Between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries several well-known artists from Northern Italy were active in Tuscany and left remarkable examples of their work in cities like Lucca, Pistoia and Prato. In the early twelfth century, Guidetto da Como was working on the cathedral in Lucca where he sculpted the small colonnades on the façade.
Awhile later in San Giovanni in Corte in Pistoia (vs34)Lanfranco dei Guidi sculpted the baptismal font: a great basin composed on the inside of two circular sections faced with marble, one of which bears the inscription and date of the work. The outside of the font is also decorated, with square panels in white and red marble carved with ornamental motifs typical of the Romanesque period. Another artist Guido Bigarelli carved one of his masterpieces for Pistoia: the pulpit in the church of San Bartolome (vs27).
This is the oldest of the city's pulpits and over the course of time it has undergone many a iterations according to the changes in its function. It was moved from its original position at the end of the 1 500s by the Abbot Alessandro del Ripa who wanted to use it as a choir. It was later reassembled, although not without difficulty. Originally it had been placed at some eighty centimeters from the left wall, near the presbytery, and probably leaned against the enclosure; it measured 1,60 meters by 98 centimeters. The church of San Bartolomeo houses other panels, located on the wall of the right-hand nave, sculpted with Scenes of Christ's Childhood. Before the last reassemblage of the pulpit, these formed the parapet together with the four scenes of the Manifestations of Christ After His Death: Christ in Limbo, Christ at Emmaus, The Apparition to the Apostles and the incredulity of Saint Thomas. Today these four panels define the enclosure.
The difficulties in reading this work's iconography are partially resolved by written evidence and by the inscriptions that have survived. The oldest written histories (by Vasari, Fioravanti, Arferuoli) have repeatedly mentioned the two pulpits that Guido created in Pistoia: one for the cathedral and the other for San Bartolomeo. The surviving inscriptions recall the date of the latter (1250) and the name of the overseer of the work, Torregiano. Recent restorations have revealed another inscription bearing the date 1239, probably referring to the panels with the Scenes of Christ After His Death. The obvious stylistic and chronological incongruities between the two series of sculpted panels indicate that the San Bartolomeo pulpit has been assembled from parapets that Guido sculpted for the cathedral. The real pulpit of San Bartolomeo was originally the shape of a rectangular box of modest dimensions and was formed by the Scenes of Christ's Childhood panels which were probably carved by some assistants. Guido left other examples of his art in Pistoia (vi), ma anche la presenza della sua Officina presso il Castello dell'Imperatore di Prato è stata fondamentale per i proficui contatti con Nicola Pisano. Il celebre scultore era alla prima esperienza toscana e una ventina di anni dopo, per la prima volta a Pistoia, fu incaricato dell'altare della cappella di S. Jacopohowever, it was his workshop at the Castello dell'imperatore in Prato that gave him the opportunity to come into contact with the great sculptor Nicola Pisano who was embarked on his first experience in Tuscany; about twenty years later, in Pistoia for the first time, Pisano would create the altar br the chapel of San Jacopo (vs32).

(n.) refers to the number of the file-card (s.i.) means see information inside

Guido da Como,
san Michele Arcangelo >
The Worship of the Archangel Michael in Pistoia

Pistoia's importance during the Lombard period is well-known (vs1) the city was directly tied to the monarchy that had taken the Archangel Michael as its patron saint and so Pistoia played a key role in promoting this cult. San Michele in Forcole, the church which among the saints in its long title includes San Michele and San Michele in Cioncio (vs7) is proof of the wide-spread cult of the Archangel within the city. For this church Guido da Como sculpted Saint Michael with the Dragon which was once located over the doorway's architrave. The large sculpture shows the Archangel with his wings spread, the dragon under his feet and the globe in his left hand. In keeping with the best-known iconography of the time, his right hand (which is missing now) held the lance with which he defeated the dragon..