1520-1529 - Hampton Court (East Molesey)
Sculptor Giovanni da Maiano was born around 1486 in Maiano, Fiesole, the son of Benedetto da Maiano, also a sculptor. He was employed by Henry VIII and Cardinal Thomas Wolsey to decorate their palaces and created some of the earliest Renaissance sculptures in Britain. In June 1521, Giovanni wrote from Rome in Latin to Wolsey requesting payment for his work at Hampton Court where he had produced eight terracotta medallions (made out of London clay).
From 1527 Giovanni worked with Hans Holbein the Younger on decorations at Greenwich Palace for Henry VIII. 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. After his time in England, Maiano vanished: there are no records of further commissions or a notice of his death.
