Cellini Benvenuto - Salt cellar

In the old days salt was very much appreciated, the saltcellar place was always next to the owner of the house. If there was a guest waiting at the table - the saltcellar was pushed to him, but if the salt stayed in place - then the guest in the house did not pay. They took the salt in a pinch and therefore the view of the saltcellar was different. In Russia salt shaker was deeply revered, because bread and salt were always symbols of hospitality and prosperity. Painted and carved wooden "solitude" always took their place of honor at the festivities, and sometimes they had ritual significance. Often the salt shaker was made in the form of a horse and a duck, the symbol of the sun is the horse's head, and the tail is necessarily duck. It was believed that the sun at night on a duck, and in the afternoon on a horse. And salt was recognized as the gift of the sun. The material value of salt was great. For a long time, salt was a monetary measure. The noble estate of the saltcellar and sugar bowl ordered from well-known masters, and these were unique works of art, the price of which was comparable to the price of jewelry.

Now one of the few ancient saltcellars preserved to this day - the famous Salier gold saltcellar was created by the outstanding Florentine master Benvenuto Cellini in 1540-1543. Gold saltcellar decorated with allegorical figures of the Ocean and Earth.
"Saliera" (Italian Saliera - "saltcellar") - partially enameled gold table statuette, made in 1543 by the Florentine goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini for the French King Francis I and representing the top of the decorative and applied art of the Mannerist era. The height of the sculpture is 26 cm, the width of the ivory base is 33.5 cm. The initial customer of the saltcellar was Cardinal Ippolito d'Este. Then Cellini had a plan to fulfill the salt cell as an allegory of the land alliance (the figure of Ceres) and the sea (the figure of Neptune), through which salt is born. This plan, mentioned by Cellini in his autobiography, was realized only in the beginning of the 1540s in connection with the receipt of the order of the French monarch. Salera is priceless already because it is the only jewelery work of Cellini, the attribution of which does not cause any doubts. King Charles IX presented it to Ferdinand of Tyrol, after which until the XIX century, "Saliera" remained the pearl of Innsbruck Castle Ambrass. Only with the establishment of the Vienna Museum of Art History, the salt cellar was moved to the Austrian capital. On May 11, 2003, Salier was abducted from the Museum of Art History, which at that time was under repair. Although the cost of the sculpture was estimated at no less than 50 million euros. The Austrian government offered a relatively modest reward of 70,000 euros for the return of the salt cellar. This was explained by the fact that it is simply impossible to sell a product of this level. At the same time, Saliera was insured only for half of the market value, since the possibility of kidnapping such a masterpiece was simply not considered seriously. The calculation of the museum's administration was justified: on January 21, 2006, the police discovered Salieru buried in a lead box in the forest near the town of Tsmyll.
"Having remained satisfied with my work, the king returned to his palace, and left me so full of favors that it would be long to talk about them." On the next day, at his dinner, he sent for me. "Then there was Cardinal Ferrara, who, with When I showed up, the king was still at the second course, as soon as I approached his majesty, he began to talk with me, saying that since he has such a beautiful basin and such a beautiful jug of my hand that, in addition to these he needs a beautiful saltcellar and what about wants me to draw a drawing for him, but he would very much like to see him soon. "Then I added, saying:" Your Majesty will see such a drawing much sooner than it requires of me, because, while I was doing the pelvis, I I thought that it was necessary to make a saltcellar in addition to it, "and that this has already been done and that if he pleases, I will show him immediately."
CELLINI, Benvenuto (1500-1571), Italian jeweler, sculptor and writer; Born in Florence on November 3, 1500. The adventurous life and versatile activities of Benvenuto Cellini fully reflect the spirit of the Italian Renaissance. His grandfather Andrea Cellini was an architect, Giovanni's father was a musician. Contrary to the will of his father, who wanted Benvenuto to become a musician, he entered the age of 15 as an apprentice to the Florentine jeweler Antonio di Sandro. Because of his restless nature, which often led to clashes with the authorities, Benvenuto Cellini, who had not yet reached the age of seventeen, managed to visit Siena, Bologna and Pisa. In 1519 he first visited Rome, and from 1523 was in the service of Pope Clement VII, then of Paul III. In 1527 Cellini witnessed the ruin of Rome by the troops of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. In 1538, on the orders of Pope Paul III, he was imprisoned in Sant'Angelo Castle on charges of theft, but managed to flee to France. In 1540-1545 Benvenuto Cellini worked in Paris and Fontainebleau on the orders of Francis I, who granted him French citizenship. In the summer of 1545 the artist returned to his homeland; in Florence he found a patron in the face of the Duke Cosimo de 'Medici and lived there for almost the rest of his life. In 1554 he received the title of nobleman. In 1558 he took his monastic vows, but then received exemption from these vows and married: his choice was Pierre di Salvador Parigi. Benvenuto Cellini died on February 13, 1571 and was buried with honor in the Church of the Annunciation in Florence.
The book Life of Benvenuto, the son of Maestro Giovanni Cellini, Florentine, written by himself in Florence is one of the most remarkable works of literature of the 16th century. Benvenuto Cellini began writing an autobiography in 1558, but most of the manuscript was written by a 14-year-old boy, Cellini's secretary, and several more pages by another hand. The chronicle comes to 1562. In the 18th century, after a variety of adventures, the manuscript disappeared. In 1805 she was found in one of the bookstores in Florence and transferred to the library of Laurentsiana, where it is still today. The first printed edition appeared in Naples in 1728.
The life of Benvenuto Cellini is written in that literary manner, which can be called popular, and this differs from such works as the Confession of Saint Augustine or the Confession of Rousseau. In the pages of his book, Benvenuto Cellini did not express any new ideas; he described his adventures, thoughts and feelings with frankness, not characteristic of the genre of autobiography of the previous time, and made it a rich colloquial language that very convincingly conveys the course of thought and experience of a person.
Contemporaries highly valued Cellini as an artisan; in relation to his artistic talent, opinions were divided; However, despite this, he had to represent the sculptors at the solemn ceremony of the burial of Michelangelo. Varki and Vasari praised his talent as a jeweler. Vasari, for example, wrote that Cellini is an unsurpassed master of medal art, superior even to the ancients, and the greatest jeweler of his time, and also a remarkable sculptor. From his works of jewelry art preserved a little: the salt-cellar of Francis I (1540-1543, Vienna, the Kunsthistorisches Museum), medals and coins made for Pope Clement VII and Alessandro de 'Medici, as well as sketches for the decorative fastener for the vestments of Clement VII.
The place of Cellini in the history of art is determined primarily by his works in the field of sculpture. His work influenced the development of Mannerism. The most significant of his works, created during his stay in France, is the bronze relief of Nymph Fontainebleau (until 1545, the Louvre). From the surviving works, made by him on his return to Florence: Perseus (1545-1553, Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi), a statuette of the Borzoi (1545-1546, Florence, Bargello); the bust of Cosimo de 'Medici (1545-1548, ibid.); Ganymede (1548-1550); Apollo and Hyacinth; Narcissus (all in Florence); bust of Bindo Altovity; The Crucifixion (circa 1562, Escorial).