BENVENUTO CELLINI

BENVENUTO CELLINI

SEXUALITY, MASCULINITY, AND

ARTISTIC IDENTITY IN

RENAISSANCE ITALY

MARGARET A. GALLUCCI

* BENVENUTO CELLINI

© Margaret A. Gallucci, 2003. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

First published in hardcover in 2003 by Palgrave Macmillan First PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ paperback edition: March 2005 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world.

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ISBN 978-1-4039-6896-8 ISBN 978-1-137-12208-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-12208-7

library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gallucci, Margaret A. Benvenuto Cellini :sexuality. masculinity, and artistic identity in

Renaissance Italy I by Margaret A. Gallucci. p.cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Cellini, Benvenuto. 1500-1571--(riticism and interpretation. 2. Artists as authors-Italy. 3. Renaissance-Italy. I. Title.

NB623.C3G35 2003 808' .0092--dc21 2003041307

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.

First PALGRAVE MACMILLAN paperback edition: March, 2005

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Transferred to Digital Printing 20 II.

For my parents,Charlotte O'Connor Gallucci and Donald Thomas Gallucci,

who inspired me

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AcknowledgmentsList ofAbbreviationsForewordIllustrations i-16 onpages xvii-xxxi

Introduction

1. Benvenuto Cellini, Life and Works

2. Criminal Acts and Literary Practice

3. Cellini's Poetics I: The Rime

4 Cellini's Poetics II: The Vita

5. Honor and Manliness

Conclusion

Appendix 1: Unpublished Archival Document

Appendix 2: Unedited Sonnets Attributed to Cellini

Appendix 3: Published Documents

NotesBibliographyindex

IX

Xlll

xv

7

23

45

71

109

143

147

149

153

157183209

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book had its beginnings in a Renaissance history course at theUniversity of Connecticut when Guido Ruggiero challenged me to gobeyond misogyny in attempting to explain Benvenuto Cellini's violentboasting. Guido has been a consummate mentor and friend whosegroundbreaking work on gender and crime has paved the way fora generation of younger scholars like me. I have been lucky to have hisconstant support, guidance, and friendship .

Teachers at many institutions shared their enthusiasm and passion forliterature, history, and ideas with me. At the University of Connecticut,I want to thank Joseph Cary, Jack Davis, and the late Robert S.Dombroski for their friendship and for providing ongoing encourage­ment, advice, and rigorous critical assistance through the years. Myundergraduate advisor Robert Dombroski was a model mentor, teacher,and friend whose critical acumen, deep political commitment, and senseof humor made him a rare and special person. He was, without question ,il miglior fabbro. Teachers in far-flung places like Naugatuck,Connecticut, especially Patricia Pawlak and Mary Eileen Galliette, stim­ulated my curiosity at a young age and laid the foundations for mypassion for literature and languages.

This book draws on research from my dissertation . My dissertationadviser Louise George Clubb gave me the freedom and courage to workon Cellini, considered a major artist but minor writer. I want to thankher for her unwavering support, encouragement, and critical acumen .She has been a model mentor, scholar, and friend whose pioneeringwork in the Renaissance continues to serve as a model for me to followand emulate . Randolph Starn challenged the limits of my theoreticalboundaries and helped me to conceptualize a crucial aspect of myproject when it was just an intuitive thought of mine that legal mattersprovided a grid through which writers like Cellini viewed their world.Randy has provided unwavering support and encouragement at everystage and has become a cherished friend. Gavriel Moses providedunstinting encouragement and acute critical judgments at the earliest

x I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

stages of my work. The University of California at Berkeley offeredfinancial support and an unrivaled community of scholars and friends.

Research for this book has been supported by grants and fellowshipsfrom the Fulbright Commission, the National Endowment for theHumanities, which sponsored my participation at the Newberry LibrarySummer Institute in the Italian Archival Sciences in 1993, the GladysKrieble Delmas Foundation, and the Renaissance Society of America.New York University hosted me as a Visiting Scholar in 1997; a specialthanks to Francesco Erspamer who organized my stay there. I also wishto express my gratitude to the directors and personnel of the Archivio diStato, Florence, the Archivio della Confraternita dei Buonuomini di SanMartino, Florence, the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, the BibliotecaMoreniana, Florence, the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, theBiblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, the Biblioteca NazionaleMarciana, Venice, as well as the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York,the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the Newberry Library, theBobst Library at New York University, Butler Library at ColumbiaUniversity, and the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at ColumbiaUniversity without whose collective resources and assistance this bookcould not have been written. To the staff of all these organizations andinstitutions I am deeply grateful.

In particular, I want to thank Dottoressa Anna Lenzuni at theBiblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, for allowing me to studythe part-autograph manuscript of Cellini's Vita, Dr. Alberto Brini of theConfraternity of the Buonuomini di San Martino, Florence, Dr. CarloPicchietti of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, and DottoressaPaola Benigni of the Soprintendenza Archivistica per la Toscana forpermission to consult documents and manuscripts.

Thanks are due to Robert Dunkin at Art Resource, Mary Corliss atThe Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive, the BibliotecaNazionale Centrale in Florence, and the Pierpont Morgan Library inNew York for granting permissions to reproduce texts or images fromtheir collections.

Friends and fellow scholars read and commented orr various portionsof the manuscript, including James Amelang, Albert Russell Ascoli,Marvin Becker, John Brackett, Ross Chambers, Timothy Hampton,Dennis Looney, Ronald Martinez, Michael Rocke, Guido Ruggiero,Peter Sahlins, James Saslow, Randolph Starn, and Ruggero Stefanini.Franca Petrucci Nardelli and Armando Petrucci helped me with thetranscriptions and continue to provide friendship, encouragement,and critical judgments about matters paleographic and codicologic.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS / XI

Laura Giannetti Ruggiero helped me with the English translations . Anyerrors, however, remain my own. To all of them I am deeply indebted.

Gloria Allaire acted informally as my copy editor when this projectwas merely an unruly dissertation and has provided friendship andencouragement at every stage since we met as fellow Fulbrighters in1990. Gloria is my model of rigorous scholarship and genuine friend­ship. To her, a special and deep thanks.

I want to thank members of my extended family, especially AmeliaViola Callucci-Cirio, who contributed toward the completion of thisproject in ways too complex to enumerate. I also want to remember thelate Joseph L. Gallucci, the late Margaret T. O'Connor, and the lateAldo Cirio who helped along the way in more ways than they know butwho did not live to see the completion of this project.

Kristi Long, my editor at Palgrave, was a joy to work with. All of thestaff at Palgrave, especially her assistant Roee Raz, was knowledgeableand helpful at every stage.

A very special thank you is owed to David Finn who generouslyprovided his beautiful and incomparable photographs of Cellini's art forhalf of the illustrations that appear in this book as well as the jacketdesign. I am grateful to him and to his wonderful assistant Rosie Lue forhelping make my book so much better than it was.

Without the support of Michael Rotondi the years I spent workingon this project would have been much less successful and happy.

My family-parents, sisters Carole and Mary, brother Joe-provideda lifetime of support of every kind . My parents, Charlotte O'ConnorGallucci and Donald Thomas Gallucci, both public schoolteachers, setthe example of teaching as a vocation and a passion, and for this and somany other things I am deeply indebted. Among those so many otherthings, my parents taught me intellectual curiosity, a passion for livingabroad among strangers, and a love of reading. As a wholly inadequategesture of my appreciation for their ongoing love, constant support, andintellectual guidance, I dedicate this book to them .

ACBF

ASFBMLFBNCFBNMVBRF

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Archivio della Confraternita dei Buonuomini di SanMartino, FlorenceArchivio di Stato, FlorenceBiblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, FlorenceBiblioteca Nazionale Centrale, FlorenceBiblioteca Nazionale Marciana, VeniceBiblioteca Riccardiana, Florence

FOREWORD

Where indicated, I have provided my own modernized transcriptions ofall texts from archival documents and manuscripts. By modernized tran­scription, I mean a trascrizione interpretatiua rather than diplomatica asdefined by Franca Petrucci Nardelli in "Riproduzione 0 interpretazione?Note sull'edizione dei documenti," Arte Documento 4 (1992): 266-67.I am following the conventions for modernized transcriptions set out byGiampaolo Tognetti in his "Criteri per la trascrizione di testi medievalilatini e italiani," Quadernidella Rassegna degli Archividi Stato51 (1982):1-66. In general, this involves employing capitals, adding punctuation,accents, and apostrophes, expanding abbreviations, dividing words logi­cally, with the exception that in appendix 1 I have retained Cellini'sspellings of words as well as et for e.

All dates have been modernized to reflectthe "newstyle." Until 1725 inItaly, the new year began on 25 March, so dates that fall between 1Januaryand 24 March have been changed from "old style" to "new style."

Unless otherwise noted, English translations are mine with the excep­tion that I utilized George Bull's 1956 translation of the Vita but modi­fied it at my discretion. I have provided literal English translations forpassages but have added explanatory material in square brackets for thenonspecialist reader to clarify what I believe to be the implied meaning.

I gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint two previouslypublished articles, re-titled and in different form. Material in chapter 2was published in "Cellini's Trial for Sodomy: Power and Patronage at theCourt of Cosimo I," © The CulturalPolitics ofDuke Cosimo I de'Medici,Konrad Eisenbichler, 2001, Ashgare. Portions of chapter 3 appeared in"A New Look at Benvenuto Cellini's Poetry," Forum Italicum 34, no. 2(2000): 343-71.

To avoid what Randolph Starn has dubbed "the early modernmuddle," I have primarily used the terms "medieval," "Renaissance,"and "sixteenth century" throughout this book to characterize my histor­ical timeline . There is no consensus among literary scholars, nor is thereagreement between literary scholars, historians, and historians of art ,

XVI/FOREWORD

as to when early modernity in Italy begins and ends. At times, I distin­guish between medieval and Renaissance Italy to show a kind of evolu­tion of values (for instance, medieval prosecutions of sodomy ormedieval conceptions of honor vs. Renaissance ones), which I believeallows for both continuity and radical change. Occasionally, I employthe term "sixteenth century" to situate Cellini firmly in the society andculture of his time. At times, but rarely, I use the term "early modern"to emphasize the links between Cellini's world and our ownmodern/postmodern one, such as in the artist 's tendency to address thereader directly as "gentle readers" in his Vita.

Figure 1 Benvenuto Cellini, Saltcellar of Francis I. Vienna, Kunsrhisrorisches Museum.Photo : David Finn

Figure2 Benvenuto Cellini, Nymph of Fontainebleau. Paris, Louvre. Photo: Gira udonlArt Resource, NY

Figure 3 Benvenuto Cellini, Nymph of Font aineb leau , detail. Paris, Louvre, Photo:David Finn

Figure 4 Benvenuto Cellini, Bust of Cosimo I. fl orence, Bargello. PhOIO: David Finn

Figure 5 Benvenuto Cellini, Gan ymede . Florence, Bargello. Photo: David Finn

Figure 6 Benvenuto Cellini, Ganymede, detail. Florence, Bargello. Photo: David Finn

Figure7 Benvenuto Cellini. Apollo and Hyacinth . Florence. Bargello. Pha ro: David Finn

Figure 8 Benvenuto Ce llini, Na rcissus. Florence, Bargello. Photo: David Finn

Figure 9 Benvenu to Ce llini, Perseus (resto red). Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi. Photo:

Scala/Art Resource, NY

Figure 10 Benvenuto Cellini, Perseus (restored) . Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi. Photo:Scala/Art Resource, NY

Figure 11 Benvenuto Cellini, Cr ucifix. El Escorial, Monastery of San Lorenzo el Real.Photo: David Finn

Figure 12 Giorgio Vasari, "T he Forge of Vulcan. " Florence, Ufflzi. Phoro : Alinari/Arr

Resource , NY

h I f B Cellini. The Pierpont Morgan Library,Figure 13 Aurograp ette r 0 envenuro

New York. MA 973, f. 2

Figure 14 Fredric March and Consrance Bennert in "T he Affairs of Cellini." Photo:The Museum of Modern Art/Film StillsArchive

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Figure 15 Unedited Sonnet Attr ibuted to Ben venuro Cellini. Florence, Biblioteca

Nazionale Ce ntra le. Co nv. Soppr. , B 8 1657, fo!' 252v. Courtesy of the Mini stero per i

Beni e Ie Artivira Culrurali. Used by permi ssion. Reproduction or duplication prohibited

Figure 16 Joseph Schild kraut as Benvenuto Cellini in "T he Firebrand" (unda ted) .

Photo: T he Museum of the Ciry of New York