Giorgio Vasari

“ Around this picture Daniello then executed a rich frame of stucco work, exhibiting numerous carvings, with two figures, which support the Fronton with their heads, while with one hand they hold the Capital, and with the other they appear to be placing the shaft which supports it, and which, half-resting on the base, is already attached to the capital; the whole work is performed with incredible care and pains. ”

“ For the remainder of that summer Daniello remained in Florence, where he had been lodged by Giorgio in the house of Simon Botti, the intimate friend of Vasari. It was at this time that Dllo anie cast in plaster, nearly all those marble figures, from the hand of Michelagnolo, which are in the new Sacristy of San Lorenzo; he also made a beautiful figure of Leda, for the Fleming, Michael Fugger: our artist then repaired to Carrara, whence he despatched the marbles required for his future purposes to Rome; and, that done, he returned to Florence. ”

“ Meanwhile Monsignore Giovanni Riccio, Cardinal of Monte Pulciano, having resolved to construct a Chapel, in San Pietro-a -Montorio, exactly opposite to that which Pope Julius had caused to be erected there after the designs of Georgio Vasari, proposed to confide the altar-piece, the stories in fresco, and the statues in marble, to Daniello; wherefore that artist, who had now determined to abandon painting and devote himself entirely to sculpture, departed for Carrara, there to superintend the excavation of the marbles for the work in question, as well as for the Statue of San Michele. ”

“ At a somewhat later period it chanced that Perino del Vaga, who was then painting the Chapel of Messer Agnolo de’Massimi at the Trinità, required the aid of a young man for that work; and Daniello, who desired to learn all that he could, and was besides attracted by the promises of Perino, engaged himself to that artist, assisting him to execute many things in the above-named Chapel, all which Daniello performed with infinite diligence. ”

“ Having first prepared certain compartments by means of stucco-work, Daniello then caused the Vaulting to be decorated with Stories from the Life of the Virgin, by Marco da Siena and Pelegrino da Bologna, while on one of the walls he commissioned the Spaniard Bizzera to depict a Nativity of the Madonna, and permitted his own disciple, Giovan Paolo Rosselli, of Volterra, to represent the Infant Christ presented to Simeon, on the other. ”

“ He furthermore imagined a most fanciful bier, or cataletto, with a skeleton of the human form embracing the same, all which gives proof of rich invention, and is executed with infinite care and diligence.
Beneath these pictures, and serving as a species of socle or basement for each, are two female figures in chiaro-scuro, made to imitate marble, and singularly beautiful: they appear to support the stories. In the space beneath the first arch, and on the front of the chapel, are two figures standing upright ”

“ In the arch above the picture, Daniello painted two Sybils in fresco, and these are the best figures of the whole; they stand, one on each side of the window, which rises above the centre of the picture, and gives light to the chapel. The ceiling of the chapel is divided into four compartments by fanciful, beautiful, and richly varied designs in stucco and grottesche, to which are added very new and original masks and festoons: within these compartments arefour stories of the Cross and of St. Helena, the Mother of Constantine. ”

“ These labours caused the noble in question, who has ever been the friend of all able and disdistinguished men, to show much favour to Daniello, and he would doubtless have done even more for him had he not been so dilatory in his mode of working ”

“ Of the dead man raised to life bj the Cross of our Lord, as above-mentioned, it is to be remarked that Daniello bestowed infinite pains on the muscular development of this form, having studied the anatomy, and exhibited every minutia of the various parts with marvellous exactitude. He did as much for the figures of those who are placing this dead man upon the Cross, and for the bystanders, who remain astounded at the miracle they behold. ”

“ The figures of those who are removing the Saviour are, in like manner, very ably foreshortened, a work of no small difficulty; they stand on ladders and hold the body, which they have taken down, involved amidst its draperies, their own forms being partly draped also, but partly nude, and in some of these nude parts, which are very gracefully done, these figures give evidence of much ability in the artist. ”

“ That determined, Daniello made a small model in clay, according to the suggestions and with the advice of Michelagnolo, when the group gave great satisfaction to the Signor Ruberto, who wrote an account of the whole matter, which he sent to France. Finally, an agreement was entered into between Ruberto and Daniello, as to price, time of completion, and all other minutiae, when the master instantly set hand to the work with all his accustomed care and study. ”

“ His Holiness resolved to construct a fountain at the head of the Corridor of the Belvedere; and the design presented by Michelagnolo, which was a figure of Moses striking the Rock whence he causes the waters to flow, did not please him, seeing that its execution was likely to occupy much time, since it was to be sculptured in marble. ”

“ The early works of Daniello, on the contrary, offer proof of having been produced by a slow and melancholy hand; they are manifestly executed with much patience and at great cost of time; but the traces of heavy labour are also clearly apparent.
But to come to particulars: leaving out of the account such pictures as do not merit attention, I find that in his youth Daniello painted the fa9ade of a house in Volterra, belonging to Messer [1] Mario Maffei ”

“ Helena commanding certain Hebrews to show her these Crosses; in the third she is giving orders to the effect that those who, having knowledge of the same, have refused to impart it to her, shall be cast into a well ”