Tiziano Aspetti, known by his nickname Tiziano Minio, Italian stuccoist and sculptor. He probably trained as a founder under his father, Guido Minio (active 1511-16), called Lizzaro, and later alternated this trade with his work as a sculptor. After learning bronzeGLOSSARYAn alloy of copper (usually about 90 per cent) and tin, often also containing small amounts of other metals such as lead or zinc. Since antiquity it has been the metal most commonly used in cast sculpture because of its strength, durability, and the fact that it is easily workable - both hot and cold - by a variety of processes. It is easier to cast than copper because it has a lower melting-point, and its great tensile strength makes possible the protrusion of unsupported parts - an advantage over marble sculpture. The colour of bronze is affected by the proportion of tin or other metals present, varying from silverish to a rich, coppery red, and its surface beauty can be enhanced when it acquires a patina. casting, he acquired training as a stuccoist under Giovanni Maria Mosca (1493-ca.1573).
His first documented activity is as a stuccoist in 1533, employed on the vaultGLOSSARYA roof or ceiling whose structure is based on the arch. There are a wide range of forms, including the barrel (or tunnel) vault, formed by a continuous semi-circular arch; the groin vault, formed when two barrel vaults intersect; and the rib vault, consistong of a framework of diagonal ribs supporting interlocking arches. The development of the various forms was of great structural and aesthetic importance in the development of church architecture during the Middle Ages. of the chapelGLOSSARYa small separate place for worship, either part of a large church or a separate building. of St Anthony in Il Santo, Padua, under the architect Giovanni Maria Falconetto and alongside two members of Jacopo Sansovino's circle, Silvio Cosini (c. 1495-after 1547) and Danese Cattaneo. In 1535-36 Minio executed his first independent work, the stuccoGLOSSARYA type of light, malleable plaster made from dehydrated lime (calcium carbonate) mixed with powdered marble and glue and sometimes reinforced with hair. It is used for sculpture and architectural decoration, both external and internal. In a looser sense, the term is applied to a plaster coating applied to the exterior of buildings, but stucco is a different substance from plaster (which is calcium sulphate). Stucco in the more restricted sense has been known to virtually every civilization. In Europe it was exploited most fully from the 16th century to the 18th century, notable exponents being the artists of the School of Fontainebleau and Giacomo Serpotta. By adding large quantities of glue and colour to the stucco mixture stuccatori were able to produce a material that could take a high polish and assume the appearance of marble. Indeed, sometimes it is difficult to distinguish from real marble without touching it (stucco feels warmer). altar (now Museo Civico, Padua) for the confraternity of San Rocco in Padua. Large and ungainly, this altar has the crude vigour often associated with provincial workmanship; its female saints show, nonetheless, the influence of Sansovino's style, while the deployment of the sculptures in general is indebted to arrangements at Sansovino's Loggetta, Venice.
From August 1536 he was in Venice, where he received compensation for stucco work in the lunetteGLOSSARYIn architecture, a semicircular space, such as that over a door or window or in a vaulted roof, that may contain a window, painting or sculptural decoration. behind the main portalGLOSSARYa doorway. A portal recessed in several steps was frequently used in Romanesque architecture; this meant that the often relatively small entrance was given considerable emphasis on the façade. of San Marco. His coming and going between Padua and Venice reminds us how close artistic ties were between the two cities.
Sansovino valued Minio as a decorative artist and for his knowledge of bronze casting. He assigned him some of the smaller reliefGLOSSARYA sculptural work in which all or part projects from the flat surface. There are three basic forms: low relief (bas-relief, basso rilievo), in which figures project less than half their depth from the background; medium relief (mezzo-rilievo), in which figures are seen half round; and high relief (alto rilievo), in which figures are almost detached from their background. panels of the LoggettaGLOSSARYSmall loggia: open arcaded walkway supported by columns or pillars.. Few works survive that testify to Minio's skills, but one can be seen in the Baptistery of San Marco. This was a project very much in Sansovino's gift as he had persuaded the procurators to use a large block of marbleGLOSSARYloosely applied to any hard limestone that can be sawn into thin slabs and will take a good polish so that it is suitable for decorative work; more strictly, it refers to metamorphosed limestones whose structure has been recrystallized by heat or pressure. Marbles are widely disseminated and occur in a great variety of colours and patterns, but certain types have been particularly prized by sculptors. The most famous of Greek white marbles in the ancient world was the close-grained Pentelic, which was quarried at Mount Pentelicon in Attica. The Elgin Marbles are carved in Pentelic. Widely used also were the somewhat coarser-grained translucent white marbles from the Aegean islands of Paros and Naxos. Parian marble was used for the celebrated Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The pure white Carrara marble, quarried at Massa, Carrara, and Pietra Santa in Tuscany from the 3rd century BC, is the most famous of all sculptors' stones. It was used for the Apollo Belvedere, and was much favoured in the Renaissance, particularly by Michelangelo, who often visited the quarries to select material for his work. Neoclassical sculptors also favoured Carrara marble because of its ability to take a smooth, sleek surface, but it can look rather 'dead' compared with some of the finest Greek marbles. in their stores for its baseGLOSSARYmolded foot of a pillar or column providing the transition from the plinth to the shaft. and drew up the contract for the execution of its bronze cover.
Minio occasionally collaborated with another Sansovino protégé, Danese Cattaneo.
