CELLINI, Benvenuto
Benvenuto是一名雕塑家和版畫家,也是意大利文藝復興時期最重要的鐵匠之一, 鑄造了金幣、珠寶、花瓶與飾物。
Benvenuto於1500年十一月三日佛羅倫斯出生。他十五歲時成為一鐵匠的學徒。十六歲時因壞脾氣被放逐至Siena. 後來他曾短期成為 Michelangelo的學生。
Benvenuto的老主顧包括教皇Clement VII、教皇彼得三世、法王法蘭斯一世和佛羅倫斯貴族Cosimo I de' Medici. Francis I 於1540邀請他前往巴黎, 那裡他製造了Nymph of Fontainebleau (Louvre, Paris)的模型。He also executed an elaborate gold saltcellar for Francis (1539-43, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). 他於1545被逐,因為他與國王的情婦的爭執和他自己的怪癖。Cellini 最後回到佛羅倫斯。在Cosimo de' Medici的保護下,他製造了許多優秀作品,包括Cosimo半身銅像和 colossal bronze statue Perseus and Medusa (1545-54, Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence).他於1571年二月十三日死於佛羅倫斯。
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0125867/web_c/Benvenuto.htm
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義大利雕刻家。1500年11月1日生於佛羅倫薩﹐1571年2月13日卒於同地。幼年學習金銀工藝﹐兼通繪畫雕刻﹐出師後傾慕米開朗琪羅藝術。他在風格上力求新異﹐成為樣式主義的代表人物。切利尼一生主要工作於佛羅倫薩﹐但也遊歷甚廣﹐1523~1530年間留居羅馬﹐並於1540~1545年留法工作。他好勇鬥狠﹐脾氣暴烈﹐藝術和生活上皆敢作敢為﹐放蕩不羈。晚年寫《自傳》(1558~1562)﹐歷述生平冒險﹐反映了鮮明的時代性格﹐遂負盛名。其代表作《俄耳修斯》(1545~1554)﹐是一高達3.2米的青銅雕像﹐細部刻鑄極精﹐人物髮絲血脈纖毫畢露﹐技藝精熟﹐但神情較為冷漠﹐精神內容略嫌空虛。他的金銀工藝代表作是為法王法蘭西斯一世刻製的一個食鹽盒(1540)﹐飾以海神﹑地母雕像﹐為西方工藝品中的精美之作。
http://203.64.230.194/web/Content.asp?ID=77485
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维基百科
Benvenuto Cellini(November 3, 1500 – February 13, 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, painter, sculptor, soldier and musician of the Renaissance.
Contents
1 Life
2 Works
3 Cellini in Literature
4 Reference
5 Further reading
6 See also
7 External links
Life
He was born in Florence, where his family had been landowners in the Val d'Ambra for three generations. His father, Giovanni Cellini, built and played musical instruments; he married Maria Lisabetta Granacci, and eighteen years elapsed before they had any progeny.
Benvenuto (meaning "Welcome") was the third child. The father destined him for the same profession as himself, and endeavoured to thwart his inclination for design and metal work. When he had reached the age of fifteen, his father reluctantly agreed to his apprenticeship to a goldsmith, Antonio di Sandro, nicknamed Marcone. He had already attracted some notice in his native place, when, being implicated in a fray with some of his companions, he was banished for six months to Siena, where he worked for Francesco Castoro (Fracastoro), a goldsmith; from thence he removed to Bologna, where he became a more accomplished flute-player and made progress in the goldsmith's art. After visiting Pisa, and after twice resettling for a while in Florence (where he was visited by the sculptor Torrigiano, he decamped to Rome, aged nineteen.
His first attempt at his craft here was a silver casket, followed by some silver candlesticks, and later by a vase for the bishop of Salamanca, which introduced him to the favourable notice of Pope Clement VII; likewise at a later date one of his celebrated works, the gold medallion of "Leda and the Swan" — the head and torso of Leda cut in hard stone — executed for the Gonfaloniere Gabbriello Cesarino, which is now in the Vienna museum; he also reverted to music, practised flute-playing, and was appointed one of the pope's court-musicians. In the attack upon Rome by the Constable de Bourbon, which occurred immediately after, the bravery and address of Cellini proved of signal service to the pontiff; if we may believe his own accounts, his was the very hand which shot the Bourbon dead, and he afterwards killed Philibert, Prince of Orange.
His exploits paved the way for a reconciliation with the Florentine magistrates, and he return shortly to his native place. Here he assiduously devoted himself to the execution of medals, the most famous of which (executed a short while later) are "Hercules and the Nemean Lion", in gold repoussé work, and "Atlas supporting the Sphere", in chased gold, the latter eventually falling into the possession of Francis I.
From Florence he went to the court of the duke of Mantua, and then again to Florence and to Rome, where he was employed not only in the working of jewelry, but also in the execution of dies for private medals and for the papal mint. Here in 1529 he killed his brother's murderer; and soon had to flee to Naples to shelter himself from the consequences of an affray with a notary, Ser Benedetto, whom he wounded. Through the influence of several of the cardinals he obtained a pardon; and on the elevation of Pope Paul III to the pontifical throne he was reinstated in his former position of favour, notwithstanding a fresh homicide of a goldsmith which he had committed more by accident than of malice prepense in the interregnum.
Once more the plots of Pierluigi Farnese, a natural son of Paul III, led to his retreat from Rome to Florence and Venice, and once more he was restored with greater honour than before. On returning from a visit to the court of Francis I, being now aged thirty-seven, he was imprisoned on a charge (apparently false) of having embezzled during the war the gems of the pontifical tiara; he remained some while confined in the Castel Sant'Angelo, escaped, was recaptured, and treated with great severity, and was in daily expectation of death on the scaffold.
At last, however, he was released at the intercession of Pierluigi's wife, and more especially of the Cardinal d'Este of Ferrara, to whom he presented a splendid cup. For a while, he worked at the court of Francis I, at Fontainebleau and Paris; but he considered the duchesse d'Étampes to be set against him, and the intrigues of the king's favourites, whom he would not stoop to conciliate and could not venture to silence by the sword, as he had silenced his enemies in Rome, led him, after about five years of laborious and sumptuous work, and of continually-recurring jealousies and violences, to retire in 1545 in disgust to Florence, where he employed his time in works of art, and exasperated his temper in rivalries with the uneasy-natured sculptor Baccio Bandinelli.
The first collision between the two had occurred several years before when Pope Clement VII commissioned Cellini to mint his coinage. Now, in an altercation before Duke Cosimo, Bandinelli insultingly stigmatized Benvenuto as guilty of gross immorality, calling out to him Sta cheto, soddomitaccio! (Shut up, you filthy sodomite!); in his autobiography Cellini recalls repelling rather than denying the charge, claiming to be unworthy of such a divine and royal diversion. Certainly his art, often celebratory of the young male form, is a testimonial to his appreciation of that beauty. Some of Cellini's homoerotic classical references
His biography omits the four charges against him of sodomy: 1) At the age of 23 with a boy named Domenico di ser Giuliano da Ripa, an accusation was settled with a small fine (perhaps thanks to his youth at the time). 2) An accusation in Paris, which he braved out in court. 3) In Florence in 1548, he was accused by a certain Margherita of familiarities with her son, Vincenzo. Perhaps this was a private quarrel, one from which he simply fled, and undeserving of attention. 4) Finally, in 1556, his apprentice Fernando, after being fired for an altercation, accused his mentor of: (as the indictment read) Cinque anni ha tenuto per suo ragazzo Fernando di Giovanni di Montepulciano, giovanetto con el quale ha usato carnalmente moltissime volte col nefando vitio della soddomia, tenendolo in letto come sua moglie (For five years he kept as his boy Fernando di Giovanni di Montepulciano, a youth whom he used carnally in the abject vice of sodomy numerous instances, keeping him in his bed as a wife.) This time the penalty was a hefty fifty golden scudi fine, and four years of prison, remitted to four years of house arrest thanks to the intercession of the Medicis. It is notable that his references to his boy models (and possibly lovers) are more tender and affectionate than his references to women, including his wife. In his sculpture, the male is always more convincingly modelled than the female - his Venus of Fontainebleau, while notable, is unconvincing as a representation of the realistic female body.
During the war with Siena, Cellini was appointed to strengthen the defences of his native city, and, though rather shabbily treated by his ducal patrons, he continued to gain the admiration of his fellow-citizens by the magnificent works which he produced. He died in Florence in 1571, unmarried, and leaving no posterity, and was buried with great pomp in the church of the Annunziata. He had supported in Florence a widowed sister and her six daughters.
Works
Perseus with the Head of Medusa, 1545-54, in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence; picture taken after the statue's cleaning and restorationBesides the works in gold and silver which have been adverted to, Cellini executed several pieces of sculpture on a grander scale. The most distinguished of these is the bronze group of "Perseus holding the head of Medusa", a work (first suggested by Duke Cosimo I de Medici) now in the Loggia dei Lanzi at Florence, full of the fire of genius and the grandeur of a terrible beauty, one of the most typical and unforgettable monuments of the Italian Renaissance. The casting of this great work gave Cellini the utmost trouble and anxiety; and its completion was hailed with rapturous homage from all parts of Italy. The original relief from the foot of the pedestal — Perseus and Andromeda — is in the Bargello, and replaced by a cast.
By 1996 centuries of exposure to the elements had left the statue streaked and banded with dirt and pollution. In December of that year it was removed from the Loggia to the Uffizi for cleaning and restoration. This was a slow and painstaking process, and it was not until June 2000 that the restored statue was returned to its original home.
Among his works of art not already mentioned, 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 Jupiter in silver of life size, and a bronze bust of Bindo Altoviti. The works of decorative art are, speaking broadly, rather florid than chastened in style.
In addition to the bronze statue of Perseus and the medallions already referred to, the works of art in existence today executed by him are a medallion of Clement VII in commemoration of 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 medal of Francis I with his portrait, also signed;a medal of Cardinal Pietro Bembo; and the celebrated gold, enamel and ivory salt-cellar (known as Saliera) made for Francis I at Vienna. This object, of a value conservatively estimated at US$ 58,000,000, was stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum on May 11, 2003. This intricate 16-centimeter-high sculpture was commissioned by Francis I. Crafted with amazingly rich detail and skill, its principal figures are a naked sea god and a woman who sit opposite each other, with legs entwined- a symbolic representation of the planet earth. The thieves climbed scaffolding and smashed windows to enter the museum. The thieves set off the alarms, but these were ignored as false, and the theft remained undiscovered until 8:20 AM. The fear is that these thieves will destroy the sculpture or melt it down.
One of the most 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. The likely model for this crucifix was Cellini's assistant Fernando, who is mentioned above as Cellini's sex partner. 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, executed 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 executed in 1535 a forty-soldi piece with a bust of the duke on one side and standing figures of the saints Cosma and Damian on the other. Some connoisseurs attribute to his hand several plaques, "Jupiter crushing the Giants", "Fight between Perseus and Phinaeus", a Dog, etc.
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, wrought for Francis I during his sojourn in Paris; a bust of Julius Caesar; and a silver cup for the cardinal of Ferrara. The magnificent gold "button", or morse, 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 indemnity of 30,000,000 francs demanded by Napoleon at the conclusion of the campaign against the States of the Church in 1797. According to the terms of the treaty, the pope was permitted to pay a third of that sum in plate and jewels. Fortunately there are in the print room of the British Museum three watercolour drawings of this splendid morse by F. Bertoli, done at the instance 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.
Cellini in Literature
Not less characteristic of its splendidly gifted and barbarically untameable author are the autobiographical memoirs which he composed, beginning them in Florence in 1558 — a production of the utmost energy, directness and racy animation, setting forth one of the most singular careers in all the annals of fine art. His amours and hatreds, his passions and delights, his love of the sumptuous and the exquisite in art, his self-applause and self-assertion, running now and again into extravagances which it is impossible to credit, and difficult to set down as strictly conscious falsehoods, make this one of the most singular and fascinating books in existence. Here we read, not only of the strange and varied adventures of which we have presented a hasty sketch, but of the devout complacency with which Cellini could contemplate a satisfactorily achieved homicide; of the legion of devils which he and a conjuror evoked in the Colosseum, after one of his not innumerous mistresses had been spirited away from him by her mother; of the marvellous halo of light which he found surrounding his head at dawn and twilight after his Roman imprisonment, and his supernatural visions and angelic protection during that adversity; and of his being poisoned on two several occasions. If he is unmeasured in abusing some people, he is also unlimited in praising others. The autobiography has been translated into English by Thomas Roscoe, by John Addington Symonds, and by A. Macdonald. It has been considered and published as a classic, and commonly regarded as one of the most colourful autobiographies (certainly the most important autobiography from the Renaissance). Cellini also wrote treatises on the goldsmith's art, on sculpture, and on design (translated by C. R. Ashbee, 1899).
The life of Cellini also inspired the popular French author Alexandre Dumas. Dumas, an author of numerous historical novels wrote Ascanio, which was based on Cellini's life. The novel focuses on several years during Cellini's stay in France, working for Francis. The book is also centred around Ascanio, an apprentice of Cellini. The famous scheming, plot twists and intrigue that made Dumas famous feature in the novel, in this case involving, Cellini, the duchesse d'Etampes and other members of the court. Cellini is portrayed as a passionate and troubled man, plagued by the inconsistencies of life under the "patronage" of a false and somewhat cynical court.
In addition to the opera by Berlioz, Cellini was also the subject of a Broadway musical, THE FIREBRAND OF FLORENCE, by Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill, which featured Lotte Lenya (Mrs. Weill) as one of the sculptor's royal conquests. The show, unfortunately, was not a hit, and only ran for a month on Broadway, although some of its songs are periodically revived. It marked the last major collaboration between Weill and Gershwin, whose collabortion was best known for the classic LADY IN THE DARK (1941).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benvenuto_Cellini
没有中文条,大英百科有,我没上得去。
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这切里尼很了不起!我头一回听说他是因为伯辽兹的歌剧,《艺术哲
学》中谈意大利文艺复兴也有他的大量记实文笔。我手头的科学史中
把他与达芬奇并提(前者是飞行器,后者是冶金)。
我手头的发现丛书第一本《文字与书写》就极力称赞他在西方字模上
的贡献。。。故而这个人物相当重要。
- posted on 11/16/2005
Benvenuto Cellini is an opera by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Léon de Wailly and Auguste Barbier. It was first performed in Paris at the Paris Opera on September 10, 1838. At its premiere, the audience, disturbed by the radical new opera, rioted.
Benvenuto Cellini is rarely performed and is not part of the standard operatic repertoire. There is only one complete recording of it. The United States premiere took place in New York's Philharmonic Hall on March 22, 1965. The first performance of the work at the Metropolitan Opera on December 4, 2003, with James Levine conducting.
ACT I. Shrove Monday, sixteenth-century Rome. Pope Clement has summoned his treasurer, Balducci, to the Vatican. The prelate has commissioned Benvenuto Cellini, a hot-blooded Florentine sculptor and goldsmith, to create a statue of Perseus. Balducci mistrusts Cellini, preferring a local sculptor, Fieramosca, to whom he has promised his beautiful daughter, Teresa. From her window, Teresa watches carnival revelers, hoping to catch a glimpse of her lover — Cellini. Though Balducci is suspicious, he hurries off to see the Pope. A dutiful daughter, Teresa hesitates before allowing Cellini into the house. They sing of their love for each other and their disdain for Fieramosca, little realizing that the other sculptor has stolen into the house and is eavesdropping on them. Cellini reveals his plan to elope with Teresa to Florence: the next evening, Balducci is to attend the theater; while he watches the show, Cellini and his apprentice, Ascanio, disguised as monks, will abduct Teresa. Though she fears angering her father — and heaven — Teresa agrees to the plan. But Fieramosca overhears, and vows to thwart them. Balducci returns unexpectedly, but Cellini escapes. Trying to explain why she’s up past her bedtime, Teresa claims she heard a man in her room. This is precisely where Fieramosca has hidden himself, and when Balducci discovers the hapless Roman in his daughter’s bedroom, he refuses to hear any excuses. A crowd of neighbor women comes to Balducci’s aid and hauls Fieramosca into the garden for a dunking in the pond.
At an inn on the Piazza Colonna, Cellini muses on his newfound feeling: for the first time, love has supplanted his desire for fame. His apprentices, friends and fellow metal-workers join him. They drink to their "divine art" until the Innkeeper comes to settle the tab. Just in time, Ascanio arrives with Cellini’s commission for the statue of Perseus — which must be cast the next day. Thanks to Balducci, the commission is smaller than expected. Fieramosca enters. His friend Pompeo advises him not to reveal Cellini’s plot to Balducci but to steal it: disguised as monks themselves, Fieramosca and Pompeo will abduct the girl. Fieramosca declares that, to win Teresa, he’s willing to fight even that brigand Cellini. Fieramosca and Pompeo hurry off to disguise themselves. Balducci and his daughter arrive at the adjacent theater; even as Cellini and Ascanio appear in their disguises, Teresa has second thoughts about betraying her father’s trust. The players exhort the Roman people to watch their pantomime — which, at Cellini’s instigation, pokes fun at Balducci. Teresa begs her father to leave with her but he angrily insists on staying to the end. During the show, Cellini and Ascanio approach Teresa from one side of the theater, Fieramosca and Pompeo from the other. When Balducci, fed up, attacks the players who are mocking him, both sets of false monks fall upon Teresa — then upon each other. In the hubbub, Cellini stabs Pompeo and is arrested. Just when all appears lost, a cannon is fired from the Castel Sant’Angelo, signaling curfew and the end of Mardi Gras; all candles and torches are extinguished. In the darkness and confusion, Cellini escapes — and Fieramosca is seized as the murderer.
ACT II. Early the next morning, Teresa and Ascanio search Cellini’s workshop for signs of the artist, who hasn’t been seen since the mélée at the theater. They see a procession of monks outside, and as the monks chant, Teresa and Ascanio pray for Cellini’s safe return. Cellini bursts in — still clad in his bloodstained habit. He describes his escape, hiding through the night, then falling in with the procession of monks until they passed by his workshop. Deeply moved, Teresa vows never again to be parted from him and urges him to flee with her. Cellini agrees, rebuffing Ascanio’s attempt to remind him of the unfinished statue of Perseus. The lovers sing of their future happiness, but before they can get away, Balducci and Fieramosca enter. Balducci inveighs against his daughter and urges the timid Fieramosca to claim her, while Cellini twits them and threatens violence. Suddenly, Pope Clement enters; Balducci and Fieramosca accuse Cellini of rape and murder, demanding justice, while the others protest Cellini’s innocence. The Pope, however, is more concerned with his statue. When he hears the Perseus has not yet been cast, he declares that he’ll have to hire someone else to do the job. Cellini is outraged: he’d sooner die than suffer the shame of allowing another artist to finish his work. The Pope orders Cellini arrested, but the sculptor threatens to demolish the clay model of his statue. The Pope consents to pardon Cellini and to grant him Teresa’s hand, on the condition that he spare the Perseus and cast it by nightfall — or be hanged.
In the Colosseum, Cellini has set up an immense foundry; it is already four o’clock. Ascanio prefers to laugh and sing rather than dwell on his master’s predicament. Alone, Cellini feels the eyes of Rome upon him and wishes he could lead the simple life of a shepherd. He isn’t serious, of course, and soon he and Ascanio are rallying workmen to prepare bronze for the casting. Accompanied by swordsmen, Fieramosca enters and demands satisfaction from Cellini; the sculptor adjourns to a nearby cloister for their duel. The moment he is out of sight, Fieramosca bribes the workmen to go on strike. Teresa arrives, and when Fieramosca returns alone, she and the workmen believe that Cellini must have been killed in the duel; the workmen attack Fieramosca. Just then, Cellini returns and orders the workmen to dress Fieramosca in an apron: his punishment will be to assist them in casting the Perseus. Balducci and Pope Clement come to watch the casting, which has barely begun when Fieramosca announces that there isn’t enough bronze to complete the job. In a creative frenzy, Cellini will do anything to bring his artistic vision to light. He orders his apprentices to melt down all his other work. They redouble their efforts — but the overloaded crucible explodes. For a moment, it seems all is lost: then the molten bronze begins to flow. The casting is saved; art has triumphed. Fieramosca is overcome by emotion and embraces his rival; Balducci willingly hands Teresa over to Cellini. The Pope, interpreting the successful casting as a sign from God, pardons Cellini, as the assemblage reprises its praise of the metal-workers’ art, which adorns the brow of the mightiest.
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