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Although Nicola's first recorded work, the pulpit in the baptistery of Pisa, bears the signature NICOLA PISANUS and the date 1260, he must have settled in Pisa by the time his son Giovanni was born there, in the late 1240s. Nicola is first mentioned in Pisa in the will, drawn up in Lucca in 1258, of Guidobono Bigarelli, brother of the Guido da Como who in 1246 completed the font in the baptistery. The inscription on the pulpit describes it as a 'noble work' and praises the 'greatly gifted' hand that made it. The work constitutes the most accomplished synthesis of French Gothic and Classical elements and incorporates a programme of great complexity, using concepts derived from the sermon Civitas Dei, Domus Dei of Federico Visconti, Archbishop of Pisa (reg 1254–77), the patron of the pulpit.
Both in plan and elevation the pulpit comprises a variety of triangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, and octagonal forms. The central column, raised on a pedestal surrounded by animals and telamons, is surrounded by six columns of differing height, three resting on plain bases, the others on lions. They have richly carved foliate capitals supporting trefoil arches with Prophets and Evangelists in the spandrels and the Virtues, St John the Baptist, and St Michael standing at the corners. The parapet above consists of five rectangular reliefs depicting scenes from the Life of Christ, clearly separated from one another by triple colonnettes of red marble, with red marble cornices above and below. Except for the column shafts, made of red and green marbles, the other sculptures are carved from the white marble of Carrara. The backgrounds were once painted and enamelled, and eyes and other features were coloured, enhancing the realistic effects of the scenes.
The free-standing, hexagonal form of the pulpit was an innovation in Tuscany. It was clearly based on a broad range of sources, and its designs reflect a long series of formal experiments. In the first two panels the main source of inspiration was late Roman sculpture, apparent in the severe nobility of the faces, the dignified gestures, the classicizing draperies, and in the spatial verisimilitude. Some of the figures are direct quotations from ancient Roman sculpture in the Camposanto at Pisa. In the third relief, the Presentation, the figures are placed on a realistic stage and decrease proportionally in size towards the back of the scene. They are organized in blocks related to the shapes of the buildings in the background, giving an effect of stability and majesty.
The geometric definitions of the first panels are broken down in the Crucifixion relief into a broad, balanced, and graduated composition, with all the elements converging on the central figure of Christ, crucified on a lignum vitae (Tree of Life). In the damaged but grandiose Last Judgement relief, the Saved and the Damned are arrayed on the terraces of an amphitheatre seen from above, opposite the face of the Judging Christ, the off-centre focal point of the composition.
In the execution of the pulpit, Nicola was helped by a team of assistants who seem to have included one named Lapo, Arnolfo di Cambio, and a southern artist.
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