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Turino di Sano
( fl Siena, 1382–1427). Italian sculptor and goldsmith. He was married in 1382 and had three sons: Barna, a wood-carver; Lorenzo (b 1407; fl 1456), a goldsmith; and Giovanni, or Nanni (c. 1385–1455), who was also a sculptor and goldsmith. Mentioned in Pisa in 1394, Turino di Sano’s earliest documented work in Siena was the design of an engraved seal with the image of the Virgin (1410; untraced). In 1413 he was commissioned to execute a silver statue of St Crescentius (untraced) for Siena Cathedral. On 16 April 1417 he and his son Giovanni were authorized to design two bronze reliefs for the Baptistery font (in situ), which were not delivered until July 1427. The two reliefs depict the Birth of St John the Baptist (c. 1417–18) and St John the Baptist Preaching (c. 1419–20) and are both relatively conservative in design and eclectic in nature. Evident familiarity with current developments in Florence can be seen in the Birth of St John the Baptist, which is replete with motifs borrowed from Lorenzo Ghiberti’s first set of bronze doors (1403–24) for the Baptistery in Florence (see GHIBERTI, (1), fig. 1). The Turinos then worked on three bronze statuettes representing Virtues (completed 1431) for the base of the font, the other Virtues having been commissioned from Donatello and Goro di Ser Neroccio. These are among the earliest known bronze statuettes of the Renaissance. Contemporary with them are the two bronze putti designed for the tabernacle of the font: more classicizing in style than the Virtues, they are less dynamic and ambitious than neighbouring figures by Donatello. They also made the gilded monogram of Jesus (1425) on the façade of the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena. A number of wooden sculptures tentatively attributed to Turino di Sano include two polychromed statues of St Anthony Abbot (Siena, S Domenico, and oratory of the Arciconfraternità della Misericordia) and a figure of St John the Baptist (Montalcino, Mus. Dioc. A. Sacra).
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