A 1526 Cellini LetterAuthor(s): Benvenuto Cellini and Carroll Winslow BrentanoSource: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 41, No. 3 (Sep., 1959), p. 269Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3047844 .

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DOCUMENT A 1526 CELLINI LETTER

CARROLL WINSLOW BRENTANO

The following autograph letter of Benvenuto Cellini, hitherto unpublished, is in the collection of Elsie 0. and Philip D. Sang, River Forest, Illinois:'

A di 2 di giugnio 1526 Messer 2 romO 10 io vi prego che voi siate chontento di richordarvi della mia facenda [che (?.) ]' cho- simo chasini.4 e vi prego gli diate danari coe in sin a dua ducati e vi prego gli 5 diate 6.4-3 guli6 per volta e la mia facenda chollui vi sia rachomandata: io detti la chorniola7 a jachomo del sansovino e anchora hopero nelle vostr anella e serviro vi bene8 vorei che facessi me fussi dato quella pierra che volete che io metto in nella anello da caro perche ho piacere fare chose che vi piaccano. A voi mi rachomando Restate chon dio

Il vostro benvenuto horefice in roma

Reverse: Messer ' in Fiorenze There is no specific mention of the year 1526 in

Cellini's autobiography, but we know he was in Rome from the election of Clement VII until after the siege of Rome in 1527.10 It was during this period that he took the boy dressed up as a girl to the club banquet and became involved with the fellow bravo in a rivalry for the favors of the lady Pantassilea. He also tells us that he was working as a jeweler,"1 that he often bought antique gems-among them carnelians-dug up by the peasants in Roman vineyards,12 and that in imita- tion of antiques he made some steel rings inlaid with gold for which he received up to forty scudi each."1

It seems a safe assumption then that this letter represents a typical and not very important transaction between Cellini and some Florentine client. A minor affair-significant only in that it confirms Benvenuto's statement that "It would take me too long to describe how many and what kind of works I executed for all sorts of people.""4 Also the letter attains some status because it is the earliest of Cellini's we have.

The letter does, however, establish one other fact of moderate importance, and that is the presence in June 1526, of Jacopo Sansovino in Rome. Laura Pittoni, biographer of Sansovino, brought this into ques- tion in connection with the sculptor's work on the parochial church of Pontremoli."5 It had been sug- gested by Giovanni Sforza, historian of the church, that Sansovino was at work in Carrara on the project from the end of 1524 until the beginning of July, 1526, and Pittoni submits the countersuggestion that Sansovino could easily have made the models in Rome and had them sent to Carrara for execution.'6 The Cellini letter seems to add its support to this second presumption.

The letter, measuring 22 by 16 cm, is on cream- colored paper and written in ink now brown." The holes have been carefully mended with thin paper and the whole mounted on fine cloth. It was folded in thirds lengthwise and sealed with red wax.

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA

I. I would like to thank Mr. Sang for the loan of the document, also Prof. Gene Brucker of the University of Cali- fornia who brought the letter to my attention and helped me with the transcription.

2. Lacuna: a large hole has obliterated the name of the addressee on both sides of the letter.

3. Lacuna. 4. I could find out nothing about this man. 5. Lacuna. 6. Giuli: ten giuli were worth one ducat (or florin). 7. Carnelian. 8. "E serviro vi bene" was crossed out and rewritten above

the line. 9. Lacuna.

i o. Benvenuto Cellini, Vita, ed. Orazio Bacci, Florence, I901, p. 37-

11. Ibid., p. 51. 12. Ibid., p. 54. 13. Ibid., p. 64. 14. Ibid., p.

63. 15. Laura Pittoni, Jacopo Sansovino scultore, Venice, o909,

pp. 137-142. I6. Giovanni Sforza, Memorie e documenti per servire alla

storia di Pontremoli, Florence, 1904, II, p. 781, as cited in

Pittoni, op.cit., p. I41. 17. The handwriting closely resembles other specimens of

Cellini's writing. See, for example, Carlo Pini, La scrittura di artisti Italiani, Florence, 1869, viii, fol. 18 1.

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