Young Saint John the Baptist

Young Saint John the Baptist

Mino da Fiesole (Mino di Giovanni)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Saint John the Baptist is represented here as an adolescent, at the age he began preaching in the wildnerness and when he is said to have encountered the young Christ for the second time. Images of the youthful Baptist were a mainstay in the furnishing of Florentine palaces. Because Saint John was Florence's patron saint, the display of such busts could be read as a statement of civic loyalty and the particular animation with which they were carved ensured the city's protector had an almost living presence in the home. A sculptor much in demand, Mino had numerous assistants to whom he delegated such works.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.