GIULIANO da Maiano. — Architect and woodcarver, b. at Maiano (Fiesole) in 1432, d. at Naples on 17 Oct. 1490. He belonged to a family of artists: his father, Leonardo d’Antonio, was a stonecutter, and his brothers Benedetto (v.) and Giovanni were sculptors.
In his youth he turned to the art of woodcarving, and his most important work in this field is the magnificent sacristy cupboards of the new sacristy of S. Maria del Fiore (1463). But he had already begun to work as an architect, competing in the design for the oratory of the Madonna della Tavola in the cathedral of Orvieto (not executed), and completing the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, begun by Michelozzo. His subsequent activity was largely carried on away from Florence, almost always in company with his brothers: between 1466 and 1468 at S. Gimignano he designed the transformation of the Collegiata, and together with Benedetto executed the chapel of S. Fina; in 1473 he was at Siena (Palazzo Spannocchi); in 1474 at Faenza he began the construction of the cathedral (completed by Lago di Pagno Portigiani) inspired by the Brunelleschian model of S. Lorenzo; in 1481–85, summoned by Girolamo Basso della Rovere, he directed the building of the basilica of Loreto. His ties with Florence, where in 1477 he was bell-ringer of the Opera del Duomo, were loosened when in 1485, summoned by Ferdinand of Aragon, he went to Naples, where he remained until his death. The Villa di Poggio Reale having been destroyed, the only surviving work of his in Naples is the grand Porta Capuana. G. was the chief disseminator of the Brunelleschian forms in the Marches, Emilia and Campania. It is uncertain whether he also worked in Rome, where Vasari attributes to him works of exceptional importance, such as the construction of part of the Palazzo Venezia and the Loggia of the blessing in S. Peter’s.