Biography
Cellini was born on 3 November 1500 in Florence, the son of a landowner and musical instrument maker, Giovanni Cellini (son of a bricklayer) and Maria Lisabetta Grinacci. Benvenuto was the second child in the family, who appeared in the nineteenth year of his parents' marriage.
Despite the desire of his father, who wanted to see his son as a musician, in 1513 Benvenuto was hired as an apprentice in the workshop of the jeweler Brandini, where he learned how to artistic metal processing. From these years, he began to participate in many fights, especially with other jewelers, which is why in 1516 and 1523 he was expelled from his native city. After wandering around Italy, he settled in Rome in 1524, where he became close to the top of the Vatican.
Creation
The book "The Life of Benvenuto, son of Maestro Giovanni Cellini, a Florentine, written by himself in Florence" is one of the most remarkable works of literature of the 16th century. Benvenuto Cellini began writing his autobiography in 1558, but most of the manuscript is in the hand of a 14-year-old boy, Cellini's secretary, with a few more pages in another hand. The chronicle reaches 1562. In the 18th century, after various adventures, the manuscript disappeared. In 1805, it was found in a bookstore in Florence and transferred to the Laurenzian Library, where it remains to this day. The first printed edition appeared in Naples in 1728.
The life of Benvenuto Cellini is written in a literary manner that can be called popular, and in this it differs from such works as the Confessions of Blessed Augustine or the Confessions of Rousseau. In the pages of his book, Benvenuto Cellini did not express any new ideas; he described his adventures, thoughts and feelings with a frankness not characteristic of the autobiographical genre of the previous time, and made it a rich colloquial language that very convincingly conveys the train of thought and experience of a person.
Contemporaries highly valued Cellini as a craftsman, but opinions were divided regarding his artistic talent; however, despite this, he represented the sculptors at the ceremonial burial of Michelangelo. Varki and Vasari praised his talent as a goldsmith. Vasari, for example, wrote that Cellini is an unsurpassed master of medal art, surpassing even the ancients, and the greatest jeweler of his time, as well as a wonderful sculptor. Of the works of jewelry he created, few have survived: the salt shaker of Francis I (1540-1543, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), medals and coins made for Pope Clement VII and Alessandro Medici, as well as sketches of a decorative fastener for the vestments of Clement VII.
Cellini's place in the history of art is determined primarily by his work in the field of sculpture. His work was influential in the development of Mannerism. The most significant of his works, created during his stay in France, is the bronze relief of the Nymph of Fontainebleau (before 1545, Louvre). Of the surviving works, made by him upon his return to Florence: Perseus (1545-1553, Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi), statuette of Borzoi (1545-1546, Florence, Bargello); bust of Cosimo de' Medici (1545-1548, ibid); Ganymede (1548-1550); Apollo and Hyacinth; Narcissus (all in Florence); bust of Bindo Altoviti; Crucifixion (c. 1562, Escorial).
One day, Benvenuto disappeared from the Vatican for a long time, taking with him gold and several precious stones given to him for work from the papal vault. Moreover, his absence was long enough to provoke the wrath of His Holiness. When, finally, Cellini returned, he was greeted with abuse: “Oh, these artists! Eternal visitors to taverns, companions of depraved girls, scum of society, pagans, and not good Christians! - Instead of an excuse, Cellini silently laid out a cypress chest, inside of which was a gem of multi-colored sardonyx. Abruptly cutting off his angry philippics, dad looked at the thing for a long time and carefully. On the stone, Cellini carved the canonical gospel story, the Last Supper. At the same time, the multi-colored stone was used in the most inventive way. All the spots, colors, and veins of the sardonyx were used in the canon story to characterize the characters. Christ turned out to be in a white natural robe, the apostle John - in blue, Peter - in red, and Judas, of course, in a gloomy dark brown chiton. But most of all, the dad was struck by the idea that this sardonyx had been lying on the ground for many thousands of years like a simple cobblestone and no one cared about it. But then, the "dissolute" artist came, touched the stone with his simple chisel and created a miracle from the cobblestone. Benvenuto Cellini was forgiven and proclaimed the beloved son of the church. His masterpiece was solemnly transferred to the Cathedral of the Apostle Peter and placed in the altar of the main narthex. Here it is to this day, along with other selected gems of all times of Christianity. :125
The autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini inspired Alexander Dumas to create the novel "Ascanio" - which describes the period of Benvenuto Cellini's life in France, in which Dumas the father skillfully weaves the love story of Ascanio's apprentice to the daughter of the Parisian prevost - Colomba. In 1877, the composer Emilio Bozzano wrote the opera Benvenuto Cellini based on the libretto by Giuseppe Perosio based on the same autobiography.
The historian of philosophy G. Gefding (1843-1931) reports that while in prison, Benvenuto Cellini had a real vision of the sun rising above the wall, in the middle of which was the crucified Jesus Christ, followed by Mary with the Child in the form of a relief. According to the book written by Cellini, A. Dumas Sr. wrote the novel Ascanio.
Movie incarnations
- In the 1963 film "Magnificent Adventurer" dedicated to the life of Benvenuto Cellini, he was played by Brett Halsey.
- The life of Benvenuto Cellini is dedicated to the biographical film Cellini: A Life of Crime (1990).
- In the film "Gold" in 1992, Cellini is presented in a comic role. During the siege of Rome by the army of Charles of Bourbon, he knocks down Charles's head with a cannon shot,
but dad does not thank, but reprimands him.
In literature
- Benvenuto Cellini is one of the main characters in the novel Ascanio by Alexandre Dumas père.
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Notes
Compositions
- Vita, a cura di G. G. Ferrero, Torino, 1959;
- in Russian translated - "The life of Benvenuto, son of Maestro Giovanni Cellini, a Florentine, written by himself in Florence", trans. M. Lozinsky, entry. article by A. K. Dzhivelegov, M. - L.,;
- the same, 2nd ed., entry. Art. L. Pinsky, M., 1958.
Bibliography
- Dzhivelegov A.K., Essays on the Italian Renaissance. Castiglione, Aretino, Cellini, M., 1929;
- Vipper B. R., Benvenuto Cellini, in his book: Articles on Art. M., 1970;
- Camesasca E., Tutta l'opera del Cellini, Mil., 1955;
- Calamandrei P., Scritti e inediti celliniani, Firenze, 1971.
- Lopez Gajate, Juan. El Cristo Blanco de Cellini. San Lorenzo del Escorial: Escurialenses, 1995.
- Pope-Hennessy, John Wyndham. Cellini. New York: Abbeville Press, 1985.
- Parker, Derek: Cellini. London, Sutton, 2004.
- // Culture of the Renaissance of the XVI century. - M.: Nauka, 1997, p. 157-163
- Sorotokina N. M. Benvenuto Cellini. - M.: Veche, 2011. - 368 p., ill. - “Great ist. persons". - 3000 copies, ISBN 978-5-9533-5165-2
Links
- . Eastern Literature. Retrieved May 18, 2011. .
An excerpt characterizing Cellini, Benvenuto
- Yes, I will not give up Moscow without giving a battle.Whether Kutuzov was thinking about something completely different when he said these words, or on purpose, knowing their meaninglessness, he said them, but Count Rostopchin did not answer and hastily moved away from Kutuzov. And a strange thing! The commander-in-chief of Moscow, the proud Count Rostopchin, took a whip in his hands, went up to the bridge and began shouting to disperse the crowded wagons.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, Murat's troops entered Moscow. In front rode a detachment of Wirtemberg hussars, behind on horseback, with a large retinue, the Neapolitan king himself rode.
Near the middle of the Arbat, near Nikola Yavlenny, Murat stopped, waiting for news from the advance detachment about the situation in the city fortress "le Kremlin".
Around Murat, a small group of people from the residents who remained in Moscow gathered. Everyone looked with timid bewilderment at the strange, long-haired chief adorned with feathers and gold.
- Well, is it himself, or what, their king? Nothing! quiet voices were heard.
The interpreter drove up to a bunch of people.
“Take off your hat… take off your hat,” they started talking in the crowd, addressing each other. The interpreter turned to an old janitor and asked how far it was to the Kremlin? The janitor, listening with bewilderment to the Polish accent alien to him and not recognizing the sounds of the interpreter as Russian, did not understand what was said to him and hid behind the others.
Murat moved up to the interpreter and ordered him to ask where the Russian troops were. One of the Russian people understood what was being asked of him, and several voices suddenly began to answer the interpreter. A French officer from the advance detachment rode up to Murat and reported that the gates to the fortress were closed up and that there was probably an ambush there.
- Good, - said Murat and, turning to one of the gentlemen of his retinue, he ordered four light guns to be advanced and fired at the gates.
Artillery trotted out from behind the column following Murat and drove along the Arbat. Having descended to the end of Vzdvizhenka, the artillery stopped and lined up on the square. Several French officers disposed of the cannons, placing them, and looked at the Kremlin through a telescope.
In the Kremlin, the bell was heard for Vespers, and this ringing embarrassed the French. They assumed it was a call to arms. Several infantry soldiers ran to the Kutafiev Gate. Logs and plank shields lay in the gates. Two rifle shots rang out from under the gate as soon as the officer with the team began to run up to them. The general, who was standing by the guns, shouted command words to the officer, and the officer with the soldiers ran back.
Three more shots were heard from the gate.
One shot hit a French soldier in the leg, and a strange cry from a few voices was heard from behind the shields. On the faces of the French general, officers and soldiers at the same time, as if on command, the former expression of cheerfulness and calmness was replaced by a stubborn, concentrated expression of readiness for struggle and suffering. For all of them, from the marshal to the last soldier, this place was not Vzdvizhenka, Mokhovaya, Kutafya and Trinity Gates, but it was a new area of a new field, probably a bloody battle. And everyone is ready for this battle. The screams from the gates ceased. The guns were advanced. The gunners blew off their burnt overcoats. The officer commanded "feu!" [fall!], and two whistling sounds of tin cans were heard one after another. Card-shot bullets crackled on the stone of the gate, logs and shields; and two clouds of smoke wavered in the square.
A few moments after the rolling of shots on the stone Kremlin had died down, a strange sound was heard over the heads of the French. A huge flock of jackdaws rose above the walls and, croaking and rustling with thousands of wings, circled in the air. Together with this sound, a lonely human cry was heard at the gate, and from behind the smoke appeared the figure of a man without a hat, in a caftan. Holding a gun, he aimed at the French. Feu! - repeated the artillery officer, and at the same time one rifle and two gun shots were heard. The smoke closed the gate again.
Nothing else moved behind the shields, and the French infantry soldiers with officers went to the gate. There were three wounded and four dead people in the gate. Two men in caftans ran downstairs, along the walls, towards Znamenka.
- Enlevez moi ca, [Take it away,] - said the officer, pointing to the logs and corpses; and the French, having finished off the wounded, threw the corpses down behind the fence. Who these people were, no one knew. “Enlevez moi ca” is only said about them, and they were thrown away and cleaned up afterwards so that they would not stink. One Thiers dedicated several eloquent lines to their memory: “Ces miserables avaient envahi la citadelle sacree, s "etaient empares des fusils de l" arsenal, et tiraient (ces miserables) sur les Francais. On en sabra quelques "uns et on purgea le Kremlin de leur presence. [These unfortunates filled the sacred fortress, took possession of the guns of the arsenal and fired at the French. Some of them were chopped down with sabers, and the Kremlin was cleared of their presence.]
Murat was informed that the path had been cleared. The French entered the gate and began to camp on the Senate Square. Soldiers threw chairs out of the windows of the senate into the square and laid out fires.
Other detachments passed through the Kremlin and were stationed along Maroseyka, Lubyanka, and Pokrovka. Still others were located along Vzdvizhenka, Znamenka, Nikolskaya, Tverskaya. Everywhere, not finding owners, the French were placed not like in the city in apartments, but like in a camp located in the city.
Although ragged, hungry, exhausted and reduced to 1/3 of their former strength, the French soldiers entered Moscow in orderly order. It was an exhausted, exhausted, but still fighting and formidable army. But this was an army only until the moment when the soldiers of this army dispersed to their quarters. As soon as the people of the regiments began to disperse to empty and rich houses, the army was forever destroyed and not residents and not soldiers were formed, but something in between, called marauders. When, after five weeks, the same people left Moscow, they no longer constituted an army. It was a crowd of marauders, each of whom was carrying or carrying with him a bunch of things that he thought were valuable and needed. The goal of each of these people when leaving Moscow was not, as before, to win, but only to keep what they had acquired. Like that monkey who, having put his hand into the narrow throat of a jug and seized a handful of nuts, does not open his fist so as not to lose what he has seized, and this destroys himself, the French, when leaving Moscow, obviously had to die due to the fact that they were dragging with loot, but it was as impossible for him to give up this loot as it is impossible for a monkey to unclench a handful of nuts. Ten minutes after the entry of each French regiment into some quarter of Moscow, not a single soldier and officer remained. In the windows of the houses one could see people in overcoats and boots, laughingly pacing around the rooms; in the cellars, in the cellars, the same people were in charge with provisions; in the yards, the same people unlocked or beat off the gates of sheds and stables; fires were laid out in the kitchens, with rolled up hands they baked, kneaded and boiled, frightened, made laugh and caressed women and children. And there were many of these people everywhere, both in shops and in houses; but the troops were gone.
On the same day, order after order was given by the French commanders to forbid the troops to disperse around the city, to strictly prohibit the violence of the inhabitants and looting, to make a general roll call that very evening; but no matter what measures. the people who had previously made up the army spread out over the rich, abundant in amenities and supplies, empty city. Just as a hungry flock marches in a heap across a bare field, but immediately disperses irresistibly as soon as it attacks rich pastures, so the army dispersed irresistibly throughout a rich city.
There were no inhabitants in Moscow, and the soldiers, like water into the sand, soaked into it and spread like an unstoppable star in all directions from the Kremlin, into which they entered first of all. The cavalry soldiers, entering the merchant's house left with all the good and finding stalls not only for their horses, but also superfluous, nevertheless went side by side to occupy another house, which seemed better to them. Many occupied several houses, writing with chalk what he was doing, and arguing and even fighting with other teams. Not having time to fit yet, the soldiers ran out into the street to inspect the city and, according to the rumor that everything was abandoned, rushed to where they could pick up valuable things for free. The commanders went to stop the soldiers and themselves were involuntarily involved in the same actions. There were shops with carriages in Karetny Ryad, and the generals crowded there, choosing carriages and carriages for themselves. The remaining residents invited the chiefs to their place, hoping that they would be protected from robbery. There was an abyss of wealth, and there was no end in sight; everywhere, around the place that the French had occupied, there were still unexplored, unoccupied places in which, as it seemed to the French, there were still more riches. And Moscow sucked them further and further into itself. Exactly as due to the fact that water is poured onto dry land, water and dry land disappear; in the same way, because a hungry army entered a plentiful, empty city, the army was destroyed, and a plentiful city was destroyed; and there was dirt, fires and looting.
The French attributed the fire of Moscow to au patriotisme feroce de Rastopchine [Rastopchin's wild patriotism]; Russians - to the fanaticism of the French. In essence, there were no such reasons and could not be. Moscow burned down due to the fact that it was placed in such conditions under which any wooden city must burn down, regardless of whether or not there are one hundred and thirty bad fire pipes in the city. Moscow had to burn down due to the fact that the inhabitants left it, and just as inevitably as a pile of shavings should catch fire, on which sparks of fire would fall for several days. A wooden city, in which there are fires almost every day in the summer with residents, owners of houses and the police, cannot help but burn when there are no inhabitants in it, but troops live, smoking pipes, laying fires on Senate Square from Senate chairs and cooking themselves two times a day. In peacetime it is necessary for troops to settle down in apartments in villages in a certain area, and the number of fires in this area immediately increases. To what extent should the probability of fires increase in an empty wooden city in which a foreign army is stationed? Le patriotisme feroce de Rastopchine and the savagery of the French are not to blame for anything here. Moscow caught fire from pipes, from kitchens, from bonfires, from the slovenliness of enemy soldiers, residents - not the owners of houses. If there were arson (which is very doubtful, because there was no reason for anyone to set fire, and, in any case, troublesome and dangerous), then arson cannot be taken as a reason, since without arson it would be the same.
No matter how flattering it was for the French to blame the atrocities of Rastopchin and for the Russians to blame the villain Bonaparte or then to put the heroic torch into the hands of their people, one cannot but see that there could not be such a direct cause of the fire, because Moscow had to burn down, as every village, factory should burn down , any house from which the owners will come out and into which they will be allowed to host and cook their own porridge of strangers. Moscow is burned down by the inhabitants, it is true; but not by those inhabitants who remained in it, but by those who left it. Moscow, occupied by the enemy, did not remain intact, like Berlin, Vienna and other cities, only due to the fact that its inhabitants did not bring bread of salt and keys to the French, but left it.
Cellini Benvenuto - famous Florentine sculptor, representative of mannerism, jeweler, author of several books. The most famous of them were "The Life of Benvenuto" and two treatises: "On the Art of Sculpture" and "On Jewelery". In this article, you will be presented with a brief biography of the Italian.
Childhood
Cellini Benvenuto was born in 1500 in Florence. From childhood, the boy began to show the ability to music. The father tried in every possible way to develop them with Benvenuto, hoping that his son would perfectly master this profession. But little Cellini himself did not like music lessons and felt disgust for it, although he learned to sing well from notes and play the flute. At the age of 13, the future sculptor developed an interest in jewelry. Benvenuto convinced his parents to send him to study with the goldsmith Bandini. In subsequent years, the young Cellini traveled extensively in Italy, learning from the best jewelers. Only in 1518 did he return to Florence.
jewelry
During the five years of Cellini's training, Benvenuto became a skilled craftsman. At first he worked in his native city, but soon went to Rome. The work of an apprentice did not please Benvenuto very much, because a third of the earnings had to be given to the owner. In addition, in terms of the quality of work, he surpassed many eminent jewelers who profited from his work. This forced the young man to go home.
Own workshop
Cellini Benvenuto found many customers in a very short time. But some events of his hectic life prevented the jeweler from working calmly. The Council of Eight condemned Benvenuto for a serious fight. For this reason, the young man had to flee the city, disguised as a monk. But this time, Cellini had the funds to open his workshop in the capital of Italy. The young man made vases of silver and gold for the nobility, minted medals for hats and set precious stones. In addition, Benvenuto mastered the manufacture of seals and the art of enamel. All Rome knew his name. Pope Clement VII himself ordered several things from Cellini. The creative work of Benvenuto was interspersed with quarrels, fights and scandals. Vindictiveness, suspiciousness and irascibility more than once forced the young man to prove his own innocence with the help of a dagger.
Change of profession
Fighting temperament helped Cellini in 1527. It was at this time that Rome was besieged by the German-Spanish army. And Benvenuto went from jeweler to master gunner. For a month, he helped the soldiers defend the pope in the besieged castle of St. Angelo. This continued until Clement signed the surrender treaty. The jeweler was generously rewarded for his heroism.
Dissolute life and prison
Benvenuto Cellini, whose work became known outside Italy, flourished in creative activity, but still led a dissolute life, making enemies. Without a lady of the heart, the sculptor is mired in promiscuity. As a result, he picked up the "French disease", which almost deprived the master of his sight. In 1537, during a trip to Florence, he was tormented by a terrible fever. But the most severe blow of fate was the arrest. Cellini was accused of stealing precious stones and gold from the papal fortress during its defense ten years ago. Despite the fact that all suspicions were removed, the jeweler spent three whole years in prison.
Paris
In 1540, Benvenuto Cellini, whose sculptures are now known all over the world, came to Paris and got a job at court. The king was very pleased with the things made by the master. He especially liked the silver figure of Jupiter, which was used as a huge candlestick. But five years later, Cellini was forced to leave the French court due to intrigues and open disregard for his talent.
sculptures
In subsequent years, Benvenuto was engaged in the processing of marble ("Venus and Cupid", "Narcissus", "Apollo with Hyacinth", "Ganymede") and the manufacture of various luxury items. But his favorite sculpture, on which he worked every day, was Perseus with the Head of Medusa. The master did it for eight years. First, Cellini created a full-length wax model, and then a plaster model of the sculpture. When the time came to cast the "Perseus" from bronze, the master fell down with a fever. Benvenuto was so bad that he began to prepare for death. But when Cellini found out about the mistakes of the apprentices, who almost ruined the statue, he saved the casting in a feverish state and was soon miraculously healed.
Last work
The last work of the sculptor that has come down to us is The Crucified Christ. Many art historians consider it the most perfect creation of the master. Initially carved from white marble, the figure of Christ (life-size), later crucified on a black cross, was intended for the tomb of Cellini himself. But later it was bought by the Duke of Medici and presented to Philip II. It still stands in the Escorial in the church of St. Lawrence to this day.
Last years
The sculptor wrote his autobiography, The Life of Benvenuto, while in a deep depression. The pages of the publication are full of his complaints and complaints about misunderstanding, as well as the humiliation of dignity and talent. The master devoted a separate chapter to the greed of the Medici. The duke did not fully pay for the statue of Perseus made for him. Benvenuto Cellini only forgot to inform readers about the monasticism he accepted in 1558. After a couple of years, he cut his hair. At the age of 60, the sculptor decided to fulfill his forgotten vow - Cellini married Mona Pierre, with whom he had eight children. Despite the frivolity in money matters, Benvenuto managed to support his large family. In addition, he supported with money two illegitimate offspring and a widowed sister with her five daughters.
The life of Benvenuto Cellini, full of tireless work, exploits and scandals, ended in 1571.
“There is no other book in our language that would be so pleasant to read as Cellini's Biography,” wrote Baretti, the most famous Italian critic of the 18th century. This enthusiastic assessment is indicative of the attitude of posterity to the remarkable memoir of the Renaissance. The artist's fascinating story about his life is of great interest to cultural historians and philosophers, art historians and linguists, poets and critics, as well as among the general public. Goethe himself translated the book into German in 1803, providing his translation with an essay on Cellini and his time. Exactly four centuries separate us from the time when the author began his memoirs, but interest in them is growing, as evidenced by all new publications and studies.
The glory of this book of memoirs cannot, however, be explained by the loud name of its author as an artist. This is not reflected light.
The Florentine goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) was undoubtedly a highly gifted artist, but his name does not rank among the great masters of the Italian Renaissance. This name is not of the first rank. As you know, his contemporaries admired his jewelry art, and here, probably, he had no equal in Italy. But of all the wonderful creations of Cellini the jeweler, so interestingly described in his memoirs, almost nothing has come down to us. The precious material with which Cellini worked played a fatal role in the fate of his creations. Thus, during the Italian campaigns, the famous clasp of the papal chasuble with the image of God the Father, which the artist talks about in chapters 43-44 and 55 of book 1 of his memoirs, was melted down into an ingot to pay indemnities to Bonaparte. The only masterpiece of Cellini the jeweler that has come down to us is the gold salt shaker of Francis I, but even during the artist’s lifetime, in the 60s of the XIV century, during the religious wars, it was twice included in the lists of gold values to be melted down, and only by accident survived. Many rings, necklaces, cameos, medallions, clasps, as well as pendulums, candlesticks and vases, kept in European museums, are attributed to Cellini without sufficient evidence. Among these exhibits there are many products of masters of later eras or other countries. The offspring willingly attributed to Cellini all the masterpieces of jewelry art. And this alone makes one suspect that Cellini's manner, perhaps, somewhat lacked a unique originality.
Samples of his skill as a chaser and carver are better preserved. Almost all of his medals and coins have come down to us. But here Cellini had worthy rivals (Caradosso and Leoni).
Time spared the best creations of Cellini the sculptor: the bronze "Perseus" and two wonderful models for it (Florence), the marble "Crucifixion" (Escurial), busts of Bando Altoviti (Boston), Cosimo I (Florence), as well as the "Nymph of Fontainebleau" (Louvre), Greyhound (Florence) and some other works. The sculptor's passion for dynamism and sharpness reveals in him a talented student of the late Michelangelo. But the richness of the inner content and the significance of the teacher's ideas are usually beyond the power of Cellini, and the pose of his hero is already somewhat theatrical and artificial. In our time, the statue of Perseus does not arouse the enthusiasm with which it was met by Cellini's contemporaries on April 27, 1554, when it was exhibited under the arch of the Loggia dei Lanzi. The composition seems to us cluttered with figures and bas-reliefs of the foot, the pose of Perseus is unstable, the interpretation of the body is contradictory, and accessories, such as the hero’s helmet, are overly detailed. In general, the sculpture of Perseus reveals the technique of ornamental jewelry art, transferred to sculpture, which, however, requires more spiritual content and simplicity of expressive means. The two surviving models of "Perseus" - bronze and wax - especially the latter, make a better impression than the statue itself due to its small size and simplicity of pose.
However, the nature of the realism of the bronze busts, as well as, perhaps, the marble “Crucifixion”, proves that Cellini, more than his other contemporaries, retained a connection with the traditions of Italian art during its heyday, although in general his work is already marked by a touch of mannerism, which is intensifying in the art of the late Renaissance.
It is not the fame of Cellini as an artist that sustains the interest of posterity in his "Biography". Rather the opposite. Goethe was right when he wrote that “Cellini owes his fame almost more to his word than to his creations,” for “with his pen, almost more accurately than with a chisel, he left a lasting monument to himself and his art.” If the name of Cellini has become a household name for the entire golden age of artistic craft, which we willingly call “Cellini”, although, as we have seen, little has survived from Cellini the jeweler himself, then the inspired pages of his autobiography played a certain role here. Mesmerized by Cellini's naive self-promotion, admirers of his talent were ready to attribute to him any unnamed jewelry masterpiece. On the other hand, partly based on indications from the "Biography", such researchers as Plon and others could establish its authorship in a number of cases. So, only in the 19th century it was proved that the Escurial marble “Crucifixion” belongs to the chisel of Cellini, and it was established that the “Viennese salt shaker” is the very famous salt shaker that Cellini made for Francis I.
Neither does the memoirs of Benvenuto Cellini owe their fame to any exceptional wealth of historical evidence or accuracy in their transmission. Cellini is not a historian of his time. He lived in a turbulent era, a turning point for the development of European society, rich in world-historical events and deeply tragic for Italy. Great geographical discoveries, revolutions in science, the beginning of the Reformation, the great peasant war, the social unrest of the century - there is not the slightest mention of all this in his memoirs. The only episode of Italian history that is reflected in the book - the siege of the Castel Sant'Angelo - is covered purely biographically: the author tells how the events influenced his personal fate. In his notes, Cellini repeatedly warns that he is not a historian, that he writes "only his own life" and "what belongs to it." Meanwhile, he lived and worked at the papal court and at the court of the king of France - in the centers of the then political life! "Biography" by Cellini and, say, such a pinnacle in the genre of autobiography, a real encyclopedia of its era, like "The Past and Thoughts" of our Herzen, are two poles, two antipodes of world memoirs.
But if Cellini so narrowed the scope of his "Biography", then what is the interest and on what is the basis of the glory of his memoirs?
The readers of the "Biography" are first of all struck by the powerful, strong-willed and purposeful nature of the author. From the pages of an artless story, which the artist, in his old age, sitting at work in his studio, dictated to an ailing fourteen-year-old boy, the son of a neighbor, a sharply defined character arises. But this original character unconsciously embodied the mores of the century and the life of the people. Therefore, the image of Cellini, having absorbed, as a focus, the features of an entire era, conquers and convinces as a perfect artistic image.
Like other artists and poets of the Italian Renaissance from Dante to Michelangelo, Cellini is a pet of urban culture, brought up by the system of life of free city-states. “The life of Benvenuto, son of Maestro Giovanni Cellini, a Florentine, written by himself in Florence” opens with a proud genealogy of a hereditary city dweller, whose family goes back to the semi-legendary times when the city was born. Pride in Florence, which "truly has always been a school of the greatest talents", and even a certain arrogance towards other cities (echoes of traditional strife) are often felt in the "Biography". The turbulent political life of the Italian signoria cities, as you know, served as a prologue to the history of bourgeois progress in Europe, and among Italian cities, Florence has the greatest merit as a workshop of the advanced ideas of the Renaissance; it is not for nothing that it is sometimes called the "egg of the new time."
The life of Benvenuto Cellini is a fascinating illustration of the manners of the late Renaissance. On the one hand, he had an undoubted sense of beauty, on the other hand, he had a reputation for being unpredictable, headstrong and violent. Actually, we know about Cellini's life not so much from the surviving memoirs of his contemporaries as from an autobiographical book written by him already in adulthood.
Thus, the gift of writing can be added to Cellini's artistic talents. And he had something to tell, because he fulfilled the orders of the popes, the French king Francis I, the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo Medici, participated in the defense of besieged Rome, was in prison, repeatedly used his fists and a dagger, wandered around the cities of Italy for thirty years.
Intrigues, fights and dangerous adventures were Cellini's constant life companions, which he colorfully and not without pleasure narrates in his memoirs. However, a very turbulent life did not prevent him from trying himself in different types of art: jewelry, chasing, sculpture. However, first things first.
Path choice
Benvenuto saw the light in the family of the Florentine jack of all trades Giovanni Cellini. Most of all, my father loved to play the flute, and he did it so masterfully that he was invited to the palace orchestra of the ruler of Florence. The ambitious Giovanni seriously dreamed of making a famous musician out of his son, since Benvenuto had a good ear and a pleasant voice.
But, as often happens, the son was not going to connect his future with a hateful flute. At the age of fifteen, Cellini Benvenuto was apprenticed to the jeweler Antonio di Sandro. He did not have time to finish his studies, because soon, together with his younger brother, he was expelled from Florence for a year and a half for participating in a sword fight.
Wasting no time in vain, in Siena, Benvenuto continued his studies in jewelry making and began independent work. The next important stage in the life of Cellini is associated with Rome, but before that he managed to once again appear before the court of Florence on charges of insult. Fleeing from prison, and at the same time from his father's flute, Benvenuto fled to Rome in 1521.
Papal Rome
At the same time, Pope Clement VII was elected as the new pontiff in the Vatican. He belonged to the Florentine Medici family, which was always supported by the Cellini family. Arriving in Rome, Benvenuto got a job in the workshop of Santi, where they were mainly engaged in chasing vases, candlesticks, jugs, dishes and other household utensils.
Longing for Florence and his father, Benvenuto Cellini began to play the flute, so hated before. He was noticed, invited to the orchestra, which was supposed to entertain the pontiff with a game during the holiday of Summer. Pope Clement noted the game of Benvenuto and took him into his service as a musician.
Ironically, unloved music opened the doors of the most famous houses in Rome for Cellini. Music and another scandal with a Spanish bishop over a vase made by Benvenuto on his order. Thus, Pope Clement VII learned that the musician he had hired was also a talented jeweler and chaser.
Losses and gains
During the brutal sack of Rome by the troops of Emperor Charles V in 1527, Cellini Benvenuto, together with a small garrison of soldiers, defended the besieged Castel Sant'Angelo, where Pope Clement took refuge. After the capitulation, he briefly returned to Florence to redeem the court sentence passed on him 8 years earlier.
A plague epidemic raged in his native city, which claimed the lives of his father and older sister. For the next two years, Cellini lived in Mantua, then in Florence, but in the end he returned to Rome. Here he did not have to look for orders for a long time, the pontiff himself turned to him, who soon appointed Benvenuto to the post of master of the mint.
In May 1529, Cellini experienced a great personal tragedy - the death of his younger brother, who was killed in a fight. Benvenuto took revenge on the murderer, but Pope Clement VII forgave him the sin of blood feud, because he was a great admirer of his talent. Soon he even granted Cellini's request, appointing him as his mace-bearer.
Wandering roads
It would seem that it would be good to have a pontiff as a patron, however, having won the favor of the pope, Benvenuto Cellini also acquired many envious people. In fairness, we note that the absurd character also to a large extent contributed to the increase in the number of his enemies. One of them, Pompeo's jeweler, was killed by Cellini with a dagger for an insult.
After the death of Pope Clement VII, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese was elected pontiff under the name of Paul III. And if the new pope initially favored Cellini, then his illegitimate son did everything to deal with the master. Saving his life, Benvenuto flees from Rome to his native Florence, where he receives an order from Duke Alessandro, nicknamed the Moor.
When Rome was preparing for the arrival of Emperor Charles V, the Pope again remembered Cellini. Together they decided to prepare a gift for an important guest - a golden cross. However, the amount Cellini paid for the work was three times less than promised. The master was offended and in April 1537 left Rome in search, as he wrote, of another country.
Imprisonment
The first trip to France was unsuccessful. Francis I was preoccupied with the war, although he received Cellini favorably. The goldsmith had to return to Rome. And so, when he finally received the long-awaited invitation from the French king, he was arrested on a false denunciation.
Cellini, seeing that Pope Paul III had finally turned into his enemy, decided to escape from prison, however, unsuccessfully. It is not known how this whole story would have ended for him if Cardinal d "Este had not arrived in Rome from France. In a conversation with the pontiff, he mentioned that King Francis would like to see his court jeweler Benvenuto Cellini, whose work he really likes.
At that time, the situation in Europe was such that the pontiff chose not to spoil relations with the king of France. Cellini, on his orders, was released from prison, but the master did not seem to be in a hurry. Leaving Rome in March 1540, he arrived in Paris only in October.
Court jeweler of Francis I
Cellini Benvenuto spent five years in France. Local orders were not to his liking. If in Italy fights and even murders were relatively easy for him to get away with, then in France - a country where the judiciary was so developed that sometimes the monarch himself was powerless before the decisions of the municipality - Cellini despairs of litigation.
Nevertheless, he does not stop working on the orders of the French king. Francis I favored the master, so he provided him with one of his castles, ordering the treasurer not to be stingy and to satisfy all the requests of the court jeweler related to the work.
Living in France, Cellini saw how far his native Italy had advanced in the field of sculpture. For this reason, it was here that he decided to try his hand at a new role for himself - sculpture. His sculptural images, even if they were not masterpieces, still made it possible to speak of Cellini as a sculptor, and not just as a jeweler.
And again Florence
The year was 1545. Florence was ruled by Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, to whom, upon his return from France, Cellini Benvenuto came to pay his respects. The duke, having learned that the goldsmith is now also engaged in sculpture, ordered him a statue of Perseus.
The bronze Perseus holding the severed head of Medusa, according to the plan of Cosimo I, was supposed to symbolize the victory won by the Medici house over the republican evil spirits a few years ago.
In April 1554, the sculpture was inaugurated, and the ambitious Cellini received great satisfaction from the enthusiastic reaction of the Florentines who flooded the square.
At 60, Cellini married his housekeeper, Pietra, who bore him five children. In the last years of his life, the master earned a living as a jeweler, because due to a quarrel with the duke, he almost did not receive orders from him.
Benvenuto Cellini died in February 1571 and was buried in his native Florence with great honors, as befits a great master.
Cellini Jeweler
Despite the fact that Cellini was famous among his contemporaries as a goldsmith, only one of his jewelry pieces has come down to us - Saliera (salt shaker), a table gold figurine made for King Francis. Today, the cost of a salt shaker 26 cm high is estimated at about 60 million dollars.
Unfortunately, Cellini's jewelry has been lost for centuries. Over time, the owners melted them down to make new, more fashionable gold jewelry, or to survive difficult times, as was often the case with dukes and popes.
In addition to the aforementioned salt shaker, medals, shields, seals, and coins struck by Benvenuto Cellini have also been preserved. These works, as well as descriptions of lost jewelry, give us an idea of the high level of his skill. He really was a talented medalist, chaser and jeweler.
Benvenuto Cellini sculptor
Cellini the sculptor was more fortunate. In addition to Perseus, his other sculptures have survived, as well as small figurines: Minerva, Narcissus, Apollo and Hyacinth, Mercury, Fear, Jupiter, etc.
According to art critics, they clearly show the features of the birth of a new style - mannerism. It is characterized by the loss of harmony between the spiritual and the physical, which was inherent in the works of the Renaissance.
The master cast all these sculptures from bronze, but in his declining years he made only one from white and black marble. It is not at all like the previous works of Benvenuto Cellini. The statue of Jesus Christ is today located in the Escorial palace-monastery near Madrid.
About myself without false modesty
Cellini's talent manifested itself not only in his work, but also in the field of literature. Shortly before his death, he wrote two treatises on sculpture and goldsmithing. They can be used to study the history of jewelry and foundry in the Renaissance. Not so long ago, both treatises were translated into Russian along with Cellini's sonnets.
However, his other literary work is most famous - "Biography of Benvenuto Cellini", where the author, following the traditions of his time, does not skimp on praising himself and his creations. At the age of 58, the master began to dictate to the secretary the first chapters of an autobiographical book and hardly thought that centuries later historians would add his memoirs to the list of sources on Italian history of the 16th century.
An abridged "Biography" of Cellini was published in Naples in 1728, and the full text, corresponding to the author's manuscript, was published in Florence only a hundred years later. Today we have at our disposal a complete translation of Cellini's memoirs, made in 1931 by M. Lozinsky.
As early as the 18th century, Cellini's "Biography" began to be translated in Europe. For example, I. Goethe himself translated the autobiography of the Florentine master of the Renaissance into German. Schiller and Stendhal acknowledged the great influence of Benvenuto Cellini's book on their literary work.
Sculptures, as already mentioned, the master cast from bronze, but marble requires a different approach. For a long time, it was believed that Cellini performed the crucifixion of Christ from a single piece of marble, until one of the Napoleonic vandal soldiers exposed the steel frame by hacking the forearm of the sculpture with a saber.
The extraordinary personality of Cellini attracted A. Dumas, who made him one of the heroes of the novel "Ascanio" (by the way, Ascanio's student, who came with him from Rome, really lived in France with the master).
Cellini was a generous soul, he always helped his relatives financially, and after the death of his younger sister, he took care of six nieces. Perhaps, from the point of view of the modern mentality, Benvenuto was an arrogant, braggart prone to unbridled antics, but such were the mores of that time, and his life full of adventures was just a reflection of them.
Benvenuto Cellini is an outstanding Italian painter, sculptor, jeweler, warrior and musician dating back to the Renaissance.
Biography of Benvenuto Cellini
He was born on 11/03/1500 in Florence in the family of a landowner and a specialist in the production of musical instruments. Benvenuto was the second child in the family, who appeared in the nineteenth year of parental marital relations.
Despite the fact that the father wanted to see a musician in his son, on the onset of 1513, Benvenuto went to study in the workshop of such a famous jeweler as Brandini. With him, he was trained in variations of the artistic impact on metal. From that time on, he often had to take part in various fights that often arose with competing jewelers. It was on this basis that in 1516 and 1523 he was expelled from the city. After wandering around Italy in 1524, he settled in Rome, where he gradually began to draw closer to the leadership of the Vatican.
On the onset of 1527, he was directly involved in the opposition to the imperial troops and the defense of Rome. After the Romans were defeated, he left the city. He returned to Rome only in 1529. Then Cellini took the post of head of the Pope's mint, where he worked until 1534. In fact, all of his jewelry pieces belonging to that era, with a few exceptions, could not be preserved, since they were subsequently sent for remelting.
Trying to avenge his brother, in the period from 1531 to 1534, Cellini took the life of a jeweler, and then attacked a notary. These events were the reason for his escape to Naples. Here he again kills another jeweler, for his bad remarks towards Cellini at the court of the Pope.
On the onset of 1537, King Francis I accepted him into the service of France, after the execution of a portrait medal. Once again in Rome, Cellini was arrested on charges of stealing the Pope's jewels, but managed to escape. The master had to be free for a very short time - he was again taken into custody, but soon released.
Beginning in 1540, he lived at Fontainebleau, at the court of the King of France. Here he completed work on a piece of jewelry, which is the only one that has survived to this day and whose authenticity cannot be doubted. This is a large salt cellar of Francis I, created in the period from 1540 to 1543. In France, the master mastered the technique of casting bronze, and from that period he began to perform serious sculptural orders.
In the period from 1545 to 1553, Cellini served Duke Cosimo I of Medici in Florence, where he was able to create his notorious statue of Perseus, who holds the head belonging to Medusa-Gargona. Here he also performed some other sculptural works. In these places, he was engaged in the restoration of works of the ancient period.
Cellini was once again imprisoned in 1556 for arranging a fight with a jeweler.
The Crucifixion can be considered as his last monumental work. While under house arrest, the author began writing his autobiography, which became a real gem of his creative activity.
The sculptor died in Florence on 02/13/1571, he was buried with impressive honors on the territory of the Church of the Annunciation.
Creation
The work “The Life of Benvenuto, who is the son of the Florentine maestro, Giovanni Cellini, written by him in Florence”, without exaggeration, stands out as the most remarkable literary work of the 16th century. He began writing the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini in 1558, but the fundamental part of the manuscript was written by a 14-year-old boy, Cellini's secretary, and another scribe performed a number of pages. The chronicle ends in 1562. Already in the 18th century, having overcome a huge number of different adventures, the work disappeared without a trace. In 1805, it was found in a bookstore in Florence and transferred to the Laurentian Library, where it is kept to this day. The first version of the printed edition was born in 1728 in Naples.
The life of Benvenuto Cellini is described in such a manner of literary narration, which can be called popular, which differs from the works "Confessions of Rousseau" or "Confessions of St. Augustine". On the pages of his own work, Benvenuto did not express any new ideas. He gave descriptions of his adventures, feelings and thoughts with frankness, which is not typical for the autobiographical genre of the previous time, and he did this as a rich colloquial language that convincingly conveys the experiences of a person and the process of his mental activity.
Cellini's contemporaries were highly valued as a craftsman, but opinions differed radically regarding his artistic talent. Meanwhile, despite this fact, it was he who represented the world of sculptors at the solemn burial ceremony of Michelangelo. Vasari and Varki spoke with particular enthusiasm about his jewelry talent. In particular, Vasari wrote that Cellini is an unsurpassed master of medal art, who surpassed the masters of antiquity. Also, from Visari's point of view, he was the greatest jeweler of his time and just a wonderful sculptor. Of his works related to jewelry, only a few have been preserved: the salt shaker of Francis I, coins and medals created for Alexander de Medici and Pope Clement VII. In addition, sketches of the clasp for the robes of Clement VII have been preserved.
In the history of art, Cellini's place is determined, first of all, by his activity in the sculptural aspect. His work had an indelible influence on the development of mannerism. The most significant work that he created in France is the bronze relief of the Nymph of Fontainebleau. Of those works that were destined to survive, and executed after returning to Florence, the statuette of the Greyhound (1545-1546), Perseus (1545-1553), Ganymede (1548-1550), Cosimo de Medici bust (1545-1548), Hyacinth and Apollo, Narcissus, "Crucifixion", Bindo Altoviti - bust.
Viktor Shklovsky, in his book The Hamburg Account, writes: “In his own autobiography, Cellini talks about how dad made an order for an expensive piece of jewelry in which a diamond was to be encrusted. Each of the competing masters made all kinds of figures and inserted a stone among them. And only one Cellini thought of tying a diamond into a composition with a motivation. From this stone, he made a throne for the father-God, carved in relief.
Alexandre Dumas was especially inspired by Cellini's autobiography to create such a novel as Ascanio, which describes the period of Cellini's life in France, where Dumas the father successfully interweaves the love story of Ascanio's apprentice to the daughter of the prevost of Paris, Colombe.
Please note that the biography of Cellini Benvenuto presents the most important moments from life. Some minor life events may be omitted from this biography.
