El Perseo sculpture, Benvenuto Cellini’s top work
The Renaissance meant a deep change in the life of Europeans, because it was the rebirth of the Greco-Roman culture encouraged by artistic and philosophical movements at the end of the 15th century and that began in the city of Florence, Italy. This movement is particularly manifested in the arts, admiring and taking as a model the classical antiquity and its anthropocentrism, in consequently the human body is given preferably whose anatomy is carefully studied and copy. The objective of the artists was to be able to reach perfectly and give the human being the greatest importance, leaving aside religiosity. Each of the most important exponents in addition to improving their technique, left his identity impregnated in each of his works carried out, since each one had his own interpretation and conception of what he really meant for them.
While we know about the abundance of artists at the time of the Renaissance and their great contributions to it, we will focus on Cellini, who was a Florentino sculptor and gold Miguel Ángel’s artistic style (1475-1564) and Rafael (1483-1520).
His autobiography has been one of the best known in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, since it has been full of anecdotes, tragedies and resurfaced by the artist, through the entire journey of his life we can say that Cellini is a synonym for perseverance, put on That despite all the problems in which he was, I always look for the mechanism to be able to free himself, because he tormented him day by day, as the time in which Cellini murdered a man and had to exile his city Natal so that they would not take him imprison.
According to the author (Fernandez, 2004) “Cellini is a perfect model of the political artist of the Renaissance: a man of great ingenuity, good intellectual formation and exquisite artistic sensibility, which stands out in the cultivation of several creative modalities”, as consistent in his works you can see the marked style, its technique and the representation that the artist had in each of the works that he elaborated.
He had an infinity of statuettes made in bronze, gold, silver and marble; gold and silver coins; gold medals; a marble crucifix; A gold salt shaker, etc. As Cellini can verify an infinity of very important and relevant works of the time, however, the most prominent work in all its trajectory was undoubted ”(1440) by Miguel Ángel or the“ Judith ”(1453-1457) by Donatello.
This work of art since its elaboration has been having several artistic interpretations by several historians such as John T. Paoletti (1939), Erwin Panofsky (1892) and Chokeanand Bussarakampakom (XVI), but for Cellini it was a way to demonstrate to all his adversaries, the potential that he could have, in addition to the pride he felt for the jobs for the jobs that he performed. Therefore, one of him’s most important sculptures had a very interesting secret that made it more and more different from the others.
One of the most important interpretations of Perseo and Medusa’s work was given by the historian (Bussarakampakom, XVI) that says “the comparison between the classical and modern world was a way of conceiving from the reflection of the old. However, the conception of the world in the 16th century creates new forms and new ways to represent the world ”, here we can see that all the works elaborated at the time of the Renaissance have their very strong roots in the classic, however, their way To conceive art was very different, since its criteria were more transcendental, since their knowledge was increasingly deep and efficient.
In all the works that Cellini elaborated was very judicious, since he was educated with two great very recognized artists of the Renaissance, so he incorporated the techniques and style of Miguel Ángel, Rafael and Donatello (1386-1466), in each One of his creations, it is to say that the sculptor improved the techniques learned, giving him his own personality and style. Next, I will give a brief explanation of the elaboration of the statue, it was made of molten bronze, this technique was a challenge for Cellini, since it had to prepare many drafts, since at the time they did not have the necessary tools for the gestation of The work, however, exceed the challenge neatly. After cooking bronze, I use wax. More than this, he continued to hollow out the sculpture and has removed the entire filling from its interior so that it was lighter. To end with his sculpture, I put a good portion of Baroque and three layers of earth above the wax, so that everything melt homogeneously, I also use a chisel to be able to elaborate all the details of the sculpture.
In the aforementioned is all the technique and style that he used, but now we will detail all the aspects, details and objects that this sculpture possesses the Cellini Perseus, since it is one of the peak works in Italy. The sculpture is established by two human bodies: the first is a naked man who is standing on the body of a woman who is headless. The man who stands is Perseus, and as we said previously he is nake Keep the direction of your head is straight towards the ground, this helps the viewer can have a more intimate interaction with the sculpture, finally in her right hand she has a very long sword, while in the left hand he holds the head of the head of the woman.
The body that is headless is a woman named Medusa, she is naked, she is lying down below, her clothes are under her body that is covered with blood. On the other hand, his head is in Perseus, it can be seen that you have long and curly hair, his face has a faction of pain, his eyes are completely closed, finally it is observed that in his face he drips blood down. This work represents the scene in which Perseus was in search of the head of Medusa, to deliver it to King Polidectes de Sefiros, and here you can see it victorious having made its mission
As mentioned above this work, more than being imposing and important, by all techniques and styles, it contains something that makes it high Its creation. The helmet that is wearing Perseus on the head of him forms the eyebrows, nose and shape of his face, while man’s curly hair are the beards of the artist. More than this, Medusa’s face was prepared thanks to an artist’s apprentice, who made the star model of this work, all this assures in one of his books and says the following (Cellini, 1545-1554) “ I only had bad apprentices, among which there was a very beautiful one; He was the son of a meretor named Gambetta. I served from that boy to copy it, because we have no other books that teach us art, but nature ’’ ’. The inauguration of this sculpture was made in the loggia of the signoria, where it is still located so far.
In order to conclude with this work we can say that the Renaissance has been one of the most important and influential stages until today, because there were changes in social, economic, political, etc. But what interests us is the change in the artistic, since they improved a lot in the technique of each of the works that was carried out at the time, in addition, each work had a value and meaning for us the spectators. This period of time was one of the most important since it was a way of protest against the Church, to let them enter the knowledge that they did, they were also in the search for truth, since faith in God in God in the time every time it was reducing. It was a time of many changes, and with this its most important exponents had a different way of conceiving the facts that happened in their environment, their thoughts, their works and their life. For his part, Benvenuto Cellini, was a very prominent man at the time, for all the events he had to pass throughout his life, for being a very delivered and passionate disciple in terms of art, and for having done great jobs to throughout his artistic life, he was undoubtedly one of the best in what he did, and we are very aware of his effort.
Bibliographic references
- Fernández, t. (2004). Biography of Benvenuto Cellini. In biographies and lives. Online biographical encyclopedia. Barcelona, Spain). Recovered from: https: // www.Biography andVidas.com/biography/c/cellini.htm
- Burke, p. (2016). The Italian Renaissance. Editorial Alliance.
- Rossi, a. (2007). The Italian Renaissance story (Vol. 5). UNAM.
- Contreras, r. G. S., & Franco, J. (2018). The Renaissance movement and its influence on the arts. UNIVERSITY NETWORK OF URBANISM AND ARCHITECTURE,
- Bussarakampakom, c. (XVI).
- Mattioda, e. (2019). The biography e l’Alutography: Giorgio Vasari e Benvenuto Cellini.
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