(b Padua, c. 1440; d Padua, 1528). Mason and sculptor. Although his talent was mediocre, he was one of the principal figures in Paduan sculpture after Donatello, primarily as a contractor and specialist in decorative work. Described in 1467 as ‘magister’, he was head of a workshop three years later. That he had enough capital to run his own shop by 1470 indicates he was born before 1450 and perhaps as early as 1440. Pietro Lombardo was in Padua from 1463 to 1468 and employed Giovanni Minello then (Rigoni); he and not Bartolomeo Bellano must be considered Minello’s master. This theory is further supported by the many features of Lombardo’s style present in Giovanni Minello’s work, especially the tomb of Cristoforo da Recanati (1483–9; destr.; fragment in Padua, Mus. Civ.), in which he followed the Tuscan format established in Padua by Lombardo’s tomb for Antonio Roselli (1464–7; Padua, Il Santo). Giovanni Minello’s presentation drawing of this tomb survives in the Museo Civico, Padua.

Part of the Minello family

• Minello (de Bardi), Giovanni d'Antonio
  • Minello
  • Padua, §2: Art life and organization
  • assistants
    • Rubino, Giovanni
  • attributions
    • Lombardo, §II: (2) Tullio Lombardo, §1: Sculpture
  • pupils
    • Mosca Padovano, Giovanni Maria
  • works
    • Aspetti, Tiziano, §1(i)(a): Reliefs and monumental statues: Veneto, before mid-1604
    • Italus, Franciscus, §IV, 3(i)(d): Sculpture: Renaissance and Mannerism, c. 1400–c. 1600: Early Renaissance, c. 1400–c. 1480
    • Padua, §4(i): Il Santo