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. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. 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

Acknowledgments IX List ofAbbreviations Xlll Foreword xv Illustrations i-16onpages xvii-xxxi

Introduction 1. Benvenuto Cellini, Life and Works 7 2. Criminal Acts and Literary Practice 23 3. Cellini's Poetics I: The Rime 45 4 Cellini's Poetics II: The Vita 71 5. Honor and Manliness 109 Conclusion 143 Appendix 1: Unpublished Archival Document 147

Appendix 2: Unedited Sonnets Attributed to Cellini 149 Appendix 3: Published Documents 153

Notes 157 Bibliography 183 index 209

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book had its beginnings in a Renaissance history course at the University of Connecticut when Guido Ruggiero challenged me to go beyond misogyny in attempting to explain Benvenuto Cellini's violent boasting. Guido has been a consummate mentor and friend whose groundbreaking work on gender and crime has paved the way for a generation of younger scholars like me. I have been lucky to have his constant support, guidance, and friendship . Teachers at many institutions shared their enthusiasm and passion for literature, 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 encourage• ment, advice, and rigorous critical assistance through the years. My undergraduate advisor Robert Dombroski was a model mentor, teacher, and friend whose critical acumen, deep political commitment, and sense ofhumor 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, stim• ulated my curiosity at a young age and laid the foundations for my passion for literature and languages. This book draws on research from my dissertation . My dissertation adviser Louise George Clubb gave me the freedom and courage to work on Cellini, considered a major artist but minor writer. I want to thank her for her unwavering support, encouragement, and critical acumen . She has been a model mentor, scholar, and friend whose pioneering work in the Renaissance continues to serve as a model for me to follow and emulate. Randolph Starn challenged the limits of my theoretical boundaries and helped me to conceptualize a crucial aspect of my project when it was just an intuitive thought of mine that legal matters provided a grid through which writers like Cellini viewed their world. Randy has provided unwavering support and encouragement at every stage and has become a cherished friend. Gavriel Moses provided unstinting encouragement and acute critical judgments at the earliest x I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS stages of my work. The University of California at Berkeley offered financial support and an unrivaled community ofscholars and friends. Research for this book has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Fulbright Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, which sponsored my participation at the Newberry Library Summer Institute in the Italian Archival Sciences in 1993, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Renaissance Society of America. New York University hosted me as a Visiting Scholar in 1997; a special thanks to Francesco Erspamer who organized my stay there. I also wish to express my gratitude to the directors and personnel of the Archivio di Stato, Florence, the Archivio della Confraternita dei Buonuomini di San Martino, Florence, the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, the Biblioteca Moreniana, Florence, the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice, as well as the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the Newberry Library, the Bobst Library at New York University, Butler Library at Columbia University, and the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University without whose collective resources and assistance this book could not have been written. To the staff ofall these organizations and institutions I am deeply grateful. In particular, I want to thank Dottoressa Anna Lenzuni at the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, for allowing me to study the part-autograph manuscript of Cellini's Vita, Dr. Alberto Brini ofthe Confraternity of the Buonuomini di San Martino, Florence, Dr. Carlo Picchietti of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, and Dottoressa Paola Benigni of the Soprintendenza Archivistica per la Toscana for permission to consult documents and manuscripts. Thanks are due to Robert Dunkin at Art Resource, Mary Corliss at The Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive, the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence, and the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York for granting permissions to reproduce texts or images from their collections. Friends and fellow scholars read and commented orr various portions of 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 the transcriptions 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. Any errors, however, remain my own. To all of them I am deeply indebted. Gloria Allaire acted informally as my copy editor when this project was merely an unruly dissertation and has provided friendship and encouragement at every stage since we met as fellow Fulbrighters in 1990. Gloria is my model of rigorous scholarship and genuine friend• ship. To her, a special and deep thanks. I want to thank members of my extended family, especially Amelia Viola Callucci-Cirio, who contributed toward the completion of this project in ways too complex to enumerate. I also want to remember the late Joseph L. Gallucci, the late Margaret T. O'Connor, and the late Aldo Cirio who helped along the way in more ways than they know but who did not live to see the completion of this project. Kristi Long, my editor at Palgrave, was a joy to work with. All ofthe staff at Palgrave, especially her assistant Roee Raz, was knowledgeable and helpful at every stage. A very special thank you is owed to David Finn who generously provided his beautiful and incomparable photographs ofCellini's art for half of the illustrations that appear in this book as well as the jacket design. I am grateful to him and to his wonderful assistant Rosie Lue for helping make my book so much better than it was. Without the support of Michael Rotondi the years I spent working on this project would have been much lesssuccessful and happy. My family-parents, sisters Carole and Mary, brother Joe-provided a lifetime of support of every kind. My parents, Charlotte O'Connor Gallucci and Donald Thomas Gallucci, both public schoolteachers, set the example of teaching as a vocation and a passion, and for this and so many other things I am deeply indebted. Among those so many other things, my parents taught me intellectual curiosity, a passion for living abroad among strangers, and a love of reading. As a wholly inadequate gesture ofmy appreciation for their ongoing love, constant support, and intellectual guidance, I dedicate this book to them.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ACBF Archivio della Confraternita dei Buonuomini di San Martino, Florence ASF Archivio di Stato, Florence BMLF Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence BNCF Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence BNMV Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice BRF Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence

FOREWORD

Where indicated, I have provided my own modernized transcriptions of all texts from archival documents and manuscripts. By modernized tran• scription, I mean a trascrizione interpretatiua rather than diplomatica as defined 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 by Giampaolo Tognetti in his "Criteri per la trascrizione di testi medievali latini 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 logi• cally, with the exception that in appendix 1 I have retained Cellini's spellings ofwords as well as et for e. All dates have been modernized to reflectthe "newstyle." Until 1725 in Italy, the new year began on 25 March, so dates that fallbetween 1January and 24 March have been changed from "old style" to "new style." Unless otherwise noted, English translations are mine with the excep• tion that I utilized George Bull's 1956 translation of the Vita but modi• fied it at my discretion. I have provided literal English translations for passages but have added explanatory material in square brackets for the nonspecialist reader to clarify what I believe to be the implied meaning. I gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint two previously published articles, re-titled and in different form. Material in chapter 2 was published in "Cellini's Trial for Sodomy: Power and Patronage at the Court ofCosimo 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 modern muddle," I have primarily used the terms "medieval," "Renaissance," and "sixteenth century" throughout this book to characterize my histor• ical timeline . There is no consensus among literary scholars, nor is there agreement between literary scholars, historians, and historians of art, XVI/FOREWORD as to when early modernity in Italy begins and ends. At times, I distin• guish between medieval and Renaissance Italy to show a kind of evolu• tion of values (for instance, medieval prosecutions of sodomy or medieval conceptions of honor vs. Renaissance ones), which I believe allows for both continuity and radical change. Occasionally, I employ the term "sixteenth century" to situate Cellini firmly in the society and culture of his time. At times, but rarely, I use the term "early modern" to emphasize the links between Cellini's world and our own modern/postmodern one, such as in the artist's tendency to address the reader directly as "gentle readers" in his Vita. Figure1 Benvenuto Cellini, Saltcellar of Francis I. Vienna, Kunsrhisrorisches Museum. Photo : David Finn

Figure2 Benvenuto Cellini, Nymph of Fontainebleau. Paris, Louvre. Photo: Gira udonl Art Resource, NY Figure 3 Benvenuto Cellini, Nymph of Font ainebleau, 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 Cellini, Perseus (restored). Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi. Photo: Scala/Art Resource, NY Figure 10 Benvenuto Cellini, Perseus (restored). Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi. Photo: Scala/Art Resource, NY Figure11 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 Cellini. The Pierpont Morgan Library, Figure 13 Aurograph Ietter 0 f Benvenuro New York. MA 973, f. 2 Figure 14 Fredric March and Consrance Bennert in "T he Affairs of Cellini." Photo: The Museum ofModern Art/Film StillsArchive ~· 'c.,: , ("ffJ J'~ -rU (,...~~~~e-u:

uw -' . ~./. ...~" JPk.:;'t'L r ~ ~.,

Figure 15 Unedited Sonnet Attr ibuted to Benvenuro Cellini. Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Ce ntrale. 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