Nicola and Giovanni Pisano: Father and Son (Series of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz Max-Planck Institut)

The father and son team of Nicola and Giovanni Pisano are among the most important sculptors of the thirteenth-century Italian Gothic, and their work—especially the ornately carved pulpits in Italy’s Pisa and Siena Cathedrals—continues to inspire wonder and awe. Never before—nor since—have a father and son met on an artistic level in quite this way, and this two-volume set goes beyond a typical biography to explore this fascinating collaboration.

 

Drawing on extensive new archival research, Max Seidel offers a broad examination of both artists’ styles, paying particular attention to the emergence of Giovanni Pisano’s practice under his father’s guidance and the social and iconographic aspects of both artists’ work. The Pisanos’ sculptures in France and Rome are of paramount importance to the development of their styles and Seidel therefore treats them in considerable depth. The second volume comprises five hundred newly-published illustrations, making this a truly comprehensive overview of these two masters of European sculpture.