Andrea Pisano

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Andrea Pisano

Andrea Pissano (c. 1270 - 1348), also known as Andrea da Pontedera, was an Italian sculptor and architect. (Another source states that he was born circa 1290 and died in 1348 or 1349^[1].)

He first learned the trade of a goldsmith. Pisano then became a pupil of Mino di Giovanni, about 1300, and worked with him on the sculpture for S. Maria della Spina at Pisa and elsewhere. But it is at Florence that his chief works were executed, and the formation of his mature style was due rather to Giotto than to his earlier master. Of the three world-famed bronze doors of the Baptistery in Florence, the earliest one that on the south side was the work of Andrea; he started it in 1330; and it was finally set up in 1336. It consists of a number of small quatrefoil panels the lower eight containing single figures of the Virtues, and the rest scenes from the life of the Baptist.

Andrea Pisano, while living in Florence, also produced many important works of marble sculpture, all of which show strongly Giotto's influence. In 1340 he succeeded Giotto as Master of the Works of Florence Cathedral. There he produced a series of reliefs, possibly designed by Giotto as, for instance, the double band of beautiful panel-reliefs which Andrea executed for the great campanile. The subjects of these are the Four Great Prophets, the Seven Virtues, the Seven Sacraments, the Seven Works of Mercy and the Seven Planets. The duomo contains the chief of Andreas other Florentine works in marble. In 1347 he became Master of the Works at Orvieto Cathedral, which had already been designed and begun by Lorenzo Maitani. These and the aforementioned doors are Pisano's only known works. Pisano contributed greatly to free modern art from Byzantine influence. The exact date of his death is not known, but it must have been shortly before the year 1349.

Andrea Pisano had two sons, Nino and Tommaso both, especially the former, sculptors of considerable ability.

His son Nino succeeded him as Master of the Works at Orvieto Cathedral. Nino was very successful in his statues of the Madonna and Child, which are full of human feeling and soft loveliness a perfect embodiment of the Catholic ideal of the Divine Mother.

Giorgio Vasari includes a biography of Andrea Pisano in his Lives.

Andreas chief pupil was Andrea di Cione, better known as Andrea Orcagna. Giovanni di Balduccio, another, and in one branch (that of sculpture) equally gifted pupil, executed the wonderful shrine of S. Eustorgio at Milan a most magnificent mass of sculptured figures and reliefs.