The Pisa Baptistery Pulpit Addresses Its Public

Abstract

This study proposes to explain the puzzling identities of the six figures standing on Nicola's pulpit through a fresh survey of the whole monument. Reasons are offered to show that the Presentation in the Temple, the center scene of the five, is the theme on which the whole focuses. Its unique double image of Simeon refers to his two speeches, about Christ's recent birth and future redemption of man, and the six statues support these references. The unique hexagonal pulpit claims importance for the Baptistery as another temple where we enter the church.