Baldassare Franceschini, surnamed Volterrano, from the place of his nativity, and also the younger Volterrano, to distinguish him from Ricciarelli, seemed to have been formed by nature to adorn cupolas, temples, and magnificent halls, a style of work in which he is more conspicuous than in painting cabinet pictures. The cupola and nave of the Niccolini chapel, in the church of the Holy Cross, is his happiest effort in this way; and surprises even an admirer of Lanfranco. That of the Nunziata is most beautiful; and we must not omit the ceiling of a chapel in S. Maria Maggiore, where Elias appears so admirably foreshortened, that it calls to mind the S. Rocco of Tintoretto, by the optical illusion occasioned by it. His talents excited the envy of Giovanni da S. Giovanni, who having engaged him as his assistant in the decoration of the Pitti palace, speedily dismissed him. His spirit is tempered by judgment and propriety; his Tuscan design is varied and ennobled by an imitation of other schools; to visit which, he was sent to travel for some months by his noble patrons of the house of Niccolini. He derived great advantages from studying the schools of Parma and of Bologna. He knew Pietro di Cortona, and adopted some of his principles, which was a thing not uncommon among the artists of this epoch. Volterrano painted a great many frescos in Florence, one in the Palazzo del Bufalo at Rome, and some at Volterra, that are noticed by Baldinucci. The praise bestowed on him by the historian appears rather scanty than extravagant to those who duly consider the propriety of his inventions, the correctness of his design, qualities so rare in this class of artists, his knowledge of the perspective, of foreshortening figures in ceilings,[217] the spirit of his attitudes, the clearness of his graduated, well balanced, and properly united colours, and the pleasing and quiet harmony of the whole. The same talents are proportionally evident in his oil pictures, as may be observed in his S. Filippo Benizi, in the Nunziata of Florence; in his S. John the Evangelist, a noble figure which he painted along with other saints in S. Chiara at Volterra; his S. Carlo administering the communion to those sick of the plague, in the Nunziata of Pescia, and some of his other paintings that are well finished, which was not the case with all his works. The same observations apply to his cabinet pictures, which abound in the ducal palace, and in the houses of the nobility of Volterra, especially in those of the families of Maffei and Sermolli.