DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32873#0049
INTRODUCTION
XXXV
stiH exist, are among the vast crowd of contemporary
objects of extreme beauty assigned to a general class
of" Author Unknown." Many of these craftsmen, very
possibly, produced finer work than Cellini. But for
him there happened two pieces of good fortune, which
singled him from out the crowd of his contemporaries.
The first of these was the warm friendship (prompted
by a genuine and sincere admiration on Cellini's part),
shown for him by the great Michelangelo; the second,
his own unblushing conceit regarding his talents and
abilities; a conceit which eventually took concrete form
in what is after all his finest achievement, z'.^., the HzzA?-
3zh^z^/zy now before us.
Judged by purely aesthetic stand-points, in no branch
of the plastic arts does he quite arrive at perfection. But
in spite of that he is far and away superior to almost all
his known sculptor-contemporaries at the Courts of
France and of the Grand Dukes. His animadversions
on the jealousy with which his rivals pursued him is in
the main scarcely unreasonable or exaggerated. Time
has brought him a more complete and lasting revenge
than even he hoped for. Nevertheless, as sculptor he was
perhaps at best only among the finest of the decadents;
for it is plain that he is not at his best in compositions
of large proportions. Those works of his of any size
that have come down to us, in spite of a certain boldness
and power in execution, which impresses at first sight,
are, upon close examination, either laboured or affected.
His portrait-busts, indeed, convey a sense of force and
truthfulness, but they are hardly agreeable likenesses.
On the other hand, in works of smaller proportions
he compasses a far higher level of excellence. His
XXXV
stiH exist, are among the vast crowd of contemporary
objects of extreme beauty assigned to a general class
of" Author Unknown." Many of these craftsmen, very
possibly, produced finer work than Cellini. But for
him there happened two pieces of good fortune, which
singled him from out the crowd of his contemporaries.
The first of these was the warm friendship (prompted
by a genuine and sincere admiration on Cellini's part),
shown for him by the great Michelangelo; the second,
his own unblushing conceit regarding his talents and
abilities; a conceit which eventually took concrete form
in what is after all his finest achievement, z'.^., the HzzA?-
3zh^z^/zy now before us.
Judged by purely aesthetic stand-points, in no branch
of the plastic arts does he quite arrive at perfection. But
in spite of that he is far and away superior to almost all
his known sculptor-contemporaries at the Courts of
France and of the Grand Dukes. His animadversions
on the jealousy with which his rivals pursued him is in
the main scarcely unreasonable or exaggerated. Time
has brought him a more complete and lasting revenge
than even he hoped for. Nevertheless, as sculptor he was
perhaps at best only among the finest of the decadents;
for it is plain that he is not at his best in compositions
of large proportions. Those works of his of any size
that have come down to us, in spite of a certain boldness
and power in execution, which impresses at first sight,
are, upon close examination, either laboured or affected.
His portrait-busts, indeed, convey a sense of force and
truthfulness, but they are hardly agreeable likenesses.
On the other hand, in works of smaller proportions
he compasses a far higher level of excellence. His