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Nicola Pisano, Pulpit, Pisa Baptistery, 1260, marble

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Nicola Pisano, Pulpit, Pisa Baptistery, 1260, marble

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The pulpit was a turning point in Western sculpture which started with Nicola Pisano at the Pisa baptistery in 1259-1261. Creating the Pulpit for the baptistery, it contains the first sculpted relief and to be considered the turning point of a new phase within art history. Although the pulpit is associated with the Renaissance in the fifteenth and the sixteenth century, it falls into the timeframe of Gothic Art. The pulpit itself is in the shape of a hexagon with seven columns to elevate it. Six of the columns form a ring around the outer area where one can stand in the center of the pulpit. At the base are sculpted lions that look in towards the base of the middle column where other figures are huddled in crouching positions. The lions are interpreted in different ways just like the figures themselves. Scholars believe the lions are the ravishing prey to the Pagan forces that are controlled by Christianity. While another scholar believes the middle figures are thought of as Noah, Danial, and Job from the old testament. While the lions at the base are thought to represent Virtues on account of their nurturing natures. In any case, the Pulpit is embedded with Christian ideals which frame the structure as meant to be viewed by the public.                                                                              http://www.italianrenaissance.org/nicola-pisanos-baptistery-pulpit-pisa/

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Donatello, St. Mark, c. 1411-13, marble. Orsanmichele, Florence, Italy

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Donatello, St. Mark, c. 1411-13, marble. Orsanmichele, Florence, Italy

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In 1411-13 Donatello was commissioned by Linen Weavers Guild to create the St. Mark statue. Creating it out of marble and standing at seven feet and nine inches, the statue was placed in a niche along the wall of the Orsanmichele at eye-level. At first, the patrons didn’t like the elongated face and body. Donatello had placed the statue in the niche, covered it up for days and pretended to work on it. Having never touched it, the patrons saw it from a different angle after the reveal and loved it. He created St. Mark to have the “S-Curve” shape, elongating it’s features and having those who look up at it, to see more details in the face. He also created the illusion of the clothes moving with the body, hiding most of the figure's body underneath garments and extending his left knee out to create the “S-curve” figure.

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Ghiberti, "Door of the Cross" of Baptistery  1403-24 & "Gates of Paradise" of the Baptistery in 1452. 

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Ghiberti, "Door of the Cross" of Baptistery  1403-24 & "Gates of Paradise" of the Baptistery in 1452. 

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Known as “the Door of the Cross” Ghiberti created the north door using the same format of quatrefoil as Pisano in 1403-24. At the time, Ghiberti and Brunelleschi both competed on who would create the panel work for the Baptistery of Florence Cathedral for the east doors in 1401-02. The Gulid of the Wool Merchants picked Ghiberti and commissioned him to create the “Door of the Cross”. At first it was installed on the east doors in 1424 where they only open up once a year on Easter Sunday, but later moved to the north doors. The door itself is made up of 28 bronze panels with a relief sculpting. The molding frame is designed with fruits, animals, and flora with a prophet at each intersection, while the panels are designed with scenes from the life of Christ. Creating this 28 panel and frame took around 20 years to make just with Ghiberti and his workshop. After the installment of the north doors, he was later commissioned to create another installment known as the “Gates of Paradise '' for the east doors of the Cathedral. In September 2015, the doors were taken out and placed in a museum as copies of them took their spot in the Cathedral later in November 2015.

https://www.theflorentine.net/2015/09/11/ghibertis-north-doors-on-the-move/

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/lorenzo-ghiberti-s-north-door-of-the-florence-baptistery-1403-24-digital-reprint-image-on-flex-courtesy-dr-bhau-daji-lad-museum-replica-courtesy-the-frilli-gallery-guild-of-the-dome-association-florence-original-creator-lorenzo-ghiberti/ZgE3-qEew91LAA?hl=en

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Maize cobs, Inka, 1440-1533,  metal alloys

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Maize cobs, Inka, 1440-1533,  metal alloys

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In 1440-53, an important garden in the Inka Temple of the Capital City of Cuzco named Qorikancha, holds a special gold and silver alloy sculpture shaped like a corncob. Inka metalsmiths combined silver and copper to mimic the corn shap’s components internally and externally. The sculpture itself represents Zea Mays “maize”, the individual kernels of the corn. However, in 1530’s, the Spanish royal agents had set up colonies across the continent and had taken the objects from the garden. The silver corncob and the stalk were likely part of the raid. In 1543, Spanish king Charles V included a gold maize stalk into his collection.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/indigenous-americas-apah/south-america-apah/a/maize-cobs

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Benvenuto Cellini; Saliera (salt cellar), 1540-1543

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Benvenuto Cellini; Saliera (salt cellar), 1540-1543

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Benvenuto Cellini created “Saliera” (salt cellar) in 1540-43. The smooth finish of the salt cellar was made by Cellini hamming into the marble to create the shapes and have a nice polish to shine like black marble. Some of the gold surfaces were created with a mixer of melted color glass. Cellini called this technique, “a great art unto itself.” In the french court, the salt cellar would’ve been not just a luxury tableware, but an intellectual conversation started. The salt cellar itself holds two figures intertwined on top. The female figure is identified by Cellini as Tellus, the earth mother goddess, while the male figure is Neptune, god of the sea. Tellus is to represent the land as Neptune represents the sea. There is a small bowl in the form of a ship besides Neptune to hold the salt, as the pepper resides in the temple by Tellus. The base itself is made of four reclining figures which Cellini identified as Night, Day, Twilight and Dawn. Which resemble Michelangelo's statues for the Medici Tomb at the Sacristy of San Lorenzo in Florence. In 2003, a thief had broken into the Kunsthistorisches Museum located in Vienna, and one object caught their attention. The salt cellar made by the sixteenth-century Florentine sculptor and goldsmith, Benvenuto Cellini. For almost 3 years, no one knew where the salt cellar was, until January 2006 was the thief identified and the salt cellar returned after 1,000 days of being stolen.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/high-ren-florence-rome/pontormo/a/benvenuto-cellini-salt-cellar

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/arts/design/for-stolen-saltcellar-a-cellphone-is-golden.html

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Lidded saltcellar, 15th-16thC, Sierra Leone, Sapi-Portuguese, 

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Lidded saltcellar, 15th-16thC, Sierra Leone, Sapi-Portuguese, 

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Portuguese explorers and traders were impressed by the talent of ivory carvers along the west coast of Africa in the second half of the fifteenth century. A result in this inspired work commissions for their patrons, which combined both European and African aesthetics and forms. The medium of the salt cellar was sculpted from bone and ivory with craftsmanship reflecting Sapi artistic sensibilities. The saltcellar contains imagery relating to indigenous Sapi belief systems. There are four figures wearing local dresses sculpted around the base. The two warriors bear swords and shields only with two women. Above them are four snakes which are associated with the mystical wealth that appear to confront dogs. The level of animation on the salt cellar could derive from the chivalric hunting scenes in European woodcuts, which were furnished to local African artists by European patrons.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/316442

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-africa/west-africa/sierra-leone/a/lidded-saltcellar

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Figure of the God A’a, Rurutu, Austral Islands, c.1590-1650, wood

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Figure of the God A’a, Rurutu, Austral Islands, c.1590-1650, wood

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In August of 1821, a group of Rurutu in the Austral Islands traveled north to the island of Ra’iatea in the Society Islands. As a symbol of their acceptance of Christanity, they presented the missionaries with carved figures that represented their gods. In 1822, the carving statue was brought to London and soon sold to the British museum in 1911.One of the missionaries, John Williams, identifies the carving statue as A’a, the god in the process of creating other gods and men. The figure’s features are made up of smaller figures ranging up to thirty, to represent his creation of gods and men. The figure is carved from hardwood from pua and is hollow with a removable panel on the back. In the back of the figure originally contains twenty-four smaller figures that were removed and destroyed in 1882.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-oceania/oceania-peoples-and-places/polynesia/a/rurutu-figure-known-as-aa

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Tureen designed by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, 1735-38, silver

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Tureen designed by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, 1735-38, silver

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In the early 1700s, an artistic movement celebrating naturalistic forms had developed in Paris. The tureen by Juste Aurèle Missonnier was designed by the French rococo style. Missonnier embellished the tureen to have an arrangement of vegetables and creatures. This transformed the object into a decadent display of wealth and abundance. The tureen also has a twin, designed as a set, it was commissioned by the English Duke of Kingston during an extended stay in Paris in 1730s.

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1977.182

https://www.cooperhewitt.org/2014/09/08/surf-turf-a-silver-tureen-for-a-duke/