 Bianchi identities from covariant derivative commutators

The first Bianchi identity follows by applying cyclic curvature commutators to the gradient of an arbitrary scalar field: its symmetric Hessian makes the third-derivative terms cancel, leaving $R_{abc}{}^d+R_{bca}{}^d+R_{cab}{}^d=0$. For the second Bianchi identity, write the vector-bundle derivative as $D_a={\partial }_a+{\Gamma }_a$, so $[D_b,D_c]={\mathcal{R}}_{bc}$. The operator Jacobi identity gives the cyclic sum of ${\partial }_a{\mathcal{R}}_{bc}+[{\Gamma }_a,{\mathcal{R}}_{bc}]$ equal to zero. Restoring the connection terms on the two curvature-form indices gives precisely ${\nabla }_a{R}_{bcd}{}^e+{\nabla }_b{R}_{cad}{}^e+{\nabla }_c{R}_{abd}{}^e=0$: the additional terms cancel because the connection is torsion-free and curvature is antisymmetric in its first pair.