Page - 167 - in Der Arkadenhof der Universität Wien und die Tradition der Gelehrtenmemoria in Europa

as a saluting lion – Leonardus Salutatus. His coat of arms, prominently positioned underneath his bust, sets the final keynote: a lion’s paw holding the giglio fiorentino (Fig. 14). As an iconography custom-tailored to represent a humanist theolo- gian, jurisprudent, and descendent of an intel- lectual Florentine nobility, it forms a truly novel concept of scholarly memoria and a unique theo- political statement in the Salutati Chapel.81 Photographic acknowledgements: Fig. 1–11, 14: Pho- to Library, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, Max- Planck-Institute; Fig. 12: La cappella di San Jacopo. Ore- ficerie sacre dalla diocese di Fiesole. Pianta guida. Giunti Ed., Florence 2000, cover photo; Fig. 13: Odoardo H. Gi- glioli, La mitria del vescovo Leonardo Salutati nel Duo- mo di Fiesole, in: Rivista d’Arte 9, 1916, p. 57 Fig. 14: Mino da Fiesole, Tomb of Leonardo Salutati (de- tail): coat of arms below the bust with lion’s paw holding a giglio. The SaluTaTi Tomb in FieSole 167 81 One part of the chapel’s interior went unmentioned in this essay: a bust of Christ positioned in the shallow lunette above the altarpiece. Zuraw discusses it in her 1993 dissertation at length and in regard to a possible theological meaning expressing the deceased’s beatific vision. The bust is most likely by Mino, yet it is completely unclear if it was designed for the chapel or is a later addition. Vasari does not mention a bust of Christ in his brief description of the chapel. He does, however state that Mino ‘fece per lo medesimo vescovo una testa di Cristo, di marmo, grande quanto il vivo e molto ben lavorato, la quale fra l’altre cose dell’eredità rimaso allo spedale degl’Innocenti’, Vasari- Milanesi (cit. n. 34), vol. 3, p. 122. It is quite possible that the bust was installed in the chapel during interventions of the late seventeenth century, when the sarcophagus was opened and the bishop’s body was found ‘tutto incorrot- to’ and looking much like the bust, as a commentary remarks; see Zuraw, The Sculpture of Mino da Fiesole (cit. n. 13), p. 783. It also seems to be of a different kind of marble, slightly more yellow than the other marble elements in the chapel. Given the lack of further evidence of its original position and whereabouts I decided to exclude it from my observations.