DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32873#0112
48 LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI [BK. i
often set to work together to draw, and had been very
intimate comrades. But taking great offence at the
words which his master had spoken, he said that he did
not recognize me, nor did he know who I was. Upon
which I being indignant at such statements, said to
him: "Oh! Giannotto, once my intimate friend, for we
were often to be found in such and such places, and used
to draw, eat, drink and sleep at your country-house, I do
not need you to go bail for me to this worthy man your
master, because I hope that my own hands may suffice
to testify without your aid what sort of workman I am."
When I had finished these words, Firenzuola, who was
very excitable and violent, turned to the said Giannotto
and said to him: "Oh! you vile rascal! Are you not
ashamed to use such treatment and conduct towards one
who has been so intimate a companion of yours?" And
turning to me in the same excited manner he said:
"Come into the shop and do as you have said; so that
your hands may prove of what you are capable;" and
he set me to carry out a most beautiful commission in
silver for a cardinal. It was a casket copied from that
in porphyry which stands before the door of the Re-
tondaf Besides copying it I enriched it with so many
beautiful grotesques that my master went about eulo-
i The Pantheon of Agrippa, converted into a church by Pope
Boniface IV, under the name of Sta Maria ^ AAzr/zTv.f, or, as it
is usually styled now, The porphyry urn alluded to
above was subsequently placed by Alexander VII within the
portico of the Pantheon, in a niche to the right of the entrance.
There it remained until 1733, when it was removed to the Lateran,
and is still to be seen upon the tomb of Clement XII in the
Corsini family chapel (<y VASARI zv/. MiLANESl rz'h, Vol. I, 10$,
n. 2, III, 95, n. 1).
often set to work together to draw, and had been very
intimate comrades. But taking great offence at the
words which his master had spoken, he said that he did
not recognize me, nor did he know who I was. Upon
which I being indignant at such statements, said to
him: "Oh! Giannotto, once my intimate friend, for we
were often to be found in such and such places, and used
to draw, eat, drink and sleep at your country-house, I do
not need you to go bail for me to this worthy man your
master, because I hope that my own hands may suffice
to testify without your aid what sort of workman I am."
When I had finished these words, Firenzuola, who was
very excitable and violent, turned to the said Giannotto
and said to him: "Oh! you vile rascal! Are you not
ashamed to use such treatment and conduct towards one
who has been so intimate a companion of yours?" And
turning to me in the same excited manner he said:
"Come into the shop and do as you have said; so that
your hands may prove of what you are capable;" and
he set me to carry out a most beautiful commission in
silver for a cardinal. It was a casket copied from that
in porphyry which stands before the door of the Re-
tondaf Besides copying it I enriched it with so many
beautiful grotesques that my master went about eulo-
i The Pantheon of Agrippa, converted into a church by Pope
Boniface IV, under the name of Sta Maria ^ AAzr/zTv.f, or, as it
is usually styled now, The porphyry urn alluded to
above was subsequently placed by Alexander VII within the
portico of the Pantheon, in a niche to the right of the entrance.
There it remained until 1733, when it was removed to the Lateran,
and is still to be seen upon the tomb of Clement XII in the
Corsini family chapel (<y VASARI zv/. MiLANESl rz'h, Vol. I, 10$,
n. 2, III, 95, n. 1).