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Book FirstPart XXVI
Part XXVI
Since I am writing my life, I must from time to time diverge from my
profession in order to describe with brevity, if not in detail, some incidents
which have no bearing on my career as artist. On the morning of Saint John`s
Day I happened to be dining with several men of our nation, painters,
sculptors, goldsmiths, amongst the most notable of whom was Rosso and
Gainfrancesco, the pupil of Raffaello. ^1 I had invited them without restraint
or ceremony to the place of our meeting, and they were all laughing and
joking, as is natural when a crowd of men come together to make merry on so
great a festival. It chanced that a light-brained swaggering young fellow
passed by; he was a soldier of Rienzo da Ceri, who, when he heard the noise
that we were making, gave vent to a string of opprobrious sarcasms upon the
folk of Florence. ^2 I, who was the host of those great artists and men of
worth, taking the insult to myself, slipped out quietly without being
observed, and went up to him. I ought to say that he had a punk of his there,
and was going on with his stupid ribaldries to amuse her. When I met him, I
asked if he was the rash fellow who was speaking evil of the Florentines. He
answered at once: "I am that man." On this I raised my hand, struck him in the
face, and said: "And I am this man." Then we each of us drew our swords with
spirit; but the fray had hardly begun when a crowd of persons intervened, who
rather took my part than not, hearing and seeing that I was in the right.
[Footnote 1: St. John`s Day was the great Florentine Festival, on which all
the Guilds went in procession with pageants through the city. Of the
Florentine painter, II Rosso, or Maitre Roux, this is the first mention by
Cellini. He went to France in 1534, and died an obscure death there in 1541.]
[Footnote 2: This Rienzo, Renzo, or Lorenzo da Ceri, was a captain of
adventurers or Condottiere, who hired his mercenary forces to paymasters. He
defended Crema for the Venetians in 1514, and conquered Urbino for the Pope in
1515. Afterwards he fought for the French in the Italian wars. We shall hear
more of him again during the sack of Rome.]
On the following day a challenge to fight with him was brought me, which
I accepted very gladly, saying that I expected to complete this job far
quicker than those of the other art I practised. So I went at once to confer
with a fine old man called Bevilacqua, who was reputed to have been the first
sword of Italy, because he had fought more than twenty serious duels and had
always come off with honour. This excellent man was a great friend of mine; he
knew me as an artist and had also been concerned as intermediary in certain
ugly quarrels between me and others. Accordingly, when he had learned my
business, he answered with a smile: "My Benvenuto, if you had an affair with
Mars, I am sure you would come out with honour, because through all the years
that I have known you, I have never seen you wrongfully take up a quarrel." So
he consented to be my second, and we repaired with sword in hand to the
appointed place, but no blood was shed, for my opponent made the matter up,
and I came with much credit out of the affair. ^3 I will not add further
particulars; for though they would be very interesting in their own way, I
wish to keep both space and words for my art, which has been my chief
inducement to write as I am doing, and about which I shall have only too much
to say.
[Footnote 3: The Italian, restando dal mio avversario, seems to mean that
Cellini`s opponent proposed an accommodation, apologized, or stayed the duel
at a certain point.]
The spirit of honourable rivalry impelled me to attempt some other
masterpiece, which should equal, or even surpass, the productions of that able
craftsman, Lucagnolo, whom I have mentioned. Still I did not on this account
neglect my own fine art of jewellery; and so both the one and the other
wrought me much profit and more credit, and in both of them I continued to
produce things of marked originality. There was at that time in Rome a very
able artist of Perugia named Lautizio, who worked only in one department,
where he was sole and unrivalled throughout the world. ^4 You must know that
at Rome every cardinal has a seal, upon which his title is engraved, and these
seals are made just as large as a child`s hand of about twelve years of age;
and, as I have already said, the cardinal`s title is engraved upon the seal
together with a great many ornamental figures. A well-made article of the kind
fetches a hundred, or more than a hundred crowns. This excellent workman, like
Lucagnolo, roused in me some honest rivalry, although the art he practised is
far remote from the other branches of gold-smithery, and consequently Lautizio
was not skilled in making anything but seals. I gave my mind to acquiring his
craft also, although I found it very difficult; and, unrepelled by the trouble
which it gave me, I went on zealously upon the path of profit and improvement.
[Footnote 4: See Cellini`s Treatise Oreficeria, cap. vi., for more particulars
about this artist.]
There was in Rome another most excellent craftsman of ability, who was a
Milanese named Messer Caradosso. ^5 He dealt in nothing but little chiselled
medals, made of plates of metal, and such-like things. I have seen of his
some paxes in half relief, and some Christs a palm in length wrought of the
thinnest golden plates, so exquisitely done that I esteemed him the greatest
master in that kind I had ever seen, and envied him more than all the rest
together. There were also other masters who worked at medals carved in steel,
which may be called the models and true guides for those who aim at striking
coins in the most perfect style. All these divers arts I set myself with
unflagging industry to learn.
[Footnote 5: His real name was Ambrogio Foppa. The nickname Caradosso is said
to have stuck to him in consequence of a Spaniard calling him Bear`s-face in
his own tongue. He struck Leo X`s coins; and we possess some excellent
medallion portraits by his hand.]
I must not omit the exquisite art of enamelling, in which I have never
known any one excel save a Florentine, our countryman, called Amerigo. ^6 I
did not know him, but was well acquainted with his incomparable masterpieces.
Nothing in any part of the world or by craftsman that I have seen, approached
the divine beauty of their workmanship. To this branch too I devoted myself
with all my strength, although it is extremely difficult, chiefly because of
the fire, which, after long time and trouble spent in other processes, has to
be applied at last, and not unfrequently brings the whole to ruin. In spite of
its great difficulties, it gave me so much pleasure that I looked upon them as
recreation; and this came from the special gift which the God of nature
bestowed on me, that is to say, a temperament so happy and of such excellent
parts that I was freely able to accomplish whatever it pleased me to take in
hand. The various departments of art which I have described are very different
one from the other, so that a man who excels in one of them, if he undertakes
the others, hardly ever achieves the same success; whereas I strove with all
my power to become equally versed in all of them: and in the proper place I
shall demonstrate that I attained my object.
[Footnote 6: For him, consult Cellini`s Oreficeria.]
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