Daniele Da Volterra

Style: Renaissance;

Place: Volterra

Born: 1509

Death: 1566

Biography:

Daniele Ricciarelli 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.
His pupils included painter Michele Alberti.
Sybil (c. 1540–1545); Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
Descent from the Cross (c. 1545), before its 2004 restoration; Trinità dei Monti, Rome
Descent from the Cross (detail, before restoration)
Descent from the Cross (detail, after restoration)
Descent from the Cross (detail, before restoration)
Descent from the Cross (detail, after restoration)
Descent from the Cross (detail, after restoration)
Descent from the Cross (detail, after restoration)
Madonna with Child, young Saint John the Baptist and Saint Barbara (c. 1548); private collection

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