PISANO, Niccolò, a very celebrated Italian sculptor and architect, was born at Pisa about the beginning of the thirteenth century. The restoration of art was the great task of his life. Studying the ancient sarcophagi in his
native place, he acquired a style closely resembling the antique. Then being extensively employed both as a sculptor and an architect, he gave in many different cities of Italy many specimens of a new and improved manner of design, invention, and composition. The urn at Bologna, which procured for him the name of "Nicola of the Urn," and the marble pulpit in the church of San Giovanni at Pisa, which was sculptured over with the "Universal Judgment," were especially instructive to the artists of the day. Architects, sculptors, and even painters, felt themselves stimulated and assisted in their several pursuits. Nor did his influence cease when he died in 1278. The revival in art was continued by his son Giovanni, who died in 1320, leaving many memorials throughout Italy of his excellence in sculpture and architecture.