William Michael Rossetti and Edward Alfred Jones)

“ Besides 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 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 ”

“ CELLINI, BENVENUTO (1500–1571) , Italian artist, metal worker and sculptor, was born in Florence, where his family, originally landowners in the Val d’Ambra, had for three generations been settled. His father, Giovanni Cellini, was a musician and artificer of 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. ”

“ 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, 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, who unsuccessfully suggested his accompanying him to England) , he decamped to Rome, aged nineteen. ”