Andrea Pisano's reliefs on the Campanile in Florence

Voiceover: Here we have a view of Florence

where we can see the bell tower,

the Campanile in the
center, and then on the left

just a little corner of the Baptistry,

and on the back end the
Cathedral of Florence

with Brunelleschi's dome at the top.

Voiceover: Right.

The Baptistry is a medieval building

from the 10th century probably.

The Cathedral, the Duomo, they began

building almost around 1300

and the bell tower starts going up

a little bit after that
and then the dome is built

from the early 1400s and
finished in the 1470s.

Voiceover: So what are we
looking at with the bell tower?

Voiceover: The bell tower, right now,

we're gonna concentrate
on the very bottom.

Around 1340, even though the tower

wasn't complete yet, they decided,

the town and the guilds of Florence,

specifically the wool
guild that was in charge

of decorating the cathedral,

decided that they wanted to decorate

the bottom of the tower
because even though

it wasn't complete, it was embarrassing

having just this bare undecorated surface

where everyone's walking around,

as you can see, all the time.

And so the two very bottom layers

are decorated with many reliefs

and these are in stone marble

rather than the bronze
that's on the Baptistry.

The reliefs cover a lot of subjects.

There are Biblical scenes.

There are signs of the Zodiac.

There are also scenes of
local art and industry.

Some of these things may sound unusual.

Of course, the Biblical scenes makes

sense on the church building.

Voiceover: Industry and the - ?

Voiceover: Those are a little bit unusual.

We'll see why they might
want to include those.

We should also say that the Zodiac signs

are not unusual because
the medieval Christians

were very able or very comfortably blended

their belief in Christianity

and their Christian devotion

with interest in the horoscope.

Voiceover: Yep, and we see that

a lot on medieval churches.

Voiceover: That's right.

Let's look at some of these reliefs.

Here's one of the religious scenes.

This is the Creation of Adam.

The artist is Andrea Pisano,

who around the same time is working on

the bronze reliefs just across the street

on the south doors of the Baptistry.

Those scenes were about John the Baptist

and here's one of the Biblical
scenes on the bell tower.

And again, this is typical of his style

as we've described it.

It's very, very simplified with mostly

a blank background, just
a few things to give

you a sense of the setting,
here a few stylized trees,

and we have God leaning
over and creating Adam.

Voiceover: Yeah, literally
out of the dust of the earth

and he sort of takes form.

Voiceover: Right and this
is another good example

of how Andrea Pisano
combines a kind of gothic

stylization with a
naturalistic classicism.

Voiceover: Where do you
see the gothic stylization?

Voiceover: Well, the
figure of God the Father,

in some ways the way
the robes are rendered

without a great sense
of the body underneath,

the kind of rhythmic folds,

all of this is pretty traditional.

Voiceover: Right so we
have sense of the body,

but there's not an entire
sense of a real physical

anatomically correct body underneath it.

Voiceover: That's right.

Voiceover: Like there will
be later with Donatello.

Voiceover: Mm hmm and
instead, the figure of Adam

is a nude athletic male

even though it's damaged here,

it's classicizing and it's naturalistic.

He's in a contrapposto stance

evnen though he's lying down.

That doesn't make any sense.

Contrapposto is usually something

for standing up, but the fact that he's

done that anyway shows how interested

he was in giving it a classic appearance.

Voiceover: Yeah, I mean,
we can see his ribs

and some muscles there too.

Voiceover: That's right.

So this is very typical for his style.

Here now we're looking at one

of the scenes of local industry.

Voiceover: Wow, this looks a lot like

the one of God creating Adam.

Voiceover: Well, it's
interesting that you say that

because the industry that's represented

here is sculpture and
this is an interesting way

for an artist, Andrea
Pisano, to suggest that

the work of the sculptor,
the work of the artist,

is in some ways like the work of God.

Both are creators.

In fact, we also see
again the creator here,

the artist, leaning over a bearded man,

in rather stylized robes, leaning over

a nude, more naturalistic,

more classicizing figure.

Now, of course, he's not
going to get in trouble.

There's a sense of modesty here because

look again and compare this to

the way God creates Adam.

God is in nature, He uses
a gesture of his hand,

and Adam is clearly supposed to be

a real living person.

When we look at the
sculptor in the studio,

he's in the studio, he's using tools.

The use of the tools
is really conspicuous.

Voiceover: He can't
create simply by his word

or by some kind of spiritual action.

Voiceover: That's right.

And also what he's creating is not

going to be mistaken for a real person.

It's stiff and it's much smaller in scale.

Voiceover: But still it
seems to be almost a sign

of the desire to elevate
the status of the artist.

Voiceover: It absolutely is a sign of that

and it's also definitely
a sign of the pride

that the Florentines take in their arts.

I mean, this is a very important location,

the bell tower of the Cathedral,

and they're displaying
in a way what makes them

proud and prosperous as Florentines.

In one part, it's the arts.

Voiceover: And so this
could be described as

part of that civic pride
that I always think

is so important in terms of commissioning

so much art in the Renaissance.

Voiceover: That's right.

Here's another scene of local industry.

This is weaving, which is
one of the main reasons

why Florence is so very
prosperous around 1340

when these reliefs are being made.

You could talk about it
in terms of the style

being typical for Andrea Pisano,

the boiling down to the
essential ingredients,

but really what stands out is
the way it celebrates industry,

manual labor and the things that make

this city where it is.

Voiceover: It's amazing.

And so the guilds were really powerful

in enriching the city
and decorating the city

with beautiful sculptures and reliefs

and at the same time wanting to see

their own image in a way.

Voiceover: That's right.