CELLINI, BENVENUTO


Meaning of CELLINI, BENVENUTO in English

born , Nov. 1, 1500, Florence

died Feb. 13, 1571, Florence

Italian sculptor and goldsmith active principally in Florence.

Early in his career he worked in Rome, producing coins, medallions, seals, vessels, and a variety of other objects in precious and semiprecious metals. In 1540 he began his most famous work of this type, a gold saltcellar encrusted with enamel, for Francis I at Fontainebleau; other royal commissions followed. For Cosimo I he produced large-scale sculpture in the round; the bronze Perseus (1545–53) in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence is his masterpiece. His fame owes as much to his autobiography as to his work as an artist; it achieved immediate popularity for its lively account of his tumultuous life and its vivid picture of Renaissance Italy.

Saltcellar of Francis I, encrusted enamel and gold, by Benvenuto Cellini, 1540; in the ...

By courtesy of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

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