Bonanno Pisano

Bonanno Pisano was an Italian sculptor active in the 1170s and 1180s, whose style mixed Byzantine and classical elements. Born in Pisa, he worked there for most of his life. In the 1180s he travelled to Monreale in Sicily, where he completed the doors of the cathedral, and then returned to Pisa, where he died. The sixteenth century writer Giorgio Vasari credited him in the Vite with building the Leaning Tower of Pisa. His sarcophagus was discovered in 1820 at the foot of the tower, where he had been buried. The Web Gallery of Art adds that the bronze doors he made for Pisa Cathedral in 1179 were destroyed in 1595.