DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32873#0476
366 LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI [me i
cussion I had been to bargain for three horses to proceed
on our way towards France; and he (Bembo) caused
me to be secretly watched, for he had very great in-
fluence in Padua; in such a way that when I went to
pay for the horses, which I had bargained for at fifty
ducats, the owner of those same horses said to me:
" Oh, illustrious man, I make you a present of the
three horses." To which I replied: "It is not you who
Benvenuto Cellini I have in my poor Museum " (now in the Museo
Nazionale in Florence). This medal FuiEDLANDER believes to be
assuredly the work of Benvenuto, and ARMAND, who possesses an
example (reproduced by PLON) agrees in this supposition. Never-
theless, ARNETH attributes it to Valerio Belli, surnamed Valerio
Vicentino. Belli certainly did make a medal for this prelate, as also
did Leone Leoni, but both some years earlier; that is to say in 1532
and 1536 respectively ; for which reason it could be y
since we know that they represented Bembo without a beard;
and moreover the reverse is quite different. Again, both these
medals were not 02V, as this one is: and the inscription
PETRI . BEMBi . CAR . removes all doubt, since Bembo was not a
cardinal during those years.
That the medal in question may be by Cellini, as the said
FRIEDLANDER and ARMAND maintain, is, to say the least, doubt-
ful, even if we set aside the assertion of JACOPO MORELLi in his
notes to the Letter addressed by BEMBO to Carlo Gualteruzzi
"that there is no foundation to go upon." Notwithstanding that
PLON, in his long dissertation regarding this medal, conjectures
that Benvenuto, on his release from prison, saw Bembo once more,
and kept his promise, as far as the portrait of a man of sixty-nine,
which was the age of the Cardinal in 1539, could represent that of
a younger man with a shorter beard <2//% : keeping for
the reverse the design made in Padua, minus the wreath of myrtle:
the question still remains unsettled, and thus it will remain until
new documents assist us to clear up the point. As far as we can
say at present it is most reasonable to suppose that he never did
finish it. <y PLON, y. zz?., PI. LXI, 2 and pp. 328 <7 :
I. B. SUPINO, 7/ A7^7zo?<7, Firenze, 1899; and
cussion I had been to bargain for three horses to proceed
on our way towards France; and he (Bembo) caused
me to be secretly watched, for he had very great in-
fluence in Padua; in such a way that when I went to
pay for the horses, which I had bargained for at fifty
ducats, the owner of those same horses said to me:
" Oh, illustrious man, I make you a present of the
three horses." To which I replied: "It is not you who
Benvenuto Cellini I have in my poor Museum " (now in the Museo
Nazionale in Florence). This medal FuiEDLANDER believes to be
assuredly the work of Benvenuto, and ARMAND, who possesses an
example (reproduced by PLON) agrees in this supposition. Never-
theless, ARNETH attributes it to Valerio Belli, surnamed Valerio
Vicentino. Belli certainly did make a medal for this prelate, as also
did Leone Leoni, but both some years earlier; that is to say in 1532
and 1536 respectively ; for which reason it could be y
since we know that they represented Bembo without a beard;
and moreover the reverse is quite different. Again, both these
medals were not 02V, as this one is: and the inscription
PETRI . BEMBi . CAR . removes all doubt, since Bembo was not a
cardinal during those years.
That the medal in question may be by Cellini, as the said
FRIEDLANDER and ARMAND maintain, is, to say the least, doubt-
ful, even if we set aside the assertion of JACOPO MORELLi in his
notes to the Letter addressed by BEMBO to Carlo Gualteruzzi
"that there is no foundation to go upon." Notwithstanding that
PLON, in his long dissertation regarding this medal, conjectures
that Benvenuto, on his release from prison, saw Bembo once more,
and kept his promise, as far as the portrait of a man of sixty-nine,
which was the age of the Cardinal in 1539, could represent that of
a younger man with a shorter beard <2//% : keeping for
the reverse the design made in Padua, minus the wreath of myrtle:
the question still remains unsettled, and thus it will remain until
new documents assist us to clear up the point. As far as we can
say at present it is most reasonable to suppose that he never did
finish it. <y PLON, y. zz?., PI. LXI, 2 and pp. 328 <7 :
I. B. SUPINO, 7/ A7^7zo?<7, Firenze, 1899; and