Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Desiderio da Settignano

DESIDERIO DA SETTIGNANO, sculptor, was born nearly at the beginning of the 15th century, and died in all probability in 1485. Vasari s statement, that he died at the age of twenty-eight, is altogether a mistake. Settignano is a village on the southern slope of the hill of Fiesole, still surrounded by the quarries of sandstone of which the hill is formed, and still inhabited, as it was 400 years ago, by a race of " stone-cutters," several of whom, though not disdaining the title of " lapicida," earned for themselves honoured places in the roll of Florentine sculptors. Desiderio was for a short time a pupil of Donatello, and he seems to have worked also with Mino da Fiesole, with the delicate and refined style of whose works those of Desiderio seem to have a closer affinity than with the perhaps more masculine tone of Donatello. Vasari especially praises the works of Desiderio for their grace and simplicity which, as the critic remarks, are a gift of nature, and can be acquired by no study. He particularly extols the sculptor s treatment of the figures of women and children, and the eulogy applies equally to the genius and manner of Mino da Fiesole. It does not appear that Desiderio ever worked elsewhere than at Florence ; and it is there that those who are interested in the Italian sculpture of the Eenaissance must Beek the few but remarkable works of his chisel, which have survived the changes and chances of four centuries.