Pisarno, Andrea

Pisarno, Andrea an early artist of Pisa, was a sculptor and architect, and the friend of Giotto, a few years his senior. Andrea was born about 1280. Of his several works still extant, the bronze gates of the Baptistery of St. John at Florence are the most important. These two gates are still perfect; the exact date of their execution is disputed-whether they were finished in 1330, or only commenced in that year. The reliefs are from the life of John the Baptist, and the general design of the gate is said to have been made by Giotto; but Giotto's share, if any, must have been more that of the architect than the sculptor, though even defining the panels and indicating the subjects; he can scarcely have had more to do with the design than this, or his name would have been more intimately associated with them. The work appears to have been modeled by Andrea and his son Nine, and the castings commenced by some Venetian artists in 1330, and the complete gates to have been finished and gilded in 1339, with the exception of some decorations of the architrave, which were added many years afterwards by Vittorio, the son of Lorenzo Ghiberti, in order to make them harmonize with the other two sets of gates executed by his father. The gates of Andrea were originally in the center of the Baptistery, opposite to the cathedral, but were afterwards removed to the side. to give place to the more beautiful work of Ghiberti, in the year 1424. All three sets of gates have been well engraved in outline by Lasinio, Letre Porte del Battisterio di Firenze (Florence, 1823). Andrea was made citizen of Florence, and died there in 1345; he was buried in the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. See Vasari, Vite de Pittori, etc. (ed. Fjor. 1846 sq.); Cicognara, Storia della Scultura; Rumohr, Italienische Foarschungen; Rosini, Storia della Pittura Italiana, s.v.