Benvenuto Cellini and the Creation of Perseus :: essays papers

Benvenuto Cellini and the Creation of PerseusMy name is Bernardino Mannellini. I am now working on my own trying to succeed as a carver here in Rome. I have found the job extremely difficult, but it was expected after my apprenticeship with the great sculptor, Benvenuto Cellini. He was not the most notable but was equally deserving as such great sculptors as Michel Agnolo Buonarroti. This is why I write to you today. Cellini produced one of the most beautiful works of this clock time in his masterpiece of Perseus. It was a remarkable feat whose story cannot go untold (Huntley 251).Cellini and I had arrived in Florence from France for a short while. Although he was actually self-made in France under the encouragement of Majesty King Francis, Cellini wanted very much to revisit his birthplace of Florence. He quickly became known to the Duke and did a some works for him. First, the colossal bronze bust of his Excellency secondly, a restoration of the Ganymede in marble which cost a great deal of difficulty and thirdly, the medusoid head cast in bronze. Succeeding well with Medusa, Cellini wanted to start on a cast of Perseus holding the head of Medusa (Cellini 410).Cellini made the wax model which came out beautifully, but I was questionable to whether it would come out in bronze as did the Medusa. Apparently the Duke agreed with me when Cellini went to speak to him of the project he was working on. His Excellency was struck by the beauty of the wax model but questioned how it would succeed in bronze with Perseus grasping the head of Medusa so high. The statue would stand ten and a half feet tall if completed with Perseuss hand holding the head of Medusa high in front of him. It was neaten why his Excellency was concerned for how Cellini would complete the bronze statue. I was standing aside from Cellini as he tried to assure the Duke that the statue would succeed. Cellini pleaded My lord, I know how very little confidence you have in me and I believe the reason of this is that your most illustrious Excellency lends too ready an ear to my calumniators, or else so that you do not understand my art.