# Shrine of St Peter Martyr \(front view\) [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GIOVANNI DI BALDUCCIO]() - Date: 1301-1350 - Technique: Marble ## Commentary The first work on which Giovanni di Balduccio was employed in Lombardy was the Arca of St Peter Martyr in Sant'Eustorgio in Milan. The friars demanded a Pisan monument and it was what Giovanni di Balduccio supplied. Like Nicola Pisano's Arca of St Dominic in San Domenico Maggiore, Bologna \(<a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/n/niccolo/arca/arca1.html'\)" href="/html/n/niccolo/arca/arca1.html">modernized by Niccolò dell' Arca</a> in the 15th century\), the shrine rested on caryatids and carried scenes from the Saint's legend around the sides of the sarcophagus, though, in deference to the changed taste of the Trecento, the number both of the scenes and caryatids was increased. Two novel features are the sloping lid of the sarcophagus and, above, a Virgin and Child with two Saints beneath a tabernacle adapted from that on the <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/zzzarchi/14c/3/1/6pisa1.html'\)" href="/html/zzzarchi/14c/3/1/6pisa1.html">façade of Santa Maria della Spina.</a> The influence of Giovanni di Balduccio's new environment is evident only in the multiplicity of statuettes above the sarcophagus and tabernacle, and in the actual carving of those parts of the monument on which Lombard sculptors were employed. Typical of the latter are the childish statuettes which intervene between the narrative reliefs. The difference between these and the suave caryatids of Giovanni di Balduccio is a measure of the latter's superiority to the artisans among whom he had come to work. ## Related artworks - [Angel holding a Curtain]() - [Angel holding a Curtain]() - [Annunciation]() - [Annunciation]() - [Annunciation]() - [Baroncelli tomb \(detail of the exterior\)]() - [Baroncelli tomb \(exterior view\)]() - [Baroncelli tomb \(exterior view\)]() - [Baroncelli tomb \(interior view\)]() - [Charity]() - [Christ in a Mandorla]() - [Fragment of a tomb]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()