Benvenuto Cellini Totally Explained

Everything about Benevenuto Cellini totally explained

Benvenuto Cellini (November 3, 1500 – February 13, 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, painter, sculptor, soldier and musician of the Renaissance, who also wrote a famous autobiography.

Biography

Benvenuto Cellini was born in Florence, Italy, where his family had been landowners in the Val d'Ambra for three generations. His father, Giovanni Cellini, built and played musical instruments; he married Maria Lisabetta Granacci, and eighteen years elapsed before they'd children. Benvenuto was the second child.
   Giovanni initially wished Benvenuto to join him in instrument making, and endeavoured to thwart his inclination for metalwork. When he was fifteen, his father reluctantly agreed to apprentice him to a goldsmith, Antonio di Sandro, nicknamed Marcone. At the age of sixteen, Benvenuto had already attracted attention in Florence: after a fray with youthful companions, he escaped punishment by fleeing for six months to Siena, where he worked for a goldsmith named Fracastoro (unrelated to the Veronese polymath); from there he moved to Bologna, where he became a more accomplished flute-player and made progress as a goldsmith. After visiting Pisa, and twice resettling in Florence (where he was visited by the sculptor Torrigiano), he decamped to Rome, age nineteen.
   His first works in Rome were a silver casket, silver candlesticks, and a vase for the bishop of Salamanca, which won him the approval of Pope Clement VII. Another celebrated work from Rome is the gold medallion of "Leda and the Swan" — the head and torso of Leda cut in hard stone — executed for the Gonfaloniere Gabbriello Cesarino, which is now in the Vienna museum. He also took up the flute again, and was appointed one of the pope's court musicians. In the attack upon Rome by Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, Cellini's bravery proved of signal service to the pontiff; according to his own accounts, he himself shot Charles III dead and killed Philibert of Châlon, prince of Orange. (In reality, Orange didn't die until the siege of Florence in 1530).
   His bravery led to a reconciliation with the Florentine magistrates, and he soon returned to his hometown. Here he devoted himself to crafting medals, the most famous of which are "Hercules and the Nemean Lion", in gold repoussé work, and "Atlas supporting the Sphere", in chased gold, the latter eventually falling into the possession of Francis I of France.
   From Florence he went to the court of the duke of Mantua, and then again to Florence and to Rome, where he was employed not only in the working of jewelry, but also in the execution of dies for private medals and the papal mint. Here in 1529 his brother Cecchino had killed a Corporal of the Roman Watch and in turn had been wounded by an arquebusier; Cecchino died of his wound; soon afterward Benvento killed his brother's killer — an act of blood revenge but not justice as Benvenuto admits his brother's killer had acted in self-defense and fled to Naples to shelter himself from the consequences of an affray with a notary, Ser Benedetto, whom he wounded. Through the influence of several cardinals he obtained a pardon; and Cellini found favor with the new pope, Paul III, notwithstanding a fresh homicide of a rival goldsmith Pompeo Of Milan which he'd committed more by accident than by premeditated malice, during the interregnum three days after the death of Pope Clement VII in September 1534. He was saved from arrest only because of a safe-conduct by the Pope. This is the fourth killing Cellini boasts of in his Memoirs.
   The plots of Pierluigi Farnese, a natural son of Paul III, led to Cellini's retreat from Rome to Florence and Venice, where he was restored with greater honour than before. At the age of 37, upon returning from a visit to the French court, he was imprisoned on a charge (apparently false) of having embezzled during the war the gems of the pope's tiara; he was confined in the Castel Sant'Angelo, escaped, was recaptured, and treated with great severity, and was in daily expectation of death on the scaffold.
   At last, the intercession of Pierluigi's wife, and especially that of the Cardinal d'Este of Ferrara, secured Cellini's release (he gave d'Este a splended cup in gratitude). For a while, he worked at the court of Francis I, at Fontainebleau and Paris; but he considered the duchesse d'Étampes to be set against him. Also, he refused to conciliate the king's favorites and could no longer silence them by the sword, as he'd silenced his enemies in Rome. Thus, after about five years of sumptuous work but continual jealousy and violence, Cellini returned to Florence, where he continued as a goldsmith and became the rival of sculptor Baccio Bandinelli.
   The first collision between Cellini and Bandinelli had occurred several years before when Pope Clement VII commissioned Cellini to mint his coinage. Now, in an altercation before Duke Cosimo, Bandinelli accused Cellini of gross immorality, calling out to him Sta cheto, soddomitaccio! (Shut up, you filthy sodomite!). In his autobiography Cellini recalls repelling rather than denying the charge, claiming to be unworthy of such a divine and royal diversion. Certainly his art, often celebratory of the young male form, is a testimonial to his appreciation of that beauty. Some of Cellini's homoerotic classical references

Cellini was charged four times with sodomy, only one of which is covered in his autobiography:

At the age of 23 with a boy named Domenico di ser Giuliano da Ripa, an accusation was settled with a small fine (perhaps thanks to his youth at the time).
While in Paris, a former model and lover brought charges against him of using her "after the Italian fashion." This is the only charge recounted in his autobiography, possibly because his confrontation with his accuser at court led to a dismissal of charges.
In Florence in 1548, Cellini was accused by a woman named Margherita, for having certain familiarities with her son, Vincenzo. Perhaps this was a private quarrel, one from which he simply fled, and undeserving of attention.
Finally, in 1556, his apprentice Fernando, after being fired for an altercation, accused his mentor of Cinque anni ha tenuto per suo ragazzo Fernando di Giovanni di Montepulciano, giovanetto con el quale ha usato carnalmente moltissime volte col nefando vitio della soddomia, tenendolo in letto come sua moglie (For five years he kept as his boy Fernando di Giovanni di Montepulciano, a youth whom he used carnally in the abject vice of sodomy numerous instances, keeping him in his bed as a wife.) This time the penalty was a hefty fifty golden scudi fine, and four years of prison, remitted to four years of house arrest thanks to the intercession of the Medicis.

He is also known to have taken some of his female models as mistresses, having an illegitimate daughter with one of them while living in France. After briefly attempting a clerical career, in 1562, he married a servant, with whom he'd five children, of which only a son and two daughters survived him.
His writings are more highly descriptive of the men in his life than of the women, many of whom he doesn't even name. His references to his boy models (and possibly lovers) are more tender and affectionate than his references to women, including his wife. In his sculpture, the male is always more convincingly modelled than the female - his Venus of Fontainebleau is unconvincing as a representation of the realistic female body.
During the war with Siena, Cellini was appointed to strengthen the defences of his native city, and, though rather shabbily treated by his ducal patrons, he continued to gain the admiration of his fellow-citizens by the magnificent works which he produced. He died in Florence in 1571 and was buried with great pomp in the church of the Annunziata. He had supported in Florence a widowed sister and her six daughters.

Works

   Besides his works in gold and silver, Cellini executed sculptures of grander scale. The most distinguished of these is the bronze group of "Perseus holding the head of Medusa", a work (first suggested by Duke Cosimo I de Medici) now in the Loggia dei Lanzi at Florence, his attempt to surpass Michelangelo's David and Donatello's Judith and Holofernes. The casting of this work caused Cellini much trouble and anxiety, but it was hailed as a masterpiece as soon as it was completed. The original relief from the foot of the pedestal — Perseus and Andromeda — is in the Bargello, and replaced by a cast.
   By 1996, centuries of environmental pollution exposure had streaked and banded the statue. In December of that year it was removed from the Loggia and transferred to the Uffizi for cleaning and restoration. It was a slow, years-long process, and the restored statue wasn't returned to its home until June of 2000.
   Among his art works, many of which have perished, were a colossal Mars for a fountain at Fontainebleau and the bronzes of the doorway, coins for the Papal and Florentine states, a life-sized silver Jupiter, and a bronze bust of Bindo Altoviti. The works of decorative art are florid in style.
   In addition to the bronze statue of Perseus and the medallions already referred to, the works of art in existence today are a medallion of Clement VII commemorating the peace between the Christian princes, 1530, with a bust of the pope on the reverse and a figure of Peace setting fire to a heap of arms in front of the temple of Janus, signed with the artist's name; a signed portrait medal of Francis I; a medal of Cardinal Pietro Bembo; and the celebrated gold, enamel and ivory salt-cellar (known as Saliera) made for Francis I at Vienna. This intricate 26-cm-high sculpture, of a value conservatively estimated at 58,000,000 schilling, was commissioned by Francis I. Its principal figures are a naked sea god and a woman sitting opposite each other with legs entwined, symbolically representing the planet Earth. "Saliera" was stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum on May 11, 2003 by a thief who climbed scaffolding and smashed windows to enter the museum. The thief set off the alarms, but these were ignored as false, and the theft remained undiscovered until 8:20 AM. On January 21, 2006 the Saliera was recovered by the Austrian police and is supposed to be returned to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in the coming days.
   One of the most important works by Cellini from late in his career was a life-size nude crucifix carved from marble. Although originally intended to be placed over his tomb, this crucifix was sold to the Medici family who gave it to Spain. Today the crucifix is in the Escorial Monastery near Madrid, where it has usually been displayed in an altered form--the monastery added a loincloth and a crown of thorns. For detailed information about this work, see the text by Juan López Gajate in the Further Reading section of this article.
   Cellini, while employed at the papal mint at Rome during the papacy of Clement VII and later of Paul III, created the dies of several coins and medals, some of which still survive at this now defunct mint. He was also in the service of Alessandro de Medici, first duke of Florence, for whom he made in 1535 a forty-soldi piece with a bust of the duke on one side and standing figures of the saints Cosma and Damian on the other. Some connoisseurs attribute to his hand several plaques, "Jupiter crushing the Giants", "Fight between Perseus and Phinaeus", a Dog, etc.
   The important works which have perished include the uncompleted chalice intended for Clement VII; a gold cover for a prayer-book as a gift from Pope Paul III to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor — both described at length in his autobiography; large silver statues of Jupiter, Vulcan and Mars, wrought for Francis I during his sojourn in Paris; a bust of Julius Caesar; and a silver cup for the cardinal of Ferrara. The magnificent gold "button", or morse, made by Cellini for the cape of Clement VII, the competition for which is so graphically described in his autobiography, appears to have been sacrificed by Pope Pius VI, with many other priceless specimens of the goldsmith's art, in furnishing the 30,000,000 francs demanded by Napoleon at the conclusion of the campaign against the States of the Church in 1797. According to the terms of the treaty, the pope was permitted to pay a third of that sum in plate and jewels. Fortunately there are in the print room of the British Museum three watercolour drawings of this splendid morse by F. Bertoli, done at the instance of an Englishman named Talman in the first half of the 18th century. The obverse and reverse, as well as the rim, are drawn full size, and moreover the morse with the precious stones set therein, including a diamond then considered the second largest in the world, is fully described. Benvenuto's works are mentioned as "priceless" in Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper."

Cellini in literature and music

Cellini's Autobiography and other writings

Cellini's autobiographical memoirs, which he began writing in Florence in 1558, give a detailed account of his singular career, as well as his loves, hatreds, passions, and delights, written in an energetic, direct, and racy style. They show a great self-regard and self-assertion, sometimes running into extravagances which are impossible to credit. He even writes in a complacent way of how he contemplated his murders before carrying them out. He writes of his time in Paris:
Colosseum, after one of his not innumerous mistresses had been spirited away from him by her mother; of the marvelous halo of light which he found surrounding his head at dawn and twilight after his Roman imprisonment, and his supernatural visions and angelic protection during that adversity; and of his being poisoned on two separate occasions. Here, the veracity of his account may be questioned, but it isn't possible to know with certainty the final truth of these matters.
The autobiography has been translated into English by Thomas Roscoe, by John Addington Symonds, and by A. Macdonald. It has been considered and published as a classic, and commonly regarded as one of the most colourful autobiographies (certainly the most important autobiography from the Renaissance). Cellini also wrote treatises on the goldsmith's art, on sculpture, and on design.

Cellini in the works of others

The life of Cellini also inspired the French historical novelist Alexandre Dumas, père. His Ascanio is based on Cellini's years in France, centered on Asciano, an apprentice of Cellini. Dumas' trademark plot twists and intrigues feature in the novel, in this case involving Cellini, the duchesse d'Etampes, and other members of the court. Cellini is portrayed as a passionate and troubled man, plagued by the inconsistencies of life under the "patronage" of a false and somewhat cynical court.
Cellini was also the subject of an eponymous opera by Hector Berlioz and a Broadway musical, The Firebrand of Florence, by Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill, which featured Lotte Lenya (Mrs. Weill) as one of the sculptor's royal conquests. The show only ran for a month on Broadway, although some of its songs are periodically revived. It marked the last major collaboration between Weill and Gershwin, who are best known for Lady in the Dark (1941). (External Link

) Cellini's autobiography is one of the books Tom Sawyer mentions as inspiration while freeing Jim in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
In "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, an antidote to poison is presented in a vase "wrought by the hands of Benvenuto Cellini." Herman Melville compares Ahab, at the captain's first appearance, to a sculpture of Cellini. From Moby-Dick chap. 28; "His whole high, broad form, seemed made of solid bronze, and shaped in an unalterable mould, like Cellini's cast Perseus."

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