author
Benvenuto Cellini
1500–1571
A fiery Renaissance artist, goldsmith, and writer, this larger-than-life figure is remembered as much for his dramatic adventures as for the brilliance of his art. His memoir brings the world of sixteenth-century Italy vividly to life.
2 Audiobooks
The treatises of Benvenuto Cellini on goldsmithing and sculpture
by Benvenuto Cellini
The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
by Benvenuto Cellini
About the author
Born in Florence on November 3, 1500, Benvenuto Cellini became one of the best-known artists of the Italian Renaissance. He trained as a goldsmith, later earned fame as a sculptor, and is often linked with the Mannerist style. Among his most celebrated works are the Perseus with the Head of Medusa in Florence and the famous Cellini Salt Cellar made for Francis I of France.
Cellini led an unusually turbulent life, moving among powerful patrons in Florence, Rome, and France while also gaining a reputation for quarrels, duels, and legal troubles. That restless, forceful personality helped make him one of the most colorful figures of his time.
He is also remembered as an author. His autobiography, often simply called The Life of Benvenuto Cellini, remains one of the liveliest firsthand accounts of Renaissance life, mixing art, ambition, danger, and self-dramatization in a way that still feels strikingly modern.