Akademik

   An elevated platform used by the clergy to address the congregation during religious ceremonies. In Italy in the 13th century, Nicola Pisano created a striking hexagonal pulpit for the Baptistery of Pisa (1255-1260). Supported by seven columns adorned at the base with animals and grotesques and at the capitals with the Virtues and St. John the Baptist, the pulpit features five relief sculptures with scenes from the infancy of Christ, his death, and judgment. In 1301, his son, Giovanni Pisano, also executed a pulpit, his for the Church of Sant' Andrea in Pistoia. This example follows Nicola's hexagonal form and support system. The scenes are also the same, except that Giovanni added the Warning for the Holy Family to Flee to Egypt, and the Massacre of the Innocents. While similarities of form and content exist between the works of father and son, stylistically they differ. Nicola's pulpit betrays his interest in classical antiquity. Templelike structures fill his backgrounds, his figures are crowded as they are in ancient Roman sarcophagi, and a nude male figure of the Hercules type stands in contrapposto. Giovanni's reliefs, on the other hand, are more slender than his father's and less dependent on ancient prototypes. His carving goes deeper than Nicolas' and his figures show greater activity and emotional content.