Italian sculptor Cellini Benvenuto: biography, creativity and interesting facts. Italian sculptor Cellini Benvenuto: biography, creativity and interesting facts of Benvenuto Cellini works

We stay in Florence, sail along the Arno River and look at a bridge so old that it is called Ponto Vecchio: Old Bridge.

Italy. Florence. Ponto Vecchio across the Arno River

The piers - the foundations of the bridge - are magnificent. The Bridge itself is lined with shops, even three stories high, as if Italians don’t value beauty. Above the shops is the famous “Vasari corridor”. The three middle flights of the first floor were spared the spirit of cheerful, noisy commerce. In the central bay there is a bust on a beautiful pedestal behind a fence. Whose bust do you think this is?

Of course, an artist, because we are in Italy,
in Florence, we are sailing along the Arno River.

Italy. Florence. Ponte Vecchio across the Arno River.
Bust of Benvenuto Cellini (author's composition)

Cellini was born on November 3, 1500 in Florence, the son of a landowner and musical instrument maker. Benvenuto was the 19th child in the family.

Cellini was highly regarded by his contemporaries as a craftsman. Vasari, for example, wrote that Cellini was an unsurpassed master of medal art, surpassing even the ancients, and the greatest jeweler of his time, as well as (!) a wonderful sculptor.

Despite the assessments of his contemporaries, Cellini’s place in art history is determined primarily by his work in the field of sculpture, which influenced the development of mannerism.

Bust of Benvenuto Cellini. Ponte Vecchio. Cellini
Bust of Cosimo I de' Medici. Benvenuto Cellini. 1545–1547

The great-grandson of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Cosimo I, becoming Grand Duke of Tuscany, marked a new era in the decoration of Florence. First of all, he built up the city with palaces for the large Medici family...

The second palace, Palazzo Pitti, was built by Filippo Brunelleschi. Cosimo ordered the construction of a third palace, the Palazzo Vecchio, decorating it with paintings by Vasari. The palace soon became the meeting place of the Signoria. Cosimo planned to add to the palace, to put it modern language, an office building called the Uffizi. The architect Vasari completed the order. Cosimo's heir, Duke Francesco, brought the matter to an end, ordering the completion of the upper floors of the Uffizi and placing there the artistic treasures accumulated by the Medici family. They say that he sat for a long time in the Uffizi at a secret window, watching what was happening in the government.

In fact, the entire historical appearance of Florence was completely formed during the reign of the descendant of Lorenzo the Magnificent - Cosimo I de' Medici. The Duke had philanthropic relations with Benvenuto Cellini.

During his years of work in Florence, Cellini proved himself to be a talented portrait painter who created a new type of ceremonial sculptural portrait. This is the spectacular bust of Duke Cosimo de' Medici in the armor of the Roman Emperor. Having perfectly conveyed the portrait likeness, Cellini at the same time gave the Duke the image of a formidable celestial being.

In my opinion, his own portrait is even higher in artistic expressiveness. Also front door. If we consider the two portraits together, the Duke becomes a man with weaknesses, the sculptor - one who decides not only his own destiny. He is a seer to whom this property gives special power. Whether he copes with it or not is another question.

Florence. Loggia dei Lanzi. "Perseus". Benvenuto Cellini. 1545-1553
In the background is a copy of the statue “David” by Michelangelo
against the background of the wall of the Palazzo Vecchio

Benvenuto Cellini highly respected his teacher, but was sure that he was a representative of the outgoing generation of artists, and among his peers he simply had no equal. When the ruler of Florence, Duke Cosimo de' Medici, who ordered a marble statue of Perseus from Benvenuto, decided due to his stinginess to slightly reduce the price of the work and hinted that another artist could do no worse, Benvenuto cried out: “My teacher Michelangelo Buonarotti, when he was younger, would have done this.” but even then it would have cost him no less work than it did for me. Now that he is very old, he, of course, will not be able to do this. Therefore, I don’t think that there is a person in the world today who is capable of completing such a thing.”

Cellini's belief in his own chosenness
was immeasurably large and loud, like his statue,
especially in comparison with Michelangelo's David.
And David killed the villain, but did not admire himself, like Cellinian Perseus.

Due to his restless nature, which often led to clashes with the authorities, Benvenuto Cellini, before reaching the age of seventeen, managed to visit Siena, Bologna and Pisa. In 1519 he visited Rome for the first time, and from 1523 he was in the service of Pope Clement VII, then Paul III.

In 1527, Cellini witnessed the devastation of Rome by the troops of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. In 1538, by order of Pope Paul III, he was imprisoned in the Castle of Sant'Angelo on charges of theft, but managed to escape to France. In 1540–1545, Benvenuto Cellini worked in Paris and Fontainebleau on orders from Francis I, who granted him French citizenship.

In the summer of 1545, the artist returned to his homeland. In Florence, he found a patron in the person of Duke Cosimo de' Medici, who received him with open arms and incredible promises of all the best. For him, Cellini sculpted and cast in bronze a statue of Perseus with the head of Medusa in his hand - one of his best works, now displayed in Florence, in the Loggia dei lanzi.

Florence. Loggia dei Lanzi. "Perseus". Nymphs on a pedestal.
Benvenuto Cellini. 1545-1553

I don’t know what you think, but to my taste - Perseus is beautiful, the sculpture’s pedestal is unacceptably sophisticated in its ornamentation, the figures in the arched niches are not connected to the whole on a large scale... Everything in itself is beautiful. Together - everything argues with each other. Art historians believe that Cellini, as a sculptor, occupies only a secondary place in the history of Italian art. The reason for the non-recognition is the statue of “Perseus”, which, for all its beauty, suffers from incorrect proportions and errors in the muscles. In addition, art critics believe that the effectiveness of the statue is purely external, not stimulating. deep feeling in the viewer.

I agree with the presence of glitches in scale. Regarding the audience’s feelings, I have a different opinion...

Florence. Loggia dei Lanzi. "Perseus". Benvenuto Cellini. 1545-1553

Look, Perseus and Medusa have the same face. It's not just their expression that matches. All features, all proportions do not differ in anything. When I saw this, I was overcome with fear...

In his autobiography - “The Life of Benvenuto, son of the Florentine maestro Giovanni Cellini, written by himself in Florence” - the sculptor tells a lot of things that can reinforce this fear. In “Life” he lists several facts that indicate his exclusivity...

“I don’t want to keep silent about the most amazing thing that has ever happened to a person.”

In early childhood, Benvenuto grabbed a scorpion with his hands, and it did not sting him. Then he saw a salamander on fire, a somewhat mystical animal, and since no one else present saw it, it was, of course, a sign.
Benvenuto also had wonderful visions. Christ and the Madonna came to him with two kneeling angels on their sides. He dreamed prophetic dreams about yourself and others. But the most remarkable thing happened to him after he left prison. A glow appeared around his head. A real halo, like the saints. He himself talks about this in a very solemn tone. “I don’t want to keep silent about the most amazing thing that ever happened to a person.”

Florence. Loggia dei Lanzi. "Perseus". Benvenuto Cellini. 1545-1553

At the moment of murder, the Executioner and the Victim merged into one: each transferred his essence to the other. Perseus is both the Executioner and the Victim at the same time. He is the executor of someone else’s will, not his own. Medusa is both a Victim and an Executioner, who, despite her own will and feelings, will further destroy everyone.

And they were bound together by beauty...
The executioner and the victim are equally beautiful in appearance.
Evil has imprinted itself in beauty,
to last and turn the executioner into a hero,
and the victim into an unwitting killer...

Is this a prophecy expressed by Cellini, for whom, judging by his life, there is no boundary between Good and Evil? In any case, in the vast “Persenian”, none of the artists will reach such heights of generalization.

Benvenuto Cellini. Crucifixion (c. 1562, Escorial, near Madrid).

In his mature years, Benvenuto Cellini became not only a famous artist, but also a famous hooligan, bully and bully. For his antics, he regularly found himself in prison, and in particular, in the most aristocratic of them - the castle of St. Angela in Rome.

The last eight years of Cellini's life were more peaceful than all the previous years. In 1554 he received the title of nobility. In 1558, he became a monk, but soon threw off his cassock in order to get married, despite the fact that he was already about 60 years old. Having received release from these vows, he got married: Piera di Salvadore Parigi became his chosen one.

Benvenuto Cellini. Gold medal with relief of Pegasus

Few of the gold and silver items made by Cellini have survived. The preciousness of the material used, the negligence and ignorance of those who owned Cellini's works were the reason that most of them were destroyed long ago for the manufacture of other things. There are often items considered to have come from the hands of Cellini, however, their ownership by him is almost always not only doubtful, but also completely incredible.

Vasari is right, as a goldsmith, Cellini is fully worthy of the fame of a first-class artist, which he acquired during his lifetime: in terms of taste of ornamentation and elegance of work, he has no rival among all the artists of the Renaissance.

But where is this glory now? And Perseus...
Oh, Perseus, he will survive everyone thanks to
inexhaustible interest in the Medusa he killed!

(15001103 ) , Florence - February 13, Florence) - Italian sculptor, jeweler, painter, warrior and musician of the Renaissance.

Biography

Cellini was born on November 3, 1500 in Florence, the son of landowner and musical instrument maker Giovanni Cellini (the son of a mason) and Maria Lisabetta Grinacci. Benvenuto was the second child in the family, born in the nineteenth year of his parents’ marriage.

Despite the wishes of his father, who wanted his son to become a musician, Benvenuto in 1513 became an apprentice in the workshop of the jeweler Brandini, where he learned the techniques of artistic metal processing. From these years he began to participate in many fights, especially with other jewelers, which is why he was expelled from his hometown in 1516 and 1523. 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, 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 was written in the hand of a 14-year-old boy, Cellini's secretary, and a few more pages in another hand. The chronicle goes back to 1562. In the 18th century, after various adventures, the manuscript disappeared. In 1805, it was found in one of the bookstores in Florence and transferred to the Laurentian 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 this differs from such works as the Confessions of St. Augustine or the Confessions of Rousseau. On the pages of his book, Benvenuto Cellini did not express any new ideas; he described his adventures, thoughts and feelings with a frankness not typical of the autobiographical genre of the previous time, and did so in 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 solemn burial ceremony of Michelangelo. Varchi and Vasari praised his talent as a jeweler. Vasari, for example, wrote that Cellini was an unsurpassed master of medal art, surpassing even the ancients, and the greatest jeweler of his time, as well as a wonderful sculptor. Few of the works of jewelry art he created have survived: the salt shaker of Francis I (1540-1543, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), medals and coins made for Pope Clement VII and Alessandro de' Medici, as well as sketches of a decorative clasp for the vestments of Clement VII.

Cellini's place in art history is determined primarily by his work in the field of sculpture. His work influenced 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 he executed upon his return to Florence: Perseus (1545-1553, Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi), figurine of a Greyhound (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 arouse the wrath of His Holiness. When Cellini finally returned, he was greeted with abuse: “Oh, these artists! Eternal visitors to taverns, companions of depraved girls, the scum of society, pagans, and not good Christians! - Instead of making an excuse, Cellini silently laid out a cypress casket, inside of which was a gem made 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. Moreover, the multi-colored stone was used in the most inventive way. All of the sardonyx's spots, colors and veining were used in the canonical plot to characterize the characters. Christ found himself in a white natural robe, the Apostle John in blue, Peter in red, and Judas, of course, in a gloomy dark brown tunic. But what struck my dad most of all was 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 out of the cobblestones. Benvenuto Cellini was forgiven and declared 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 vestibule. Here it remains to this day, along with other selected gems from all times of Christianity. :125

The autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini inspired Alexandre Dumas to create the novel “Ascanio” - which describes the period of Benvenuto Cellini’s life in France, into which Dumas the father skillfully weaves the love story of the apprentice Ascanio to the daughter of the Parisian provost, Colombe. In 1877, composer Emilio Bozzano wrote the opera Benvenuto Cellini with a libretto by Giuseppe Perosio based on the same autobiography.

The historian of philosophy G. Gefding (1843-1931) reports that while in captivity, 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 and the Child appearing in the form of a relief. Based on the book written by Cellini, A. Dumas Sr. wrote the novel “Ascanio”.

Film incarnations

In the 1963 film "The Magnificent Adventurer", dedicated to the life of Benvenuto Cellini, he was played by Brett Halsey.
The biographical film “Cellini: A Life of Crime” (1990) is dedicated to the life of Benvenuto Cellini.
In the 1992 film "Gold" Cellini is presented in a comic role. During the siege of Rome by the army of Charles of Bourbon, he knocks off Charles's head with a cannon shot,

but dad doesn’t thank him, but scolds him.

In literature

Benvenuto Cellini is one of the main characters in the novel "Ascanio" by Alexandre Dumas the Father.

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Notes

Essays

Vita, a cura di G. G. Ferrero, Torino, 1959;
in Russian translation - “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., intro. 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.
López 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 16th century. - M.: Nauka, 1997, p. 157-163
Sorotokina N. M. Benvenuto Cellini. - M.: Veche, 2011. - 368 p., ill. - “Great History.” persons." - 3000 copies, ISBN 978-5-9533-5165-2

Excerpt characterizing Cellini, Benvenuto

– Yes, I will not give up Moscow without giving a battle.
Was Kutuzov thinking about something completely different when he said these words, or did he say them on purpose, knowing their meaninglessness, but Count Rostopchin did not answer anything and hastily walked away from Kutuzov. And a strange thing! The commander-in-chief of Moscow, the proud Count Rostopchin, taking a whip in his hands, approached the bridge and began to disperse the crowded carts with a shout.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Murat's troops entered Moscow. A detachment of Wirtemberg hussars rode ahead, and the Neapolitan king himself rode behind on horseback with a large retinue.
Near the middle of the Arbat, near St. Nicholas the Revealed, Murat stopped, awaiting news from the advance detachment about the situation of the city fortress “le Kremlin”.
A small group of people from the residents remaining in Moscow gathered around Murat. Everyone looked with timid bewilderment at the strange, long-haired boss adorned with feathers and gold.
- Well, is this their king himself? Nothing! – quiet voices were heard.
The translator approached a group of people.
“Take off your hat... take off your hat,” they said in the crowd, turning to each other. The translator turned to one old janitor and asked how far it was from the Kremlin? The janitor, listening in bewilderment to the alien Polish accent and not recognizing the sounds of the translator's dialect as Russian speech, did not understand what was being said to him and hid behind others.
Murat moved towards the translator and ordered 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 translator. A French officer from the advance detachment rode up to Murat and reported that the gates to the fortress were sealed and that there was probably an ambush there.
“Okay,” said Murat and, turning to one of the gentlemen of his retinue, he ordered four light guns to be brought forward and fired at the gate.
The artillery came out at a trot from behind the column following Murat and rode along the Arbat. Having descended to the end of Vzdvizhenka, the artillery stopped and lined up in the square. Several French officers controlled the cannons, positioning them, and looked into the Kremlin through a telescope.
The bell for Vespers was heard in the Kremlin, and this ringing confused the French. They assumed it was a call to arms. Several infantry soldiers ran to the Kutafyevsky Gate. There were logs and planks at the gate. Two rifle shots rang out from under the gate as soon as the officer and his team began to run up to them. The general standing at the cannons shouted command words to the officer, and the officer and 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 of 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 previous expression of gaiety and calm was replaced by a stubborn, concentrated expression of readiness to fight and suffer. For all of them, from the marshal to the last soldier, this place was not Vzdvizhenka, Mokhovaya, Kutafya and Trinity Gate, but this was a new area of a new field, probably a bloody battle. And everyone prepared for this battle. The screams from the gate died down. The guns were deployed. The artillerymen blew off the burnt blazers. The officer commanded “feu!” [fallen!], and two whistling sounds of tins were heard one after another. Grapeshot bullets crackled against 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 across the stone Kremlin, a strange sound was heard above the heads of the French. A huge flock of jackdaws rose above the walls and, cawing and rustling with thousands of wings, circled in the air. Along with this sound, a lonely human cry was heard at the gate, and from behind the smoke the figure of a man without a hat, in a caftan, appeared. Holding a gun, he aimed at the French. Feu! - the artillery officer repeated, and at the same time one rifle and two cannon shots were heard. The smoke closed the gate again.
Nothing else moved behind the shields, and the French infantry soldiers and officers went to the gate. There were three wounded and four dead people lying at the gate. Two people in caftans were running away from below, 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 beyond the fence. No one knew who these people were. “Enlevez moi ca,” was the only word said about them, and they were thrown away and cleaned up later so they wouldn’t stink. Thiers alone 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 shot at the French. Some of them were cut down with sabers, and cleared the Kremlin of their presence.]
Murat was informed that the path had been cleared. The French entered the gates and began to camp on Senate Square. The soldiers threw chairs out of the Senate windows 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 settled not as in apartments in the city, but as in a camp located in the city.
Although ragged, hungry, exhausted and reduced to 1/3 of their previous strength, the French soldiers entered Moscow in orderly order. It was an exhausted, exhausted, but still fighting and formidable army. But it was an army only until the minute the soldiers of this army went to their apartments. As soon as the people of the regiments began to disperse to empty and rich houses, the army was destroyed forever and neither residents nor soldiers were formed, but something in between, called marauders. When, five weeks later, the same people left Moscow, they no longer constituted an army. It was a crowd of marauders, each of whom carried or carried with him a bunch of things that seemed valuable and necessary to him. The goal of each of these people when leaving Moscow was not, as before, to conquer, but only to retain what they had acquired. Like that monkey who, having put his hand into the narrow neck of a jug and grabbed a handful of nuts, does not unclench his fist so as not to lose what he has grabbed, and thereby destroys himself, the French, when leaving Moscow, obviously had to die due to the fact that they were dragging with the loot, but it was as impossible for him to throw away this loot as it is impossible for a monkey to unclench a handful of nuts. Ten minutes after each French regiment entered some quarter of Moscow, not a single soldier or officer remained. In the windows of the houses people in greatcoats and boots could be seen walking around the rooms laughing; in the cellars and basements the same people managed the provisions; in the courtyards the same people unlocked or beat down the gates of barns and stables; they lit fires in the kitchens, baked, kneaded and cooked with their hands rolled up, scared, made them laugh and caressed women and children. And there were many of these people everywhere, in shops and in homes; but the army was no longer there.
On the same day, order after order was given by the French commanders to prohibit troops from dispersing throughout the city, to strictly prohibit violence against residents and looting, and to make a general roll call that same evening; but, despite any measures. the people who had previously made up the army dispersed throughout the rich, empty city, abundant in amenities and supplies. Just as a hungry herd walks in a heap across a bare field, but immediately scatters uncontrollably as soon as it attacks rich pastures, so the army scattered uncontrollably throughout the rich city.
There were no inhabitants in Moscow, and the soldiers, like water into sand, were sucked into it and, like an unstoppable star, spread out in all directions from the Kremlin, which they entered first of all. The cavalry soldiers, entering a merchant's house abandoned with all its goods and finding stalls not only for their horses, but also extra ones, still went nearby to occupy another house, which seemed better to them. Many occupied several houses, writing in chalk who occupied it, and arguing and even fighting with other teams. Before they could fit in, the soldiers ran outside to inspect the city and, hearing that everything had been abandoned, rushed to where they could take away valuables for nothing. The commanders went to stop the soldiers and themselves unwittingly became involved in the same actions. In Carriage Row there were shops with carriages, and the generals crowded there, choosing carriages and carriages for themselves. The remaining residents invited their leaders to their place, hoping to thereby protect themselves from robbery. There was an abyss of wealth, and there was no end in sight; everywhere, around the place that the French occupied, there were still unexplored, unoccupied places, in which, as it seemed to the French, there was even more wealth. And Moscow sucked them in further and further. Just as when water pours onto dry land, water and dry land disappear; in the same way, due to the fact that a hungry army entered an abundant, empty city, the army was destroyed, and the abundant city was destroyed; and there was dirt, fires and looting.

The French attributed the fire of Moscow to au patriotisme feroce de Rastopchine [to Rastopchin's wild patriotism]; Russians – to the fanaticism of the French. In essence, there were no reasons for the fire of Moscow in the sense of attributing this fire to the responsibility of one or several persons. Moscow burned down due to the fact that it was placed in such conditions under which every wooden city should burn down, regardless of whether the city had one hundred and thirty bad fire pipes or not. Moscow had to burn due to the fact that the inhabitants left it, and just as inevitably as a heap of shavings should catch fire, on which sparks of fire would rain down for several days. A wooden city, in which there are fires almost every day in the summer under the residents, house owners and under the police, cannot help but burn down when there are no inhabitants in it, but live troops smoking pipes, making fires on Senate Square from Senate chairs and cooking themselves two once a day. In peacetime, as soon as troops settle into quarters in villages in a certain area, 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 an alien army is stationed? Le patriotisme feroce de Rastopchine and the fanaticism of the French are not to blame for anything here. Moscow caught fire from pipes, from kitchens, from fires, from the sloppiness of enemy soldiers and residents - not the owners of the houses. If there were arson (which is very doubtful, because there was no reason for anyone to set fire, and, in any case, it was troublesome and dangerous), then the arson cannot be taken as the cause, since without the arson it would have been the same.
No matter how flattering it was for the French to blame the atrocity of Rostopchin and for the Russians to blame the villain Bonaparte or then to place the heroic torch in the hands of their people, one cannot help but see that there could not have been such a direct cause of the fire, because Moscow had to burn, just as every village and factory had to burn , every house from which the owners will come out and into which strangers will be allowed to run the house and cook their own porridge. Moscow was burned by its inhabitants, it’s true; but not by those residents 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 offer bread, salt and keys to the French, but left it.

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 November 3, 1500 in the territory of Florence into the family of a landowner and specialist in the production of musical instruments. Benvenuto was the second child in the family, who was born in the nineteenth year of his parents’ marital relationship.

Despite the fact that the father wanted to see a musician in his son, at the onset of 1513 Benvenuto went to study in the workshop of such a famous jeweler as Brandini. He trained him in variations of artistic influence 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 throughout Italy in 1524, he settled in Rome, where he gradually began to get closer to the leadership of the Vatican.

Upon the offensive of 1527, he took a direct part in the confrontation with 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 position of head of the Pope's mint, where he worked until 1534. In fact, all of his jewelry works dating back to that era, with minor exceptions, could not be preserved, since they were subsequently sent for melting down.

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.

At the onset of 1537, King Francis I accepted him into the service of France, after the execution of the portrait medal. Once again finding himself in Rome, Cellini was arrested on charges of stealing the Pope's jewelry, but managed to escape. The master would not be free for very long - he was again taken into custody, but was soon released.

Beginning in 1540, he lived in 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 between 1540 and 1543. In France, the master mastered the technique of bronze casting, and from that period he began to carry out serious sculptural orders.

In the period from 1545 to 1553, Cellini served in Florence to Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, where he was able to create his well-known statue of Perseus, who holds the head belonging to Medusa-Gargon. 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 starting a fight with a goldsmith.

The Crucifixion can be considered his last monumental work. While under house arrest, the author began writing his autobiography, which became a real pearl of his creative activity.

The sculptor died in Florence on February 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 himself in Florence”, without exaggeration, stands out as the most remarkable literary work of the 16th century. He began writing Benvenuto Cellini's autobiography in 1558, but the fundamental part of the manuscript was written by a 14-year-old boy, Cellini's secretary, and another number of pages were completed by another scribe. 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 published in 1728 in Naples.

The life of Benvenuto Cellini is described in a manner of literary narration that 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 described his adventures, feelings and thoughts with a frankness that was not typical for the autobiographical genre of the previous time, and he did this as a rich colloquial language that quite convincingly conveys a person’s experiences and the process of his mental activity.

Cellini was highly regarded by his contemporaries as a craftsman, but with regard to his artistic talent, opinions differed radically. Meanwhile, despite this fact, it was he who represented the world of sculptors at the solemn burial ceremony of Michelangelo. Vasari and Varchi spoke with particular delight regarding his talent for jewelry. 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 simply a wonderful sculptor. Of his works related to the art of jewelry, only a few were preserved: the salt shaker of Francis I, coins and medals created for Alexander de Medici and Pope Clement VII. In addition, sketches of the fastener for the robes of Clement VII have been preserved.

In the history of art, Cellini's place is determined, first of all, by his activities 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 figurine of the Greyhound (1545-1546), Perseus (1545-1553), Ganymede (1548-1550), bust of Cosimo de' Medici (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 ordered 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 Cellini thought of tying the diamond into a composition with a motivation. From this stone he made a throne for Father God, carved in relief.”

Alexandre Dumas was particularly inspired by Cellini's autobiography to create such a novel as "Ascanio", which describes the period of Cellini's life in France, into which Dumas the father successfully interweaves love story Ascanio's apprentice to the daughter of the Provost of Paris - Colombe.

Please note that the biography of Cellini Benvenuto presents the most important moments from his life. This biography may omit some minor life events.

In his famous “Life of Benvenuto Cellini, son of Maestro Giovanni Cellini, a Florentine, written by himself in Florence,” the author says that one day, when he was five years old, his father, sitting by the fire with a viol, saw a small animal, like a lizard, frolicking in the flame. He called Benvenuto over and gave him a slap, which made the baby roar. His father quickly dried his tears with caresses and said: “My dear son, I’m not beating you because you did anything bad, but only so that you remember that this lizard that you see on fire is - a salamander, which no one has ever seen of those about whom it is known for certain."

Reading this book, written by the hand of an old man, trembling not from weakness, but from re-experienced anger or delight, you see the flame consuming Cellini himself.

Rage literally suffocates him. From the first to the last page he rages, rages, scolds, smashes, accuses, growls, threatens, rushes about - work, fights and murders only let off steam from him for a short time. Not a single offense, no matter how insignificant it may be, remains unavenged, and every retribution is told with simplicity and sincerity, without a drop of regret and repentance. There is nothing to be surprised here - this is the Italy of Borgia and condottieri. The tiger does not tolerate being pulled by its whiskers. Cellini, this bandit with the hands of a demiurge, uses a dagger no less often than a chisel. Pompeo, the goldsmith of the papal court, with whom Cellini had a score to settle, was killed by him in Rome right on the street. “I took hold of a small, thorny dagger,” Cellini narrates, “and, breaking the chain of his fellows, grabbed him by the chest with such speed and calmness of spirit that none of those said had time to intercede.” Murder was not his intention, Cellini explains, “but, as they say, you don’t strike by agreement.”

He hunts down the killer of his brother, some soldier, “like a mistress,” until he stabs him to death at the door of a tavern with a stiletto blow to the neck. He kills the postal inspector, who did not return his stirrups after spending the night, with an arquebus. He “decided in his heart to cut off the hand of an employee who left him in the middle of work.” One innkeeper near Ferrara, with whom he stayed, demanded payment for the night in advance. This deprives Cellini of sleep: he spends the night thinking about plans for revenge. “The idea came to me to set fire to his house; then to slaughter his four good horses that were in his stable.” Finally, “I took a knife that was like a razor; and the four beds that were there, I chopped them all up for him with this knife.” He forced his model lover, who cheated on him with one of his apprentices, to pose for hours in the most uncomfortable positions. When the girl lost patience, Cellini, "giving himself up to the prey of anger,... grabbed her by the hair and dragged her around the room, beating her with his feet and fists until he was tired." The next day she again caresses him; Cellini softens, but as soon as he is “agitated” again, he again beats her mercilessly. These scenes are repeated for several days, “as if from scratch.” By the way, this is the same model who served as his model for the serene “Nymph of Fontainebleau.”

Here I must remind the reader of what is said in Mérimée's magnificent preface to the Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX. “In 1500,” writes Merimee, “murder and poisoning did not inspire such horror as they do today. A nobleman treacherously killed his enemy, petitioned for pardon and, having asked for it, reappeared in society, and no one even thought of turning away from him ". In other cases, if the murder was committed out of a sense of just revenge, then they talked about the murderer, as they now talk about a decent person who killed a scoundrel in a duel who had inflicted a blood insult on him."

Yes, Cellini was a murderer, like half the good Catholics of that time. Of course, sometimes he could, wiping his prickly dagger, say along with Pushkin’s Don Juan: “What to do? He wanted it himself”; Of course, one could object to him along with Laura: “It’s a shame, really. Eternal pranks, - But it’s not his fault.” His conscience gave him “easy sleep,” and life developed in him the habit of going widely around the corners of houses - a precaution that was not superfluous in that age even for a person who did not know “what color fear is.” Cellini's participation in the defense of Florence from the troops of Charles of Bourbon and his breathtaking escape from the papal prison have the same spiritual source as his iniquities. I think the word "courage" would be appropriate here.

Where there is no opportunity or reason to sort things out with the help of a sword, Cellini unleashes the full force of his Homeric abuse on his enemies. His swearing flows like boiling lava, the enemy is completely crushed by the blocks of his curses. One must hear how he reviles the sculptor Bandinelli, who, in the presence of Duke Cosimo de' Medici, dared to praise his "Hercules" to the detriment of Cellini's art. “My lord,” Cellini begins his speech of acquittal, “let your high lordship know that Baccio Bandinelli consists entirely of filth, and he has always been so; therefore, no matter what he looks at, immediately in his disgusting eyes, although Even if a thing were, in a superlative degree, a complete blessing, it immediately turns into the worst depravity.” And then he attacks Hercules with the wrath of Apollo flaying Marsyas: “They say that if Hercules’ hair were cut off, he would not have a head left big enough to contain his brain; and that this is his face, unknown to him, of a man.” it is either a bull, and that it does not look at what it is doing, and that it is poorly fitted to the neck, so unskillfully and so clumsily that worse has never been seen; and that these shoulders of it are like the two bows of a donkey's pack saddle; and that his chest and the rest of these muscles were not sculpted from a person, but sculpted from a bag filled with melons, which was placed upright, leaning against the wall,” etc., etc.

Bandinelli. Hercules and Cacus.

After all this, it is strange to hear Cellini call himself melancholic.

Shameless boasting and a proud consciousness of his dignity are equally inherent in him, and sometimes it is impossible to distinguish where one ends and the other begins. To the remark of one nobleman that only the sons of dukes travel like Cellini, he replied that the sons of his art travel like that. He puts the following words about himself into the mouth of Pope Clement VII: “Benvenuto’s boots are worth more than the eyes of all these stupid people.” He said to some arrogant interlocutor that “people like me are worthy of talking with popes, and with emperors, and with great kings, and that there are, perhaps, only one people like me in the world, and people like him , ten go to each door." He credits himself with the murder of Charles of Bourbon and William of Orange during the siege of Rome and repelling the French attack on the Vatican. And about his life up to the age of fifteen, he says: “If I wanted to describe the great things that happened to me up to this age and to the great danger to my own life, I would amaze the one who read it.”

Cellini never stoops to charge a price for his works. He feels like a king of his art, and sometimes a saint. In prison, angels and Christ appear to him with a face “neither stern nor cheerful” (we see this face on his “Crucifixion”). He speaks in captivating detail - and this is not the most surprising place in the book - about the halo that appeared to him. This radiance, explains Cellini, “is obvious to every kind of person to whom I wanted to show it, of which there were very few. It can be seen on my shadow in the morning at sunrise up to two o’clock in the sun, and it is much better visible when the grass is kind of wet.” dew; also visible in the evening at sunset. I noticed this in France, in Paris, because the air in those places is so much clearer of fog, that there it was seen much better expressed than in Italy, because fogs are much more frequent here ; but it doesn’t happen that I don’t see it in any case; and I can show it to others, but not as well as in these said places.” He is also not averse to looking into the world of demons, for which purpose he participates, together with his student, in the experiments of some necromancer priest. When the legions of demons that appeared frightened the student, Cellini encouraged him: “These creatures are all lower than us, and what you see is only smoke and shadow; so raise your eyes.”

Cellini. Crucifixion

Cellini did not lower his eyes even before the popes, formidable shepherds who tended their flocks with an iron rod. These Julia II, Clement VII, Paul III were amazing people! Art was their second religion (the first was politics), they saw the glory of Christianity in having crucifixes in churches sculpted as well as the ancient gods. They revered artistic genius as God's grace sent into the world, and were afraid to offend it with their unbridledness. For Julius II, Michelangelo had the value of the property of the Roman throne; an attempt to lure the sculptor would be anathema. When Michelangelo fled from his severity to Florence, Julius wrote thunderous messages to the Senoria, accusing her of theft and demanding that she hand over the creator of the Sistine Chapel. He had to go to Bologna to get it himself. At the new meeting, the pope could not contain his anger: “So, instead of coming to us in Rome, you expected us to come to look for you in Bologna!” One of the cardinals clumsily tried to soften Julius, saying: “Let Your Holiness not be angry with him, because people of this kind are ignorant who do not understand anything other than their craft.” The enraged dad hit the stupid priest with his staff: “You yourself are ignorant, since you insult someone we ourselves do not want to insult!”

Clement VII

Cellini had equally expressive scenes with the popes. Clement VII called him Benvenuto mio ( "My Benvenuto" but also "my desired" ) and forgave him any tricks. Cellini delayed and changed the terms of work for him, postponed papal orders for the sake of his plans, did not hand over completed work and drove the papal messengers to hell. The Pope gnashed his teeth and summoned him to the Vatican. Their quarrels were terrible and at the same time comical. Cellini appears with his head raised. Clement looks at him furiously with “a kind of pig’s eye” and falls with thunder and lightning: “As God is holy, I declare to you, who have taken up the habit of not taking anyone into account in the world, that if it weren’t for respect for human dignity, I would have ordered you to throw out you out the window along with all your work!" Cellini answers him in the same tone, the cardinals turn pale, whisper and look at each other uneasily. But then, from under the master’s cloak, the finished product appears, and the pope’s face breaks into a fatherly smile: “My Benvenuto!” One day Cellini left him enraged because he did not receive the sinecure he asked for. Clement, who knew his freedom-loving character and was afraid that the master would leave him, exclaimed in confusion: “This devil Benvenuto cannot stand any comments! I was ready to give him this place, but you can’t be so proud with dad! Now I don’t know what I have to do it." Cellini could fill Rome with murders and atrocities, but as soon as he showed the pope a ring, a vase or a cameo, mercy was immediately returned to him. The half-relief of God the Father on a large diamond saved his life after settling scores with his brother's killer; Having killed Pompeo, he asked for pardon from Paul III, threatening otherwise to go to the Duke of Florence - forgiveness was immediately granted to him. Dissatisfied with his decision, the pope announced: “Know that people like Benvenuto, unique in their art, cannot be subject to the law.”

Cellini's art brought the last consolation to the dying Clement VII. Having ordered medals for him, dad soon fell ill and, fearing that he would not see them, ordered them to be brought to his deathbed. And so, the dying old man orders candles to be lit around him, sits up on the pillows, puts on his glasses and sees nothing: deadly darkness is already covering his eyes. Then with his stiff fingers he strokes these medals, trying to touch the beautiful reliefs; then he leans back on the pillows with a deep sigh and blesses his Benvenuto.

Cellini. Medal with the image of Alessandro Medici

Cellini enjoyed the patronage and friendship of Francis I, a northern barbarian from then still wretched Paris.

The king never tired of petitioning the pope for Cellini’s release from prison and sheltered him after his escape. It is difficult to point out another example when a monarch was so sincere in his admiration for art. Just as the crusaders were once amazed at the wonders of the East, he rejoices at everything that Cellini, like a sorcerer, pulls out of his sleeve in front of him. The fresh flowers of Tuscany, blooming among the cold stones of his palace, delight him. The generosity he showered on the Florentine amazed even Cellini himself, who knew his worth. Francis gives him money without waiting for the work to be completed. (“I want to give him courage,” the king explains.) “I will drown you in gold,” he tells him one day. Instead of a workshop, he gives him the Little Nel castle and issues a certificate of citizenship. But Cellini is not a subject for him; the king prefers to call him “my friend.”

“Here is a man whom everyone should love and honor,” Francis never tires of exclaiming.

Claude de France. Francis I visits Cellini's workshop

This king, who spent his life in epic wars with the vast empire of Charles V, knew how to experience sweet oblivion while looking at some small trinket, like a salt shaker made by Cellini with allegorical figures of Earth and Water intertwining their legs. One day, the Cardinal of Ferrara took the king, concerned about the renewal of the war with the emperor, to look at the model of the door and fountain for the Palace of Fontainebleau, completed by Cellini. The first depicted a nymph in a circle of satyrs, bending voluptuously and wrapping her left arm around the neck of a deer; the second is a naked figure with a broken spear. The cheerful Francis instantly forgot all his sorrows. “Truly, I have found a man after my own heart!” - he exclaimed and added, hitting Benvenuto on the shoulder: “My friend, I don’t know who is happier: the sovereign who finds a man after his own heart, or the artist who meets a sovereign who knows how to understand him.” Cellini said his luck was much greater. “Let’s say they are the same,” the king replied, laughing.

Cellini. Salt shaker

But there was no one who treated art more reverently than Cellini himself. His body could do anything, breaking all laws, divine and human, and yet, when the morning found him in the workshop, exhausted by a merciless fever of inspiration, he must have felt like Adam who had stripped off his old flesh. I don't want to say that this justifies anything. Art - why be mistaken about this? - does not write out indulgences, and beauty will not save the world (except perhaps one of us?). It is enough that the bile and blood with which the pages of his biography are soaked dry up where Cellini speaks about his works. Of course, here too he writhes with rage, as soon as the conversation turns to primacy in the art of sculpting (we must give him his due: he does not humiliate himself to argue with his rivals, he simply denies their talent - completely and unconditionally). But, as Chesterton said, there is always a certain amount of humility in a man who does not hide his ambition. Cellini knew this humility when he spoke of his equals. “From Michelangelo Buonarotti, and not from others, I learned everything I know,” he admits at one point. His respect for Donatello and Leonardo da Vinci remains unchanged; he approves of Raphael's students who wanted to kill Rosso because he humiliated their teacher.

Beauty, whatever it may be, immediately fills him with delight. The human skeleton, a symbol of Death for most of his contemporaries, evokes from Cellini in his “Speech on the Fundamentals of Drawing” a real hymn to the splendor of the grace of its forms and articulations. “You will force your student,” he instructs his imaginary interlocutor, “to draw these magnificent pelvic bones, which are shaped like a pool, and so amazingly close with the bone of the Ladvia. When you draw and fix these bones well in your memory, you will begin to draw the one that placed between the two thighs; it is beautiful and is called sacrum... Then you will study the amazing spine, which is called the spinal column. It rests on the sacrum and is made up of twenty-four bones called vertebrae... You will have pleasure in drawing these bones, for they are magnificent. The skull must be drawn in all possible positions in order to fix it forever in the memory. Because, rest assured, an artist who does not keep all the cranial bones clearly fixed in his memory will never be able to draw a more or less graceful head. .. I also want you to keep in your head all the dimensions of the human skeleton in order to then more confidently dress it with flesh, nerves and muscles, the divine nature of which serves as the connection and connection of this incomparable machine.” Speaking of his "Jupiter", he mentions, along with other members, the perfection of the "beautiful reproductive parts."

Cellini. Perseus

The scene of the casting of "Perseus" - Cellini's main work, from which he was distracted for many years by orders from sovereigns and nobles and life circumstances, is filled with real drama. Here, inspiration is inseparable from craft, creative daring is inseparable from timidity before the greatness of the idea. Cellini carefully records all the details of his titanic work, like a magician trying to conjure a wonderful vision from the fire with spells. "I began by procuring several piles of pine logs... and while I was waiting for them, I dressed my Perseus with the very clays that I had prepared several months before, so that they would arrive properly. And when I had made him clay casing... and perfectly strengthened it and girded it with great care with glands, I began to extract from there the wax over low heat, which came out through the many soulers that I made, because the more of them you make, the better the molds are filled. And when I finished to remove the wax, I made a funnel around my Perseus... from bricks, interlacing one on top of the other, and leaving many gaps where the fire could breathe better; then I began to lay wood there, so evenly, and burned them for two days and two nights continuously; having thus removed all the wax from there and after the said form was perfectly burned, I immediately began to dig a hole to bury my form in it, with all those wonderful techniques that this beautiful art tells us. When I finished digging the said hole , then I took my form and, with the help of a collar and good ropes, carefully straightened it out; and, having suspended it by an elbow above the level of my forge, having straightened it perfectly, so that it hung just above the middle of its pit, I quietly lowered it all the way to the bottom of the forge, and it was secured with all the precautions imaginable. And when I had completed this wonderful work, I began to cover it with the very earth that I took out from there; and as I raised the earth there, I inserted its choke tubes, which were tubes made of burnt clay, which are used for gutters and other similar things. When I saw that I had strengthened it perfectly and that this was the way to cover it, inserting these pipes exactly into their places, and that these workers of mine understood my method well, which was very different from all other masters of this business; convinced that I could rely on them, I turned to my forge, which I ordered to be filled with many copper ingots and other bronze pieces; and, placing them on top of each other in the way that art shows us, that is, raised, giving way to the flame of fire, so that the said metal would quickly receive its heat and melt with it and turn into liquid, I boldly told them to light the said forge. And when this pine firewood was laid, which, thanks to this fatty resin that pine gives, and thanks to the fact that my forge was so well made, it worked so well that I was forced to help first on one side, then on the other, with such difficulty that it was unbearable for me; and still I tried." The work gives him a fever, and he goes to bed, no longer expecting to get up alive. At this time, the students report to him that in his absence the work was ruined by them - the metal thickened. Hearing this, Cellini let out a cry "so immense that it could be heard in the fiery sky." He runs "with an unkind soul" into the workshop and sees stunned and confused apprentices there. With the help of oak logs he manages to cope with this misfortune. He begins to fill the form, but there is no withstands the forge: it bursts and the bronze begins to flow out through the crack. Cellini orders to throw into the forge all the tin dishes, cups, plates that can be found in the house - there were about two hundred of them - and finally achieves the complete filling of the mold. Nervous shock overcomes the disease - he healthy again and immediately throws a feast. “And so my whole poor family (i.e., students), having recovered from such fear and from such exorbitant labor, at once went to buy, in exchange for these pewter dishes and cups, all kinds of earthenware, and all of us We dined cheerfully, and I don’t remember in all my life that I have ever dined with more cheerfulness and a better appetite.”

Thus, in the manner of a good fairy tale, ends Benvenuto Cellini’s book about himself. (The last thirty pages, filled with petty insults and court squabbles, do not count.) The rest - imprisonment on charges of sodomy, becoming a monk and being released from vows two years later, getting married at the age of sixty - happened to another man, tired and disappointed and, apparently, indifferent to himself: with a person who no longer believes in his halo.

Benvenuto Cellini (Italian: Benvenuto Cellini; November 3, 1500 (15001103), Florence - February 13, 1571, Florence) - Italian sculptor, jeweler, painter, warrior and musician of the Renaissance.

In 1527 he took part in the defense of Rome from imperial troops. After the defeat of the Romans he left the city. In 1529 he returned to Rome and received the post of head of the papal mint, which he held until 1534. All of his jewelry from that era (with the exception of a few medals) did not survive - they were later melted down.

Avenging his brother, in 1531-1534 Cellini killed a jeweler, then attacked a notary, after which he fled to Naples, where he again took the life of another jeweler for speaking ill of Cellini at the papal court.

In 1537 he was accepted into the French service by King Francis I, receiving his portrait medal. Once again in Rome, Cellini was arrested and accused of stealing papal jewelry, but he was able to escape again. The master did not remain free for long: he was again taken into custody and, however, was later released.

From 1540 he lived at the French royal court in Fontainebleau, where he completed work on the only piece of jewelry that has come down to us, the authenticity of which is beyond doubt - the large salt shaker of Francis I (1540-1543).

In France, the master mastered the technique of bronze casting and from that time began to carry out large sculptural orders. From 1545 to 1553, Cellini was in the service of Duke Cosimo I de' Medici in Florence, where he created the famous statue of Perseus holding the head of the Gorgon Medusa. Here he executed a number of other sculptures and restored ancient works. Cellini’s active participation in the local academic movement deserves special attention. From 1545 to 1547, he became involved in the activities of the newly founded Florentine Academy, the intellectual life of which was reflected both in his lyrics and in his autobiography and treatises (Cellini called the academy a “wonderful school”).

In 1556, Cellini was again imprisoned for a fight with a goldsmith. His last significant monumental work was The Crucifixion. Under house arrest, the master began writing an autobiography, which became the pearl of his work.

The sculptor died on February 13, 1571 in his native Florence. He was buried with great honors in the Church of the Annunciation.

The book “The Life of Benvenuto, son of Maestro Giovanni Cellini, 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. Paolo Rossi demonstrates that the final version of the manuscript (bella copia), presumably intended for distribution among the sculptor's friends and colleagues and written by the hand of a 14-year-old boy, Cellini's secretary, differed significantly from the draft, which contained extensive edits. When creating the latter, the author most likely used various diary entries, which at that time were kept not only by people of art, but also, for example, by merchants. The chronicle of the events of Life reaches 1562. In the 18th century, after various adventures, the manuscript disappeared. In 1805, it was found in one of the bookstores in Florence and transferred to the Laurentian Library, where it remains to this day. The first printed edition appeared in Naples in 1728.

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