Cellini, Benvenuto (1500–1571)

Sculptor, jeweler, and goldsmith, Cellini was a leading craftsman and artist of the Italian Renaissance who described a turbulent and violent life through a famous autobiography. Born in Florence to a well-to-do landowning family, he was apprenticed to a goldsmith but fled the city after getting into a scrape with the law. He journeyed to Siena, the rival of Florence, then to the more distant city of Bologna, where he became an accomplished musician as well as a professional jeweler and metalsmith. At the age of nineteen he settled in Rome, where he became a musician at the court of the pope and an artisan in wide demand for delicately wrought medals, miniatures, and jewelry—some of the finest and most valuable works of art of his age. An accomplished soldier, he fought valiantly in the pope's armies during a siege of Rome, but could not subdue his violent nature in the face of challenges to his freedom or his honor on the part of friends, patrons, or the authorities.

He fled Rome after killing the man who had murdered his brother, engaging in a sword fight with a notary, and developing a sworn enemy of the son of Pope Paul III. On returning to the city, he was arrested on a charge of embezzlement and imprisoned in the Castel Sant' Angelo, the ancient fortress that stood high on the west bank of the Tiber River near the pope's palace at the Vatican.

Enraged at his captivity and his treatment in Rome, Cellini returned to Florence. There he completed Perseus Holding the Head of Medusa, a famous sculpture that stood for centuries in the main square of Florence, and which many historians rank next to the greatest works of Donatello and Michelangelo. When Florence went to war with Siena, Cellini was hired to strengthen the walls and defenses of the city, a task that he carried out with great skill and that earned him a pardon for the many accusations against him of violence, theft, and immorality.

Cellini created a celebrated gold medallion of Pope Clement VII, who employed him as a diemaker at the papal mint. He also created works on commission for Cardinal Pietro Bembo, King Francis and Alessandro de' Medici, the duke of Florence. Cellini objects were rare treasures jealously fought over by European kings and nobility, and remain objects of rivalry and veneration to this day among museums all over the world.

The artist's most renowned work, however, was an autobiography that he began writing in the 1550s. The author goes into great detail about his art, his many love affairs and rivalries, his dealings with nobility and rival artists, and his love of violence to settle any and all disputes. He interrupts his many strange, sometimes supernatural, adventures with extravagant praise of himself and his art, giving the impression of a chimeric, rough-edged character who outshines and outmaneuvers all who surround him. Cellini's autobiography became a classic and one of the most important written works to originate during the Renaissance.