Nicola Pisano - Nativity Panel

Art is too important not to teach. Teach Art History with resources from kellybagdanov.com
Video explaining the Nativity Panel on the Baptistry in Pisa by Nicola Pisano. Excellent explanation.
www.kellybagdanov.com
www.kellybagdanov.com/2017/12...
The work we will be considering is a panel from a pulpit designed and sculpted by Nicola Pisano completed in 1260. Nicola Pisano was commissioned to create the pulpit for the baptistry. (In later years, his son, Giovanni, created the pulpit for the cathedral.) The Baptistry pulpit stands over 15 ft. high. This panel is one part of the overall work on the pulpit.

[@mikenessen5922]

I love the goat! Another great job, keep it up!

[@KellyBagdanov]

Thanks Mike!

[@josephmoodie4970]

I’m a Pisano on my mothers side.Direct lineage my family came to America in the 1920s from Naples then my grandfather Vincent Pisano and his family moved to Vermont after he got sick with Alzheimer’s.My aunt and I are the only artists.
My cousin the only boy to carry the Pisano name passed away a few years ago very young and the blood is still here but the name may be lost to history.
I wanted to carve in stone before I even knew who I was which explains a lot.

[@stevedole2544]

Thanks for helping Pisano wash some dust from my soul! I wish I had seen this before visiting Pisa!

[@KellyBagdanov]

You are more than welcome, glad you enjoyed it. And yes, everytime I research a new work I add to list of museums I need to revisit because I didn't appreciate what I was seeing.

[@danieloh1075]

Is the starting date of this scultpure unknown?

[@timburge9166]

thank u

[@KellyBagdanov]

You're welcome

[@saramastromatteo226]

According to Art Historians, Renaissance begins in 1401 not 1260 as you said

[@KellyBagdanov]

You raise an interesting idea. Eras in art, (and philosophy, history etc.) particularly before the modern age, and communication, overlap one another considerably. Renaissance art evolved differently in different areas and artists. If we are speaking of the fully formed Italian Renaissance then yes, a later date is appropriate. But the Renaissance didn't emerge fully formed in a particular year, and its development and timeline varies when we discuss architecture, sculpture, and painting. When Art Historians point to Pisano's Fortitude as a starting point they are in many ways speaking less of the art and more of the melding of ideas. The Renaissance is defined by many things, a main one being the bringing together of Christianity, Humanism, and the ideals of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. In this work, as far as we currently know, this is the first time we see an overt use of an ancient pagan story used to represent a Christian ideal. This merging, both in art, and perhaps more importantly, in philosophy will be the driving force behind what we now call the Renaissance. So I suppose I would argue there are a large number of 'starts' to the period of the Renaissance, and those beginnings are scattered across many countries and decades before they emerge in a fully developed form. But Pisano's sculpture is used by many Art Historians as a seminal event in that development, and some count it as the beginning of the Renaissance.

[@Sara-zm4xb]

Thanks for replying. Of course art evolved differently in different areas and dates are conventionals but we are talking specifically about Italy.
I was referring to the use of the word Renaissance The term was used for the first time by Vasari to refer to a specific historical moment and place
Morover the word itself was coined by Michelet around 1855 to describe the "rediscover of the world and of the men in 1400". So dates and places.
In conclusion, the Italian art of the time you are referring to it would be rather call it proto-renaissance. Thanks for reading