MINO DA FIESOLE
(b. 1429, Poppi, d. 1484, Firenze)

Tabernacle (detail)

1461-63
Marble
Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome

One of the most powerful cardinals in Rome during the mid-fifteenth century was the Frenchman Guillaume d'Estouteville. For the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore he ordered a marble baldachin from the Florentine sculptor Mino de Fiesole to cover the main altar. Now dismembered, the tabernacle had marble reliefs on each of its upper faces depicting events related to the basilica. This detail shows the Miraculous Fall of Snow, a relief now immured in the wall of the apse of the basilica. The cleric gesturing to himself and to the snow falling at the apse of the church is surely d'Estouteville