Pulpit of Sant' Andrea, Pistoia (Giovanni Pisano)

The pulpit in the pieve of Sant'Andrea, Pistoia, Italy is a masterpiece by the Italian sculptor Giovanni Pisano, completed in 1301.

[1] According to an inscription running between the pulpit's arcades and parapets, it was commissioned by Canon Arnoldus (Arnoldo) and supervised by the treasurers Andrea Vitelli and Tino di Vitale.

The son of Nicola, and blessed with higher skill, Pisa gave him birth, endowed with mastery greater than any seen before".

The structure is similar to the pulpit in Pisa: a hexagonal plan with seven columns (one in the middle), two of which are supported by lions and one by a stooping figure of Atlas, while the central one rests on three winged gryphons and the remaining ones on plain bases.

Most notable is the scene of the "Massacre of the Innocents", for which it has been supposed that Giovanni took inspiration from German models, or even from the Trajan column in Rome.