Miriam - Giovanni Pisano, c. 1284-96, sculpture for the Siena Duomo exterior.
Okay, so this is kind of hilarious, right? Miriam’s neck is all craned out, her proportions are all weird, and she’s got some, uh, turtle-like features. Well, there’s a method to Giovanni Pisano’s madness. He was interested in narrative and drama, as evidenced by his Sant’Andrea Pulpit. In order to achieve that sense of drama on the façade of the Siena Duomo, Giovanni created sculptures that were interacting with one another across space, coming out of their niches to help tell the story of the Annunciation (which the entire façade of the church is devoted to). Not only did Giovanni make this radical leap to narrative sculpture, but he also altered the proportions of the figures so that when viewed from below, the proportions would look normal. When viewed up close, the sculpture of Miriam looks kind of insane; however, if you’re a Sienese person standing way down at the base of the cathedral, she’d appear perfectly normal. Genius.
That’s genius and legit.
