Cellini’s Perseus

Benvenuto Cellini - Perseus - 1545-54 - Bronze - Height 320 cm - Loggia dei Lanzi, FlorenceBenvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) was a Florentine sculptor, goldsmith, and metal-worker. His autobiography (first published in 1728) and written in a racy vernacular, has been famous since the 18th century. Its appeal came from the artist’s vivid picture of a Renaissance craftsman proud of his skill and independence, boastful of his feats in art, love, and war, quarrelsome, superstitious, and devoted to the great tradition embodied in Michelangelo (discussed at length elsewhere on What About Art?). It has given him a wider reputation than could have come from his artistic work alone; but to modern eyes he also appears as one of the most important Mannerist sculptors, and his statue of Perseus (featured here) is one of the glories of Florentine art.

The sculpture shows Perseus, holding the head of the Medusa, which he has cut off and from whose blood the winged horse Pegasus will be born. This masterpiece in bronze was sculpted between 1545 and 1554 for the Loggia dei Lanzi (an open-air gallery) and has stood there ever since. The sculpture can be considered the result of a direct competition with the great Donatello's earlier sculpture, Judith and Holophernes. (Donatello is also discussed elsewhere on What About Art?)

The modeling of the statuettes in bronze on the marble base is so exquisitely done that it suggests the precision of the goldsmith’s art (rather than that of the sculptor). The bronze, which is one of the most celebrated of the Renaissance for its great size, was considered unequaled in a single casting, up to the Industrial Revolution. In a recent restoration, highly sophisticated gold decoration was revealed, which had been used instead of another design, for even more complex damascene ornamentation. (Damascening is the art of inlaying different metals into one another—typically, gold or silver—into a darkly oxidized steel background, to produce intricate patterns similar to niello.)