VOLTERRA, DANIELE DA

born 1509, Volterra, Republic of Florence died April 4, 1566, Rome original name Daniele Ricciarelli Italian Mannerist painter and sculptor, noted for his finely drawn, highly idealized figures done in the style of Michelangelo. He studied with the Sienese painter Sodoma, and in about 1538 he moved to Rome, where he became a pupil and a close friend of Michelangelo. The latter's influence is already apparent in the exaggerated musculature and strong linear rhythms of the figures in Volterra's fresco freize (1541) in the Massimi Palace depicting the story of Fabius Maxiumus. In that same year Volterra painted his most famous work, the "Descent from the Cross" in the Church of Trinit de' Monti, Rome. The dynamically posed, monumental figures in this powerful and agitated composition make it one of the most important works done by the younger generation of Mannerist painters in Rome. Volterra's other major paintings include "Massacre of the Innocents" (Uffizi, Florence) and "David Killing Goliath" (Louvre, Paris). In 1559 Pope Paul IV assigned Volterra the task of painting in draperies to cover the nudity of the figures in Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" in the Sistine Chapel. For his performance of this task Volterra earned the nickname Il Braghetone ("The Breeches Maker"), as well as an undeserved posthumous reputation as a prude. Volterra's last work was a bronze portrait bust of Michelangelo based on the latter's death mask. The bust is the finest surviving representation of that great artist.