Tomb of Count Hugo of Tuscany

In 1469 Mino began work on the tomb of Count Hugo of Tuscany (died 1001), probably completing at that time the recumbent effigy on the bier and the high-relief personification of Charity. In this work Mino’s style of figural relief-carving achieved a high level of linear abstraction; the tomb’s size and solidity seems far removed from the decorative emphasis of Mino’s model, Desiderio da Settignano’s Marsuppini tomb (Santa Croce, Florence).

In 1480 Mino returned to Florence from Rome and resumed work on Count Hugo’s tomb (finished 1481); the elaborately carved, classicizing lunette decorated with palmettes and egg-and-dart moulding framing a tondo of the Virgin and Child, and the base, with its elegantly lettered inscription, probably date from this time.