Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 08 (of 10): Bastiano to Taddeo ZuccheroVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 08 (of 10): Bastiano to Taddeo Zucchero
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
When Daniello had finally returned to Rome, Pope Paul IV having a desire
to throw to the ground the Judgment of Michelagnolo on account of the
nudes, which seemed to him to display the parts of shame in an unseemly
manner, it was said by the Cardinals and by men of judgment that it
would be a great sin to spoil them, and they found a way out of it,
which was that Daniello should paint some light garments to cover them;
and the business was afterwards finished in the time of Pius IV by
repainting the S. Catherine and the S. Biagio, which were thought to be
unseemly.
[Illustration: THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS
(_After the painting by =Daniello Ricciarelli=. Florence: Uffizi, 1107_)
_Anderson_]
In the meantime he began the statues for the Chapel of the above-named
Cardinal of Montepulciano, and the S. Michael for the great portal; but
none the less, being a man who was always going from one notion to
another, he did not work with the promptitude that he could and should
have used. About this time, after King Henry of France had been killed
in a tournament, Signor Ruberto Strozzi being about to come to Italy and
to Rome, Queen Caterina de' Medici, having been left Regent in that
kingdom, and wishing to erect some honourable memorial to her dead
husband, commanded the said Ruberto to confer with Buonarroti and to
contrive to have her desire in that matter fulfilled. Wherefore, having
arrived in Rome, he spoke long of the matter with Michelagnolo, who, not
being able, because he was old, to accept that undertaking himself,
advised Signor Ruberto to give it to Daniello, saying that he would not
fail to give him all the counsel and assistance that he could. To that
offer Strozzi attached great importance, and, after they had considered
with much deliberation what should be done, it was resolved that
Daniello should make a horse of bronze all in one piece, twenty palms
high from the head to the feet, and about forty in length, and that upon
it there should then be placed the statue of King Henry in armour,
likewise of bronze. Daniello having then made a little model of clay
after the advice and judgment of Michelagnolo, which much pleased Signor
Ruberto, an account of everything was written to France, and in the end
an agreement was made between him and Daniello as to the method of
executing that work, the time, the price, and every other thing.
Whereupon Daniello, setting to work with much study on the horse, made
it in clay exactly as it was to be, without ever doing any other work;
and then, having made the mould, he was proceeding to prepare to cast
it, and, the work being of such importance, was taking advice from many
founders as to the method that he ought to pursue, to the end that it
might come out well, when Pius IV, who had been elected Pontiff after
the death of Paul, gave Daniello to understand that he desired, as has
been related in the Life of Salviati, that the work of the Hall of Kings
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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