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

Obsequies of St Francis

1480-85
Marble
Santa Croce, Florence

The picture shows one of the five narrative reliefs depicting scenes from the Life of St Francis.

It is interesting to note the parallels between Benedetto da Maiano's reliefs on the pulpit in Santa Croce and the scenes of the St Francis cycle painted at about the same time in the Sassetti Chapel of Santa Trinità by Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Benedetto da Maiano, avoiding the challange of a convex surface, produced some of the most accomplished narrative reliefs of the later fifteenth century.