Giovanni da Maiano II (c. 1486 – c. 1542) was an Italian sculptor employed by

Henry VIII of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

and

Cardinal Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figur ...

to decorate their palaces.

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 Ma ...

, from which village Giovanni took his name, is near

Fiesole Fiesole () is a town and '' comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany, on a scenic height above Florence, 5 km (3 miles) northeast of that city. It has structures dating to Etruscan and Roman times. ...

and Florence. He was the son of

Benedetto da Maiano Benedetto da Maiano (1442 – May 24, 1497) was an Italian Early Renaissance sculptor. Biography Born in the village of Maiano (now part of Fiesole), he started his career as companion of his brother, the architect Giuliano da Maiano. When he ...

The Hampton Court medallions and Greenwich Palace

In June 1521, Giovanni wrote from Rome in Latin to Cardinal Wolsey requesting payment for his work at

Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chi ...

. He had made, painted, and gilded, eight

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terra ...

medallions costing £2 6s 8d each, with three ''Stories of Hercules'' costing £4 each, with 20 shillings expense on fixing the sculptures. Some of these medallions commissioned by Wolsey can still be seen in place on the palace. From 1527 Giovanni worked with

Hans Holbein the Younger Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a German-Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered one of the greatest por ...

on decorations at Greenwich Palace for Henry VIII. Some of his relief decorations for a temporary banqueting house were made with old linen cloth in a ''

papier-mâché upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti upright=1.3, Papier-mâché Catrinas, traditional figures for day of the dead celebrations in Mexico Papier-mâché (, ; , literally "chewed paper") is a composite material consisting of p ...

'' technique. Edward Hall described these decorations in his ''Chronicle''; the windows of the banqueting house had grotesque-work, ''"karved with vinettes and trailes of savage worke, and richly gilted with gold and

bice Bice, from the French ''bis'', originally meaning dark-coloured, is a green or blue pigment. In French the terms ''vert bis'' and ''azur bis'' mean dark green and dark blue respectively. Bice pigments were generally prepared from basic copper car ...

,"'' on the arches at either end of the hall were made ''"many sundry antiques and devices"''. The engraved decoration of armour produced in the royal workshop at Greenwich is thought to have been influenced by Giovanni's Italian renaissance style. Giovanni began to work on a tomb for Wolsey with the Italian sculptor and bronze-founder, Benedetto da Rovezzano, but the project had to be abandoned after the Cardinal fell out of royal favour in 1529. The artist and biographer of artists,

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...

mentions the project under Benedetto's name, but thought the tomb was for Henry VIII. Other Italian craftsmen employed by the Tudor court include

Archangelo Arcano Archangelo Arcano was an Italian military engineer who worked for Henry VIII of England from 1523. His name appears in various forms in records and correspondence, including "Arkan", "Master Archan", and "Arkaungell Arcan". Arcano was one of the r ...

and

Niccolo da Modena Niccolo da Modena or Nicholas Bellin of Modena (died 1569) was an Italian artist and technician at the English court. Career He was born in Modena near the end of the 15th century. He is first recorded at the French court in 1516 as a valet of t ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maiano, Giovanni 15th-century Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors 16th-century Italian sculptors Renaissance sculptors Sculptors from Florence Year of birth uncertain Material culture of royal courts