Annibaldi Tomb Slab

The derivation of Arnolfo's sculpture from Nicola's manner is evident and persists in all his works; but Arnolfo's results are different and more complex. His predilection for architecturally squared forms, with massive, firmly defined volumes (never was the definition of statue-sculpture more appropriate), is clear from his first independent works as a learned meditation on the liveliest demands of Gothic from beyond the Alps (above all in its aspects of dynamic investigation of the phenomenon of space), reconsidered with the crystalline rigour of a Tuscan mind; with, in addition, an early experience of Roman sculpture.