Cellini
BENVENUTO (chel-lē'nē), Florentine sculptor, engraver, and goldsmith, born in 1500. Of a bold, honest, and open character, but vain and quarrelsome, he was often entangled in disputes which frequently cost his antagonists their lives. At the siege of Rome (if we believe his own account, given in his autobiography) he killed the Constable of Bourbon and the Prince of Orange. He was afterward imprisoned on the charge (probably false) of having stolen the jewels of the Papal crown, and with difficulty escaped exe- BENVENUTO CELLINI cution. He then visited the court of Francis I. of France. He afterward returned to Florence, and under the patronage of Cosmo de' Medici made a Perseus with the head of Medusa in bronze, which is still an ornament of one of the public squares; also a statue of Christ, in the chapel of the Pitti Palace, besides many excellent dies for coins and medals. His works may be divided into two classes. The first, for which he is most celebrated, comprises his smaller productions in metal, the embossed decorations of shields, cups, salvers, ornamented sword and dagger CELLULOSE hilts, clasps, medals, and coins. The second includes his larger works as a sculptor, such as the Perseus mentioned above; a colossal Mars for a fountain at Fontainebleau; a marble Christ in the Escurial Palace; a life-size statue of Jupiter in silver, etc. His life, written by himself, is very racy and animated.
He died in Florence in 1571.