The monument
Built in 1315, strongly willed by Pisans and realised by Tino di Camaino, the tomb of the emperor Henry VII of Luxemburg was originally placed in the centre of the apse of the cathedral, directly beneath the mosaic representing Christ in Majesty on the apsidal vault. This forceful setting, chosen by the Ghibelline city as a sign of enduring loyalty to their emperor, did not however last long. The statues which made up the mausoleum (whose complex structure remains something of a mystery) were scattered to various parts of the piazza. Only the statue of the recumbent emperor, on the sarcophagus, was returned to the left transept at the beginning of the 20th century, to the same position it occupied at the end of the 15th century.
The other pieces eventually identified as part of the complex have been in this Museum since it was opened in 1986. These have now been joined by two angels removed from high up on the façade of the cathedral, where they had remained -unacknowledged- for centuries. Thus, visitors can for the first time judge directly the plausibility of the recent recognition of these sculptures as part of the imperial tomb and their attribution to Tino di Camaino. This interpretation is confirmed by the angel's scrolls with the eulogy of "Henricus septimus".
The project
Nevertheless, a question mark remains over the original form and placement of the tomb: virtual reality has however proved a helpful tool for approaching this problem. Thanks to three-dimensional digital models of all the several extant statues as well as the cathedral, we can now study the respective positions of the pieces and construe probable assemblages.
The ViHAP 3D project has dedicated a specific experiment to this case, and the first results have been brought together in a video and in an interactive installation. Here, it is possible to view, at an extremely high level of detail, both the virtual sculptures accompanied by historical information, and the various re-constructive hypotheses.
Link: here
© 2004-2007 Opera della Primaziale Pisana - credits & copyright
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