The late Gothic art of the Italian sculptor Giovanni Pisano (ca. 1250-1314) set the stage for the development of the Renaissance style.

The son of the sculptor Nicola Pisano, Giovanni Pisano was listed as an assistant to his father in the contract of September 29, 1265, for the pulpit in the Siena Cathedral. The terms of his employment indicate that he must have been a youthful apprentice; hence it is assumed that he was born about 1250. Giovanni carved the holy-water font in St. Giovanni Fuorcivitas, Pistoia, in the early 1270s and collaborated with his father on the Fontana Maggiore, Perugia, which was completed in 1278. Between 1278 and 1284 Giovanni executed a group of half-length figures including a prophet, St. Mark, and the Madonna (now in the Civic Museum, Pisa).

From 1284 to 1294 Giovanni worked on the Siena Cathedral, executing a number of life-sized statues of kings, prophets, and sibyls for the facade and...