Nicola Pisano also depicts Christ's nativity on the Baptistry pulpit in Pisa. Unlike Giotto's nativity scene, Pisano's is a marble sculpture, and the different medium lends a different feel to the composition. In Pisano's nativity, the Virgin mother appears old, austere, and detached. She looks away from her infant child in a pose exactly opposite from that of Giotto's Mary who clings desperately to her fated infant. Pisano's Mary is also reclined but her looks off into the distance and not at Jesus. In fact, the baby Jesus floats in a space atop her outstretched body, wrapped tightly in what could just as easily be a sarcophagus as swaddling clothes. Mary's rigid restraint is coupled with the coffin-like imagery to portend Christ's death. The tension in Pisano's piece therefore accomplishes the same thematic goal as Giotto's desperate Mary who clings to her newborn. In contrast to Giotto's sparce composition, Pisano's marble relief is crowded, filled with attendants, angels, and manger animals and imparting a more chaotic tone than Giotto's nativity fresco.
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