Giuliano da Maiano was born in the…

Giuliano da Maiano was born in the village of Maiano, near Fiesole, where his father was a stonecutter who moved his family and business to Florence, where, according to Vasari, he operated a stonemason's yard, providing moldings and carved stone detail for construction.

Giuliano showed early promise, and his father hoped at first to make of him a notary, but his talent for sculpture and design won out.

His first designs were for the intarsia inlay in the fittings for the New Sacristy of the Duomo, Florence, carried out in collaboration with his younger brother Benedetto in 1463-1465, where Giuliano carved the wooden bas-reliefs of putti and garlands in the frieze, and for works in Palazzo Vecchio in collaboration with Benedetto, notably the ceiling in octagonal compartments and the white marble doorcase in Benedetto's Sala d'Audienza intarsia in the Sala dei Dugento (1472–1477) and in the Sala del Giglio.

As an architect he is virtually the house architect for the Pazzi, rebuilding Palazzo Pazzi (1462–1472), the main seat of the family, for Jacopo de' Pazzi.

For the Strozzi, at the Palazzo dello Strozzino he had added a piano nobile around 1456 in the manner of Palazzo Medici-Riccardi to a ground floor that had been begun by Michelozzo; he is also often credited with Palazzo Antinori (1465–1469).