The pulpit, also called ambo, is a raised structure from which the Word of God is proclaimed through the reading of the Epistle and the Gospel. Since it is the place where Christ’s Resurrection is announced, its form often recalls the tomb which was left empty by the risen Lord.
The ambo in Siena Cathedral was commissioned in 1265 to the great sculptor Nicola Pisano, who finished it before the end of 1268, with the collaboration of his son Giovanni, the sculptor Arnolfo di Cambio, and two workshop assistants named Donato and Lapo. The iconographical program, which is quite complex and rich in symbolical meaning, was composed, as was almost always the case for religious works, by illustrious theologians with a profound knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.
The ambo consists of an octagonal tribune, on the outside faces of which are magnificent marble reliefs that retrace the story of Jesus and Redemption through six episodes: the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, the Slaughter of the Innocents, the Crucifixion and the Last Judgment. In this way, the faithful, gathered in front of the ambo to listen to the Word of God, had before their eyes the content of that Word translated into visible form and charged with extraordinary three-dimensionality.
The intermediate part presents a sequence of trefoil arches whose pendentives hold figures of prophets and evangelists: the prophets foretold the events that are depicted in the reliefs above them, while the evangelists handed them down to posterity in the Gospels. The arches are separated by seated female figures. These are the personifications of the three Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity) and the four Cardinal Virtues (Justice, Prudence, Fortitude and Temperance); they represent readiness to take in the Word of God and the fruit of that Word.
The lower section is made up of nine columns of African granite, inserted in 1329 in place of the original ones. The central column is supported by a base against which eight allegorical figures rest, symbolizing the Liberal Arts and Philosophy. They embody the foundation of knowledge, the instrument by means of which human beings seek to lift themselves up to God. The side columns rest on alternating plinths and lions, four each. The lions, actually two lions and two lionesses, symbolize Christ, spiritual lion of the tribe of Judah, and the Church, his bride. The base supporting the entire structure was added in 1543 when, on the occasion of the rearrangement of the liturgical area, the ambo was moved to its current position. That same year, the original steps up to the tribune were replaced by the stairs you see today, designed by Riccio.
Before 1543, then, the pulpit stood in the traditional position on the right side of the nave. Moreover, it was not inserted between two pillars, as is the case today, but rose up in the most open space of the entire cathedral, in a prominent position, so that it presented itself as an isolated complex in all its majestic splendor. Finally, it was turned in a different direction, so that the scenes on the tribune that are today most hidden, because they now face the high altar, were once the ones that were visible to the faithful assembled in the nave.
What apparently could seem like a mere change of position inside the space of the church is in reality an overturning of the liturgical sense of this marvelous work and the ‘dialogue’ it set up with the other focal elements of the cathedral.
The assembly used to have in front of their eyes during the reading of God’s Word the two reliefs of the Last Judgment, with the risen Christ who judges the living and the dead, admitting them body and soul to the glory of Paradise or destining them to eternal damnation. In contemplating this scene, the faithful identified with the crowd being judged by God shown in the two panels; if they shifted their eyes slightly, the great Maestà on the high altar showed them the destiny won by God for mankind: salvation and eternal blessedness. Then raising their eyes a little more, they could admire, in the stained-glass window, the Virgin assumed into heaven, image of the glory promised by God to all men.
The pulpit in Siena Cathedral is one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of art: the absolute innovation of its formal language determined the subsequent development of Italian sculpture. Nicola Pisano was able to portray the mystery of Christ in all its material reality, giving life to figures of extraordinary naturalism, profoundly vital and expressive. All this should be inserted into the context of great spiritual renewal spread by the mendicant orders: the message they preached was that of a fully incarnate God, human as well as divine. Nicola’s sculptures, pervaded by physical concreteness and dramatic force, call forth, now as then, a profound emotional participation in the faithful, who in those forms contemplate the greatness of Christ.