MAIANO, Benedetto da
(b. 1442, Firenze, d. 1497, Firenze)

Giotto Epitaph

1489-90
Marble
Duomo, Florence

After Giotto, the heyday of the mosaics was past, a circumstance to which Giotto himself doubtless contributed with his introduction of a more realistic concept of the figure. Still, even in the late fifteenth century it appears that Giotto was mainly remembered as the creator of the Navicella, the Roman mosaic. An indication of this is the artist's epitaph in Florence Cathedral, executed by Benedetto da Maiano. In it with painstaking care Giotto is placing the last tiny tesserae in a mosaic.