BENEDETTO DA MAIANO. - Architect, sculptor and wood carver, b. at Maiano in 1442, d. at Florence on 24 May 1497. As an architect he belonged to the Brunelleschian current, as the portico of S. Maria delle Grazie at Arezzo (1492-94) clearly shows; in this work, in fact, B. repeated, exaggerating them, from the models of S. Lorenzo and S. Spirito in Florence the very tall pulvini at the top of the columns on which arches turn so wide that the whole portico seems almost to be realized in the absolute predominance of voids over solids. The strong projections of the members, of the capitals, of the pulvini (which are made up of fragments of entablature) and of the cornice confer great picturesqueness and movement on the airy construction, fully fused with the surrounding nature.

The Palazzo Strozzi is also attributed to B., which some, not without foundation, assign to Giuliano da Sangallo (who certainly executed a model) without excluding the direct intervention of the patron himself.

As a sculptor B. was inspired by Donatello. His most famous sculpture is the pulpit adorned with stories of St. Francis in S. Croce at Florence (1481).

In 1489 B. executed in Florence the altar with the Annunciation for the church of Monte Oliveto in Naples, in which, in order to depict the central scene, he avails himself of pictorial perspective, by opening a deep portico behind the figures of the Virgin and the Angel, taking up a theme developed by Desiderio da Settignano in the tabernacle of the Sacrament in the Florentine church of S. Lorenzo.

We may further recall the naturalistic bust of Pietro Mellini (Florence, Museo Nazionale); the ark of St. Savino in the cathedral of Faenza; the tomb of the blessed Marcolino in the Galleria comunale of Forlì; the ciborium of S. Domenico at Siena; the urn with the altar of S. Fina in S. Gemignano; the door of the hall of the Udienze in the Palazzo Vecchio; the Madonna and St. Sebastian in the oratory of the Misericordia in Florence; the bust of Filippo Strozzi (Paris, Louvre museum) and his monument in S. Maria Novella.

BENEDETTO DA MAIANO - Portico of the church of S. Maria delle Grazie - Arezzo.(phot. Alinari)

B. was also a most renowned wood carver (Palazzo Vecchio, ceiling of the hall of the Otto and of the audience hall of the Priors). - See Pl. LXXIX.

Plate LXXIX fot. Almarvi PULPIT WITH SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS Florence, church of S. Croce.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: G. Vasari, Vite ecc., ed. Milanesi, III, Florence 1878, pp. 333-54; A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, VI, Milan 1908, pp. 674-92; VIII, I, ibid. 1923, pp. 393-418; M. Pittaluga, La scultura italiana del Quattrocento, Florence 1933, pp. 61-62; M. Salvi, Palazzo Strozzi, in Illustrazione, March 1940, pp. 5-12.

Vincenzo Galzio

@incollection{ec2_benedetto_da_maiano, author = {Golzio, Vincenzo}, title = {Benedetto da Maiano}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1266--1267}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/benedetto-da-maiano} }

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