Benvenuto CelliniRezensionen

What a raucous soap opera this book was! Cellini is best known as being a master goldsmith as well as a sculptor. His first noted great work was a silver salt cellar for the King of France. Cellini was a juvenile delinquent from the age of 12 when he roamed the streets of Florence. His parents were musicians and tried to reign him in and apprentice him to musicians, but he rebelled, and he was finally apprenticed to a goldsmith. He didn't like the instruction so at age 19 he ran away to Rome. While there he found an old friend who lent him a workspace and gave him a piece of silver which began his career. Cellini tells fantastic stories, although I'm not sure all are believable. According to his own writings, he took part in the sack of Rome in 1527, was sued four times for sodomy, and committed murder several times. He writes that he found those who sued him and "stabbed him so badly in the arms and the legs, that he would not be mobile again." He sought out the second subject for the same, but as the man repented during the stabbing, Cellini did not injure him as badly. Cellini also believed he could conjure up devils to do his bidding. He was imprisoned several times while in Rome and believed that he had a halo around his head indicating divine protection. Eventually, he was exiled from Rome and returned to Florence where Cosimo Medici became his patron. Per his own story, Cellini was quite a narcissist who exploited almost everyone with which he came into contact. 465 pages

I remember more than anything else the ego of Cellini.

When you get a first-person account from 500 years ago, you really hope to read about details of everyday life, what people ate, where they lived, what they wore..

but of course those are not the things people think to record, nor it is it Cellini's intent to record the minutiae of every day life.. Instead, this is Cellini's attempt to set the record straight against anyone who he feels hard done by , i.e. everyone. He is constantly mortally offended, and takes revenge, occasionally violently. He destroys the bedding in an inn after the landlord has the temerity to ask him to pay up front.

There were some puzzling medical mysteries that I wish some one should shed some light on. The governor of the prison has a complaint where he is convinced he is a bottle of oil, and then a bat. This sis the same prison where Cellini has a series of religious visions, so perhaps there is something in the water?


It is an authentic voice from the past, and you don't have to like him.He probably doesn't like you ,anyway.

Orfebre, escultor y grabador, artífice de obras como el magnífico Perseo que puede contemplarse en la plaza de la Signoria de Florencia o el célebre y primoroso "salero de Francisco I" hoy en Viena, Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) fue una figura destacada en una época de titanes: aquel Renacimiento italiano tan espléndido y suntuoso como primario y feroz, que poblaron personalidades como Miguel Ángel y Rafael, papas soberbios y familias legendarias como los Médicis. Hombre de carácter decidido y aventurero, pendenciero e irascible, dejó en su apasionante "Vida" un insuperable y vivo retrato de primera mano de un temperamento excepcional en una época excepcional, el Cinquecento, en la que el pleno Renacimiento fue dando paso a una Europa que se adentraba en el Barroco y la Contrarreforma. Episodios memorables como el de los espíritus del Coliseo o la narración del saco de Roma, sus prisiones en el castillo de Sant'Angelo, las peripecias por Francia bajo la protección de Francisco I o la desesperada fundición del "Perseo", hacen de esta autobiografía un libro inolvidable y un inmejorable compañero de viaje para todo aquel que quiera evocar siglos más tarde sus andanzas a caballo entre Roma y Florencia.

A more or less linear, tale-by-tale recounting of Cellini's life.

Look, you will either love this book because it gives a glimpse into life in the late Italian Renaissance, through the eyes of an extremely colorful character whose personality takes center stage, or you will dislike it for being repetitive, one-sided, and possibly offensive to modern sensibilities.

The typical story in this memoir involves someone becoming jealous of Cellini's immense talents, and using their influence to turn powerful people (multiple Popes, a handful of different Cardinals, the King of France, etc.) against him. Usually, Cellini's innate morality will, by the grace of God, prove him innocent. Occasionally, he will be thrown in prison, flee the city, or murder his enemy in cold blood. According to the man himself, everyone is out to get him, and only his virtue, bravery, and sheer genius keep him going. In no case will Cellini admit to a fault, or stop to wonder why this kind of thing seems to happen to him so often.

Treating him as a character in a story, I found Cellini's self-aggrandizement and lack of self-awareness funny, though in real life he'd probably be insufferable!

This story of a man 500 years dead is burgeoning with life. Benvenuto Cellini is not so well known for his artistry today as Leonardo or Michaelangelo, but he was close to their echelon. It is primarily his autobiography that secured him lasting fame. He was a goldsmith in Florence and Rome, and a master of several related fields besides. The products of supreme artists in this period made a splash comparable to a blockbuster Hollywood movie or top-earning concert today, and Cellini pleased his audiences without fail.

It seems at that time it was nothing to settle one's differences by violence in the street, preferably in front of witnesses who could attest it had been a matter of honour. Benvenuto was not one to stand down from a confrontation with anyone, not even a pope or duke whose favour he enjoyed, if pride was on the line. Unfortunately he could not apply that solution to contractors, who could be as frustrating then as now to deal with, "like shouting at a collection of lame donkeys led by a blind boy", or to the many others who took advantage of him, often including his patrons.

Interspersed scenes like the necromancy at the colosseum cast a shade of doubt over some of the proceedings. I wish a stronger shade of doubt could be cast over his confessed treatment of women and underage girls. Otherwise the degree of detail with which he recalls a sequence of events, or the conversations he had and the places he went, is astounding. My edition's footnotes back up a enormous amount of it. There's not a chapter break to be seen and it reads like one single unrolling memory, life as story, suitably ending as if only pausing for breath.½

Benvenuto Cellini was born in the year 1500 in Florence, and he begins to write this autobiography in 1558, before his death in 1572. This is a fantastic setting as it is here that the Renaissance began, and at the time of writiting it is about mid-way through and in full swing.
Cellini as a sculptor and goldsmith associates with a number of well known artists, including Michaelangelo, who was much older than him, and among others the painters Guilio Romano and Georgio Vasari, who were his contemporaries. He befriends, receives comissions from, and gets on the wrong side of various of the Medicis, Popes, and the King of France. Not content with being a talented and inspired artist, he also forays into battle - at one point leading a defence of the Vatican by firing cannons from its roof during the sack of Rome. His conflicts do not end there, and he seems to have the unfortunate talent of attracting people who are out to swindle or kill him, which he takes no small pleasure in dealing with, be they inn-keepers, rival sculptors, dukes or Popes.
Cellini is not shy in telling us how amazing his exploits and artistic achievements are, in fact he is an archetypal teller of tall tales and self agrandisements. From what remains of his works, such as the sculpture of Perseus holding the decapitated Medusa's head in the Loggia in Florence, we know that he has at least some justification to his claims, and it is difficult to pin him down on many definite fabrications, however unlikely many of his claims are. One such tale involves him escaping a castle where he has been imprisoned for years, by scaling its walls using tied-together bed sheets, however we know that he was imprisoned at least once and did escape, so it is just possible that many of his daring escapades are largely true, however fantastic his telling of them are. One story however that he won't get away with is the time he joined a necromancer in summoning demons in the Colliseum in Rome, but he seems quite convinced in his telling of it nonetheless.
This is probably one of the most exciting and revealing biographies ever written. It is not only entertaining on a pure action movie level, but also from a historical perspective in his gossipy dealings with everyone from Popes, dukes and Kings, to how he got on with his artistic contemporaries, workmen, and wenches. This autobiography would therefore appeal to almost anyone with a vagure interest in Italy, Art, History, scandal, or derring-do.½

Il libro costituisce un'importante documento per conoscere la personalità dell'artista ed il suo modus operandi.

A very egotistical account of a real Renaissance man. Benvenuto did have many adventures, and this is his version of them all. Not a man who did much soul searching, but he covers his prison break, and his possible killing of a prince. The format is repetitive in his description of his working life, but it is justly deemed a classic early biography. You might want to follow this book with the "History of Bayard" by "A loyal Servitor" for proof that the autobiographical form was evolving quickly at this time.½

What a blow-hard! But easy to read and one falls in love with this character. Another take on the Renaissance from one living in it and contributing his art to it.

Great read. Worth waiting for. Wonderful illustrations

Texts 4th shelf @loft art Benvenuto Cellini Cellini crafts decorative arts early modern europe Italian Italian Art Italy jewelry Mannerism metalwork metalworking Middle Ages paperback primary source sculpture Sell Shelf smithing stone½

Jag undrar om inte Benvenuto Cellini i sin självbiografi, med sitt uttömmande men inkorrekta namn (när boken slutar har han fortfarande ett par decennier kvar att leva), har slagit något slags rekord i skrytsamhet; den gode Benvenuto förstår inte vad saker som blygsamhet och sanningskärlek skall vara bra för när man istället kan berätta om hur fantastiskt bra på allting han själv är: han är världens bäste guldsmed, världens bäste krutmakare, konstkännare, skulptör, stridsman, ja, vad han än provar på så verkar han genast ha överträffat alla andra.

Detta vore i längden tämligen ohyggligt att läsa, om det inte vore för alla de dispyter, slagsmål och förvecklingar han hamnar i, för oavsett det att han faktiskt var en skicklig konstnär (skicklig, inte gudabenådad) så var han ohyggligt dålig på att umgås med människor: han är lättretlig och vägrar att erkänna att någon annan har rätt, har noll inlevelseförmåga, och när han därefter tar på sig mer arbete än han kan hantera så förlorar han även stödet från vem som nu för närvarande är hans patron, varför hans fiender lätt kan klämma åt honom. Vid ett tillfälle hamnar han under en längre tid i finkan i Sant'Angelo, varifrån han lyckas rymma genom det lätt serietidningsaktiga sättet att fira sig ner i sönderskurna, hopknutna lakan. Han hinner tjäna ett stort antal potentater, men aldrig tycks han riktig nöjd, och aldrig kan han acceptera att någon annan får överta de arbeten han ej själv hinner avsluta.

Till slut blir det en rätt högljudd, färgrik historia om en person man är glad att man kan titta på lite på håll, men som man nog aldrig skulle vilja träffa i verkligheten: Benvenuto kan vara småaktigt hämndlysten, som då han skär sönder lakanen för en värdshusvärd bara för att denne vill ha betalt i förskott, eller då han – för övrigt enda gången han erkänner sig ha handlat felaktigt – tvingar sin före detta gesäll att gifta sig med hans otrogna älskarinna och modell, och sedan själv är otrogen med henne. Han är en buse, med nävarna som enda konfliktlösningsredskap, och en genomskinlig skrävlare, som samtidigt är lite för dum för att inse hur dum han ibland ter sig, vilket gör att han alltid tycks genomskinlig.

Genom sitt liv träffar Benvenuto på konstnärer (vilka han nästan alla förtalar, undantaget Michelangelo, som han alltid är vördnadsfull inför), Medicéer, horor, påvar, galna fångvaktare, giftmördande skojare, kungar, kardinaler och mätresser. Även om man i efterhand så gott som alltid tycker att Benvenuto nog handlade rätt tokigt, så lyckas han dock för det mesta lura en att i alla fall tillfälligt tro att han nog har rätt. I alla fall den här gången, och när man är färdig med hans berättelse tycker man nog att världen är lite tommare utan honom.½

This book is incredible fun! If you enjoy medieval art and history you must absolutely read this book. An artist, a fighter, one intrigued by the occult, you name it you really have it all in this book. He really lived an amazing life no wonder his story still intrigues us today!

If you're an artist, you MUST read this book. It makes the Renaissance in Italy come alive. Cellini is such a character and has such a big ego, the book is one of the funniest and smartest I've read in a long time. I wish I had known him...how many autobiographies do you say that after?

For those interested in the art of autobiographical writing or the art of the Renaissance may like this book or find it tolerable. The man is arrogant and loves his art for a quick summation of the book. While it is very much the style of classical Renaissance literature the book itself becomes stifling. However, because it is one of the first autobiographies ever written it will remain to be read.

James O. Bennett says, "There is no more fantastic or contradictory great man in human annals. He had the tongue of a scorpion and the vanity of a child. He could do almost everything, and he did nothing ill." Sculptor, Renaissance man who knew all the greats, Leonardo, Titian, Michelangelo. Wild stories.

I loved this book. I bought it in Florence and read it while resting in cafés from bouts of sightseeing. It's fascinating; he is such a vivid character, and utterly appealing despite it total self-absorption. Perhaps it's the anxiety you can see under his apparent certainty that he's the greatest artist that ever lived (except for the divine Michelangelo, who praised one of his works once, something that clearly means more to him than any other accolade he ever garnered.) I remember reading his account of how he managed to cast Perseus with the head of the Medusa, for which he had to develop an entire new bronze-casting technique, while sitting in café just off the main square; and I looked up and right beside me was - Perseus, holding the head of the Medusa; the very statue he was talking about. (A copy, I grant you; the original's in the Uffizi.) I recommend this book to anyone, not just for its fascinating account of a silversmith's life in 16th century Florence (and various other places, as Cellini outran his creditors and enemies from one town to the next), but to learn more about Cellini, a fascinating character (whom it well behooved one to pay only on the completion of the work ...)

Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, celebrated Italian goldsmith (1500-1571), in which Cellini tells the story of his life and art and also depicts the manners and morals of both the rulers and their subjects in 16th Century Italy.

Benvenuto Cellini was a celebrated Renaissance sculptor and goldsmith; a passionate craftsman who was admired and resented by the most powerful political and artistic personalities in sixteenth-century Florence, Rome and Paris. He was also a murderer and a braggart, a shameless adventurer who at different times experienced both papal persecution and imprisonment, and the adulation of the royal court. Inn-keepers and prostitutes, kings and cardinals, artists and soldiers rub shoulders in the pages of his notorious autobiography: a vivid portrait of the manners and morals of both the rulers of the day and of their subjects. Written with supreme powers of invective and an irrepressible sense of humour, this is an unrivalled glimpse into the palaces and prisons of the Italy of Michelangelo and the Medici.

This work is the only known autobiography of a Renaissance artist. It describes not only the artist's life at the Papal Court in Rome and at the Royal Court of France but makes very vivid historical writing, including, as it does, an eye-witness acount of the Sack of Rome in 1527. Cellini also gives us details of his career as a sculptor and goldsmith who restored Etruscan sculptures in Florence, made jewellery for the Popes and beautiful trinkets and ornaments for the French Court, such as the salt-cellar for Francis I. Many of his contemporaries such as Michelangelo are described by him in an intimate manner. The illustrations, which include all Cellini's works that have been preserved, as well as scenes from Renaissance life, were chosen by Sir John Pope-Hennessy, who died in 1994.

M-4

Illustrations by Salvador Dali!

Illustrated by Salvador Dali

NOT SURE WHICH EDITION