Church of Sant' Andrea, Pistoia

Sant'Andrea, also Pieve di Sant'Andrea, is a church in the Tuscan town of Pistoia. It is known for its Romanesque facade in the style of Tuscan Proto-Renaissance and its pulpit by Giovanni Pisano, from the turn of the 13th and 14th century. It was and is also baptistery, hence the supplementary Italian Pieve. Patron is St. Andrew.

Location

The church is located in the northern part of the historic center of Pistoia on the same named Via Sant'Andrea, about 300 meters northwest of the Piazza del Duomo.

Architectural History

A first church at this place dates back to the 8th or 9th century. The building was rebuilt in the 12th century, around 1160 to 1170 and significantly expanded its length. The church thus received her visible to this day romanic spatial impression.

Facade

The facade of the church is, according to the interior, designed in three axes. The area is divided by four columns with capitals of Corinthian order, carry the blind arch arcades of two different kinds of marble. Also below the arcades inserted, three -tiered diamond fields follow this technique. In the two outer axes blind arcades are drawn above the doors again, the facade is bounded on the outside by corner pilasters. Above the arcades occurs beneath the cornice an area with Marmorrhomben. The facade is unfinished and is closed at the top by a simple gable with a round window. She follows in its design models from Pisa.

Inserted into the facade are in the lintel of the main entrance and below three bas-reliefs. These are the representations train of the Magi, meeting with Herod, and Adoration of the Child. The reliefs were created according to the inscriptions in 1166, the sculptors were well-known by other buildings in Pistoia Gruamonte and his brother Adeodato. Above the reliefs located in the inner arch arcades still a Madonna figure. The attribution to Giovanni Pisano is uncertain, the type of display but similar.

Interior

The church is the basic structure according to a basilica, it accordingly has three naves with an elevated central nave. The high walls of the nave are supported by arcades on columns, the capitals of the Corinthian order follow again. The church has no transept. The nave ends in a semicircular apse. The church is not arched over, the roof is free to see. The design of the interior corresponds Pisan construction of the highest purity of style.

Pulpit by Giovanni Pisano

The magnificent Gothic pulpit by Giovanni Pisano, possibly with the assistance of Tino da Camaino, is a masterpiece of medieval Italian sculpture. It was built from 1298 to 1301. Designed Structurally, Pisano a hexagon with six columns of porphyry, which he strained with trefoils, and a center pillar. The structure corresponds to the pulpit, which he made with his father Nicola Pisano at Pisa and Siena. The columns in turn sit alternately on either plinths with base or on atlases and lions, the middle column is supported by a group of eagle, griffin and lion. The capitals follow the Corinthian order, they are considered "excellent" chiseled. The spandrels of the three passports contain depictions of prophets, sibyls on the corners are added. The pulpit box consists of five reliefs, are representations of the Annunciation and birth, Adoration of the Magi and bid to escape, the Innocents in Bethlehem, Crucifixion and Last Judgment. The figures in the reliefs are worked out almost completely plastic, the representations are reported as equipped with " expressive drama ". In the corners of the box Pisano pulpit Aaron, David, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and angel figures presented dar.

More artworks

Also of Giovanni Pisano comes a wooden crucifix on the first altar of the right-hand side, continue to be attributed to him uncertain the font, it is located in the left aisle, and again a crucifix on the altar first left hand ..