Giorgio Vasari

“ The mother is here seen to offer a rose to her son, in an attitude of much grace, while the child takes it with infantine sweetness; and the whole work is so beautiful, that one may truly affirm Nino to have here deprived the stone of its hardness, and imparted to it the lustre, polish, and vitality of flesh. This figure stands between a San Giovanni and a San Pietro, both in marble, the latter a portrait of Andrea, taken from the life. Nino also executed two marble statues for one of the altars of St. ”

“ Andrea also left a son, called Nino, who devoted himself to sculpture. His first work was executed in Santa Maria Novella at Florence, where he finished a Madonna in marble, commenced by his father, [16] and which is now within the side door, near the chapel of the Minerbetti. [17] From Florence Nino proceeded to Pisa, where he executed a half-figure of the Virgin in marble, at the Spina: she is suckling the Child, who is wrapped in fine linen. ”

“ Andrea Pisano had given some attention to architecture in his youth; and the commune of Florence found occasion to employ him in that art, when, Arnolfo being dead, and Giotto absent, they selected him to prepare designs for the castle of Scarperia, situate in the Mugello, at the foot of the Alps. Some affirm, but I will not vouch for the truth of the assertion, that Andrea passed a year in Venice, "where he executed, in sculpture, certain small marble figures, which are to be seen on the fagade of St. ”

“ And although statues are often destroyed by fires, ruined by the furies of war, buried, or transported to distant lands, yet, whoever understands the subject thoroughly can readily distinguish the difference which exists in the manner of different countries ”

“ Paul and of Ognissanti are destroyed; but the lateral doors of the Pisan cathedral suffice to prove the rudeness of Cimabue’s sculptures. The pulpits of Niccola and Giovanni, of Pisa, however, so greatly lauded by Vasari in his life of those artists, stand in flagrant contradiction to his present remarks.—Ed. ”