Mino di Giovanni, called DA FIESOLE, b. 1431; d. 1484. He is inscribed in the “Libro della Matricola” of the Florentine masters of stone and woodwork as “Minus Johannis Mini de Pupio”, whence some have concluded he was born at Poppi, Casentino; elsewhere he is “Ming di Giovanni di Mino da Firenze”. As a sculptor he is noted for the delicate fineness and finish of his handicraft. A large number of portraits and subjects in low-relief are attributed to him: the circular Madonna and Child on a bracket (Bargello, Florence); the busts of Piero and Giovanni de’Medici (Bargello); that of Rinaldo della Luna, dated 1461; a remarkable portrait of Isotta da Rimini (Camposanto, Pisa); an open-air relief of the Madonna and Child (Via Zannetti, Florence). Two important works are in the cathedral at Fiesole: an altar-piece with figures of the Madonna and Child, an infant St.
John, St. Leonard, and St. Remigius, the architectural setting surmounted by a bust of the Savior; and in a side chapel the monument of Bishop Salutati, with a portrait bust (1464-66). Equally important, in the Church of the Badia, Florence, is the monument to its founder, the famous Margrave Hugo of Andeburg (finished 1481), and an earlier work, the tomb of Bernardo Giuigni (1466); here also is a relief of the Madonna and saints. In the sacristy of Santa Croce there is a marble ciborium with angels. Mino worked with Antonio Rosellino on the pulpit in the cathedral at Prato, contributing two reliefs from the life of the Baptist. In 1473 he went to Rome 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 Paul II in the crypt of St. Peter’s, and the tabernacle in S. Maria in Trastevere bears the inscription “Opus Mini”. Monuments attributed to him, noted for purity and elegance of design, are those of Cristoforo della Rovere (S. Maria del Popolo); Cardinal Niccolo Forteguerra (S. Cecilia); and Pietro Riario (SS. Apostoli). Further attributions are the tomb of Bartolomeo Roverella (S. Clemente); that of the Scotch Bishop Alan (S. Prassede); and the Piccolomini tomb (S. Agostino). Other works are the ciborium in the cathedral at Volterra; a marble bust of the Baptist (Louvre, Paris); Madonna and Child, a bust of a young Florentine woman, and a portrait of Niccold Strozzi dated 1454, in the museum, Berlin.
M. L. HANDLEY