Statues Besides his works in gold and silver, Cellini executed sculptures of a grander scale. One of the main projects of his French period is probably the Golden Gate for the
Palace of Fontainebleau. Only the bronze tympanum of this unfinished work, which represents the
Nymph of Fontainebleau (Paris,
Louvre), still exists, but the complete aspect can be known through archives, preparatory drawings and reduced casts. File:Satyr (1542); Benvenuto Cellini.JPG|1542 Cellini statue which would have flanked the Nymphe de Fontainebleau File:Nymphe de Fontainebleau.jpg|The Nymph of Fontainebleau, by Benvenuto Cellini, now in the Louvre (1542) File:Da cellini, satiro, dalla porta di fontainebleau, 1542 ca 01.JPG|1542 Cellini statue which would have flanked the Nymphe de Fontainebleau Upon his return from France to his hometown Florence in 1545, Benvenuto cast a bronze bust of Cosimo I Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany. On this
statue, Cellini crafted three anthropomorphic heads on to the armour of the duke. The first of them is "grotesque" situated on the right shoulder of Cosimo. The decorative head is composed of lineaments of a satyr, lion and a man. Two other heads, much smaller than the first and almost identical, can be found beneath the collarbones on the bust's front. His most distinguished sculpture is the
bronze group of
Perseus with the Head of Medusa, a work (first suggested by Duke
Cosimo I de Medici) now in the
Loggia dei Lanzi at
Florence, his attempt to surpass
Michelangelo's
David and
Donatello's
Judith and Holofernes. The casting of this work caused Cellini much trouble and anxiety, but it was hailed as a masterpiece as soon as it was completed. The original relief from the foot of the pedestal—Perseus and
Andromeda—is in the
Bargello, and has been replaced by a cast. By 1996, centuries of environmental pollution exposure had streaked and banded the statue. In December 1996 it was removed from the
Loggia and transferred to the
Uffizi for cleaning and restoration. It was a slow process, and the restored statue was not returned to its home until June 2000.
Decorative art and portraiture Monastery Among his art works, many of which have perished, were a colossal
Mars for a fountain at
Fontainebleau and the bronzes of the doorway, coins for the Papal and Florentine states, a life-sized silver
Jupiter, and a bronze bust of
Bindo Altoviti. The works of decorative art are florid in style. . '', made in Paris, 1540–1543; Gold, partly covered in enamel, with an ebony base. In addition to the bronze statue of
Perseus and the medallions previously referred to, the works of art in existence today are a medallion of
Clement VII commemorating the peace between the Christian princes, 1530, with a bust of the pope on the reverse and a figure of Peace setting fire to a heap of arms in front of the temple of
Janus, signed with the artist's name; a signed portrait medal of Francis; a medal of Cardinal
Pietro Bembo; and the celebrated gold, enamel and ivory salt cellar (known as
Saliera) made for
Francis I of France at
Vienna. This intricate 26-cm-high sculpture, of a value conservatively estimated at 58,000,000 schilling, was commissioned by Francis I. Its principal figures are a naked sea god and a woman, sitting opposite each other with legs entwined, symbolically representing the planet
Earth.
Saliera was stolen from the
Kunsthistorisches Museum on 11 May 2003 by a thief who climbed scaffolding and smashed windows to enter the museum. The thief set off the alarms, but these were ignored as false, and the theft remained undiscovered until 8:20 am. On 21 January 2006 the
Saliera was recovered by the Austrian police and later returned to the Kunsthistorisches Museum where it is now back on
Kunstkammer display. One of the more important works by Cellini from late in his career was a life-size nude
crucifix carved from
marble. Although originally intended to be placed over his tomb, this crucifix was sold to the
Medici family who gave it to Spain. Today the crucifix is in the
Escorial Monastery near
Madrid, where it has usually been displayed in an altered form – the monastery added a loincloth and a
crown of thorns. For detailed information about this work, see the text by
Juan López Gajate in the
Further Reading section of this article. Cellini, while employed at the
papal mint at Rome during the papacy of
Clement VII and later of
Paul III, created the dies of several coins and medals, some of which still survive at this now-defunct mint. He was also in the service of
Alessandro de Medici, first duke of Florence, for whom he made in 1535 a 40-soldi piece with a bust of the duke on one side and standing figures of the saints Cosima and Damian on the other. Some connoisseurs attribute to his hand several plaques, "Jupiter crushing the Giants," "Fight between Perseus and
Phineus", a Dog, etc. Other works, such as the
portrait bust shown, are not directly attributed but are instead attributed to his workshop.
Lost works The important works which have perished include the uncompleted
chalice intended for
Clement VII; a gold cover for a prayer book as a gift from
Pope Paul III to
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, both described at length in his autobiography; large silver statues of Jupiter,
Vulcan and Mars, created for
Francis I during his stay in Paris; a bust of
Julius Caesar; and a silver cup for the
cardinal of Ferrara. The magnificent gold "button", or morse (a clasp for a cape), made by Cellini for the cape of
Clement VII, the competition for which is so graphically described in his autobiography, appears to have been sacrificed by
Pope Pius VI, with many other priceless specimens of the
goldsmith's art, in furnishing the 30 million francs demanded by
Napoleon I at the conclusion of the campaign against the
Papal States in 1797. According to the terms of the treaty, the pope was permitted to pay a third of that sum in plate and jewels. In the print room of the
British Museum are three
watercolour drawings of this splendid morse by F. Bertoli, done at the insistence of an Englishman named Talman in the first half of the 18th century. The obverse and reverse, as well as the rim, are drawn full size, and moreover the morse with the precious stones set therein, including a diamond then considered the second-largest in the world, is fully described.
Drawings and sketches The known drawings and sketches by Benvenuto Cellini are as follows: • Cellini, Benvenuto.
Bearded Man. Recto. 28.3 x 18.5 cm. Paper, graphite. (1540–1543) (?) Royal Library, Turin. • Cellini, Benvenuto. Study of a man, body and profile. Verso. 28.3 x18.5 cm. Paper, graphite (1540–1543) (?) Royal Library, Turin. • Benvenuto. Juno. Drawing on paper. Cabinet of Drawings,
Louvre Museum, Paris • Cellini, Benvenuto. Satyr. 41 x 20.2 cm. Pen, ink.
National Gallery of Art, Washington (from the Ian Woodner Collection, New York) • Cellini, Benvenuto. A Study for the Seal of the Accademia del Disegno. 30 x 12.5 cm. Pen, brown ink. Louvre, Paris • Cellini, Benvenuto. Mourning Woman. 30 x 12.5 cm. Pen, brown ink.
Louvre Museum, Paris == In literature, music and film ==