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.
#84. Body Language: Curators and Theater Director: Pilaster of Angels Sounding Trumpets
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84. Body Language: Curators and Theater Director: Pilaster of Angels Sounding Trumpets
84. Body Language: Curators and Theater Director: Pilaster of Angels Sounding Trumpets
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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 1/2 x 7 1/8 x 6 1/2 in. (85.1 x 18.1 x 16.5 cm)
Classification:Sculpture-Stone
Credit Line:Frederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1910
Accession Number:10.203.1
Probably from pulpit of the Cathedral of Pisa, built 1302-1310, demolished 1595.; Private Collection, Florence; [ Dealer(Bardini?), Florence (by 1870)]; John Ruskin (British), Brantwood, Coniston Lake (by 1873–1900); Mrs. Arthur Severn, Brantwood, Coniston Lake (until ca. 1904); [ R. Langton Douglas, London (sold 1910)]
Breck, Joseph. "Recent Accessions. Giovanni Pisano: A Recent Purchase of Two Sculptured Pilasters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, o.s., (February 1911). pp. 44–45.
Breck, Joseph. Catalogue of Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance Sculpture. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1913. no. 3, pp. 5–6.
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.
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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, n. 47, fig. 7, 8.
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Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas: Agent for the Metropolitan Museum." Apollo 109 (June 1979). p. 416, fig. 9, 11.
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.
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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.
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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.
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Novello, Roberto Paolo. Giovanni Pisano: Il pergamo di Pisa. Figure (Modena, Italy), Vol. 9. Modena: Panini, 2006. pp. 38, 39, 52, 54, fig. 12.
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. 160–65.
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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