CELLINI, BENVENUTO (1500-71).
An Italian sculptor and goldsmith. Ile was born in Florence. In compliance with the wishes of his father, Cellini devoted himself to music until his fifteenth year. but his desire to learn design ing prevailed, and he became a pupil of the sculp tor Alarconi. As the result of a duel in which he was claim-fled he was forced to leave Florence, and after wandering from town to town finally went to Rome. Here lie attracted the attention of Pope ('lenient VII. by his beautiful designs. C'ellini became the greatest worker in precious metals of his time. From his autobiography we learn that lie was also initiated in "the mys teries of the brass-foundry. the methods of ham mering iron, the secrets of chiseling steel for medals, and eastiug dies. . . Enameling and niello formed special branches of his craft ; nor could architecture be neglected." lie was em ployed to fashion silver vases. to design medals and settings for jewels, to enamel bookbinding:, cast portraits in hrimze, and decorate sword blades—in fact, to exercise his perfect art on court trappings, palace decorations, and the per sonal adornment of those Nvho figured in the splendid society that existed in the days of the French and Italian Cellini was in Rome when it was besieged by the Constable de Bourbon, and, according to his own acyount. it was he NVII0 killed both the Constable and the Prince of Orange. Several not very honorable ad ventures necessitated freqnent ilianges of scene at this period of Cellini's life. Ile went to Flor ence and nintua and then returned to 110111e, where he worked under Mehelangelo. At Rome he was employed by many distinguished patrons of art, but afterwards was allowed to return to Florence. whence he had previously fled on ac count of an 'affray.' Compelled to leave Flor ence a second time by reason of another 'affray,' he went back to Nome again. There his life was given 111> as usual to brawling, dueling and art work, as he himself narrates. Francis I. invited him subsequently to his Court, and Cellini stayed in France five years, the recipient of a pension and title from the King. There he modeled the bronze relief of the "Nymph of Fontainebleau" (no• in the Louvre), a line specimen of his work.
Upon his return from France, where he hail alienated himself from every one at the Court by his quarrels and eccentricities, Cellini went.
to Florence, and found a friend there in Cosimo de' Medici. During this period he produced the bronze statue of Perseus with the head of Medusa (Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence). •I'his which is colossal. proves that Cellini was essentially a worker in the small. Althomdi the figures are a marNel of technical excellence and the work is beautiful in coimeption. the statue is lacking in simplicity of modeling and breadth of treatment and is overwrought in In the Vienna Art Museum is a salt-cellar of won derful workmanship. regarded as his masterpiece in goldsmith's work. It is of embossed gold and enamel. ornamented with figures of \eptumo and Cybele in high relief. it was in such examples of decorative work that Cellini excelled. That which required the skill of a perfect crafts man appealed most readily to his imagination. Though always an admirer of Miehelamrelo. he had not, like that master. an intellectual ideal. and neN(1. seemed to look beyond the p•oduction of were beauty in his figure work. In his fifty eighth year he began to write his autobiography. and during this time he shaved his unsanctimo Mous head and retired to a monastery. But two years afterwards he returned to the reckless. dissolute life he had led in his youth. He died in Florence. February .2•1. 1571. and was buried in the t 'lnch of Santa Annunziata. it is not the existing examples of ('ellini's art alone that make his name memorable. His place is made definite by his remarkable personality as be trayed in his autobiography. which has been translated by Goethe and others. lie lived in a time when the passions of men were uncon trolled, and Cellini himself embodied them all. His acts of hatred. theft. murder, and sensuality are all set forth in writing. and he also portrays in strong phraseology the scenes. political. social. and ecclesiastical. that made up the history of his contemporaries. His words give vivid pic tures of that period of the Renaissance as well as of his own turbulent. brilliant career. The best Italian edition of his works is by Guasti (Florence. IS911; English translation. The Life of Benrenuto ('ellini, by Symonds (New York, Is•“). Consult also the fine biography by Pion. l'enrenuto Cellini, orfrrre, ntMailleur, s•ulplcur (PariR, supplement. 1 SS:4 u .