Cellini Gold Salt Cellar

Sculptor benvenuto cellini is best remembered for two things.

Cellini gold salt cellar.

1515 1547 ce now in vienna. The cellar is the only remaining work of precious metal which can be reliably attributed to cellini. Cellini made the thing of gold enamel and ivory between 1540 and 1544 on commission for the king of france. The cellini salt cellar in vienna called the saliera italian for salt cellar is a part enamelled gold table sculpture by benvenuto cellini it was completed in 1543 for francis i of france from models that had been prepared many years earlier for cardinal ippolito d este.

Had he lived today he might have been a genius tech entrepreneur. The saliera is the only work of gold which can be attributed to cellini with certainty and is sometimes referred to as the mona lisa of sculpture. Although the surviving body of cellini s work is surprisingly small he. Perhaps one of cellini s most famous works is the cellini salt cellar in vienna called the saliera italian for salt cellar a partly enameled gold table sculpture by benvenuto cellini.

Let s start with the autobiography. Its right side has a man with a trident and a ship symbolizing water while its left side has a woman representing the earth. A miss is as good as a mile xviii on the morning which followed these events i made the first step in my work upon the great salt cellar pressing this and my other pieces forward with incessant industry. Benvenuto cellini 1500 1571 ce was an italian renaissance sculptor medallist and goldsmith whose most famous works today include the bronze statue of perseus holding the head of medusa which now stands in florence and a magnificent gold salt cellar made for francis i of france r.

Gardner summarizes it perfectly in the sixteenth century journal. Cellini s philosophy is summed up in the proverb. The saltcellar shows an allegory of the earth and the interplay of land and sea. Benvenuto cellini was more than the maker of the world s most expensive saltshaker the cellini salt cellar a goldsmith draftsman author musician soldier and one of the most important sculptors of italian mannerism cellini was also a ruffian who was jailed several times and confessed to three murders.

The saliera of rolled gold was created by cellini for francis i of france between 1540 and 1543. But for nearly three years the austrian police had no. And then there was the saltcellar. His bombastic autobiography the vita in which he confesses to multiple murders and a spectacular jailbreak and for his salt cellar yes that s right a dish for salt.