Beschreibung:

Benvenuto CELLINI (1500-1571). Projet pour le cachet de l'Académie du dessin de Florence, représentant la Natura flanquée d'un serpent ondulant, un emblème du Duc Cosimo de' Medici et un lion, emblème de la guilde. Sous ce cachet, se trouve l'alphabet en hiéroglyphe se référant aux outils de travail des sculpteurs, orfèvres, et peintures. Ce projet est suivi d'un long compte rendu autographe par le plus illustre orfèvre de la Renaissance. CELLINI, Benvenuto (1500-1571). Design for the seal of the Accademia del Disegno, Florence, a drawing of Natura with trumpets for arms, an undulating serpent on her right, a lion on her left, all in a lozenge, a hieroglyph alphabet of sculptors', goldsmiths' and painters' tools, a long autograph account extending overleaf, explaining the relative merits of the arts, and the reasoning behind his design, two computations below and at right angles to the text, Florence, ca. 1565 . Manuscript on paper, written in brown ink in a cursive hand, in Italian, pen-drawing in brown ink; 27 lines on recto and 21 lines on verso, 335 x 222mm (worn at margins, fragment torn from lower left corner with part loss of first word of last 6 lines on recto, worm damage to upper edge affecting four words of title, some staining without loss of legibility). THE PRESENT DESIGN IS ONE OF ONLY A DOZEN SURVIVING SHEETS OF DRAWINGS BY BENVENUTO CELLINI Cellini was one of the foremost sculptors and goldsmiths of his time. He worked in Rome and for François I at Fontainebleau, but his masterpiece, and one of the glories of Mannerist sculpture, is the bronze statue of Perseus in his home town of Florence. He is as famous for his racy and vivid autobiography as for his artistic output. In 1562 Vasari proposed that the Compagnia di San Luca of Florence, to which the city's artists belonged, should be merged into a new Accademia del Disegno. Duke Cosimo welcomed the suggestion, and the plan was approved at a meeting of painters and sculptors on 31 January 1563. The main aim of the Accademia was to be educational, to provide training for the unqualified and competition for the matriculated; among its social obligations was the organisation of members' funerals. Ultimately it replaced the artists' guild. This design, headed [Si]gillo et Car[at]teri della schuola del disegnio fatti da Be[nvenuto] C[ellini] , arose from the dissatisfaction of the members of the newly convened Accademia with the existing seal of the Compagnia di San Luca. The ageing Cellini remained one of the leading sculptors of Florence and was an active and troublesome member of the Academy. The present drawing is one of six that he made for the design of a new seal. The others are in the British Museum, the Louvre, two in the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich and one that was sold at Christie's Monaco (7 Dec. 1990, lot 202A). One of the Munich drawings and those of the British Museum and the Louvre are all related versions of this composition. The British Museum design is the only other one accompanied by hieroglyphs and text, but the drawing is more highly finished and the text is formally addressed and written in a scribal hand (with the exception of one marginal note); it may have been submitted for consideration. The present drawing appears to be a preparatory stage and to be the earliest of the whole group; it is entirely autograph and is the most immediate and informal. Beneath the drawing Cellini explains, not entirely coherently, the form of his design. He starts by pointing out that as 'disegno' is the true mother of all man's actions, the true representation of Nature is as the ancients showed her with her breasts nourishing all things; so also was God the first cause of all things, who sculptured the first man from earth. He addresses his fellow academicians 'voi tanti mirabili virtuosi' and puts forward his view of the relative status of the arts; sculpture first, followed by painting and then 'utilissimo' architecture. In fourth place