Tomb of the Della Gherardesca Family - Camposanto Monumentale, Pisa

Ce monument funéraire gothique élaboré, attribué au sculpteur pisan Lupo di Francesco (actif vers 1300-1350), date du milieu du XIVe siècle (vers 1340-1350). Originally commissioned for the Church of San Francesco in Pisa, it was relocated in the 19th century and is now prominently displayed in the portico of the Camposanto Monumentale (Monumental Cemetery) within Pisa's Piazza dei Miracoli UNESCO World Heritage site. Crafted from white Carrara marble, the tomb honors members of the noble Della Gherardesca family, a powerful Ghibelline lineage infamous in Dante's Inferno (Canto XXXIII) for the tragic story of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, condemned to gnaw eternally on Archbishop Ruggieri's skull after starving to death with his sons in a tower. While not explicitly for Ugolino, the monument reflects the family's medieval prominence and serves as a poignant reminder of their storied downfall amid Pisa's factional wars.

The tomb is a grand double sarcophagus (arcosolium) design, elevated on a pedestal with a deeply recessed arched niche that creates a sense of sacred enclosure. Measuring approximately 3 meters in length and 2 meters in height, it features a horizontal effigy atop the main sarcophagus, flanked by standing figures on the corners and a lower register of narrative reliefs. The architecture blends Pisan Gothic elements, pointed arches, crocketed gables, and traceried pinnacles, with classical influences from Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, whose workshops Lupo likely apprenticed in.

Dominating the upper level is a life-sized recumbent effigy of a male noble (likely a Della Gherardesca patriarch, possibly Tedice or another family elder), carved in high relief against a cushion-like pillow. He lies supine in eternal repose, hands clasped in prayer over his chest, clad in a fitted tunic and surcoat with intricate pleats that cascade naturally over his form. His head, crowned by a simple fillet or chaperon, tilts slightly with eyes closed and a serene expression, evoking quiet dignity amid mortality. The figure's anatomy is rendered with subtle realism, elongated limbs and soft musculature, contrasting the era's stylized saints, and his crossed feet peek from beneath the drapery. This gisant invites contemplation of the soul's journey, a common motif in Tuscan funerary art.

At the four corners of the sarcophagus rise graceful standing figures (approximately 1 meter tall), personifying virtues or family mourners in a pleurants (weeper) tradition borrowed from French Gothic. On  left is a tall female figure, possibly Charity or Faith, in flowing robes with a veiled headdress, holding an orb or clasped hands in benediction.
Beside her, a child or putto, symbolizing Innocence, with a short tunic and gesturing palm. On the right is another veiled female, akin to Hope or the Virgin Annunciate, her mantle draped asymmetrically, one hand raised in sorrow.
Beside her is a companion child figure, mirroring the left, holding a floral emblem or orb, evoking lost youth, a poignant nod to Ugolino's doomed sons.

These figures, with their swaying contrapposto poses and diaphanous drapery that clings and billows, exhibit Lupo's mastery of movement and emotion, influenced by Giovanni Pisano's expressive style. Their idealized faces, serene yet melancholic, frame the effigy like sentinels, blending personal grief with allegorical piety.

Encircling the sarcophagus base is a frieze of high-relief busts set within cusped arches, depicting the Apostles as intercessors for the soul. Each bust emerges dramatically from its niche, with expressive gestures, raised hands in blessing or teaching, and detailed attributes rendered in shallow carving for shadow play. The apostles' varied ages and faces add narrative depth, symbolizing the Church's communal advocacy for the deceased. Between the arches, inscribed panels bear Latin epitaphs, such as pleas for requiescat in pace (rest in peace).

Lupo di Francesco, a lesser-known but pivotal figure in Pisan sculpture, drew from the Pisano dynasty's legacy while infusing a tender humanism  that anticipates Renaissance naturalism. The tomb's relocation to the Camposanto (part of 19th-century restorations) integrates it into a pantheon of medieval art, alongside sarcophagi from antiquity and tombs by Tino di Camaino. It encapsulates 14th-century Tuscan themes: familial piety amid political turmoil (the Gherardesca's Guelph-Ghibelline feuds) and the macabre (echoing Dante's cannibalism tale, though the monument's serenity counters it).