The Works of Benvenuto Cellini:
Gold, bronze, and obsession
Cellini worked for fifty years, across Italy and France, for patrons who included two popes, a king of France, and a duke of Florence. What survives is a fraction of what he made. What survives is extraordinary.
Perseus with the Head of Medusa
Bronze, 1554. Loggia dei Lanzi, Piazza della Signoria, Florence.
Cellini spent nine years making this sculpture for Cosimo I de' Medici. It is a full-size bronze figure of Perseus holding the severed head of Medusa, cast in a single pour — a technical achievement that Cellini himself describes at length in his autobiography, including the moment when the furnace failed and he threw all his pewter plates in to save the metal.
It stands in the open air in Florence's Piazza della Signoria, alongside Michelangelo's David. Millions of people see it every year. It is considered one of the finest sculptures of the Renaissance.
"I knelt down and gave thanks to God with all my heart. Then I turned to see my Perseus, and I wept for joy."
The Saltcellar of Francis I
Gold and enamel, 1543. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Made for Francis I of France, this is widely considered the greatest small sculpture of the Renaissance. It depicts Neptune and Ceres in gold and enamel, reclining on an oval base decorated with figures of the winds and times of day. Cellini began designing it years before he had a patron willing to pay for it.
It was stolen from the Vienna museum in 2003 and recovered in 2006, buried in a field. Even thieves wanted it.
Bust of Cosimo I de' Medici
Bronze, 1548. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.
A portrait bust of Cellini's Florentine patron, cast in bronze with extraordinary detail in the armour and drapery. Cosimo was difficult and suspicious. Cellini put his face on the bronze exactly as he saw it.
Nymph of Fontainebleau
Bronze relief, 1543. Louvre Museum, Paris.
Made for the palace at Fontainebleau during Cellini's years in France, this large bronze lunette depicts a reclining nymph surrounded by animals. It was not installed at Fontainebleau and eventually made its way to the Louvre, where it remains. The Louvre receives around nine million visitors a year.
The lost work
Cellini made hundreds of works in gold, silver, and bronze that have not survived. Medals, cups, ewers, candlesticks, jewels, and small bronzes made for popes and princes. Most were melted down in later centuries when taste changed or money was needed. What we have is what time chose to spare.
Read how he made them →