BENEDETTO DA MAIANO (or MAJANo) cla ma-ya2no (real name BENEDETTO DI Lsorrano), Italian sculptor and architect: b. Florence 1442; d. there 27 May 1497. He was the son of Leonardo da Maiano, a stone mason and builder, in whose family the trades and those allied to them seem to have been a tradi tion. Of Benedetto's two brothers, one was a carpenter and the other, Giuliano, was an archi tect, wood-carver and terra cotta worker. Bene detto, indeed, seems to have begun his career in the workshop of Giuliano who was by 10 y-ears his senior. The tradition of the family was again carried on when one of Benedetto's four sons became a wood-carver. The first in dependent work of Benedetto's is the tomb of Saint Savinus in the cathedral of Faenza, probably dating from 1471-72. The execution of the monument is already so masterly that some authorities have thought it should be as signed to a later date. By 1474, Benedetto was established in Florence, at least for some time, and.we have reason to think that the orders he received from other cities, such as Arezzo, Siena and Naples, were executed in the Floren tine workshop and sent to their destination ready for setting up in place. Shortly after 1474 Benedetto produced the famous pulpit of the Church of Santa Croce—the finest example of marble pictorial relief in Italian sculpture. It is the most imposing of his works and one which must be referred entirely to his own genius. About the same time he was at work in the Palazzo Vecchio (Municipal Palace) of Florence, which he enriched with architectural and sculptural decorations. That his art was remunerative may be judged from the fact that in 1480 Benedetto and his brother founded a family chapel in Prato. We find the artist
worlung for Loreto in the succeeding years, with another great patron in King Ferdinand of Naples. But the work which has probably done most for his fame is the building of Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. He did not live to see it finished (it was begun in 1489) but there can be little doubt that the conception is his, that he saw the gigantic palace rise to its second story, that he planned its structure and designed its court. His sculptural portrait of Filippo Strozzi (the marble of which is in the Louvre and the clay model in Berlin) shows the Icin ship between the conceptions of the two parts as practised by the great Florentine—it also shows his appreciation of the character of the man who was suited by the warrior-palace he had asked for. A strildng contrast with. this construction is found in Benedetto's Loggia of Santa Maria delle Grazie at Arezzo, which has all the fineness and charm that the name sug gests. As sculptor and architect Benedetto will stand for all time among pure and noble figures of Florentine art.
We may note further the following import ant works by him: the altar of Santa Fina at San Gimignano, the ciborium of San Domenico in Siena, the tabernacle of the Badia at Arezzo, and the Madonna of the Berlin Museum. Con sult for reproductions and comments on his sculpture Bode's (Denkinaler der Renaissance Skulptur Toskanas) (Vol. VII, Munich 1892 1905) ; for his architecture, Stegmann and Von Geymuller, (Architektur der Renaissance in Toscana, (Vol. IV, Munich 1885-1908).