The birthplace of Nicola Pisano has been the subject of speculation among scholars.
His name would seem to indicate that he was a Pisan, but two documents relating to the marble pulpit of the Cathedral in Siena (1265 - 1268) that he executed refer to him as Nicola d'Apulia (Nicholas of Apulia, in southern Italy) rather than the more common Nicola Pisano.
Pisano's earliest known work is the hexagonal marble pulpit, finished in 1260, for the baptistery of Pisa.
During this period Nicola, with the aid of Fra Guglielmo, executed the shrine of St. Dominic in Bologna. His last work was the fountain in the cathedral square in Perugia, done in collaboration with his son Giovanni, signed by both, and dated 1278.
Emperor Frederick II, whose court was near Naples, was an admirer of ancient Roman civilization.
He encouraged artists to work in the more realistic style of Roman antiquity rather than the more abstract contemporary Romanesque and Byzantine styles.
No definitive solution to this problem is possible, however, with the evidence presently available. The pulpit for the Baptistery in Pisa is adorned with narrative reliefs depicting the Life and Passion of Christ on five of its six sides.
Nicola reduced to a minimum the number of figures telling the story so that they dominate the rectangular field.
Among them are a number of direct quotations from antique works brought to Pisa by its fleet.
The style of the reliefs is remarkably classical and depends on a few monumental figures moving in a stately way across the foreground.
Nothing else carved by Nicola bears such a strong resemblance to the antique. A contract dated Sept. 29, 1265, commissioned Nicola to build a similar marble pulpit for the Cathedral in Siena.
The pulpit, which was completed by 1268, varied somewhat in format and style from the Pisan one.
He expanded the format by making the pulpit octagonal, and he made the narrative easier to read by substituting statuettes for the clustered columns used to divide the reliefs in the earlier work.
This was a joint undertaking of Nicola and his son, Giovanni Pisano.
Probably begun in 1277, the fountain was finished in 1278.
It consists of two superimposed polygonal stone basins topped with a circular bronze basin carried by three caryatid figures.
The lower basin is decorated with reliefs; the upper basin is decorated with statuettes affixed to the angles.
In the portions usually attributed to Nicola, the style represents a resolution between the earlier classicizing tendencies and the later Gothicizing tendencies of his art.
The work of Giovanni, on the other hand, was wholeheartedly in the new style, that is, the Gothic.
Nicola Pisano's art marked the beginning of the Italian Gothic style.
