| Few men have lived life as full as late Italian | | | | genius never returned to its previous level in later |
| Renaissance mannerist artist, Benvenuto Cellini. | | | | life. Looking at the sketch Torrigiano told Cellini the |
| Born in 1500, Cellini would be thrilled that we still | | | | story of how he had broken the nose of |
| talk about his life five hundred years after his | | | | Michelangelo as a boy. Cellini already idolized |
| birth. After all, that is what he intended. That is | | | | Michelangelo by this time and disliked Torrigiano |
| why he began his autobiography at the age of | | | | thereafter, but it is from the autobiography of |
| fifty-eight, confident that history would remember | | | | Cellini that we know this story. |
| him. And remember him we do, not only as a | | | | The exploits of Cellini are too numerous to relate. |
| master goldsmith and sculptor, but as an author | | | | If the papal and civil authorities who encountered |
| who wrote one of the most significant documents | | | | the arrogant and explosive artist kept rap sheets, |
| of the sixteenth century. | | | | Cellini would have a long one. He finally made it to |
| Cellini began his riveting tale by advising other | | | | Rome, where he engaged in an altercation with a |
| potential authors on how to write their own | | | | young man whom he struck. The punishment |
| autobiographies, first by informing their readers | | | | being less stringent for delivering a slap rather |
| that they come from worthy stock and ancient | | | | than a blow, Cellini told the magistrates he only |
| origin. While most of us cannot claim to know our | | | | gave a slap, however, he was the only one |
| maternal grandparents twice removed, Cellini | | | | punished and ordered to pay a fine. |
| mentioned his parents, then went on to claim | | | | Angered by this turn of events, Cellini went that |
| descent from an Italian man from a nearby town, | | | | night to the home of his tormentor where he |
| Fioreno of Cellino, a captain in the guard of Julius | | | | stabbed him with a knife. Fleeing the scene, he |
| Caesar sixteen hundred years past. | | | | encountered twelve family members of the |
| This Fioreno, Cellini claimed, camped his troops on | | | | young man who, according to Cellini, set upon him |
| the site of Florence with its fields of flowers, so | | | | with an iron shovel, an iron pipe, an anvil, |
| Caesar named the place Florence partly for the | | | | hammers and cudgels. A mighty battle ensued |
| flowers and partly to honor his captain. Most | | | | with Cellini wielding his knife, and afterward, the |
| historians believe Florence, Florentia in Roman | | | | twelve searched among their dead and wounded |
| times, was named after the Roman festival of | | | | only to find that, strangely, there were no dead |
| Floralia or Ludi Florales to honor Flora, the goddess | | | | and wounded. No one sustained any injuries |
| of flowers. However, neither Caesar nor Flora | | | | except for the first man Cellini stabbed in the |
| was present to contradict the account of Cellini, | | | | house. After such a story, it is not surprising then |
| so his version stands, at least in his own mind. | | | | that Cellini claimed credit for his single-handed |
| Commenting further on how pleased God was at | | | | defense of Castle of San Angelo during the sack |
| his birth, Cellini told how he got his | | | | of Rome in 1526 as though no other defenders |
| name--Benvenuto means welcome in Italian. While | | | | were needed. |
| the musical name Benvenuto Cellini flows off the | | | | Kings, dukes, and popes sought out Cellini for his |
| tongue with a satisfying feeling, Cellini rejected the | | | | exquisite craftsmanship, while villains, thieves, and |
| career advice of his father that he become a | | | | necromancers knew him for far less noble |
| great musician and composer. Unmindful that his | | | | purposes. The colorful exploits of Cellini chronicle |
| flute playing sent his doting father into sighing, | | | | the flavor of Italian Renaissance life with his unique |
| tearful ecstasy, Cellini forsook the hated flute to | | | | perspective. If his account is true, it is surprising |
| study as a goldsmith--and thus his adventures | | | | that Cellini had time for art. He died in Florence in |
| began. | | | | 1571 at the age of 71 leaving behind a magnificent |
| Angered by his father at the age of sixteen Cellini | | | | legacy of work. |
| left Florence for Rome, stopping by way of Lucca | | | | Still in the news, Cellini's grandiose gold and enamel |
| and Pisa. In Pisa he found a goldsmith willing to | | | | saltcellar executed in 1540 for the King of France |
| take him in as an apprentice. Returning to Florence | | | | and valued today at $60,000,000 was recovered |
| for a brief visit, he met Italian sculptor, Piero | | | | recently after being stolen from a museum in |
| Torrigiano. Showing a sketch he had drawn from | | | | Vienna. The art world continues to appreciate the |
| copying the work of Michelangelo for the | | | | work of Cellini, even if he does tell us himself of |
| Florentine Signoria (The Battle of Cascina), he | | | | his greatness. No one blows his own horn louder |
| confided to Torrigiano that while the divine Michel | | | | than Benvenuto Cellini. |
| Agnolo [sic] finished the Sistine Chapel ceiling, his | | | | |