Cellini Gold Salt Cellar

The cellini salt cellar in vienna called the saliera italian for salt cellar is a part enamelled gold table sculpture by benvenuto cellini it was completed in 1543 for francis i of france from models that had been prepared many years earlier for cardinal ippolito d este.

Cellini gold salt cellar.

The saliera of rolled gold was created by cellini for francis i of france between 1540 and 1543. I t is one of the world s greatest renaissance artefacts an extraordinary gold plated saltcellar by the florentine genius benvenuto cellini. And then there was the saltcellar. The saliera is the only work of gold which can be attributed to cellini with certainty and is sometimes referred to as the mona lisa of sculpture.

1515 1547 ce now in vienna. Sculptor benvenuto cellini is best remembered for two things. Although the surviving body of cellini s work is surprisingly small he. A miss is as good as a mile xviii on the morning which followed these events i made the first step in my work upon the great salt cellar pressing this and my other pieces forward with incessant industry.

From his descendant charles ix it passed to archduke ferdinand ii. Had he lived today he might have been a genius tech entrepreneur. But for nearly three years the austrian police had no. The saltcellar shows an allegory of the earth and the interplay of land and sea.

Benvenuto cellini was more than the maker of the world s most expensive saltshaker the cellini salt cellar a goldsmith draftsman author musician soldier and one of the most important sculptors of italian mannerism cellini was also a ruffian who was jailed several times and confessed to three murders. Its right side has a man with a trident and a ship symbolizing water while its left side has a woman representing the earth. His bombastic autobiography the vita in which he confesses to multiple murders and a spectacular jailbreak and for his salt cellar yes that s right a dish for salt. The cellar is the only remaining work of precious metal which can be reliably attributed to cellini.

Let s start with the autobiography. Perhaps one of cellini s most famous works is the cellini salt cellar in vienna called the saliera italian for salt cellar a partly enameled gold table sculpture by benvenuto cellini. Gardner summarizes it perfectly in the sixteenth century journal. The cellini salt cellar is one of the most striking and celebrated works of mannerist design and one of the world s greatest renaissance artefacts feb 6 2017 david goran the cellini salt cellar is one of the world s greatest renaissance artifacts a part enamelled gold table sculpture created by the florentine genius benvenuto cellini for.