So highly did the Pisans prize their fellow-townsman's pulpit that a law was passed and guardians were appointed for its preservation--much in the same way as the Zeus of Pheidias was consigned to the care of the Phaidruntai.
Niccola Pisano founded a school.

His son Giovanni, and the numerous pupils employed upon the monuments just mentioned at Siena, Bologna, and Perugia, carried on the tradition of their master, and spread his style abroad through Italy.

Giovanni Pisano, to whom we owe the Spina Chapel and the Campo Santo at Pisa, the facade of the Sienese Duomo, and the altar-shrine of S.Donato at Arezzo--four of the purest works of Gothic art in Italy--showed a very decided leaning to the vehement and mystic style of the Transalpine sculptors.

We trace a dramatic intensity in Giovanni's work, not derived from his father, not caught from study of the antique, and curiously blended with the general characteristics of the Pisan school.

In spite of the Gothic cusps introduced by Niccola into his pulpits, the spirit of his work remained classical.