Il telamone come autoritratto dell’artista tra humilitas e dignitas : il caso di Giovanni Pisano

The article focuses on the dual meaning communicated by the supporting sculptures, conceived as self-portraits: ideas of humiliation and subordination on the one hand, as opposed to pride and haughtiness on the other. Paradigmatic occurrences are shown in Giovanni Pisano’s oeuvre, as can be seen from the crouching Adam under one of the columns of the pulpit of Pistoia, and from the hypothetical self-portrait embedded into the pulpit of Pisa. Scholars assumed the existence of Giovanni Pisano’s disguised self-portraits by referring, in the first place, to the obvious likeliness of particular facial expressions in his work (such as the keystones in the façade of the Sienese cathedral and the ascribed telamons of Massa Marittima and San Quirico d'Orcia). By analysing the iconography of the anthropomorphic support with the endorsement offered by scriptural sources and the Church Fathers, it is possible to broaden the scope of analysis and to draw lines of identification between the artist, the human being as a sinner, and Christ who, brought before Pilate, carries the cross on his way to Golgotha. Such similarities, together with the idea of Deus artifex who shapes the world, soon became for the artist the cornerstone of a research aimed at the reappraisal of craftsmanship, conceived as the foundation of his artistic identity and dignity. Finally, this significant comparison between God, who made man in his own image, and the craftsman, who made, in turn, the work of art in his own likeness, will be investigated through the study of Phidias’ self-portrait, which is said to have been carved on the shield of Athena Parthenos, and the literary testimonies left by Pseudo-Aristotle.