Category: Sculpture

Nicola Pisano’s Baptistery Pulpit in Pisa

Changes in styles or movements in the history of art are often the result of gradual phenomena, so the creation of new works which signal sudden changes are particularly significant. One such work which art historians point to as signaling a turning point in Western sculpture is the pulpit for …

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Donatello’s St. George

Donatello carved his statue of St. George for the guild of armorers and swordmakers in Florence.  Like the statue of St. Mark, the statue of St. George was destined for the guild’s niche in the building of Orsanmichele.  Because the guild was of average size, it could only afford a …

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Michelangelo’s Pieta

Michelangelo carved a number of works in Florence during his time with the Medici, but in the 1490s he left Florence and briefly went to Venice, Bologna, and then to Rome, where he lived from 1496-1501.  In 1497, a cardinal named Jean de Billheres commissioned Michelangelo to create a work …

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Donatello’s Saint Mark

  The statue of St. Mark was commissioned by the linen guild, one of the poorer guilds in Florence whose patron was St. Mark.  They decided to hire the sculptor Donatello for the commission, who created a larger than life-size work (it is 7’9” tall).  The work itself was placed …

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