MAITANI, LORENZO. – Sienese architect and sculptor, son of the sculptor Vitale di Lorenzo; the date of M.’s birth is unknown, though it may be placed around 1275; only the date of his death, which occurred in 1330, is known. His only certain architectural work is the façade of Orvieto Cathedral, where he was summoned in 1310 as master builder of that undertaking, begun as early as 1290 by fra’ Bevignate da Perugia.
Two drawings are preserved in the Museo dell’Opera in Orvieto, showing the development of the splendid design, which was subsequently executed slowly but without excessively significant alterations. The façade also bears witness to M.’s activity as a sculptor in the four bronze Angels who raise the curtain forming the baldachin over the Virgin and Child, above the central door; in the symbols, likewise sculpted in bronze, of the four Evangelists;
in the reliefs of the three lower zones of the first pillar, counting from the left, and probably in the reliefs of the two lower zones of the fourth pillar. Nevertheless, even the other sculptures adorning the bases of the four pillars framing the beautiful façade, although the work of his assistants, reflect his taste as an extraordinarily refined artist. Like Duccio, M. bases his sculptural culture on experience of works of neo-Hellenistic-Byzantine classicism and of Gothic art, known through sculpture but perhaps even more through miniatures. From the former he derives a sense of delicate, nuanced relief; from the latter, a note of sentimental expressionism that at times dwells on realistic elements, and a heraldic sense of composition, well ordered and enclosed within harmonious rhythms.
Also in Orvieto, two wooden Crucifixes in the Cathedral are identified as works by M.—one in the church of S. Francesco—and a sculpture, likewise wooden, depicting Christ blessing, in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo.