If you love medieval art, you have surely heard of Arnolfo di Cambio, one of the most important artists of his time. Like the great masters of the Italian Renaissance, Arnolfo was a tremendous innovator, and yet he is not celebrated as much as others.
Why is that?
There is a very precise reason, and I’ll tell you about it in the paragraphs below, because it deserves a little attention. Nothing boring, I promise.
Of Arnolfo di Cambio’s life, as with most medieval artists, we know little. What is certain is that he was seen as a forerunner of the Renaissance artist, because he was at once sculptor, town planner and architect: he made fountains, ciboria, pulpits, churches, funerary monuments and statues.
Do you want to look more closely at his art and his life? Let’s go!
The figure of the medieval artist
I told you that Arnolfo di Cambio is an important figure because, in a way, he anticipates the role artists would play in the Renaissance.
What was the difference between a medieval and a Renaissance artist?
You may never have noticed it, but it is very hard to find medieval works signed by the person who made them. The reason is that the figure of the artist was equated with that of the craftsman, like a blacksmith or a carpenter. In the Middle Ages the idea of the artist was often associated not with a single individual but with the whole team that carried out the work. Add to that the very low literacy rate and the fact that individual personality counted for little, and you can see why medieval artists were regarded more as members of a community than as solitary geniuses.
Things began to change between the end of the thirteenth and the start of the fourteenth century: the work of art was no longer seen as mere “craft”, but was recognised as having intellectual and creative value. Although the decisive turn came with Giotto, Arnolfo was a trailblazer: from this point on, artists became versatile figures, able to produce paintings, sculptures and architecture. If that seems strange, think of Michelangelo, Bernini or Leonardo da Vinci: three geniuses who, when needed, could turn their hand to anything.
Who was Arnolfo di Cambio?
To understand Arnolfo di Cambio’s art we need to tell at least a little of his life.
He was born around 1240 at Colle di Val d’Elsa, in Tuscany, not far from Siena. He served his apprenticeship in the workshop of Nicola Pisano, one of the greatest sculptors and innovators of his age, and worked with him until about 1270 (probably including the famous pulpit of Siena Cathedral).
Around 1277 he entered the service of Charles I of Anjou, for whom he made an important portrait statue, now in the Capitoline Museums: it is considered one of the first sculpted portraits since the end of classical antiquity.
A great innovation, don’t you think?
He then worked in Perugia, on a fountain of which only a few fragments survive today (the figures of the “assetati”, the thirsty ones, in the National Gallery of Umbria), and in Orvieto, where he carved the splendid monument to Cardinal Guillaume de Braye (1282), in the church of San Domenico: this too portrays the features of the deceased, an absolute novelty for the time, since the Middle Ages had lost the habit of the portrait.
Arnolfo’s figures have such strong volume, gesture and expressiveness that they can be compared, in sculpture, to the revolution Giotto brought to painting.
In Rome he made the two ciboria (the canopies over the altar) of San Paolo fuori le Mura (1285) and Santa Cecilia in Trastevere (1293): two fundamental works, because they are signed and dated, and for this very reason among the few we can be sure of. His too are the statues of one of the first monumental Nativity scenes in Christianity, now in Santa Maria Maggiore, and the much-venerated bronze statue of Saint Peter in the Vatican is traditionally attributed to him (though scholars still debate it).
But it was in Florence that he gave his best: from 1296 he was the first architect of the new cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, he worked on Santa Croce and designed the sixth ring of city walls. He died in Florence, between 1300 and 1310.
Arnolfo di Cambio’s art and inspiration
Arnolfo drew on several models. The most obvious influence was his master Nicola Pisano, a leading figure of thirteenth-century sculpture.
But he knew how to go further. First of all he looked to classical antiquity, which was just then arousing renewed interest, and in some works he incorporated mosaic sections in the manner of the cosmatesque compositions typical of the Roman scene (you can see them clearly in the twisted little columns of his ciboria). His works also reflect the Gothic arriving from France, above all in architecture. We should picture a thoroughly up-to-date artist, able to blend different styles into a unique, original language.
So why isn’t Arnolfo di Cambio “famous”?
Here is the big question I left you with at the start.
If he made so many works and was such an eager innovator, why isn’t he as well known as others? Everyone knows Giotto and his revolution in painting, but few know Arnolfo and the innovations he brought to sculpture.
The main reason is that many of his works have been lost or transformed. The façade of Santa Maria del Fiore was dismantled at the end of the sixteenth century (the surviving statues are now in the Opera del Duomo Museum); the tomb of Boniface VIII was moved and cut down; the Perugia fountain has come down to us only in fragments; even the tomb of Cardinal de Braye and the Nativity of Santa Maria Maggiore have lost essential pieces. Almost all of his interventions were altered over the centuries, losing much of their original charm.
And yet Arnolfo di Cambio remains one of the greatest artists of the Middle Ages and one of the fathers of the Italian Renaissance.
Where to see the works of Arnolfo di Cambio
Arnolfo’s surviving works are scattered between Florence, Rome and Umbria:
- in Florence, the Opera del Duomo Museum holds the original statues that decorated the fourteenth-century façade of Santa Maria del Fiore, the cathedral he designed;
- in Rome you’ll find the signed ciboria of San Paolo fuori le Mura and Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, the Nativity of Santa Maria Maggiore and the bronze statue of Saint Peter in the Vatican;
- in Orvieto, in the church of San Domenico, there is the monument to Cardinal de Braye, while in Perugia the fountain fragments are in the National Gallery of Umbria.
If you’re passing through Florence, the easiest way to see his sculptures (and the cathedral he imagined) is to book the ticket for the Duomo complex: the same entry also lets you visit the Opera del Duomo Museum, where the statues from his façade are kept, and skip the long queues.
And you, the next time you step into a great cathedral, will you try to ask yourself who really imagined those forms? Very often, without knowing it, you are already looking at Arnolfo’s legacy.
