| rear of the projecting figures of the reliefs, to grafines, rasps, files and (more rarely) the drill-so that the sharp and rough chiselling which shortens the forms and facets the volumes and the sensitive modeling which creates subtle light-dark passages on the turned surface, give a single formal intuition which knows no halts or weakening and which always has its aim clearly ahead" (Mondadori, 20)
Mondadori puts it eloquently, the varied technique that Giovanni used to sculpt this complex pulpit. This elevated the sculpture further into its own class of art.
The panels of the pulpit were sculpted from white Carrara marble and the columns were brocatel which contrasted with the white of the marble. The lower column bases were made from granite, porphyry, and brocatel. The diverse materials reflected the diverse quality of the tools used to sculpt it. The plan of the five panels was unique to the other great pulpits in that it is seen not really as a polygon, but a piece in the round. This Giovanni accomplished by having the figures at the angle almost protrude as free-standing figures joing each of the rambling panels into one from and one narrative. Each panel is not to be seen individually as a story in itself, but as part of a united whole, one continuous story. The vertical quality of the pulpit is stressed by the thin columns which give it a |