Benedetto da Maiano was an Italian sculptor of the early Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

.

Born in the village of Maiano

Maiano

Maiano is small hilltop locality, now part of Fiesole, in Tuscany.The Chiesa di San Martino was founded there in the eleventh century and subsequently restored in the fifteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. A palagio existed at Maiano in the Middle Ages, but in 1467 it was destroyed in a...

 (now part of Fiesole

Fiesole

Fiesole is a town and comune of the province of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany, on a famously scenic height above Florence, 8 km NE of that city...

), he started his career as companion of his brother, the architect Giuliano da Maiano

Giuliano da Maiano

Giuliano da Maiano was an Italian architect, intarsia-worker and sculptor, the elder brother of Benedetto da Maiano, with whom he often collaborated.- Biography :...

. When he reached the age of thirty he started training under the sculptor Antonio Rossellino

Antonio Rossellino

Antonio Gamberelli , nicknamed Antonio Rossellino for the colour of his hair, was an Italian sculptor. His older brother, from whom he received his formal training, was the painter Bernardo Rossellino....

. There he learned to work with marble and eventually became more famous than Rossellino and one of the most important sculptors of the 15th century. During his early life he specialised in wood-mosaic. King Corvinus of Hungary

Matthias Corvinus of Hungary

Matthias Corvinus , also called the Just in folk tales, was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458, at the age of 14 until his death...

 invited him to his court, and it is said that the destruction on the journey of some inlay work he was taking to his royal patron made him decide to seek more durable material.

His early works include a shrine dedicated to San Savino for the cathedral of Faenza

Faenza

Faenza is an Italian city and comune, in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated 50 km southeast of Bologna.Faenza is noted for its manufacture of majolica ware glazed earthenware pottery, known from the name of the town as "faience"....

. Although he specialized in religious sculpture he also carved some portraits of important Florentines

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

; for instance, in 1474, the bust of Pietro Mellini in the Bargello

Bargello

The Bargello, also known as the Bargello Palace or Palazzo del Popolo is a former barracks and prison, now an art museum, in Florence, Italy.-Terminology:...

.

In 1475, he worked with his brother Giuliano on the Collegiata

Collegiata di San Gimignano

thumb|300px|View of the Collegiata.The Collegiata is the main church of San Gimignano, Tuscany, central Italy, situated in the Piazza del Duomo at the town's heart. It was once the Duomo , but since San Gimignano no longer has a bishop it has reverted to the status of a collegiate church.The first...

 church in San Gimignano

San Gimignano

San Gimignano is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, north-central Italy. It is mainly famous for its medieval architecture, especially its towers, which may be seen from several kilometres outside the town....

. Benedetto's most important contribution was the carved altar in the chapel of Santa Fina.

In 1480, he made the framework of the doorway of the Palazzo Vecchio

Palazzo Vecchio

The Palazzo Vecchio is the town hall of Florence, Italy. This massive, Romanesque, crenellated fortress-palace is among the most impressive town halls of Tuscany...

 in Florence. The marble pulpit

Pulpit

Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...

 in the Santa Croce

Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze

The Basilica di Santa Croce is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 metres south east of the Duomo. The site, when first chosen, was in marshland outside the city walls...

 in Florence is considered his masterpiece. On the pulpit are scenes from the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Also in 1480, with his brother Giuliano, he built and made the sculptures for the little oratory of the Madonna dell'Olivo, outside Prato

Prato

Prato is a city and comune in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city is situated at the foot of Monte Retaia , the last peak in the Calvana chain. The lowest altitude in the comune is 32 m, near the Cascine di Tavola, and the highest is the peak of Monte Cantagrillo...

. The adolescent St. John of the Bargello is ascribed to the year 1481.
In 1489 Benedetto designed the Strozzi Palace

Palazzo Strozzi

Palazzo Strozzi is a palace in Florence, Italy.-History:The construction of the palace begun in 1489 by Benedetto da Maiano, for Filippo Strozzi the Elder, a rival of the Medici who had returned to the city in November 1466 and desired the most magnificent palace to assert his family's continued...

 in Florence which still stands (continued by Cronaca

Simone del Pollaiolo

Simone del Pollaiolo is a well known Florentine architect who was commonly known as Il Cronaca .Pollaiolo was born in Florence, he had two famous brothers Antonio and Piero Benci who had the nickname Pollaiuolo or Pollaiolo .Simone was later given his nickname Il Cronaca...

). It is believed he went to Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 in 1490, and there finished the works begun by Rossellino in the Sant'Anna

Sant'Anna dei Lombardi

Sant'Anna dei Lombardi is a church and monastic complex in Naples, southern Italy. It was originally named S. Maria di Monteoliveto and was founded in 1411 under king Ladislaus of Durazzo...

 church. He also executed various sculptures in Naples, among them an Annunciation at the church of Monte Oliveto. As an architect, he created the tomb of Filippo Strozzi, with its lovely roundel

Roundel

A roundel in heraldry is a disc; the term is also commonly used to refer to a type of national insignia used on military aircraft, generally circular in shape and usually comprising concentric rings of different colours.-Heraldry:...

 of Mother and Child supported by cherub

Cherub

A cherub is a type of spiritual being mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and cited later on in the Christian biblical canons, usually associated with the presence of God...

s in the church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence; and the portico of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Arezzo

Arezzo

Arezzo is a city and comune in Central Italy, capital of the province of the same name, located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about 80 km southeast of Florence, at an elevation of 296 m above sea level. In 2011 the population was about 100,000....

. He died in Florence at the age of 55.

Sources