Pisano, Nicola

(born c. 1220, Apulia?—died 1278/84, Pisa?) Italian sculptor. His work, along with that of his son, Giovanni Pisano, created a new sculptural style for the late 13th and 14th centuries in Italy. His greatest work, the pulpit in the Baptistery of Pisa Cathedral (1260), is extraordinary in its assertion of a new style, distinct from all its predecessors though indebted to them. The work draws on many motifs, including Roman reliefs, early Christian frescoes and mosaics, and French Gothic architecture and sculpture, but assimilates them, creating a unified whole that gave a new sense of direction to Tuscan art.

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