Busts of the young Saint John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence, were a mainstay of Florentine houses. Closely related busts attributed to Mino da Fiesole are in the Louvre and the Musée Jacqumart-André, Paris. Mino, a very prolific sculptor, had numerous assistants whose individual traits emerge in the works gathered under his name. The rivulets of hair, the most salient feature in this bust, also occur in the busts of Christ surmounting the marble altarpiece signed by Mino in the Cathedral of Fiesole.
