Daniele da Volterra
Encyclopedia
Daniele Ricciarelli better known as Daniele da Volterra, was an Italian
mannerist
painter
and sculptor
.
He is best remembered for his association, for better or worse, with the late Michelangelo
. Several of Daniele's most important works were based on designs made for that purpose by Michelangelo. After Michelangelo's death Daniele was hired to cover the genitals in his Last Judgment
with vestments and loincloths. This earned him the nickname "Il Braghettone" ("the breeches
maker").
Daniele Ricciarelli was born in Volterra
(in today's Tuscany
). As a boy, he initially studied with the Sienese
artists Il Sodoma
and Baldassare Peruzzi
, but he was not well received and left them. He appears to have accompanied the latter to Rome
in 1535, and helped paint the frescoes in the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne
. He then became an apprentice to Perin del Vaga
.
From 1538 to 1541 he helped Perin with the painting of frescoes in the villa of Cardinal Trivulvives at Salone, in the Massimi chapel in Trinità dei Monti
, and the chapel of the crucifixion
in San Marcello al Corso
. He was commissioned the painting of a frieze in the main salon of the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne
, with the life of Fabius Maximus
.
In Rome he also started working in the circle of Michelangelo
and befriended him. Michelangelo used his influence with Pope Paul III
to secure Daniele commissions and the post of superintendent of the works of the Vatican, a position he retained until the Pope's death. Michelangelo also provided him with sketches on which Daniele based some of his paintings, especially his series of frescoes in the Orsini chapel in the Trinità dei Monti, the commission for which Daniele had received in December of 1541.
Later Daniele was commissioned by Paul III to complete the decoration of the Sala Regia
. On the death of the pope in 1549 he lost his position as superintendent and the pension to which it entitled him. He then devoted himself chiefly to sculpture.
He died in Rome, 1566. According to Daniele's will, the marble knee of the missing left leg of the Christ
from Michelangelo's Deposition
was in his possession at the time of his death.
Daniele's best-known painting is the Descent from the Cross in the Trinità dei Monti
(circa 1545), after drawings by Michelangelo; by an excess of praise this work was at one time grouped with Raphael
's Transfiguration
and the Last Communion of St. Jerome by Domenichino as the most famous pictures in Rome. Daniele's two-sided painting of David killing Goliath (c. 1555) in the Louvre
too seems to have been based on Michelangelo's designs; for a long time it was attributed to him.
Other notable works include the Massacre of the Innocents (1557) in the Uffizi Gallery
, Florence
, a portrait he drew of Michelangelo and a bust he made from Michelangelo's death mask
.
A well-known sculpture is the Cleopatra in the Belvedere
. From France Daniele received the commission to make a bronze
equestrian statue
of Henry II
, but he finished only the horse; this was later used for a statue of Louis XIII
at the Place Royale
and melted down during the French Revolution
.
The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
gave the following description of Daniele's style as a painter:
Daniele is infamous for having covered over, with vestments and fig-leaves, many of the genitals and backsides in Michelangelo's The Last Judgment
fresco in the Sistine Chapel
. This work was begun in 1565, shortly after the Council of Trent
had condemned nudity in religious art. It earned Daniele the nickname "Il Braghettone" ("the breeches-maker").
He also chiseled away a part of the fresco and repainted the larger part of Saint Catherine and the entire figure of Saint Blaise
behind her. This was done because in the original version Blaise had appeared to look at Catherine's naked behind, and because to some observers the position of their bodies suggested sexual intercourse
.
The loincloths and draperies in the lower half of the fresco, however, were not painted by Daniele. His work on the Last Judgment was interrupted at the end of 1565 by the death of Pope Pius IV
, after which the scaffolding he used had to be removed quickly because the chapel was needed for the election of a new pope.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
mannerist
Mannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
and sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
.
He is best remembered for his association, for better or worse, with the late Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
. Several of Daniele's most important works were based on designs made for that purpose by Michelangelo. After Michelangelo's death Daniele was hired to cover the genitals in his Last Judgment
The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)
The Last Judgment is a canonical fresco by the Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo executed on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City...
with vestments and loincloths. This earned him the nickname "Il Braghettone" ("the breeches
Breeches
Breeches are an item of clothing covering the body from the waist down, with separate coverings for each leg, usually stopping just below the knee, though in some cases reaching to the ankles...
maker").
Biography
Volterra
Volterra, known to the ancient Etruscans as Velathri, to the Romans as Volaterrae, is a town and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy.-History:...
(in today's Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
). As a boy, he initially studied with the Sienese
Sienese School
The Sienese School of painting flourished in Siena, Italy between the 13th and 15th centuries and for a time rivaled Florence, though it was more conservative, being inclined towards the decorative beauty and elegant grace of late Gothic art...
artists Il Sodoma
Il Sodoma
Il Sodoma was the name given to the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi. Il Sodoma painted in a manner that superimposed the High Renaissance style of early 16th-century Rome onto the traditions of the provincial Sienese school; he spent the bulk of his professional life in Siena,...
and Baldassare Peruzzi
Baldassare Peruzzi
Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi was an Italian architect and painter, born in a small town near Siena and died in Rome. He worked for many years, beginning in 1520, under Bramante, Raphael, and later Sangallo during the erection of the new St. Peter's...
, but he was not well received and left them. He appears to have accompanied the latter to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 1535, and helped paint the frescoes in the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne
Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne
The Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne is a Renaissance palace in Rome, Italy. The palace was designed by Baldassarre Peruzzi in 1532-1536 on a site of three contiguous palaces owned by the old Roman Massimo family and built after arson destroyed the earlier structures during the Sack of Rome...
. He then became an apprentice to Perin del Vaga
Perin del Vaga
Perino del Vaga was an Italian painter of the Late Renaissance/Mannerism.-Biography:...
.
From 1538 to 1541 he helped Perin with the painting of frescoes in the villa of Cardinal Trivulvives at Salone, in the Massimi chapel in Trinità dei Monti
Trinità dei Monti
The church of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti is a late Renaissance titular church in Rome, central Italy. It is best known for its commanding position above the Spanish Steps which lead down to the Piazza di Spagna...
, and the chapel of the crucifixion
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
in San Marcello al Corso
San Marcello al Corso
San Marcello al Corso is a church in Rome, Italy, devoted to Pope Marcellus I. It is located in via del Corso, the ancient via Lata, connecting Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo....
. He was commissioned the painting of a frieze in the main salon of the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne
Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne
The Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne is a Renaissance palace in Rome, Italy. The palace was designed by Baldassarre Peruzzi in 1532-1536 on a site of three contiguous palaces owned by the old Roman Massimo family and built after arson destroyed the earlier structures during the Sack of Rome...
, with the life of Fabius Maximus
Fabius Maximus
Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Cunctator was a Roman politician and general, born in Rome around 280 BC and died in Rome in 203 BC. He was Roman Consul five times and was twice Dictator in 221 and again in 217 BC. He reached the office of Roman Censor in 230 BC...
.
In Rome he also started working in the circle of Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
and befriended him. Michelangelo used his influence with Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III , born Alessandro Farnese, was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1534 to his death in 1549. He came to the papal throne in an era following the sack of Rome in 1527 and rife with uncertainties in the Catholic Church following the Protestant Reformation...
to secure Daniele commissions and the post of superintendent of the works of the Vatican, a position he retained until the Pope's death. Michelangelo also provided him with sketches on which Daniele based some of his paintings, especially his series of frescoes in the Orsini chapel in the Trinità dei Monti, the commission for which Daniele had received in December of 1541.
Later Daniele was commissioned by Paul III to complete the decoration of the Sala Regia
Sala Regia
Sala Regia is the Italian translation of Regal Room or Hall.There are a number of such rooms in Italy. Among the best known are:*Sala Regia *Sala Regia of Palazzo del Quirinale...
. On the death of the pope in 1549 he lost his position as superintendent and the pension to which it entitled him. He then devoted himself chiefly to sculpture.
He died in Rome, 1566. According to Daniele's will, the marble knee of the missing left leg of the Christ
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
from Michelangelo's Deposition
The Deposition (Michelangelo)
The Deposition is a marble sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance master Michelangelo...
was in his possession at the time of his death.
Works
Trinità dei Monti
The church of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti is a late Renaissance titular church in Rome, central Italy. It is best known for its commanding position above the Spanish Steps which lead down to the Piazza di Spagna...
(circa 1545), after drawings by Michelangelo; by an excess of praise this work was at one time grouped with Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
's Transfiguration
Transfiguration (Raphael)
The Transfiguration is considered the last painting by the Italian High Renaissance master Raphael. It was left unfinished by Raphael, and is believed to have been completed by his pupil, Giulio Romano, shortly after Raphael's death in 1520...
and the Last Communion of St. Jerome by Domenichino as the most famous pictures in Rome. Daniele's two-sided painting of David killing Goliath (c. 1555) in the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
too seems to have been based on Michelangelo's designs; for a long time it was attributed to him.
Other notable works include the Massacre of the Innocents (1557) in the Uffizi Gallery
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery , is a museum in Florence, Italy. It is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world.-History:...
, Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, a portrait he drew of Michelangelo and a bust he made from Michelangelo's death mask
Death mask
In Western cultures a death mask is a wax or plaster cast made of a person’s face following death. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits...
.
A well-known sculpture is the Cleopatra in the Belvedere
Belvedere (structure)
Belvedere is an architectural term adopted from Italian , which refers to any architectural structure sited to take advantage of such a view. A belvedere may be built in the upper part of a building so as to command a fine view...
. From France Daniele received the commission to make a bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
equestrian statue
Equestrian sculpture
An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin "eques", meaning "knight", deriving from "equus", meaning "horse". A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an "equine statue"...
of Henry II
Henry II of France
Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559.-Early years:Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany .His father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by his sworn enemy,...
, but he finished only the horse; this was later used for a statue of Louis XIII
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...
at the Place Royale
Place des Vosges
The Place des Vosges is the oldest planned square in Paris.It is located in the Marais district, and it straddles the dividing-line between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris.- History :...
and melted down during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
.
Style
Catholic Encyclopedia
The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...
gave the following description of Daniele's style as a painter:
The loincloths in Michelangelo's Last Judgment
The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)
The Last Judgment is a canonical fresco by the Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo executed on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City...
fresco in the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio...
. This work was begun in 1565, shortly after the Council of Trent
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...
had condemned nudity in religious art. It earned Daniele the nickname "Il Braghettone" ("the breeches-maker").
He also chiseled away a part of the fresco and repainted the larger part of Saint Catherine and the entire figure of Saint Blaise
Saint Blaise
Saint Blaise was a physician, and bishop of Sebastea . According to his Acta Sanctorum, he was martyred by being beaten, attacked with iron carding combs, and beheaded...
behind her. This was done because in the original version Blaise had appeared to look at Catherine's naked behind, and because to some observers the position of their bodies suggested sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
.
The loincloths and draperies in the lower half of the fresco, however, were not painted by Daniele. His work on the Last Judgment was interrupted at the end of 1565 by the death of Pope Pius IV
Pope Pius IV
Pope Pius IV , born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was Pope from 1559 to 1565. He is notable for presiding over the culmination of the Council of Trent.-Biography:...
, after which the scaffolding he used had to be removed quickly because the chapel was needed for the election of a new pope.
Sources and references
- Fabrizio Mancinelli, "The Painting of the Last Judgment: History, Technique and Restoration". In Loren Partridge, Michelangelo : The Last Judgment - A Glorious Restoration. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 2000. ISBN 0-8109-8190-4. (Daniele da Volterra. Written by George Charles Williamson.)
External links
- Bust of Michelangelo, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. La "Deposizione" di Daniele da Volterra ritorna al pubblico, on the restoration of Descent from the Cross