A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture

by Clara Erskine Clement Waters

When this artist was born his father was quite old, and named him Benvenuto, which means welcome, on account of his pleasure in the child of his old age. The father had a passion for music, and from the first wished that his son should study this art; but the boy loved drawing, and was determined to be an artist; thus his time was divided between these two pursuits until he was fifteen years old, when he was apprenticed to a goldsmith.

Benvenuto had a fiery temper, and when still very young he became involved in so serious a quarrel that he was obliged to flee from Florence. He went first to Siena, and thence to Bologna, and at last back to Florence, where he resumed his work. It was not long, however, before he became angry again because his best clothes were given to his brother, and he walked off to Pisa, where he remained a year. He had even then become so skilful in his art that some of his works done there have never been excelled either in design or execution.

When Cellini was eighteen years old Torrigiano came to Florence to engage artists to go to England to aid him in some works he was to execute. He wished to have Cellini in the number; but Torrigiano so disgusted Benvenuto by his boasting of the blow that he had given Michael Angelo, that though he had the natural youthful desire to travel, he refused to be employed by such a man as Torrigiano. We can safely assume that this predisposed Michael Angelo in Cellini's favor, and was the foundation of the friendship which he afterward showed to the younger sculptor.

From his eighteenth to his fortieth year Cellini lived mostly at Rome. He was employed by Pope Clement VII., the cardinals and Roman nobles. The Pope desired to have a cope button made and a magnificent diamond set in it. This jewel had cost Julius II. thirty-six thousand ducats. Many artists sent in designs for this button, and Clement chose that by Cellini. He used the diamond as a throne, and placed a figure of the Almighty upon it; the hand was raised as if in blessing, and many angels fluttered about the folds of the drapery, while various jewels were set around the whole. When other artists saw the design they did not believe that it could be executed successfully; but Cellini made it a perfect work of art and of beauty.

Cellini writes of himself as being very active in the siege of Rome, May 5th, 1527. He says that he killed the Constable de Bourbon, who led the siege, and that he wounded the Prince of Orange, who was chosen in Bourbon's place. No one else saw him perform these feats. Cellini went to the Pope, who was in the Castle of St. Angelo, and he there rendered such services to the cause of the Church that the Holy Father pardoned him for all the sins into which his temper had led him—"for all the homicides he had committed or might commit in the service of the Apostolic Church." A few years later, when Cellini was called upon to take part in the defence of his own city, he put all his property into the care of a friend, and stole away to Rome.

In 1534 Cellini killed a fellow-goldsmith, called Pompeo; Paul III. was now Pope; and as he needed the services of Benvenuto very much he pardoned him. But the sculptor felt that he was in ill favor with all about him, and went to France. In about a year he returned to find that he had been accused of stealing some jewels which the pope had commanded him to take out of their settings. Cellini was held a prisoner nearly two years, but his guilt was never proved.

At the end of this time the Cardinal Ippolito d'Este obtained his release in order that he might go to France to execute some work for Francis I. Cellini remained in France five years, and received many honors and gifts; but as Madame d'Étampes and other persons to whose advice the king listened were enemies of Cellini, he never was treated as his artistic qualities merited. Francis I. really admired Cellini, and presented him with the Hôtel de Petit Nesle, which was on the site of the present Hôtel de la Monnaie; he also made him a lord, and on one occasion expressed his fear of losing him, when Madame d'Étampes replied, "The surest way of keeping him would be to hang him on a gibbet."

Of all the objects which Cellini made during his five years in France but two remain. One is a splendid salt-cellar, and the other is a nymph in bronze, which was made for the Palace of Fontainebleau, and is now in the Renaissance Museum of the Louvre. This salt-cellar is now in the Ambraser Gallery at Vienna. The frieze around the base has figures in relief which represent the hours of the day and the winds. The upper part is made like the surface of the sea, and from it rise figures of Neptune and Cybele. The first is a symbol of the salt of the sea, and the second of the spices which the earth gives. The god is placing his arm on a small ship intended for the salt, and a vessel for pepper, in the form of a triumphal arch, is near the goddess. All this is made of fine embossed gold, and has some touches of enamel-work. It is one of the finest pieces of the goldsmith's art which remains from the sixteenth century.

In 1545 Cellini returned to Florence, and remained there, with short absences, until his death. Duke Cosmo de' Medici became his patron, and commissioned him to make a statue of Perseus for the Loggia de' Lanzi. The ambition of the artist was much excited by the thought of having his work placed by those of Donatello and Michael Angelo, and all care was taken from his mind, as the Duke provided him with a comfortable house and gave him a salary sufficient for his support.

It was nine years before the statue was completed and in its place, and in this time Cellini had suffered much. Baccio Bandinelli and others were his enemies, and at times the Duke had been under their influence, and would not furnish the money necessary to the work. But at last all was ready for the casting; and just at this unfortunate moment for Cellini to leave it he was seized with a severe illness; he was suffering much, and believed himself about to die, when some one ran in shouting, "Oh, Benvenuto, your work is ruined past earthly remedy!"