Cellini, Benvenuto (1500-1571)

The baroque interior of the Anunziatta Church, Florence, Italy. The church was built in 1250 for the Servants of Mary, a religious order founded in the 13th century. The Italian sculptor and engraver Benvenuto Cellini is buried here, in the Chapel of St Luke, in the Cloisters of the Dead.

A bronze sculpture of Ganymede by Italian Mannerist sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini. At first influenced by Raphael's school, Cellini later came under the shadow of the Florentine sculptor and artist Michelangelo. According to Homer's Iliad, Book V, Ganymede was the great-grandson of Dardanus, founder of Troy. Zeus abducted Ganymede, giving his father a herd of horses by way of compensation, for he wanted the beautiful boy as his cup-bearer.

Italian Mannerist sculptor and goldsmith. Among his works are a graceful bronze Perseus (1545-54; Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence) and a gold salt cellar made for Francis I of France (1540-43; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), topped by nude reclining figures. He wrote a frank autobiography (begun in 1558), which gives a vivid picture both of him and his age.

Cellini was born in Florence and apprenticed to a goldsmith. In 1519 he went to Rome, later worked for the papal mint, and was once imprisoned on a charge of having embezzled pontifical jewels. He worked for some time in France at the court of Francis I, but finally returned to Florence in 1545.