Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini (born on November 1st 1500 with Florence - died the February 13rd 1571 in the same city) is an artist of the Italian Renaissance, goldsmith and Florentin sculptor. Born in a family from goldsmiths, it applies the techniques and the precision of goldsmithery to its work of sculptor.

Biography

Benvenuto Cellini is announced by its bravery, during the Sac of Rome (1527), by defending the Château Saint-Angel, besieged by the constable of Bourbon, which it killed, one says, itself of a blow of Arquebuse. Its work is worth to him the friendship of large of its time, of the Médicis to François I {{er}}. This protection enables him to escape the judgment that its escapades and its notorious taste for young people do not fail to make plane on him. François Ier attracted it in France. He remains there between 1540 and 1544 where he will know true a glory. He makes it work for the Château of Fontainebleau and the roof of benefits. Cellini carries out out of marble several figures and some out of cast iron. Among these last one notices a group with Persée which cuts the head of Méduse, and among the first, a Christ for the vault of the Palais Pitti. Incomparable ivory Christ of 93 centimetres who is allotted to him was exposed of 1968 has 1995 year when it was stolen, in the collegial Our-Lady-of-Grace of Sérignan in Herault. Gift of the Black and white pope VII with the cardinal Isoard de Vauvenargues, this work is classified with the historical heritage. Cellini finishes its life in Italy with the service of Médicis inter alia, but it is especially famous for its works of Orfèvrerie and Ciselure, which became extremely rare and which is without price.

There is of him a Traité on the sculpture and the manner of working gold , Florence, 1568 (transl. in French by E. Piot, 1843), and of curious initulés Mémoires on his life " Life of Benvenuto Cellini by him even " , which was translated into French by Andre-Philippe Tardieu of Saint-Marcel, 1822, and by Léopold Leclanché, 1846. It is the first humanistic one to publish an autobiography which it titrates where it tells not without boastfulness its adventurous life. It has the concern of leaving a trace in the history of art and will always work in this direction although Vasari does not devote to him an article in its encyclopedia of the Italian artists of its time ( Quickly the ).

Works

sculpture

Persée holding the head of Jellyfish (1545?). Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi.
Ce bronzes monumental is an exceptional technical prowess, that Cellini tells in its memories. Indeed, the cast iron technique of bronzes of big size was lost since antiquity, and of equestrian bronzes as the Marc-Aurèle had become enigmas techniques.
De more, in spite of his size, this sculpture has the effect of not presenting a dead angle, all the points of view are harmonious.
Nymph of Fontainebleau , bronzes, Musée of Louvre, Paris
Narcisse , marble, Musée of the Bargello, Florence.
Cosimo I of Medici , bronzes, Musée of Bargello, Florence
Ganymède and the Eagle , Florence
Satyre , 1542, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
National Gallery off Art, Washington D.C:

Alessandro de' Medici , 1510-1537, first duke of Florence 1532,1500-1571,
PEGASE on Fountaine Hippocrene , 1537/1547,
Holy Cosmos and Damien , 1500/1571.

Goldsmithery

Neptune and Amphitrite . Salt box in vermeil and enamels. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum. It was carried out for François Ier, king de France. Estimated between 35 and 50 million euros in 2006, it had been stolen by a robber amateur without in May 2003 preparation and recovered into 2006 little damaged.

See too

Hector Berlioz, which composed in 1838 a opera of the same name
Etienne Mélingue
Alexandre Dumas made of Benvenuto Cellini the hero of its novel the Goldsmith of the king
Liste of sculptors

Sources

Emile Molinier, Benvenuto Cellini , Paris, 1894

Angela Biancofiore, Benvenuto Cellini artist writer: the man with work , Paris, Harmattan, 1998.

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