Synopses & Reviews
Celebrated goldsmith and sculptor of the Italian Renaissance, Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71) fits the conventional image of a Renaissance man: a skillful virtuoso and courtier; an artist who worked in marble, bronze, and gold; a writer and poet. However, in his life and literary oeuvre, the notorious artist aligned himself with the transgressive and oppositional voices of his day. This book, the first biographical study of Cellini available in English, uses the methodologies of New Historicism, social history, and gender and sexuality studies to situate the artist and his works in relation to a series of early modern cultural discourses and practices, including sodomy, law, honor, magic, and masculinity.
Review
"Gallucci taps a wide and varied body of contemporary and secondary sources in an effort to avoid anachronism in repositioning the writer-artist in a broader and more comprehensive context . . . Gallucci's groundbreaking discussions on the legal aspects of sodomy, a problem avoided by all but a few Cellini scholars (Paolo Rossi, for example) are of particular interest to scholars seeking to separate the historical man from his autobiographical persona."--Gwendolyn Trottein,
Canadian Art Review "This fascinating new look at Benvenuto Cellini offers a thoroughly innovative approach to, and understanding of, the man Jacob Burckhardt called 'a wholly recognizable prototype of modern man.'"-- Konrad Eisenbichler,
CAA Reviews"A fascinating read…a brilliant rethinking of his autobiography…Galluccis cross-disciplinarity marks this book as the kind of cutting-edge scholarship needed to revitalize traditional historical work."-- Juliana Schiesari, Annali dItalianistica
"The most intriguing chapter of Galluccis study addresses the role of violence in Cellinis self-representation."--Ian Frederick Moulton, Huntington Library Quarterly
"Gallucci succeeds brilliantly at integrating a variety of approaches, placing the swashbuckling bisexual Cellini and his cultural production in the context of contemporary discourses about law, magic, virility, and honor."--James M. Saslow
"Evocative [and] astonishing. Within the framework of New Historicism and sexual and gender studies, Gallucci puts forth new scholarship in areas, such as Cellinis literature and poetics."-- Cristina Colasanto, US Italia
"Gallucci's groundbreaking discussions on the legal aspects of sodomy, a problem avoided by all but a few Cellini scholars (Paolo Rossi, for example) are of particular interest to scholars seeking to separate the historical man from his autobiographical persona. ...Equally important to the renewing of Cellini studies is Gallucci's singling out of the earthy, anti-Petrarchan qualities of the artist's poetry, which serves to open discussion on Renaissance aret and parody, a potentially rich terrain usually left fallow by an art history respectful fo teh high seriousness of great art and artists."--Canadian Art Review
Review
"Gallucci taps a wide and varied body of contemporary and secondary sources in an effort to avoid anachronism in repositioning the writer-artist in a broader and more comprehensive context . . . Gallucci's groundbreaking discussions on the legal aspects of sodomy, a problem avoided by all but a few Cellini scholars (Paolo Rossi, for example) are of particular interest to scholars seeking to separate the historical man from his autobiographical persona."--Gwendolyn Trottein, Canadian Art Review"This fascinating new look at Benvenuto Cellini offers a thoroughly innovative approach to, and understanding of, the man Jacob Burckhardt called ‘a wholly recognizable prototype of modern man."-- Konrad Eisenbichler, CAA Reviews
"A fascinating read…a brilliant rethinking of his autobiography…Galluccis cross-disciplinarity marks this book as the kind of cutting-edge scholarship needed to revitalize traditional historical work."-- Juliana Schiesari, Annali dItalianistica
"The most intriguing chapter of Galluccis study addresses the role of violence in Cellinis self-representation."--Ian Frederick Moulton, Huntington Library Quarterly
"
"Gallucci succeeds brilliantly at integrating a variety of approaches, placing the swashbuckling bisexual Cellini and his cultural production in the context of contemporary discourses about law, magic, virility, and honor."--James M. Saslow
"Evocative [and] astonishing. Within the framework of New Historicism and sexual and gender studies, Gallucci puts forth new scholarship in areas, such as Cellinis literature and poetics."-- Cristina Colasanto, US Italia
About the Author
Margaret A. Gallucci, a scholar of the Italian Renaissance, earned a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkley. A Fulbright scholar, she has held postdoctoral fellowships at the Italian Academy at Columbia University and most recently at Villa I Tatti, Harvard University's Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence.
Table of Contents
Introduction * Benvenuto Cellini, Life and Works * Criminal Acts and Literary Practice * Cellini's Poetics I: The
Rime * Cellini's Poetics II: The
Vita * Honor and Manliness * Conclusion * Appendix 1: Unpublished Archival Documents * Appendix 2: Unedited Sonnets Attributed to Cellini * Appendix 3: Published Documents