MAITANI, LORENZO. - Sienese architect and sculptor, son of the sculptor Vitale di Lorenzo; the date of M.'s birth is not known, though it is to be placed around 1275, but only that of his death, which occurred in 1330. His only certain architectural work is the facade of the cathedral of Orvieto, where he was called in 1310 as master builder of that undertaking, begun as early as 1290 by Fra Bevignate of Perugia.
In the Museo dell'Opera of Orvieto two drawings are preserved that show the development of the very beautiful design, which was then carried out slowly but with no overly noticeable variations. In the facade M.'s activity as a sculptor is also attested in the four bronze Angels, which lift the curtain forming the baldachin of the Virgin and Child, above the central door; in the symbols, likewise carved in bronze, of the four Evangelists, in the reliefs of the three lower zones of the first pier counting from the left and, probably, in the reliefs of the two lower zones of the fourth pier. Nevertheless even the other sculptures that adorn the bases of the four piers framing the very beautiful facade, although the work of his assistants, reflect his taste as a most refined artist. M., like Duccio, grounds his plastic culture on the experience of works of Neo-Hellenistic-Byzantine classicism and of Gothic art, known through sculpture, but perhaps even more through miniatures. From the one he draws the sense of the most delicate and nuanced relief, from the other a note of sentimental expressionism that sometimes insists on veristic elements, and a heraldic sense of composition, well ordered and enclosed within harmonious rhythms.
Still at Orvieto, two wooden Crucifixes of the Cathedral are pointed to as works of M., one in the church of St. Francis, and a sculpture, likewise wooden, depicting the blessing Christ, in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.
Bibliography2 works
Emilio Lavagnino