Giovanni Pisano was undoubtedly one of Italy's greatest sculptors, but unfortunately, he seems doomed to live forever in the shadow of his father, Nicola Pisano. The reason for this is primarily the lack of documentation that would tell us more about Giovanni's life. It is estimated that Giovanni was born around the year 1248 and died around 1319. He started out in his father's workshop, which established itself as one of the foremost workshops of the time, but Giovanni grew-up to take on a very notable style of his own. This is best recognized in the pulpit of S. Andrea in Pistoia. His sculptural style will be discussed alone, without reference to his father, for it is Giovanni's workmanship which made this one the most important and influential works in the history of art.

The pulpit at Pistoia is known to be a work of Giovanni's thanks only to the inscription beneath the pulpit itself. This inscription is important for two reasons; one, being that it is a mark of the artists declaring his own prominence, marking a time where "the artist as a personality begins to emerge" (White, 113), but also important for the simple fact that it recorded the exact date, patron, and artist responsible for the work of art. The rhymed inscription, translated from Latin, reads: