DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32874#0449
CH. xiii] LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI 371
de' Servi ^ had made for them a fountain, complete and
adorned with many figures, but that they were not of
that excellence which they perceived in 7Vf.MM.s-; and
that they had made him very rich. I did not allow them
to finish all that they would have liked to say, for I
said to them: "I marvel much at you that you should
seek to make me leave such a patron, a lover of talent
more than any other prince that ever was born, and
when I am besides in my native country, the School of
all the greatest talents. Oh! If I had an appetite for
great gains I could have remained in France in the
service of that great King Francesco, who gave me one
thousand gold for my maintenance and
paid me besides for the cost of production of all my
works, in such fashion that every year I gained more
than four thousand gold -MMTz'yMf M7272 M7M; and I have left
behind in Paris my labours of four entire years." With
these and other words I cut short their ceremonies, and
I thanked them for the great praises that they had be-
stowed upon me, which were the greatest rewards that can
be given to one who has laboured conscientiously. And
* Fra Giovann' Angiolo, of the Order of the "Servi di Maria/'
and a native of Montorsoli, a village near Florence. He was a
sculptor of very considerable merit, and is usually known in Art
History by the name of his birthplace. He designed for the Piazza
del Duomo at Messina the fountain here alluded to in 1547 (or
1551), and by it gave so much satisfaction to the people of that
city that they bade him construct another on the sea-front, near
the Custom-House, which is also a very handsome piece of work.
In 1557 he returned to Florence, where he devoted himself to the
re-establishment of an Academy of Design, a revival by Duke
Cosimo I of the ancient founded in 1339.
He died in 1563. VASARt, FzZ, cZ. MiLANESi <r;7., Vol. VI,
pp. 629 ^
de' Servi ^ had made for them a fountain, complete and
adorned with many figures, but that they were not of
that excellence which they perceived in 7Vf.MM.s-; and
that they had made him very rich. I did not allow them
to finish all that they would have liked to say, for I
said to them: "I marvel much at you that you should
seek to make me leave such a patron, a lover of talent
more than any other prince that ever was born, and
when I am besides in my native country, the School of
all the greatest talents. Oh! If I had an appetite for
great gains I could have remained in France in the
service of that great King Francesco, who gave me one
thousand gold for my maintenance and
paid me besides for the cost of production of all my
works, in such fashion that every year I gained more
than four thousand gold -MMTz'yMf M7272 M7M; and I have left
behind in Paris my labours of four entire years." With
these and other words I cut short their ceremonies, and
I thanked them for the great praises that they had be-
stowed upon me, which were the greatest rewards that can
be given to one who has laboured conscientiously. And
* Fra Giovann' Angiolo, of the Order of the "Servi di Maria/'
and a native of Montorsoli, a village near Florence. He was a
sculptor of very considerable merit, and is usually known in Art
History by the name of his birthplace. He designed for the Piazza
del Duomo at Messina the fountain here alluded to in 1547 (or
1551), and by it gave so much satisfaction to the people of that
city that they bade him construct another on the sea-front, near
the Custom-House, which is also a very handsome piece of work.
In 1557 he returned to Florence, where he devoted himself to the
re-establishment of an Academy of Design, a revival by Duke
Cosimo I of the ancient founded in 1339.
He died in 1563. VASARt, FzZ, cZ. MiLANESi <r;7., Vol. VI,
pp. 629 ^