ncipated themselves from the clumsy and ill-proportioned
Byzantine style in both arts, showing more originality in the
treatment of their subjects and arranging their figures in better
postures.

Niccola Pisani was originally associated with some Greek sculptors
who were engaged upon the figures and other ornaments in relief for
the Duomo at Pisa and the church of San Giovanni there. Among the
spoils brought home by the Pisan fleet was a very fine sarcophagus
on which was an admirable representation of the chase of Meleager,
hunting the Calydonian boar. Both the nude and the draped figures of
this composition are executed with much skill, while the design is
perfect. This sarcophagus, on account of its beauty, was afterwards
placed by the Pisans in the facade of the Duomo opposite S, Rocco,
against the principal door on that side. It originally served as a
tombstone for the mother of the Countess Matilda, if we may credit
the inscription cut in the marble:

_Anno Domini MCXVI. Kal. Aug. obiit D. Matilda felisis memoriae
comitissa, quae pro anima genetricis suae D. Beatricis comitissae
venerabilis in hoc tumba honorabili quiescsnts in multis partis
mirificc hanc dotavit ecclesiam, quarum animae requiescent in pace_.

And then follows:

_Anno Domini MCCCIII. sub dignissimo optrario Burgundio Tadi
occasione graduum fiendorum per ipsum circa ecclesiam supradictam
tumba superius notata bis trantlata fuit, nunc de sedibus primis in
ecclesiam, nunc de ecclesia in hunc locum, ut cernitis eccelentem_.

Niccola, considering the excellence of this work, which greatly
delighted him, applied such diligence in imitating that style,
studying carefully both the sarcophagus and other excellent
sculptures on other antique sarcophagi, that before long he was
considered the best sculptor of his time. There was indeed, after
Arnolfo, no other sculptor of repute in Tuscany except Fuccio, a
Florentine architect and sculptor. Fuccio designed S. Maria sopra
Arno at Florence in 1229, putting his name over the door. The marble
tomb of the queen of Cyprus in the church of St Francis of Assisi is
also his work. It contains a number of figures, the principal one
being the queen herself, seated on a lion, as emblematical of her
strength of mind. She had bequeathed a large sum of money for the
completion of these works.

Niccola having proved himself a much greater master than Fuccio, was
summoned to Bologna in 1225 to make a marble tomb for