VISUAL THEOLOGY

Lectern for the Reading of the Gospels with the Eagle of Saint John the Evangelist, ca. 1301, with later additions, Giovanni Pisano (Italian, Tuscan, ca. 1240-1319), Carrera marble with addition of Pentelic marble Overall: 27 3/4 x 24 3/16 x 16in. (70.5 x 61.5 x 40.6cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York). Rogers Fund, 1918 (18.70.28). Sculpted by Giovanni Pisano, one of the finest sculptors of the Gothic period, this lectern was once a part of the pulpit at the Church of Sant' Andrea at Pistoia. It is in the shape of an imposing full-size figure of an eagle, grasping a book in its talons, which stands with head erect, facing to its left, wings held poised as if ready for flight. The head is a later replacement. A marble bookrest, hexagonal in form with a protruding ledge at the bottom, meant to hold the Gospels for liturgical reading, rests on the bird's wings. The eagle served as the crowning element of a Tetramorph, a sculptural composite of the symbols of the four Evangelists ■