Danti, Vincenzo (1530–1576)

Italian goldsmith and sculptor. He worked mostly in Florence, his finest work being a bronze group in the baptistery there, the Beheading of St John the Baptist (1571). These and all his other figures are gracefully elongated and set in balletic poses characteristic of Mannerism. His sculpture has a delicacy of detail and an elegance of line reminiscent of the works of other goldsmiths-turned-sculptor, such as Ghiberti and Cellini.

He was born in Perugia and his earliest sculpture was a monumental bronze figure, Pope Julius III Enthroned (1553–56), set up outside Perugia Cathedral. From 1557 until 1573 Danti worked as a court sculptor to Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. For the Medici he cast in bronze a large narrative relief of Moses and the Brazen Serpent for the altar frontal of a chapel, and a cupboard door (1561, both now in the Bargello, Florence), as well as a statuette of Venus Anadyomene for the studiolo of Francesco I in the Palazzo Vecchio (c. 1573).

Danti also carved marble statuary during the 1560s, examples being Honour Triumphant over Falsehood and Duke Cosimo I (both in the Bargello).

In 1567 he published a treatise on proportion. About 1573 he retired to Perugia, where he was appointed public architect and was a founder member of the Accademia del Disegno.