four massive piers, on which rest four large arches, supporting an elliptical cupola. The interior of the cupola is painted by Riminaldi, the best artist of the more recent Pisan school. He died of the plague in 1630, at an early age. (..) The large bronze lamp suspended at the end of the nave, and of fine work-manship, is said to be by Tacca or Vicenzo Possenti. According to the well-known story, the swinging or oscillation of this lamp suggested to Galileo the theory of the pendulum. Murray

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo: pluteus (panel of a balustrade) by Rainaldo

The enclosure or parapet of the choir is, in part, formed of four ancient and two modern bas-reliefs: the first are by Frate Guglielmo Agnelli, the pupil of Nicolo di Pisa. Murray
The Cathedral designed by Busketus was completed by Rainaldo and Guglielmo, two sculptors and architects. It appears that they created two teams: that headed by Rainaldo took care of the reliefs having an elaborate, almost Islamic aspect, similar to those of the font in the Baptistery, while that headed by Guglielmo concentrated on those depicting human beings or events.

Pulpit by Giovanni Pisano

Towards the North-West by North is a Gate, and a most faire Cathedral Church, paved with Marble curiously wrought, & having a most faire pulpit.
Fynes Moryson - An Itinerary: Containing His Ten Years Travel Through .. Italy (in 1594)
The side altars are beautiful: the high altar is only rich. The pictures, though not much admired, assist the architecture; but the sculpture and the tombs interrupt some of its general lines. Even the marble pulpit, fine as it is, impairs the symmetry by standing before a column. This pulpit is supported by a naked figure of most gross design. Forsyth
The falling of the roof of the nave during the fire damaged or destroyed many of the ancient works of art which the ch. contained. Amongst these was the pulpit, the masterpiece of Giovanni di Pisa. Some portions (four small columns, statues ) were saved, and these form a part of the present one: it has columns of porphyry and brocatello standing upon lions, imitated from the antique, and the four statues of the Evangelists . Murray
Moryson saw the pulpit by Giovanni Pisano before it was damaged by the 1596 fire. A pulpit incorporating some elements of the old one was erected after the fire. Parts of the original pulpit were moved to the Camposanto and others were sold. In 1926 an attempt to reconstruct the original pulpit was made, but because of the lack of accurate drawings or descriptions the current set up of the columns, statues and reliefs may not be entirely correct.

Pulpit: statues supporting the pulpit: (left) Angel; (centre) Fortress and Prudence; (right) Hercules

Indeed, few churches in Italy are free from the incongruous. Here are Bacchanals and Meleager's hunt incrusted on the sacred walls, an ancient statue of Mars, worshipped under the name of St. Potitus, and the heads of satyrs carved on a cardinal's tomb! Forsyth
Niccolò Pisano, the father of Giovanni, designed the pulpit of the Baptistery of Pisa in 1260, and that of the Cathedral of Siena in 1266 (with the assistance of Giovanni). The main difference between the pulpit designed by Giovanni and those designed by his father is the presence of statues supporting the pulpit (telamons and caryatides), among which one of Hercules stands out as being particularly incongruous.

Pulpit: reliefs depicting: (left) Presentation to the Temple and Flight to Egypt; (right) Massacre of the Innocents

Among the other marbles by Giovanni three female figures, clustered round the shaft of a column, which formed part of a now destroyed pulpit, six of whose bas-reliefs are in an upper corridor over the left transept of the Duomo. These reliefs, whose inferiority may be accounted for by the advanced age at which Giovanni sculptured them, represent the Birth of Christ and its Announcement by an Angel to the Shepherds, the Adoration of the Magi; the Presentation, with the Flight into Egypt, the Massacre of the Innocents, and the Betrayal, with the Crucifixion. Perkins

Tomb of Emperor Henri VII of Luxemburg: illustration from "Ranieri Grassi - Descrizione Storica e Artistica di Pisa e de suoi Contorni - 1836"

In which Church, neere the high Alter, is the Sepulcher of the Emperor Henrie the seventh, whom Platina and many German Writers affirme, to have been poisoned by a wicked Monk of the Order of the Predicants, at the Communion of our blessed Lords Supper. Upon this monument these words are written in Latin. "In this tombe not to be dispised, are contained the bones of Henry the seventh, Count of Luxemeburg, and after the seventh Emperour of that name, which the second yeere after his death; namely 1315. the twenty five day of the Sextiles, &c. were brought to Pisa, and with great honour of funerall laid in this Church, where they remaine to this day. Moryson
May 1645. Setting out hence for Pisa, we went again to see the Duomo in which the Emperor Henry VII lies buried, poisoned by a monk in the Eucharist.
John Evelyn - Diary and Correspondence related to his stay in Italy in 1644
The next Sienese sculptor who claims our notice is Lino or Tino di Camaino, the scholar of Giovanni Pisano, who in the year 1315 was commissioned to make the tomb of the Emperor Henry VII. for the Duomo at Pisa, now in the Campo Santo. Upon a sarcophagus of white marble lies the effigy of the emperor, robed in an imperial mantle decorated with the lions and eagles of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, his hands crossed upon his breast, and his uncovered head, which is characteristic and full of repose, resting upon a cushion. This sarcophagus, adorned in front with eleven short and clumsy, but not ill-draped, figures of saints, while at each end stand mourning genii, rests upon a double basement; the upper one bears a long inscription recording the translation of his remains. (..) Pisa, ever faithful to the German emperors, welcomed and aided him with her troops and treasure. (..) In the following year he left Pisa, to make war against King Robert of Naples, but while encamped in the plain of Monte Aperto, was seized with a sudden illness, which forced him to retire to Buonconvento, where his speedy death of a fever gave rise to the suspicion that poison had been administered to him in the holy water by a Dominican monk. Perkins
Dante hoped that the Emperor would have restored peace in Italy and mourned his sudden death.
The soul, an imperial one on earth, of Henry the Seventh, shall sit on that high seat, that you fix your eyes on because of the crown you already see placed over it, before you yourself dine at this wedding feast: he, who will come to set Italy straight before she is ready for it.
Dante - Paradise - Canto XXX - Prose translation by A. S. Kline
The monument had a very complex structure of which the sarcophagus was just an element. It appears that it was initially placed at the centre of the apse and later on it was removed and dismantled. At one point the sarcophagus was relocated to the Camposanto.

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo: (left) statue at the top of the façade by Andrea Pisano; (right) relief at the Altar of S. Ranieri by Tino di Camaino; it is part of a funerary monument (see another funerary monument in the Cathedral of Siena by this sculptor)

All that is known of the youth of Andrea Pisano da Pontedera, is that he was early apprenticed to Giovanni Pisano, and that he devoted much time to the study of the antique marbles at Pisa. Perkins
The excellent quality of the reliefs of the sculptors of Pisa is due to their study of those of the many ancient sarcophagi which surrounded the Cathedral and eventually were placed in the Camposanto. Full size statues were not available to them and they had to develop a proper technique to achieve satisfactory results.
The relief by Tino di Camaino portrays the Madonna turning towards a donor who is introduced by St. Ranieri, a hermit, whereas the Child blesses a priest who is introduced by another saint.

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo: Monuments by Nino Pisano: (above) to Archbishop Giovanni Scarlatti; (below) to Archbishop Francesco Moricotti

Nino, who assisted his father Andrea in modelling the Baptistry gate, was an artist of feeling and graceful sentiment. Nino also designed the monument of Archbishop Saltarelli which stands in S. Caterina, and perhaps sculptured some of the best figures in the bas-reliefs upon its front and sides. Perkins
Nino Pisano (ca. 1315-1370) was almost a "court sculptor" of the archbishops of Pisa. Saltarelli was archbishop of Pisa between 1323 and 1342. The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo happens to possess the funerary monuments of the archbishops Giovanni Scarlatti (1348-1362) and Francesco Moricotti (1362-1378), which are also works by Nino Pisano and his workshop. Both monuments come from the cathedral. They look almost identical, which makes it impossible to say which one is the most beautiful. What is remarkable is that Francesco Moricotti, a nephew of Pope Urbanus VI, died as late as 1394. This was long after Nino Pisano's death, which makes it likely the sculptor started working on the archbishop's funerary monument shortly after Moricotti took office in 1362.
Laurens Dragstra (corvinus.nl)

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo - Renaissance wooden inlays: (left) fight between beasts with Roman ruins in the background by Giovanni Battista del Cervelliera (ca 1530); (right) urban landscape by Cristoforo Canzoni da Leonida (1486)

Giuliano da Maiano availed himself of Guido del Servellino and Maestro Domenico di Mariotto, joiners of Pisa, to whom he taught the art so well that they afterwards wrought the greater part of that choir both with carvings and with tarsia-work; which choir has been finished in our own day, with a manner no little better, by Batista del Cervelliera of Pisa, a man truly ingenious and fanciful.
Giorgio Vasari - Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors and architects - tr. by G. Du C. De Vere - 1913
The woodwork of the stalls of the choir, with their rich intarsiatura, is amongst the best specimens of this branch of art. Murray
Unlike earlier stall decorations, e.g. at Palazzo Pubblico di Siena, that of the Cathedral of Pisa reflects the Renaissance interest in ancient Roman buildings and perspective studies.

(left) Altar of the "Madonna di Sotto gli Organi" designed by Giovanni Grizzini in 1887; (right) Altare del Santissimo Sacramento with statues by Francesco Mosca (1564)

A painting called the Madonna dell'Organo, the object of much devotion, is kept under lock and key, and cannot be seen without special permission. It is a Greek painting and was venerated at Pisa before the year 1224, and may possibly be as old as the first foundation of the present building. (..) The design of the 12 altars in the nave and transepts is attributed to Michael Angelo; the execution to Staggi of Pietra Santa. The first point is doubtful. They unite much simplicity in the general design to the greatest variety in the details. (..) All the filling up is by Staggi, whose fancy and delicacy of taste are, in this style of art, very great. (..) In the chapel of the SS. Sacramento are also remains of the work of Staggi. The bas-relief behind the altar is by Fr. Mosca. (..) The altar is cased in chased work of silver, an offering of Cosimo III. This is covered up , but will be shown on application to the sacristan. The silver figures which support the Tabernacle are of great great elegance, and seem to be rising from the altar. The silver of the altar, is said to have cost 36,000 crowns. The altar was twice repurchased by the archbishop during the French occupation, first for 18,000 crowns, and afterwards for 12,000 crowns. Murray

Altare di San Ranieri

In the rt.-hand transept is the rich chapel of St. Ranieri, the Protector of Pisa, erected from the designs of Ugolino da Siena, who has sculptured some of the bas-reliefs. The statues of the Madonna crowned, of our Saviour, and the Almighty, are by F. Mosca; the mosaics by Gaddo Gaddi. In the urn of serpentine (a green marble), on a column of red granite near the altar, are enclosed the bones of St. Ranieri. Murray

(left) Madonna delle Grazie by Andrea del Sarto (ca 1530); (right) The Holy Sacrament by Francesco Vanni (early XVIIth century)

There are several pictures of eminent masters; but the insignificance of the subjects, which are too often obscure and legendary, takes away in no small degree from the interest which they might otherwise inspire. Eustace
There are many other paintings of merit. (..) The Virgin, St. Bartholomew, St. Jerome, and St. Francis, over the altar of the Madonna delle Grazie in the S. aisle. Andrea del Sarto died whilst he was employed upon this picture, which was finished by Sogliani. (..) Vanni (1565-1610), Angels with the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, Doctors of the Church below. Murray

Other altars of the late XVIth century: (left) Altar with the relics of Blessed Guido della Gherardesca, a XIIth century hermit, with a relief depicting the Virgin appearing to St. Ranieri by Giovanni Battista Lorenzi (see other funerary monuments of the della Gherardesca in the Camposanto and in Rome); (right) Altar to St. Potitus, a IInd century martyr, initiated by Lorenzi and completed by Paolo Guidotti aka il Cavalier Borghese

According to a local tradition the statue of St. Potitus was in origin an ancient statue of Mars, because the martyr was only thirteen when he was beheaded and thus his portrayal as a Roman commander is incongruous. Paolo Guidotti is best known as a painter (see his frescoes at Palazzo Giustiniani of Bassano).

Baroque Monuments by Vacca, a sculptor from Carrara: (left) to Archbishop Francesco Frosini; (right) to Archbishop Francesco d'Elci with statues portraying Charity and Religion (they are based on Roman patterns; see Charity in the Monument to Pope Clement IX and Religion in the Monument to Card. Agostino Favoriti)

The Duomo was once very rich in tombs; but some were destroyed by the fire, others have been removed to the Campo Santo. Of the more ancient, there remains that of Archbishop Rinuccini (died 1582), by Tacca - and of Archbishop Giuliano de' Medicis (died 1660). Amongst the modern works, the tomb of Cardinal Francesco d'Elci, erected in 1742, the work of Vacca of Carrara, is respectable. Murray
The monument to Francesco d'Elci was erected by his nephew Cardinal Ranieri d'Elci who is buried in S. Sabina in Rome. See an altar designed by Vacca at S. Sisto.

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo: (left) Burgundian Crucifix (XIIth century); (centre) Crucifix which belonged to the d'Elci family by Giovanni Pisano (ca 1270); (right) Crucifix by Francesco di Valdambrino, a pupil of Jacopo della Quercia (ca 1410) from Chiesa della Misericordia

According to tradition the Burgundian Crucifix was found by the Pisans among the ruins of the Church of the Annunciation at Nazareth. It was part of a Deposition and its Burgundian provenance can be explained by the French origin of most of the Crusaders of the First Crusade.

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo: (left) ivory statue of the Virgin Mary by Giovanni Pisano (ca 1299); (right) Treasury: reliquary of the XIIth century (made in Limousin, a region of Central France)

The statue was made for the chapter of the Cathedral as recorded in a document; in the 1369 and 1433 inventories the statuette is described as part of a group and it was flanked by two ivory angels with metal wings holding candlesticks. The tabernacle was damaged by the 1596 fire; the two angels still existed in 1634, but have disappeared today. The statuette was kept in a cabinet in the sacristy of the cathedral and was not accessible to the public.
According to tradition the reliquary was donated by King Richard the Lionheart to the Pisans for their help during the Third Crusade. It contains parts of the vest of St. Ranieri; the figurative elements show the influence of Byzantine art, whereas the decorative ones are typical of French works of art.

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo - Treasury: Cintola (belt/girdle) del Duomo with a relief depicting the Decollation of St. Paul

According to a medieval legend a girdle, a sort of belt, was dropped from the sky to St. Thomas by the Virgin Mary at the time of her Assumption to Heaven. In memory of this event in the XIIIth century the Pisans began to hang a ribbon all around their Cathedral on the festivity of the Assumption. The original ribbon was replaced more than once and eventually the festivity was celebrated by a short red ribbon which surrounded the portal of St. Ranieri. Fragments of that decoration which was embellished with crosses of Pisa and silver reliefs depicting holy episodes were reconstructed for an exhibition in 1963 and are now on display at the Museum. You may wish to see a statue of the Virgin Mary in Rome in which the girdle is very noticeable.

The image used as background for this page shows the rhomb decoration on the outside of the building.

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The Ancient Town
Piazza dei Miracoli and the Leaning Tower
The Baptistery
The Camposanto
The Knights of St. Stephen
The Walls and the Lungarni
A Walk along the northern Terzieri
A Walk along the southern Terziere
Churches of Terziere S. Maria
Churches of Terziere S. Francesco
S. Maria della Spina
S. Matteo and its Museum
S. Piero a Grado
An Excursion to Vicopisano