Daniele da Volterra (1509 - 1566)

Deposition
Trinità dei Monti

It is sad to think that Daniele da Volterra is often only remembered as il Braghettone (the Breeches Maker) – the man who painted fig-leaves and underwear on Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel.
Daniele da Volterra was a Mannerist painter and sculptor. He was born in Volterra and it is thought that he studied with il Sodoma and Baldassare Peruzzi in Siena. Around 1535 he was documented working with Perino del Vega in Rome. He met and became friends with Michelangelo who assisted in gaining him commissions from the papacy and Volterra based many of his paintings on his sketches and designs.

In the 1540s he was commissioned to work on the Orsini chapel in the Trinità dei Monti where he painted the Deposition and another lost work. In the 1550s he returned to decorate the Rovere chapel with the Assumption of the Virgin, the Massacre of the Innocents and the Presentation of the Virgin.
In 1555 he began his commission in the Ricci chapel in San Pietro in Montorio with scenes of John the Baptist. It was completed after his death by his assistants in 1568.

It was towards the end of Volterra's life, and during the Catholic church's Counter-Reformation, when Paul IV commissioned him to over-paint drapery and fig-leaves on the nude figures on the Last Judgement.

Daniele da Volterra Art in Rome
Trinità dei Monti
The Assumption of the Virgin
Massacre of the Innocents
The Presentation of the Virgin
Deposition
Galleria Doria Pamphilj
Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist
San Marcello al Corso
San Pietro in Montorio
The Vatican – Sala Regia
Palazzo Farnese