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Materials
paper (all objects)
Techniques
drawn (scope note | all objects)
Production person
Drawn by Benvenuto Cellini (biographical details | all objects)
Date
1515-1571
Schools /Styles
Florentine (all objects)
Description
Project for a seal of the Accademia del Disegno, representing a classical personification of nature, within a lozenge; a winged female figure, flanked by a lion (emblem of Florence) and serpent (emblem of Duke Cosimo) at her feet, the alphabet composed of the instruments of the arts below
Pen and brown ink, with brown wash, over traces of black chalk
Inscriptions
Inscription Content: Turner, Florentine Drawings of the Sixteenth Century, London, 1986
Extensively inscribed in ink in the artist's hand.
In the top part of the sheet near the left edge:
"la Tromba della nostra Fama viene dalle Braccia".
Across the middle of the sheet with two alphabets, one of ordinary capital letters and the other of capital letters made up from the instruments of painting, sculpture and architecture.
And beneath the alphabet at the bottom part of the sheet, running onto the verso, an exhortation to the members of the Accademia del Disegno.
Near the bottom edge of the sheet, in another but also old hand, is the attribution:
"di Benvenuto Cellini".
Dimensions
Height: 332 millimetres
Width: 222 millimetres
Curator's comments
A study for the seal of the Accademia del Disegno, the Florentine Academy, founded by Duca Cosimo de'Medici in 1562.
The prime mover in the establishment of the first academy of art was the painter Giorgio Vasari, whose aim was to emancipate artists from control by the guilds, and to confirm the rise in social standing they had achieved in the previous hundred years.
Michelangelo, who more than any other embodied this change of status in his own person, was made one of the two heads and Duke Cosimo himself was the other.
Thirty-six artist members were elected, and amateurs and theoreticians were also eligible for membership.
A competition for the official seal was announced by Vasari and the present study is one of six by Cellini related to the commission.
The others are formerly in the Archivio Calamandrei, Florence; the Louvre (inv. 2752).
One sold at Christie's, Monaco 7 December 1990, lot 202a (later offered at San Marco, Casa d'Asta, Venice, 9 July 2006); and two in the Graphische Sammlung, Munich (inv. 2247 and 2264).
The drawing depicts a classically inspired multi-breasted Nature in the lozenge at the top with a lion, an emblem of Florence, and a serpent, an emblem of Duke Cosimo.
Two trumpets, symbols of Fame, come out of Nature's armpits because it is the arms of the artists that bring him fame.
Below this is Cellini's suggestions for an alphabet composed of instruments of the arts.
Lit.: N. Turner, in exhib. cat., BM, 'Florentine Drawings of the sixteenth century', 1986, no. 118 (with previous literature)
Turner, Florentine Drawings of the Sixteenth Century, London, 1986
This is one of five drawings by Cellini for the design of a seal to be used by the Accademia del Disegno.
The others are in the Archivio Calamandrei in Florence, the Louvre (inv. no. 2752), and two in the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich (inv. nos 2247 and 2264).
It is generally thought that drawing in the Archivio Calamandrei, which the British Museum drawing strongly resembles, was drawn first, followed by that in the British Museum.
In the lozenge in the middle of the top part of the sheet is the figure of Nature represented according to her ancient classical personification ("da gli Antiqui cō molte poppe figurata").
At the feet of Nature appear on the right a lion, an emblem of Florence ("oltre à la fortezza è segno della nostra Città") and on the left a serpent, an emblem of Duke Cosimo ("oltre à la Prudenza, è una delle Imprese del nro Exc.mo S.r Duca").
Nature is shown with two trumpets issuing from each armpit, an allusion to the importance of the practical aspect of the arts.
It is the artist's arms, according to Cellini, that bring him fame.
The alphabet composed of the instruments of the arts is explained at the very end of Cellini's exhortation.
Since the Egyptians, Greeks and Hebrews each had their own alphabet, he proposes that the Tuscans should do likewise:
"La Onde io ho fatto quello che voi vedete sotto la nostra Impresa di tutti quegli istrumenti, che si adoperano nell'esercitare queste nostre Arti nobilissime, et utilissime".
The essential symbol of the impresa is Nature.
The artist strives to imitate the fecundity of Nature in 'disegno' ("non potendo l'huomo alcuna cosa perfettamente operare senza riferisi al disegno").
Since the creativity of man, symbolised in 'disegno', resembles Nature, it is the god of Nature, he explains, that has been chosen to represent the activities of the artist.
But in what is apparently the latest drawing in the series of five, that in Munich (inv. no. 2247), the figure of Nature is substituted for one of the youthful Apollo and the lozenge shape is rejected in favour of an oval.
In Cellini's explanation of this impresa, imagery of the Sun takes over from that of Nature.
It is probably this latter design that was submitted to the Accademia.
It may be noted that all of the drawings, with the exception of that in the Louvre, have a series of three or so horizontal folds and a central vertical fold, the positions of which are much the same in all four drawings.
This might suggest that they were at one time folded together.
Literature: W. Kemp, Marburger Jahrbuch, xix, 1974, pp. 219ff., with previous bibliography; R. Harprath, Italienische Zeichnungen des 16. Jahrhunderts, exh. cat., Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, 1977, under nos 27 and 28; J. Pope-Hennessy, Cellini, London, 1985, pp. 278ff.
Subject
allegory/personification (scope note | all objects)
arts and sciences (scope note | all objects)
Associated names
Associated with Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany (biographical details | all objects)
Associated places
Associated with Florence (all objects)
(Europe,Italy,Tuscany,Florence (province),Florence)
Acquisition date
1860
Acquisition name
Purchased through Walter Benjamin Tiffin (biographical details | all objects)
Purchased through Christie's (5.vi.1860/254 as Cellini 'A curious allegorical representation of Fame, in an escutcheon of diamond) (biographical details | all objects)
Purchased from Samuel Woodburn (biographical details | all objects)
Previous owner/ex-collection William Young Ottley (T Philipe, 9.vi.1814/371 as Cellini 'One - the emblematic representation of nature under the figure) (biographical details | all objects)
Previous owner/ex-collection Sir Thomas Lawrence (L.2445) (biographical details | all objects)
Exhibition History
1980, Palazzo Strozzi, '16thC Florentine Drawings', no. 159
1986, BM, '16thC Florentine Drawings', no. 118
1992 Oct-Dec, UEA, 'Florentine Drawings'
1997 Sept-Nov, Saarbrucken, Saarland Mus, Drawings from Tuscany
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