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The monument statue to Benvenuto Cellini was laid in the central part of the Ponte Vecchio in Firenze in the 1900.
He was born in Florence, Benvenuto (meaning "Welcome") was the third child. The father destined him for the same profession as himself, musician and artificer of musical instruments, and endeavoured to thwart his inclination for design and metal work. When he had reached the age of fifteen his youthful predilection had become too strong to be resisted, and his father reluctantly gave consent to his being apprenticed to a goldsmith, Antonio di Sandro. He had already attracted some notice in his native place, when, being implicated in a fray with some of his companions, he was banished for six months to Siena, where he worked for Francesco Castoro, a goldsmith; Cellini executed several pieces of sculpture on a grander scale. The most distinguished of these is the bronze group of "Perseus holding the head of Medusa", a work now in the Loggia dei Lanzi at Florence, full of the fire of genius and the grandeur of a terrible beauty, one of the most typical and unforgettable monuments of the Italian Renaissance. The casting of this great work gave Cellini the utmost trouble and anxiety; and its completion was hailed with rapturous homage from all parts of Italy. The original relief from the foot of the pedestal — Perseus and Andromeda — is in the Bargello, and replaced by a cast.
Among his works of art not already mentioned, many of which have perished, were a colossal Mars for a fountain at Fontainebleau and the bronzes of the doorway, coins for the Papal and Florentine states, a Jupiter in silver of life size, and a bronze bust of Bindo Altoviti. The works of decorative art are, speaking broadly, rather florid than chastened in style.
In addition to the bronze statue of Perseus and the medallions already referred to, the works of art in existence today executed by him are the celebrated gold, enamel and ivory salt-cellar made for Francis I at Vienna. One of the most important works by Cellini from late in his career was a life-size nude crucifix carved from marble. Although originally intended to be placed over his tomb, this crucifix was sold to the Medici family who gave it to Spain. Today the crucifix is in the Escorial Monastery near Madrid, where it has usually been displayed in an altered form--the monastery added a loincloth and a crown of thorns. The likely model for this crucifix was Cellini's assistant Fernando, who is mentioned above as Cellini's sex partner.
During the war with Siena, Cellini was appointed to strengthen the defences of his native city, and, though rather shabbily treated by his ducal patrons, he continued to gain the admiration of his fellow-citizens by the magnificent works which he produced. He died in Florence in 1571, unmarried, and leaving no posterity, and was buried with great pomp in the church of the Annunziata.