DANTI, VINCENZO. – Sculptor and theorist of art, b. in Perugia in 1530, d. there on 26 May 1576. A follower, though not a direct pupil, of Michelangiolo, he belonged to a family of Perugian artists and scientists, including his famous brother, the mathematician Egnazio. The bronze statue of Pope Giulio III (Perugia, exterior of the Cathedral) dates from 1555; it is noteworthy for the painterly modeling of the face, but heavy in the overall structure of its Mannerist design.
In Florence (from 1557) he worked for Cosimo I. In 1567 he published the first book of the Trattato delle perfette proporzioni (which was to comprise fifteen books), in which he advanced original ideas, such as that which places disordine (as the impulse of development) at the foundation of proportion understood as harmony among parts. Among his sculptures, the following should be recalled: L'Onore che vince l'Inganno (c. 1561; Florence, Bargello), clearly inspired by Michelangiolo; two reliefs of complex pictorial value, owing to the dents and projections of the sculptural planes; the Serpente di bronzo and the Sportello di armadiolo, both in the Bargello. His masterpiece is considered to be the group of the Decollazione del Battista on the exterior of the Florentine Baptistery.
BIBLI.: W. Bombe and O. Pollak, s. V. in Thieme-Becker, VIII, pp. 381–82 and 384–87; Venturi, X, II, p. 506 ff.; J. von Schlosser, La letteratura artistica, Florence 1935, p. 336.