Mino da Fiesole (1429-1484), Florentine sculptor, did not meet with Vasari 's approval. Vasari asserts that he was so dazzled by the work of his master Desiderio da Settignano that he followed him, 'abandoning nature as useless, so that his art was more graceful than well-founded'( Vasari, Le Vite, Testo III.406). Nevertheless he received important commissions in Naples and in Rome, including commissions from the Medici for portrait busts of Giovanni and Piero de' Medici, and commissions for the tombs of Bernardo Giugni and Count Ugo of Tuscany in the Badia, Florence.
At Works, 4.280 Ruskin cites Mino as one of those who show 'intense truth, tenderness and power', in contrast with the work of Canova and Bandinelli. In a footnote on Works, 4.280 Cook and Wedderburn quote an extract from Ruskin's 1845 Notebook on the two tombs by Mino in the Badia, Florence, and at Works, 4.xxvi they quote from an 1845 letter from Florence to Margaret Ruskin, drawing her attention to children by Mino, 'sweet, living, laughing, holy creatures, that I am afraid you will wish them yours rather than me'.