The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini

by Benvenuto Cellini

  In March 1527 the Pope disbanded his hired soldiers, partly to save money, and in May 1527 the Imperial army under Charles de Bourbon – the cousin and opponent of King Francis – entered Rome and brutally sacked the city. During the siege of Rome Bourbon was killed by a stray shot from an arquebus.

  The horror of the sack of Rome – the culmination of almost fifty years of warfare and attendant atrocities in Italy – meant for scores of craftsmen and artists captivity, flight or death.

  60. A soldier of fortune, like the Renzo da Ceri, Baglioni (1493–1531) was the son of the murderous Gianpagolo, last of the notorious Baglioni family to rule the papal city of Perugia who having cleverly maintained his rule under Julius II was executed in Castel Sant’Angelo on the orders of Pope Leo X in 1520. Orazio Baglioni after taking a bloody revenge on his father’s betrayers died in Naples while commanding the Bande Nere during the war which followed the sack of Rome. His brother Malatesta betrayed Florence during the last year of the siege of the Republic in 1530.

  61. The Angel was a statue lost during the sack of Rome and replaced by the marble figure carved by Raffaello da Montelupo (1504 to before December 1566). This in turn was replaced by a bronze St Michael in 1753.

  62. Francesco Maria della Rovere (1490–1538) heir to his uncle the childless Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, and also nephew of Pope Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere) who made him Prefect of Rome, then commander of the papal forces. In 1516 he was driven from Urbino by the Medici Pope Leo X who bestowed the duchy on his own nephew, Lorenzo de’ Medici; but he reconquered Urbino in 1521, and served the Medici Pope Clement (very badly) against the imperialists.

  63. The Cardinal of Ravenna (d. 1549), at this time secretary to Pope Clement, was the lawyer and historian Benedetto Accolti of Arezzo, who was made a cardinal a few days before the sack of Rome. Niccoloò Gaddi, Bishop of Ferrara (d. 1552), a Florentine, was made a cardinal at the same time as Accolti and became one of Cellini’s protectors in Rome; they shared many friends.

  64. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1546–1549), later Pope Paul III, was at this time dean of the Sacred College. A scholarly, cultivated bon vivant, he was in the 1520s a patron of the architect Antonio da San Gallo and avid, when pope at last, to secure the services of Michelangelo.

  65. Lieutenant-General to the Philibert Prince of Orange (who had deserted the French and succeeded Bourbon as General Commander of the Imperialists) this courageous but apparently arrogant and cruel Spanish captain caused the death of Orazio Baglioni during a sortie from the besieged city of Naples in 1528 and died himself the next year.

  66. Related to the Medici family (he married Piero de’ Medici’s daughter, Clarice). Filippo Strozzi (1488–1538), who was from a rich patrician family of bankers in Florence, was a friend to Michelangelo and his family, at one time ambassador of Florence to the French court and the Papal Curia, and papal banker, and an active opponent of the Medici, who died in sinister circumstances as the prisoner of Cosimo de’ Medici.

  67. From one of the famous turbulent families exercising seigneurial jurisdiction around Rome, the Orsini, this Franciotto (d. 1533/4) started his career as a soldier, was widowed and then made a cardinal in 1517.

  68. After offering his services to the best local goldsmith, Niccolò (d’Asti), Cellini prepared a drawing and wax model for the reliquary which, probably because of professional jealousies, was not executed.

  69. The Roman soldier who in Christian tradition pierced the side of the dead Christ with his lance and was subsequently martyred.

  70. Ercole Gonzaga (1505–63), Bishop of Mantua, created a cardinal in 1527, and so in need of a seal, splendid patron of artists and writers, who died in 1563 when presiding at the Council of Trent. The seal (in silver, showing the assumption or ascent of the Virgin Mary to heaven observed by the twelve Apostles) no longer exists but there is an impression of it in the Curia Vescovile at Mantua (Cf. Pope-Hennessy, Cellini (1985), pp. 44–5).

  71. After the first sack of Rome on 7 May 1527 the Medici government was overthrown in Florence (on 16 May), the papal governor, Cardinal (Silvio) Passerini, rode away to Lucca with the young princes (Ippolito and Alessandro). After the declaration of peace between the Emperor Charles V and Pope Clement, Florence was besieged for eleven months, finally yielding to the re-imposition of Medici control, after appalling suffering through plague and famine, in August 1530.

  72. Reporting the praise of Michelangelo (then working on the statues for the Medici Chapel) in his Treatise (Chapter XII) Cellini said that this made him ambitious to try larger work. If the medal were bigger, Michelangelo had said, with such an exquisite design, whether in marble or bronze, ‘it would astonish the world…’

  73. (1475–1554) This Florentine painter had worked as a boy under Bertoldo and Ghirlandaio in company with Granacci and Michelangelo who relished his unsophisticated company calling him ‘beato’ or blessed, because unlike Michelangelo he was always satisfied with what he made.

  74. Like the medal for Marretti, probably done in very high relief, this was produced through the technique of ‘lavorare in tondo’ – working in the round – carefully described in the Treatise where Cellini adds that after Ginori’s death the medal came into the possession of Luigi Alamanni who presented it to King Francis.

  Luigi Alamanni (1495–1556) poet and opponent of the Medici, among those who with Machiavelli had taken part in the famous political conversations in the gardens of the Rucellai family (Orti Oricellari) in Florence after 1512. He died in France, in exile.

  75. This was before the middle of 1529 by which time Cellini was doing work for Pope Clement.

  76. The Dominican Fra Niccolò Schomberg della Magna, was made a cardinal by Pope Paul III in 1535. He died in 1537.

  77. The morse or clasp for the papal cope was the first important work by Cellini to have been well recorded. It was apparently melted down in 1797 under the terms of the Treaty of Tolentino, to meet the cost of part of an indemnity exacted from Pope Pius VI by Napoleon after he had marched on Rome. Coloured drawings of the front, back and profile of the morse were made in 1729 by Francesco Santi Bartoli for John Talman, an English antiquarian. The watercolours are in the British Museum, London. (Cf. Pope-Hennessy Cellini, pp. 47–9.)

  78. Francis I, King of France (1515–47), who later became a patron of Cellini.

  79. A Milanese cleric surnamed Alicorno who was a spoilt friend of Pope Clement, enjoying many benefices, as well as being notary and secretary of the private bedchamber.

  80. Tommaso Cortesi (1470–1543) a highly esteemed jurist and friend of Pope Leo X, who was ordained after the death of his wife and made Bishop of Cerenzia and Cariati in 1529 and of Vaison in 1533 by Clement VII who also appointed him an official of the Papal Revenues and Datary and endowed him with various other offices.

  81. Cellini remained Maestro delle Stampe (incisore di zecca), charged with making the designs and stamps, from June 1529 to January 1534. His Treatise clearly describes three separate coins – two two-ducat coins in gold and a silver doppio carlino – in all of which ‘the effort to give a convincing embodiment to the Pope’s not wholly orthodox concepts is very evident’. (Pope-Hennessy, Cellini, pp. 50–51.)

  82. This was Jacomo Rastelli (1491–1566), originally from Rimini who was in the service of Clement VII and succeeding popes till he died.

  83. Giovanni di Taddeo Gaddi. Born in Florence, Gaddi was a spiky, businesslike administrator who was dean of the Apostolic Chamber and a patron of artists and writers including Annibale Caro who composed a sonnet in his honour when he died in 1543.

  84. Either Giovanni Vergerio (a learned Greek living in Rome who later visited Florence and presented some splendid Greek typefaces to Duke Cosimo), or Giovanni Lascaris.

  85. A writer (e.g. author of a volume called De Religione antiqua – Ancient Religion) and poetry lover.

  86. A gregarious Florentine poet who later wrote verse (two sonnets are extant) in praise of Cellini’s statue of Perseus.
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  87. Annibale Caro (1507–66), humanist, skilled and versatile writer and secretary to important ecclesiastics (notably Cardinal Alessandro Farnese). Caro later played a key part in the genesis and development of Vasari’s Lives of the artists.

  88. Sebastiano (Luciani) del Piombo (c. 1485–1547) was born in Venice, influenced by the Bellini and Giorgione and developed from painting frescos for Agostino Chigi in Rome, where he later collaborated with Michelangelo, into a superb colourist and portrait painter, capable of strong dramatic effects and psychological insights.

  89. Giambattista Sanga’s career culminated in his appointment as secretary to Pope Clement. He was a graceful (neo-Latin) poet and an enthusiast for reform in the Catholic Church; he died from being poisoned accidentally in 1532.

  90. Alessandro de’ Medici (1511–37), illegitimate son of Giulio de’ Medici, was nominated as Duke of Civita di Penna in 1522 by the Emperor Charles V through the influence of Giulio de’ Medici before the latter became pope. He became Duke of Florence in 1532, ruled harshly and was brutally assassinated.

  91. This was Bernardo Strozzi who served the Florentine Republic in 1530; reputedly arrogant and time-serving he was present with the Florentine commander, Francesco Ferrucci, at the battle of Gavinana (near Pistoia) where Spanish troops hacked Ferrucci to death. A week later a delegation of Florentine citizens agreed to the terms of surrender demanded by the Emperor and the Pope.

  92. The chief constable (bargello) in 1529–30 was Maffio di Giovanni in charge of a police guard of twenty-five footmen and ten horsemen,

  93. A Florentine serving with Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici on an expedition to meet the Emperor in Naples; he died with several others, allegedly poisoned on the orders of Duke Alessandro.

  94. One of Rome’s chief prisons, especially for those under sentence of death.

  95. Literally, i ferri della Zecca, the tools used for coining.

  96. ‘Torre Sanguigna’ i.e. the Bloody Tower.

  97. For a while Bandini served Duke Alessandro and later opposed Duke Cosimo on the side of Filippo Strozzi. He and Lodovico Martelli fought a famous duel with Giovanni Rigogli and Dante da Castiglione during the siege of Florence. He was later imprisoned by Cosimo on a charge of sodomy.

  98. Francesco del Nero had worked (apparently corruptly) with Filippo Strozzi in Florence after 1513 when the latter was Pontifical Treasurer; Zana for Giovanni (Biliotti); the Bishop of Vasona was Girolamo Schio, the Pope’s confessor and occasional envoy, Bishop of Vaison near Avignon since 1523, he died in 1533.

  99. Superintendent of the Pontifical Mint from 1529, later imprisoned and tortured on suspicion of forgery.

  100. Donato Bramante (c. 1443/4–1514) trained initially as a painter; it is for his architectural works in Rome that he is chiefly remembered. He worked for popes Alexander VI, Julius II and Leo X, built churches, palaces and roads, and initiated the rebuilding of St Peter’s.

  101. Also called Baccio Valori, a Florentine who during the siege of Florence was the Pope’s Commissary-General to the Prince of Orange, he later conspired against the Medici with Filippo Strozzi, was captured at the battle of Montemurlo which saw the anti-Medicean exiles finally crushed and was executed with his son and a nephew in August 1537.

  102. Entered into holy orders after the death of his wife, obtained the bishoprics of Pistoia, Amalfi and Ravello, and was made a cardinal by Pope Paul III in 1542. His earlier career as a papal commissary had been inglorious; he abandoned his artillery before a successful Sienese onslaught in 1526.

  103. Pope Clement left Rome on 18 November 1532 for Bologna. He stayed till March 1533 and he and the Emperor discussed ideas for a General Council of the Church, a League against the Turks, and the marriage of Caterina de’ Medici (1519–89) the daughter of Leo X’s nephew Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino. Caterina – Catherine de’ Medici – married Henri of Orleans, the future King Henri II, in 1533.

  104. King Francis I (1515–47) whose inventory of plate and jewels drawn up at Fontainebleau in 1560–62 records the horn as mounted by Tobbia. Cellini’s design which was not executed looked forward to his work at Fontainebleau on animal figures surrounding the nymph. The horn was intended as a wedding gift for Catherine de’ Medici and the King’s second son, Henri. Clement attended the wedding in Marseilles, chiefly to strengthen ties with the French.

  105. Tommaso d’Antonio from Perugia, nicknamed ‘bean’ (meaning thickhead) and appointed joint die-stamper (with Giovanni Bernardi of Castel-Bolognese) at the Pontifical Mint in 1534.

  106. Pier Giovanni Aliotti (d. c. 1562) later became Master of Robes to Pope Paul III and, under Pope Julius III, Bishop of Forlì in 1551. As a general factotum for the Pope he dealt with many of the Vatican’s suppliers and clients, including Michelangelo who called him Tantecose (Busybody).

  107. The learned Roman Governor Gregorio Magalotti, a lawyer: he became a bishop in 1532. He died in 1537 in Bologna, serving there as the legate of Pope Paul III.

  The Procurator Fiscal Benedetto Valenti came from Trevi where he had a fine collection of antique statues.

  108. Cellini later recorded that the unfinished chalice (or ostensory for carrying the Host) was pledged to Bindo d’Antonio Altoviti for two hundred scudi in gold and redeemed by Duke Cosimo’s chamberlain in February 1553. It was later finished by Niccoloò di Francesco Santini, a goldsmith at the ducal court. Cosimo then presented the chalice with its figures of Faith, Hope and Charity to Pope Pius V on 4 March 1569 when he was crowned as Grand Duke of Tuscany. Later the chalice was broken up.

  109. Felice Guadagni, Cellini’s assistant who features later in the narrative.

  110. In Umbria, this district was well known for its demons and witches, as well as for being the birthplace of St Benedict and his sister St Scholastica.

  111. A Benedictine abbey in a village in the Sabine hills (Farfa) about twenty kilometres from Rome.

  112. Giovanni Bernardi (d. 1553) a gem cutter, invited to Rome by the historian Paolo Giovio, described by Vasari as an excellent engraver of medals and crystals.

  113. Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici (1511–35) was the natural son of the brother of Pope Leo X, Giuliano, Duke of Nemours. Made cardinal in 1529, when aged eighteen, he was handsome and talented (as witnessed by the portrait by Titian in the Pitti in Florence and some of his verse) and a perspicacious, wealthy patron. A failed conspirator (against Duke Alessandro) and inept military commander (against the Turks) he died in 1535.

  114. Antonio di Giovanni da Settignano, a Florentine painter and sculptor, among the many Vasari said were taught by Andrea del Sarto and Sansovino.

  115. Carlo di Lionardo Ginori, praised by Vasari as a patron of artists, Gonfalonier of Florence for two months in 1527.

  116. Pietro Alvarez di Toledo (d. 1553), Marquis of Villafranca, was Viceroy of Naples for twenty years from 1532.

  117. Pecci was born in Siena. The Sienese rather like the people of Bologna were reputed to be not too bright (at least by fellow Tuscans). This one later served Catherine de’ Medici, and was involved in a plot against the Spanish rulers of Siena in 1551.

  118. Cellini describes this medal also in his Treatise on goldsmithing (Chapter XV), adding details on his technique and those of the ancient world. On the two medals dated 1534 with a common obverse and alternative reverses (see p. 126 and the quotation Ut bibat populus: ‘That the people may drink’, which celebrates the well in Orvieto commissioned by Pope Clement) Pope-Hennessy comments that the portrait of Pope Clement put them among the finest of their time. About a hundred of the two medals were struck and they ‘remained a byword for quality’. (See Pope-Hennessy, Cellini, pp. 52–4 with plates 31–4 of dies in the Museo Nazionale, Florence.)

  119. Pope Clement’s noble and scholarly Florentine secretary, Carnesecchi (1508–67) who later associated with the group of ‘reforming’ Catholics in Rome influenced by the Spanish mystic Juan de Valdès. He was finally condemned to death and beheaded and burned as an impenitent heretic in Rome after
Duke Cosimo surrendered him to Pope Pius V.

  120. Clement died on 25 September 1534.

  121. Alberto del Bene, brother of Alessandro del Bene, claimed often by Cellini as a close friend, was a well-educated, discriminating man who died in 1554 in a skirmish during the campaign of 1553–4 ending with the defeat by Florence of French and Sienese troops under Piero Strozzi.

  122. This was on 26 September 1534, conveniently for Cellini within twenty-four hours of the death of a pope, and the time for a general amnesty when a new pope was announced.

  123. Rucellai (1495–1549) a voluntary Florentine exile in Rome who married Dianora di Pandolfo della Casa, heiress of Monsignor Giovanni della Casa who wrote the famous book of manners, Galatea.

  124. Cardinal Cornaro (d. 1543). Created a cardinal though not yet in holy orders in 1528, the Venetian Francesco Cornaro brother of the earlier mentioned Marco; after military training and several engagements against Islam, he served the Republic of Venice as a diplomat. In 1531 he was given the Bishopric of Brescia which he soon resigned to his nephew Andrea.

  125. Related to Pompeo. Traiano Alicorni, a Milanese, was a well-rewarded intimate of Pope Clement, who held a succession of curial posts.

  126. Bernardo di Michelozzo Michelozzi, envoy and negotiator for successive popes starting with Leo X who took him into the Medici household, and for Duke Cosimo. He became a bishop in 1516.

  127. Alessandro Farnese elected on 13 October 1534 and crowned on 1 November as Pope Paul III, reigned till 1549. He moved quickly to secure the services of Michelangelo for a series of frescos beginning with the Last Judgement, and appointed him chief sculptor, painter and architect. During his pontificate after the Peace of Crépy between the Emperor and the French king in 1544, the Council of Trent opened for sessions in 1545 which were finally completed in 1563. He was generous to scholars and artists but most of all to members of his own family.

  128. The Roman Latino Giovenale de’ Manetti (1486–1553) a career courtier with some talent as a poet, who numbered many brilliant scholars and writers such as Castiglione and Bembo among his friends. A canon of St Peter’s, he was made Treasurer of Piacenza in 1534 and subsequently Commissary-General for the Antiquities of Rome.