Mino da Fiesole (c. 1429 – July 11, 1484), also known as Mino di Giovanni, was an

Italian Renaissance sculptor Italian Renaissance sculpture was an important part of the art of the Italian Renaissance, in the early stages arguably representing the leading edge. The example of Ancient Roman sculpture hung very heavily over it, both in terms of style and t ...

from

Poppi Poppi () is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Arezzo in the Italian region Tuscany, located about east of Florence and about northwest of Arezzo. Poppi borders the following municipalities: Bibbiena, Castel Focognano, Castel San N ...

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

. He is noted for his portrait busts.

Career

Mino's work was influenced by his master

Desiderio da Settignano Desiderio da Settignano, real name Desiderio de Bartolomeo di Francesco detto Ferro ( 1428 or 1430 – 1464) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor active in north Italy. Biography He came from a family of stone carvers and stonemasons in Settigna ...

and by

Antonio Rossellino Antonio Gamberelli (1427–1479), Janson, H.W. (1995) ''History of Art''. 5th edn. Revised and expanded by Anthony F. Janson. London: Thames & Hudson, p. 465. nicknamed Antonio Rossellino for the colour of his hair, was an Italian Renaissance ...

, and is characterized by its sharp, angular treatment of drapery. Unlike most Florentine sculptors of his generation, Mino passed two lengthy sojourns in Rome, from about 1459 to 1464 and again from about 1473/1474 until 1480. Mino was a friend and fellow-worker of

and

Matteo Civitali Matteo Civitali (1436–1501) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor and architect, painterThe only known painting attributed to Matteo, a triptych of the ''Virgin and Child with Saints Michael Archangel, John the Baptist, Biagio and Peter'', execu ...

, all three being about the same age. Mino's sculpture is remarkable for its finish and delicacy of details, as well as for its spirituality and strong devotional feeling. Of Mino's earlier works, the finest are in the cathedral of Fiesole, the altarpiece and

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...

of Bishop Leonardo Salutati (died 1466) His most arduous and complicated commissions, which define his intellectual and artistic nature, are an altarpiece and tombs for the church of the

Benedictine monastery , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , found ...

in Florence known as the Badia. (The monuments have been reinstalled in the rebuilt church.) The first, completed about 1468, was essentially a private commission for the Florentine jurist Bernardo Giugni. The second, directly commissioned by the monks and finished in 1481, honored the memory of their founder, the tenth century Ugo, count of Tuscany. The wall monuments exercised Mino's skills: portraits and

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

s are worked into complex tectonic aedicular structures with elaborate highly individualistic decorative moldings. Art historians have revelled in the extraordinary diversity of contemporary and ancient sources that Mino marshaled in these tombs, which distinguish him from other sculptors active in mid quattrocento Florence (Zuraw 1998). Bust of Piero de' Medici by Mino da Fiesole-Bargello

Bust of Piero de' Medici by Mino da Fiesole-Bargello

The pulpit in Prato Cathedral, in which he collaborated with

, finished in 1473, is very delicately sculpted with

s of great minuteness, but somewhat weakly designed. In 1473 he went to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

where he remained apparently about six years. It is doubtful if all the monuments there attributed to him are of his own hands; there is no question about the tomb of the Florentine Francesco Tornabuoni in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, the remains of the monument to

Pope Paul II Pope Paul II ( la, Paulus II; it, Paolo II; 23 February 1417 – 26 July 1471), born Pietro Barbo, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 30 August 1464 to his death in July 1471. When his maternal uncle Eugene IV ...

in the crypt of St. Peter's, and the beautiful little marble

tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle ( he, מִשְׁכַּן, mīškān, residence, dwelling place), also known as the Tent of the Congregation ( he, link=no, אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, ’ōhel mō‘ēḏ, also Tent of Meeting, etc.), ...

for the holy oils in St. Maria in Trastevere bears the inscription ''Opus Mini''. Several monuments in

Santa Maria del Popolo it, Basilica Parrocchiale Santa Maria del Popolo , image = 20140803 Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo Rome 0191.jpg , caption = The church from Piazza del Popolo , coordinates = , image_size ...

have at times been attributed to Mino, for example the marble reredos given by Pope Alexander VI. The monuments there of Archbishop of Salerno Pietro Guglielmo Rocca (d. 1482) and

Bishop of Burgos The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Burgos is one of Spain's Latin Metropolitan sees.
''

Ortega Gomiel (d. 1514), however, have also been attributed to the school of

Andrea Bregno Andrea di Cristoforo Bregno (1418–1506) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor and architect of the Early Renaissance who worked in Rome from the 1460s and died just as the High Renaissance was getting under way. Early life He was born in Oste ...

. Some of Mino's portrait busts and profile bas-reliefs are preserved in the

Bargello The Bargello, also known as the Palazzo del Bargello, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, or Palazzo del Popolo (Palace of the People), was a former barracks and prison, now an art museum, in Florence, Italy. Terminology The word ''bargello'' appears ...

at Florence; they are full of life and expression, though without the extreme realism of Verrocchio and other sculptors of his time. Several museums house Mino's work, some of which include

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

in Paris, France, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts,

Birmingham Museum of Art The Birmingham Museum of Art is a museum in Birmingham, Alabama. It has one of the most extensive collections of artwork in the Southeastern United States, with more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts repres ...

in Birmingham, Alabama, and National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. His other works include: *a portrait bust of Piero de Medici (1453), notable as "the oldest authenticated example we have of a post-classical portrait of a living person in the form of a marble bust".Butterfield, Andrew (March 8, 2012). "They Clamor for Our Attention". ''The New York Review of Books'' 59 (4): 11 *a portrait bust of Niccolò Strozzi (1454) *a bust of Astorgio Manfredi (1455) *the ciborium over the high altar of Santa Maria Maggiore, in Rome *
bust of Diotisalvi Neroni
adviser to Piero de Medici (1464) *companion pieces of
Charity
' and
Faith
', most probably designed for a wall tomb (1475/1480)

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...

's '' vita'' of Mino da Fiesole in his ''

Lives of the Artists ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'' ( it, Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori), often simply known as ''The Lives'' ( it, Le Vite), is a series of artist biographies written by 16th-ce ...

'' dismisses him as a mere follower of

, his master.

Gallery

File:Badia fiorentina, mino da fiesole, monumento al conte ugo di toscana.JPG, Tomb of Ugo, count of Tuscany, Badia, Florence File:Alfons Da Fiesole Louvre RF1611.jpg, '' Alfonso V of Aragon'' File:Mino da fiesole, diotisalvi neroni, 1464. 02.JPG, ''

Diotisalvi Neroni Diotisalvi Neroni (1401 – 4 August 1482) was an Italian politician. He wrote ''Florentina Syndicatus''. Born in Florence, he was appointed to numerous important positions in that city. He was ambassador in Milan and a protagonist of the Peace o ...

'' File:Medieval_Portrait_of_Scipio_Africanus_(Philadelphia_Museum_of_Art).jpg, '' Scipio Africanus'' c. 1460-1465 ( Philadelphia Museum of Art) File:Virgin Annunciate of Mino.jpg, ''Virgin Annunciate'' c. 1455-1460 ( National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) File:Da mnino da fiesole, vergine annunciata.JPG, ''Virgin Annunciate'' (Louvre) File:Saint John the Baptist-Mino da Fiesole-MBA Lyon D382-IMG 0656.jpg, ''Saint John the Baptist'' (

Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon The Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon (french: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon) is a municipal museum of fine arts in the French city of Lyon. Located near the Place des Terreaux, it is housed in a former Benedictine convent which was active during the 1 ...

) File:Chenonceau_Vierge_Enfant_Mino_da_Fiesole.jpg, ''Madonna and Child'' Château de Chenonceau, France. File:0 La Vierge et l'Enfant - RF 573 - Louvre.JPG , ''Madonna and Child''

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, France.

Notes

References

* *

External links

Works by Mino da Fiesole
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fiesole, Mino da Italian Renaissance sculptors Sculptors from Tuscany 1420s births 1484 deaths People from the Province of Arezzo 15th-century Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors

Career

Gallery

See also

Notes

References

External links