Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini (1 November 1500 – 13 February 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, draftsman, soldier, musician, and artist who also wrote a famous autobiography and poetry.

He was one of the most important artists of Mannerism.Benvenuto Cellini was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, draftsman, soldier, musician, and artist who also wrote a famous autobiography and poetry.

He was one of the most important artists of Mannerism. He is remembered for his skill in making pieces such as the Cellini Salt Cellar and Perseus with the Head of Medusa.

Biography:
Youth:
Welcome Cellini was born on November 3, 1500 in Florence; A tombstone dictated by Giuseppe Mellini indicates the precise place where Cellini had births, at n. 4 of Via Chiara, in the area of ​​Mercato Nuovo The mother was Florentine Elisabetta Granacci; His father, on the other hand, was Giovanni d'Andrea of ​​Cristofano, a musical instruments player and ivory carter who was working on the construction of violas, harps and lutes according to his son "beautiful and very beautiful", and "marvelous" organs And harpsichords remembered by Benvenuto as "the best and the most beautiful ones to see"

Already in his "tender" age, his father, who among other things was part of the group of piffers in Florence, sought to start his son to study music, so that he would become "a great sonor" Thanks to the teachings of Dad John, Florentine organist Francesco dell'Aiolle, Cellini - despite the malevoglia - revealed remarkable musical talent, especially in the flute and in the croissant. However, this was a more than spontaneous induced dedication, so that the ambitions of the young Benvenuto were not aimed at To excel in what he now called "cursed sonata", but to become "the first homo of the world" in the field of jewelery art. For this reason, since 1513, young Cellini visited the hometown of the wormhole and armory Michelangelo Bandinelli, and then two years later under Antonio Sandro's command, Marcone, "a very good practitioner, and a very good man, ally and free in everything his »

Goldsmiths' shops and shrubs:
Cellini suddenly expressed his indignant and violent intensity at the age of sixteen, in 1516: in fact, he was exiled with his brother Cecchino in Siena, where he stayed for many months studying goldsmiths in the workshop of Francesco Castoro Returning to Florence, Father Benvenuto's desires went to Bologna to perfect the "sonar"; While assisting her father's will, Cellini was able to wait for her beloved goldsmiths, working first with Ercole del Piffero, then with an Israelite, such Graziadio, and finally with the Bolognese miniature Scipione Cavalletti After an afflicted stop in Florence, where To escape because of his father's insistence on music, in 1517 Cellini continued his goldsmith's training at the Ulivoeri of the Cloister's Clockwork in Pisa, where he also applied to the study of ancient works

After a fever, Cellini went back to Florence, where he returned to work for Antonio di Sandro, thanks to whom he also met the sculptor Pietro Torrigiano; Later, he was closely linked with another goldsmith, Francesco Salimbene, with whom he "earned a great deal, and was very fatigued to learn" New jokes and tears forced Cellini to move again: he sought refuge first in Siena, and then In Rome, where we find him from 1519 to 1520 to work as a garrison at Firenzuola de 'Georgis and subsequently to Paolo Arsago From 1521 to 1523, Father Father Cellini returned to Florence where he first worked with Salimbene and then with Giambattista Sogliani , Who "pleasantly accommodated a part of his shop, which was on the New Market Song"

At the end of 1523, Cellini's impetuous temperament manifested itself again: at this time, in fact, the disagreements with the Guasconti, a Florentine orchard family hostile to him by pure and simple envy, come to pass. "Not knowing what color the fear was ", Cellini wounded with a dagger Gherardo Guasconti and Bartholomew Benvenuti, who took the defenses. This quarrel caused Cellini to condemn him to death in absentia, because of which he fled to Rome; In the city of Ube, the young Benvenuto was welcomed in Lucagnolo's shop by Iesi, where he began producing jewels (the two candlesticks for the bishop of Salamanca and the jewel for the wife of Sigismondo Chigi), then to pass in 1524 by Giovan Francesco Of the Tacca

The pontificate of Clement VII:
In 1524, Benvenuto Cellini opened his own shop and became part of the fanfare of Pope Clement VII where he served as a "croissant" Among the works of art expressly mentioned in Life, in the Roman years there are rumors for the cardinal Food Malaspina and other prelates, a silver jar and jar for Berengario da Carpi, gold medals for men's cap for the Cesari gonfalonier, and finally daggers and gold and steel rings. These are the realizations in which he He showed himself very sensitive to the Medados Caradosso, Amerigo Righi and Lautizio Rotelli, "unique" in the manufacture of seals; He also attended Giulio Romano and other artists of the circle of Raffaello, thanks to whom the orphan apprentice could expand his figurative culture and begin to inform personal orientations of taste. In the meantime, his ruthless character experienced new explosions for which he was often the protagonist Of diverbi and duels; Impressed by the reappearance of the plague, also spent a month of convalescence at the residence of the Count of Anguillara in Cerveteri, where he was friendly with the painter Manierista Rosso Fiorentino

In 1527, when he appeared at the doors of the Ursula of the Lanzichenecchi at the expense of Charles V of Habsburg, Cellini repaired with Clement VII in the Castel Sant'Angelo, actively participating in his defense in the double-facet of archibug and bomber: the sack In Rome, Cellini saw Cellini kill the besieging commander, Charles III of Bourbon-Montpensier, and hurt his prince of Orange, as he himself reports in Life (therefore information is unacceptable, albeit never denied). As most of the artists left Rome, and first went to Florence, and then to Mantua, where he arrived in 1528. Here we find him in the shop of "a certain master Nicolò Milanese"; In Mantua, too, Cellini performed a considerable number of works for the court of the Gonzaga, including a silver seal for Cardinal Hercules, a golden seal for the duke and a relic of the blood of Christ, from Placed in the city duomo, but which remained in the sketch state

After a short stay in Florence, however, in 1529 Cellini returned to Rome, a guest of the wreath Raffaello del Moro; In the Umbrian he resumed the service for Pope Clement VII, nominated by the same master himself of the prints of the Roman mint, for which he made the two silver carlings and the double gold with two different droppings. The year later he performed other Coins and elaborated the Clemente VII pewter button, for which he also started a golden chalice, left unfinished. Meanwhile, he also killed the killer of his brother Cecchino, assassinated in Rome in a fight; The pope did nothing but shake the Cellini very bitterly, granting him a little later a bribe of a dealer. In 1534, when he had opened a shop in the current street of the New Banks for a two-year period, Cellini began not to enjoy the pontifical support ; The situation precipitated when, following an offense, he wound up a ser Benedetto notary, aggression for which he was forced to flee to Naples, where he was well received by the viceroy

The Pauline Pontificate III:
Returning to Rome, Cellini presented to Clement VII a virgin, a medal he made long ago for him, obtaining from him the commission to equip him with a new turn to celebrate the well of Orvieto. At the death of Clement VII, Cellini killed a rival goldsmith , Pompeo de 'Capitaneis; The neo-Pope Paul III Farnese immediately took over the killer and even commissioned a coin of a shield with his own effigy. The following year, concerned by the enmity with Pier Luigi Farnese, the son of the pontiff, Cellini decided to move In Florence, where he executed four coins for Alessandro Farnese; From his hometown then went hastily to Venice with Jacopo Sansovino Urtatosi with Ottaviano de 'Medici, the orekeeper supported the Pope's invitation and returned to Rome; After a serious illness for which he had visions from Dante's Inferno, and after a further trip to Florence, he executed the cover of a "Virgin of Madonna" on the cover of the Pope, which he later presented in 1536 to Emperor Carlo V

In 1537, to escape the increasingly alarming hostilities of Pier Luigi Farnese, Cellini suddenly went to Paris, guest of the painter Andrea Sguazzella; Here he probably did a medal for King Francis I, who met in Lyon. However, the French stay was short-lived, so that after a while the orefice returned to Rome, where he opened a new "bigger" shop than the Banchi The New These were, however, very annoying: Pier Luigi Farnese, in fact, managed to imprison the Cellini in Castel Sant'Angelo, under the charge of theft of some of Clement VII's possessions during Sacco Cellini was able to escape almost immediately from prison , Though breaking a leg, and when outside he found shelter at Cardinal Cornaro, who handed it over to the Pope; The latter finally imprisoned the oregon at Tor di Nona, and then again in Castel Sant'Angelo. Here he remained until December of 1539, when he was now free, was received by Cardinal Ippolito d'Este for the Who made a seal and two stucco portraits

French Period:
At this point, after taking up the posthumous imprisonment, Cellini set out for France; After stopping in Siena, where he killed a mailmaster, and in Ferrara, arrived at Fontainebleau in September 1540, where he was well received by King Francis I of France, then to Paris with the court of the monarch. An annual provision of seven hundred shields and offered him the lodge of the Petit-Nesle castle on the left bank of the Seine, as long as he engaged in the execution of twelve gigantic statues and tassels depicting so many gods of Olympus (only Jupiter was made, while Juno Was perhaps merged but definitely not finished) In 1542 Francesco I granted his French naturalization to his protégé, while in 1543 the famous Saliera, already sketched in Italy for Cardinal d'Este, and the models for the Porte Dorée, known as Fontainebleau , Of which only the Nymphs and the two Cellini Wins were executed at the end, did not neglect the carnal pleasures, invading u Na models of Porte Dorée, Jehanne: with the latter he created a little girl, Constance, born June 7, 1544

In fact, these were years of artistic fervor that he did not know about. Francesco I was a gifted and educated buyer, always willing to give him the gold and silver needed to satisfy his artistic needs. Yet, in 1545, Cellini decided to To leave Paris, due to some disagreements with various courtesans, but above all because of "certain magages that were wrong to me" (expressly forbidden in life and elsewhere). For this reason, after a short stop in Lyon, Cellini He crossed the Alps and returned to Florence

At the service of Doctors:
Cellini was warmly welcomed by Medici court Cosimo I de 'Medici, in fact, raised him to a sculptor of court assuring him a noble stay in a house in via del Rosario, where the sculptor planted his foundry and assigning him an annual salary of two hundred shields; He also commissioned him to produce two important bronze sculptures: his own bust and the Perseus group with Medusa's head, to be placed in the Lanzi Loggia

Cellini fused the bust of Cosimo de 'Medici in 1546, after being temporarily removed from Florence to escape the sodomy accusation (repaired to Venice where he met Titian). The Perseus gestation, on the other hand, was much more difficult due to numerous Difficulties encountered during the metal fusion, but Cellini still managed to inaugurate the statue in April 1554, generating a very warm welcome Among other cellular interventions of this period, mention is made of the restoration of an ancient Ganimede and the launch of Narcissus Marble (1548-49), the execution of bronze statues of Jupiter, Danae with Perseus, Minerva, Mercury, placed in the base of Perseus (1552), and the fortification of two gates of the circle of Florence (1553-54)

After the triumph of Perseus, however, Cellini was forced into inoperability, due to the position of preeminence taken by his rivals Bandinelli and Ammannati in the Florentine artistic scene; The latter had recently imposed no particular sculptural merit, but because they were most submissive to the rigorous Medici label. These were the circumstances that led to the gestation of Life: no longer able to "do", in fact, Cellini began to "say", putting to He recorded his own conception of art but, above all, his existential existence, so to point out to Cosimo de 'Medici the value of that artist who was prevented from operating Fu so that Cellini began in 1558 the writing of Life, a literary work which A brief break in 1562, due to the renunciation of ecclesiastical orders, to the marriage with Piera de 'Paris and the birth of a son - was completed in 1567. This striking disappointment was further exacerbated by the various misadventures of the judiciary: in 1556 he was imprisoned for Having beaten the goldsmith John of Lorenzo, and the following year he was sentenced to fifty fine shields and four years Prisons (then switched to four years of house arrest) because during "five years [] he held Fernando di Giovanni di Montepulciano [] in bed as his wife"

On the other hand, in the last decade of life, on the side of Life, he was also involved in the writing of the Ornament Treatise and the Sculpture Treaty, which began in 1565 and ended three years later when the two works were given to the prints

Benvenuto Cellini finally died in Florence on February 13, 1571; Just before his death, he gave all his "endless and unfinished" sculptures to Francesco I de 'Medici. He was buried in the Chapel of San Luca

Artistic production:
Sculptor Cellini:
Following the very work of apprentice artists of the time, Cellini was able to come into contact with Lombard goldsmith Caradosso, with the circle of Raffaello's "youths" and Michelangelo's frescoes in the Vatican, where he led his studies Daily The late-raffaellesco and michelangiolesco model was, in fact, decisive for its formation; The seal of Gonzaga, bearing in mind the "agile prestige of the figures" [], the insertion, in swirling and dramatic, of the amplitude of the environment, even within the narrow limits of the work "(Treccani)

After the outbreak, Cellini absorbed the most effective suggestions from the paintings by Sebastiano del Piombo and, above all, by the example of Michelangelo Buonarroti, who was able to admire further by visiting the Medici tombs in San Lorenzo, Florence, for example, Michelangelo's desinences In the two reversals for the medal of Clement VII, especially in the second, with a Moses animated by an energetic dynamism at first unknown to Cellini The thought of the "great Michelagnolo", who benefited from the passionate devotion of the sculptor ("[from him] From others I have learned all I know, "he would later write) but was received by Cellini filtered through that of the Mannerists, inspired by the urgent desire for a revival of the fifteenth century, and especially of Donatello's art; Numerous cellular works, such as Stories of St. Ambrose and Baptist in the seal for Cardinal d'Este and coins for Duke Alessandro, are imbued with Donatellian elements

The second French stay was a decisive turning point for the artistic style of Cellini. It was on that occasion that the Saliera was performed, where Cellini fused into a single work the preciousness of goldsmith art with the virtuosity of sculpture. From the fervid yard Of Fontainebleau, in particular, Cellini absorbed various influences, noticeable in the decorative exuberance of the Saliera, in turn evoked by the contrast between the agile flexibility of the main figures and the massive, almost caricatural robustness of the Winds During his stay in Fontainebleau, , Cellini developed some gusto for the giant, as witnessed by the sixteen-meter-long Mars designed for the palace fountain; The sudden return to Italy, however, made Cellini move towards Michelangelo again and the "return" of the fifteenth century

The most remarkable example of cellular plastic after repatriation is Perseus with the head of Medusa of the Loggia dei Lanzi, where it represents the most important sculpture "between the classically Renaissance buildings of Sansovino and the serpentine figure of Giambologna" The work was immediate: the Perseus, in fact, beyond the political meaning (in reference to Cosimo de 'Medici stinging every republican velleità, as well as the Greek hero decapitated the Gorgon), perfectly reflects the ideal of male beauty according to Manuscript royalties, presenting a "highly aristocratic, refined, languid, sensual figure [] which is neither incarnating nor heroism nor spirituality" (Giuseppe Nifosì) The fusion of the work was also given to the fame of the work, Is spoken in Perseus with the head of Medusa § An extraordinary merger

Writer Cellini:
From 1558 to 1567 Cellini was involved in the writing of his autobiography, Benvenuto di Vittoria di Maestro Giovanni Cellini Florentine, written for him, in Florence, then post-printed in Naples in 1728

Using a clear and spontaneous language and drawing full hands from the expressive power of the Florentine language, Cellini conveyed to the posters a valuable biographical document telling of the genesis of his works and of the various episodes that characterized his irregular existence, With steps to become famous (exorcism in the Colosseum, visit of Francesco I to the atelier in Paris, flight from Castel Sant'Angelo). The historical value of the work, which is proposed as a fresco of the Sixteenth century society, as observed by the literary critic Carlo Cordié:

"So Benvenuto ended up becoming a model, indeed a hero and perhaps even a myth; it was a bit, to understand, the representative of a dagger, poison, and intrigue of Italy, which he could dream of a polished and yet romantically restless spirit as Stendhal Not without reason his Dongo Fabrizio escapes - in the Chartreuse de Parme - from the Farnese Tower as Cellini did from Castel Sant'Angelo! »
(Carlo Cordié)
The Cellini man:
Benvenuti Cellini in his life had a bloodthirsty and iroso, ingraiably arrogant, without failing to remain involved in litigation and rivaling with rival goldsmiths or petty patrons: it even stained several homicides (often driven by futile motives) in a similar way How will Caravaggio still be the most notorious in the seventeenth century A vivid portrait of Benvenuto Cellini is offered to us by Giuseppe Baretti, a 18th-century literary critic who wrote:

"We have no book of our language so delightful to read as the Life of that Benvenuto Cellini written by him in the pure and prettiest talk of the Florentine plebeus Quell Cellini painted himself with the utmost ingenuity and what he felt to be [ ] Which is animated like a French grenadier, vindictive as a viper, superstitious in the highest degree, and full of bizarre and whimsical; Galating in a bunch of friends, but little susceptible to tender friendship; I am lascivious indeed that chaste; A little traitor without believing it; A little envious and evil; Quarrelsome and vain, without being suspected; Without circles and without affection; With a dose of crazy, mediocre, accompanied by firm confidence to be very wise, circumspect and prudent. Of this beautiful character, the impetuous Benvenuto was painted in his Life without thinking of you more than that, persuasive of always painting a hero »
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