Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 03 (of 10): Filarete and Simone to MantegnaVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 03 (of 10): Filarete and Simone to Mantegna
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
Afterwards, when Pope Paul II, the Venetian, was erecting his Palace of
S. Marco, Mino was employed thereon in making certain coats of arms.
After the death of that Pope, Mino was commissioned to make his tomb,
which he delivered finished and erected in S. Pietro in the space of two
years. This tomb was then held to be the richest, both in ornaments and
in figures, that had ever been made for any Pontiff; but it was thrown
to the ground by Bramante in the demolition of S. Pietro, and remained
there buried among the rubbish for some years, until 1547, when certain
Venetians had it rebuilt in the old S. Pietro, against a wall near the
Chapel of Pope Innocent. And although some believe that this tomb is by
the hand of Mino del Reame, yet, notwithstanding that these two masters
lived almost at the same time, it is without doubt by the hand of Mino
da Fiesole. It is true, indeed, that the said Mino del Reame made some
little figures on the base, which can be recognized; if in truth his
name was Mino, and not, as some maintain, Dino.
But to return to our craftsman; having acquired a good name in Rome by
the said tomb, by the sarcophagus that he made for the Minerva, on which
he placed a marble statue of Francesco Tornabuoni from nature, which is
held very beautiful, and by other works, it was not long before he
returned to Fiesole with a good sum of money saved, and took a wife. And
no long time after this, working for the Nuns of the Murate, he made a
marble tabernacle in half-relief to contain the Sacrament, which was
brought to perfection by him with all the diligence in his power. This
he had not yet fixed into its place, when the Nuns of S. Ambrogio--who
desired to have an ornament made, similar in design but richer in
adornment, to contain that most holy relic, the Miracle of the
Sacrament--hearing of the ability of Mino, commissioned him to execute
that work, which he finished with so great diligence that those nuns,
being satisfied with him, gave him all that he asked as the price of the
work. And a little after this he undertook, at the instance of Messer
Dietisalvi Neroni, to make a little panel with figures of Our Lady with
the Child in her arms, and S. Laurence on one side and S. Leonard on the
other, in half-relief, which was intended for the priests or chapter of
S. Lorenzo; but it has remained in the Sacristy of the Badia of
Florence. For those monks he made a marble medallion containing a
Madonna in relief with the Child in her arms, which they placed over the
principal door of entrance into the church; and since it gave great
satisfaction to all, he received a commission for a tomb for the
Magnificent Chevalier, Messer Bernardo de' Giugni, who, having been an
honourable man of high repute, rightly received this memorial from his
brothers. On this tomb, besides the sarcophagus and the portrait from
nature of the dead man, Mino executed a figure of Justice, which
resembles the manner of Desiderio closely, save only that its draperies
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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