masterpieces of work in the precious metals which have immortalised his
name. He was high in favour with Clement VII., and was sought after and
entrusted with the most important commissions by the princes of the
Church and other great personages who visited the Eternal City. He had
won the especial regard of Clement by his courage in taking part in the
defence of the castle of St. Angelo when it was besieged by the army of
the Constable of Bourbon; and such was the confidence placed in him at
that time that all the costliest things among the Papal treasures were
given to him to be broken up, and he was allowed to hide the jewels for
safe keeping in his own clothes. He afterwards engraved for the same
Pope and his successor a series of coins, which have always been
considered by the best judges to rival the finest productions of
antiquity. But his was not the mild temper of the artist, nor was the
history of his studio all the history of his life. He was brutal and
ungovernable in his rage, and licentious in his love; and he was feared
and hated almost as much as he was admired, although an easy tolerance
of vice was the fashion of the time. A certain goldsmith, named Pompeo,
had incurred his enmity by trying to deprive him of the favour of
Clement VII.; and during the interregnum which followed the death of
that Pope, he stabbed the unfortunate artist in open day and in the very
midst of Rome. But he escaped the direct punishment due to this
atrocious crime, for Paul III., who succeeded to the Papal throne, not
only pardoned him, but gave him many important commissions. He was
actively engaged in these labours when he was threatened by a new
danger--probably the consequence of a former outrage. A workman accused
him of having stolen some of the jewels entrusted to his keeping during
the siege of Rome. Paul could afford to forgive the murder of a subject,
but he could not look so lightly on a theft by which he himself was
likely to be a sufferer, and he began to mistrust and to dislike
Cellini before he had given himself much pains to examine into the truth
of the accusation against him. Added to this, too, the artist had a
mortal foe near the person of his patron in Peter Louis Farnese, the son
of Paul. One such enemy would have been enough for his ruin; with two,
he could hardly fail to be utterly lost.
“One morning,” says Cellini in his memoirs, “I put on my cloak to take a
short walk, and was turning down the Julian street to enter the quarter
called Chiavica, when Crispino, captain of the city guard, met me with
his whole band of sbirri, and told me roughly I was the Pope’s prisoner.
I answered him, ‘Crispino, you mistake your man.’ ‘By no means,’ said
Crispino, ‘you are the clever artist Benvenuto; I know you very well,
and have orders to conduct you to the Castle of St. Angelo, where
noblemen and men of genius like yourself are confined.’ As four of his
myrmidons were going to fall upon me and deprive me forcibly of a dagger
which I had by my side, and of the rings on my fingers, Crispino ordered
them not to offer to touch me. It was sufficient, he said, for them to
do their office and prevent me from making my escape. Then coming up to
me, he very politely demanded my arms. Whilst I was giving them up, I
recollected that it was in that very place that I had formerly killed
Pompeo. They conducted me to the castle, and locked me up in one of the
upper apartments of the tower. This was the first time I ever tasted the
inside of a prison; and I was then in my thirty-seventh year.”
It was not difficult for Benvenuto to disprove the charges against him;
he was, nevertheless, kept in prison in spite of the good offices of
Montluc, the ambassador of France, who begged for his release, in the
name of Francis I. The governor of St. Angelo was a Florentine, and he
showed every attention to his unfortunate fellow-citizen, even allowing
him on parole a certain freedom of movement within the walls. But after
a time he shut him up closely again; and then once more restored him to
his state of partial liberty.
“When I found,” says Benvenuto, “that I was being treated with so much
rigour, I reflected deeply on the matter; and I said to myself, ‘If this
man should again happen to take such a freak, and not choose to trust me
any longer, I should feel myself released from my word, and should make
a trial of my own skill.’ I then began to get my servants to bring me
new thick sheets, and did not send back the dirty ones; and when they
asked me for them, I told them that I had given them away to some of the
soldiers, but that they were not to speak about it or the poor fellows
would run the risk of being sent to the galleys. I hid my sheets in the
mattress that served me for a bed, and burnt the straw with which it was
stuffed, bit by bit, in my chimney, to make room for them. I then tore
them up into long bands, and when I had enough of these bands to reach
to the bottom of the tower, I told my servants I did not mean to give
away any more of my linen, adding that they were to bring me finer
sheets in future, and I would return them the dirty ones.
“The constable of the castle had annually a certain disorder which
totally deprived him of his senses, and when the fit came on him he was
talkative to excess. Every year he had some different whim: at one time
he thought himself metamorphosed into a pitcher of oil; at another he
believed himself a frog, and began to leap around like one; and again he
imagined he was dead, and it was found necessary to humour him by making
a show of burying him. He had, in fact, a new mania every year. This
year he fancied himself a bat,
[Illustration: I then tore them into long bands.]
and when he went to take a walk he sometimes made just such a noise as
bats do, and made gestures with his hands and body as if he were going
to fly. The physicians, who knew his disorder, and his old servants
procured him all the amusements they could think of, and as they found
he took very great pleasure in my conversation, they often fetched me to
his apartments, where the poor man would chat with me for three or four
hours at a time. On one of these occasions he asked me whether I had
ever wished to fly. I answered that I had always been readiest to
attempt such things as men found most difficult, and that with regard to
flying, as God had given me a body admirably well calculated for
running, I had even resolution enough to attempt to fly. He then asked
me to explain how I proposed to do that. I replied that when I
attentively considered the several creatures that fly, and thought of
effecting by art what they do by the force of nature, I did not find one
so fit to imitate as the bat. As soon as the poor man heard mention made
of the bat, his mania for the year turning upon that animal, he cried
out aloud, ‘That’s very true; a bat is the thing.’ He then suddenly
turned to me and said, ‘Would you, Benvenuto, if you had the
opportunity, have the heart to make the attempt to fly?’ I answered that
if he would give me permission, I had courage enough to attempt to fly
as far as Prati by means of a pair of wings waxed over. ‘I should like
to see you fly,’ he returned, ‘but as the Pope has enjoined me to watch
over you with the utmost care, and I know that you have the cunning of
the devil, and would be glad of the opportunity to make your escape, I
mean to keep you locked up with a hundred keys to prevent you from
slipping out of my hands.’ I then began to supplicate him afresh,
reminding him that I had had it in my power to make my escape, but
would never avail myself of the opportunity through respect for the
promise I had given him. Whilst I was uttering these words he gave
peremptory orders that I should be bound, and confined a closer prisoner
than ever.
“I at once began to think about the means of making my escape. As soon
as I was locked in, I made a careful examination of my prison, and
thinking that I had found a sure way out of it, I turned over several
plans for descending from the top of the great tower, where I was, to
the ground. At last, guessing the length of line which would about carry
me down, I took a new pair of sheets, cut them into the requisite number
of strips, and sewed them fast together. The next thing I wanted was a
pair of pincers, which I stole from a Savoyard on guard at the castle.
This man had the care of the casks and the cisterns, and likewise worked
as a carpenter; and as he had several pairs of pincers, and one amongst
others which was thick and large, I took it, thinking it would suit my
purpose, and laid it in the tick of my bed. When the time had come for
making use of the pincers, I began to pull at the nails fastening the
plates of iron fixed upon the door; and, as the door was double, the
clenching of those nails could not be perceived. I exerted my utmost
efforts to draw out one of them, and at last, with great difficulty
succeeded. As soon as I had drawn a few, I was again obliged to torture
my invention in order to devise some expedient to prevent the loss being
perceived. I immediately thought of mixing a little of the filings of
the rusty iron with wax; and, as this mixture was exactly of the colour
of the heads of the nails I had drawn, I counterfeited a resemblance of
them on the iron plates, and in this manner imitated in wax as many as
I drew. I left each of the plates fastened both at top and bottom, and
refixed them with some of the nails I had drawn; but the nails were cut,
and I drove them in only a little way, so that they just served to hold
the plates. I found it a very difficult matter to do all this, because
the governor dreamed every night that I had made my escape, and used to
send often to have the prison searched. The man who came on these visits
had the appearance and bearing of one of the city guards. His name was
Bozza, and he used to bring with him another, named John Pedignone; the
latter was a soldier, the former a servant. This Pedignone never came to
my room without giving me abusive language. The other one confined
himself to examining the plates of iron I have mentioned, as well as the
whole prison. I constantly said to him, ‘Look after me well, for I mean
to escape.’ These words once made him very angry with me, and I took
that opportunity of depositing all my tools--that is to say, my pincers
and a tolerably long dagger, with other things belonging to me--in the
tick of my bed, and of sweeping the room myself, as soon as it was
daylight, for I naturally delighted in cleanliness, and on this occasion
I took care to be particularly neat. As soon as I had swept the room I
made my bed with equal care, and adorned it with flowers which were
every morning brought me by the Savoyard. When Bozza and Pedignone came
near the bed, I told them angrily to keep away from it lest it should be
defiled by their touch; and afterwards, when merely to amuse themselves,
they tumbled the sheets, I added, ‘You dirty dogs, keep off, or I’ll
draw one of your swords and maul you as you were never mauled before! Do
you think your paws are fit to touch the bed of a man like me? If I made
up my mind to kill you, I should not in the least hesitate to sacrifice
my own life; so be warned in time; leave me to my own troubles and
sorrows, and do not add to the bitterness of my lot, or I will show you
what a desperate man can do.’ The men duly repeated all this to the
constable, who expressly ordered them never to go near my bed, to
unbuckle their swords before coming to my cell, and to be as careful as
possible in all other respects. The object of all this on my part was to
secure my bed from search, and I gained my point.
“One holiday evening the constable was in a very bad way, and his mania
had risen to such a pitch that he did nothing but repeat that he had
become a bat. He told his attendants to take no notice if Benvenuto
should escape, for he would soon be caught by a bat so much better able
to fly by night than himself. ‘Benvenuto,’ the poor man was pleased to
add, ‘is a counterfeit bat; I am a real one; let me alone to manage him.
I’ll soon have him back again. I’ll be bound.’ He had continued in this
state for several nights, till he quite tried the patience of all his
servants, as I learned from my faithful Savoyard, who continued very
much attached to me. I had made up my mind to escape that night, let
what would happen, and I began by praying fervently to Almighty God that
it would please his Divine Majesty to befriend and assist me in my
hazardous enterprise. I then went to work, and was employed the whole
night in getting everything in readiness. Two hours before daybreak I
took the iron plates from the door, with great trouble and difficulty,
for the bolt and the wood that received it made a great resistance, so
that I could not open them, but was obliged to cut the wood. I, however,
at last forced the door; and having taken with me the slips of linen I
have mentioned, which I had rolled up in bundles with the utmost care,
I got out, and reached the right side of the tower, and leaped with the
utmost ease upon two tiles of the roof which I had observed from within.
I was in a white doublet, and had on a pair of white leggings, over
which I wore tight boots that reached half-way up my legs, and in one of
these I put my dagger. I then took the end of one of my bundles of long
slips, which I had made out of the sheets of my bed, and fastened it to
a tile that happened to jut out four inches, to which it hung like a
stirrup. I then again prayed to God in these terms: ‘Almighty God,. come
to my aid; for thou knowest that my cause is just, and that I aid
myself.’ Then letting myself go very gently,. and supporting myself by
the strength of my arms, I reached the ground. There was no moon, but
the night was clear. When I once more felt the earth beneath my feet, I
looked up with awe at the immense height from which I had made so
adventurous a descent, and I went forward very joyfully believing I was
free, though that was by no means the case.
“The constable had built on this side of the castle two pretty high
walls, which enclosed his stables and his hen-houses, and which were
closed by doors with very strong bolts. Despairing of being able to
leave the place that way, I wandered on at hazard, reflecting on my sad
position, when my foot struck suddenly against a large pole covered with
straw. I reared it, though not without great difficulty, by the side of
the wall, and then by sheer strength of arm I climbed to the top of it,
and so reached the parapet. The end of the pole being firmly fixed in an
angle of the coping stone, I could not draw it up after me, but it
afforded me a secure fastening for my second band (I had been obliged to
leave the first hanging from my window in the tower), and by this means
I reached the ground on the other side of the wall, though with hands
torn and dripping with blood. I was very greatly fatigued, but after I
had rested a little I felt strong enough to attempt to surmount the last
wall looking towards Prati. I accordingly laid my roll of bands on the
ground for a moment, and was just about to throw one of them over a
battlement, when I saw a sentinel standing almost by my side. Feeling
that not only the success of my enterprise, but my very life was in
danger, I was preparing to attack the fellow, when he saved me the
trouble by taking to his heels as soon as he saw the glitter of the
poniard in my hand. I lost no time in getting back to my bands, and then
I saw another man on guard, but he appeared not to wish to notice me. I
fastened my band to the battlement; I clambered up the wall on one side,
and I slid down it on the other; but, whether from fatigue or from a
miscalculation as to the distance between my feet and the ground, I
opened my hands too soon, and fell head first to the earth with such
violence that I remained unconscious an hour and a half, as nearly as I
can judge.
“The freshness of early morning brought me to myself, but I did not at
once recover my memory. It seemed to me that I had had my head cut off
and that I was in purgatory. But as my reason gradually came back, I saw
that I was outside the castle, and then I remembered all I had been
doing. I put my hands to my head, and found that it was covered with
blood. There was no serious wound upon my body, but on attempting to
raise myself, I found I had broken my right leg in three places at a
point about midway between the knee and the heel. Without in the least
losing courage, I drew my knife and its sheath from my boot. There was a
great ball at the end of the sheath, and this, pressing on the bone in
my fall, had caused the fracture. I threw the sheath away, and cutting
up what little of the band was left with the poniard, I set the leg as
best I could and knife in hand began to crawl slowly on my knees towards
the city gate. It was closed; but observing that one of the great stones
that formed the threshold was loose, I managed to pick it out, and to
squeeze my body through the aperture. It was more than five hundred
paces from the place where I had fallen to this gate.
“I had hardly entered Rome when a number of prowling dogs rushed at me,
and tore me cruelly; but when they returned to the charge, I gave them a
taste of my poniard, and pricked one of them so vigorously that he
limped off with a hideous howl that damped the ardour of the rest. I
followed his example, so far as to leave that place, and I set out on my
knees for the church of the Traspontina.
“When I came to the end of the street that turns down to St Angelo, I
directed my steps towards St Peter’s. It was broad day, and I ran some
risk of being discovered; so, seeing a water-carrier pass by leading a
heavily laden ass, I called out to him to take me on his shoulders and
carry me to St Peter’s market-place. ‘I am,’ said I, ‘a poor fellow who
has broken his leg in trying to preserve the honour of a lady. I had to
leap from a window to save myself from being cut to pieces, and I am
still in danger. Take me up then, I beg of you, and you shall have a
crown in gold for your trouble;’ and I put my hand to my purse, where I
carried a good number of these tempters. He at once lifted me in his
arms, and carried me to the market-place, where he left me very hastily,
and went back to find the ass. I then took to my hands and knees once
more, and slowly crawled towards the Duke Octavio’s house. The duchess,
his wife, was a daughter of the Emperor, and had
[Illustration: Cellini attacked by the dogs.]
been married to Duke Alexander of Florence. Many of my friends had
accompanied this great princess from Florence to Rome, and I knew that
she was extremely well disposed towards me.
“I crawled, then, towards his Excellency’s house, where I felt certain
of finding safety. But, as the adventures I had gone through were too
wonderful for a mere mortal, God would not let me give myself up to the
vain glory which must have followed an absolute success, but mercifully
ordained for my good an affliction far more severe than any to which I
had yet been subjected.
“While I was on my way to St. Peter’s market-place, I was recognised by
a servant of Cardinal Cornaro, who was lodged at the Vatican. The man
ran at once to his master’s bedroom, woke him, and said, ‘Benvenuto,
your protégé, is below; he has escaped from the castle, and he is
dragging himself along all covered with blood. He seems to have his leg
broken, and there is no saying where he is going.’ ‘Quick,’ said the
cardinal, ‘run and bring him to me--in this room.’ When I came before
him, he at once told me I had nothing to fear, and he sent for the best
surgeons in Rome to attend upon me. He also took care to have me placed
in a secret apartment; and having thus provided for my immediate wants,
he set out to demand, in person, my pardon of the Pope.
“By this time there was a great stir in Rome, for the bands hanging from
the high tower had been discovered, and all the city ran to see this
incredible thing.
“When Cardinal Cornaro reached the Vatican, he met Signor Roberto Pucci,
and related to him the details of my escape, and the fact that I was at
that moment hidden in his house. The two then went together to throw
themselves at the feet of the Pope; but before they could speak, his
Holiness said to them, ‘I know what it is you want of me.’ ‘Most holy
father,’ said Pucci, ‘we beg of you, for pity’s sake, to spare this poor
man. His talents entitle him to some consideration; and he has just
shown such courage and address as seem above humanity. We know not for
what offences your Holiness has had him put in prison, but if they are
at all pardonable, we entreat you to forget them for our sake.”
“The Pope, somewhat ashamed, replied that he had sent me to prison
because I was too presumptuous; ‘But,’ he added, ‘his merit is very well
known, and we wish to keep him near us, to which end we will place him
beyond the necessity of returning to France. I am sorry that he is so
ill. Tell him to make haste to get well, and say that we will then give
him cause to forget all the miseries he has suffered.”
“These two great personages duly brought me these good tidings on the
part of the Pope.”
* * * * *
The governor afterwards visited him, and asked if no one had aided him
in his flight.
Cellini continues: “When he went back to the Pope, he gave him all the
particulars of my escape, as he had heard them from me, to the
astonishment of every one present. ‘It is truly something prodigious,’
said the Pope. ‘Most holy father,’ replied my old enemy, the Signor
Peter Louis Farnese, ‘he will do many other things equally prodigious
for you, if you set him at liberty, for he is one of the most audacious
of men. I will give you a proof of it, of which perhaps you have not yet
heard. Before you shut him up in the Castle of St. Angelo, this same
Benvenuto, having had some words with one of the Cardinal Santa Fiore’s
gentlemen, threatened to strike him; and the cardinal hearing of the
affair, said that if the arch-fool attempted to carry out his threat, he
would cure him once for all. The words were repeated to Benvenuto, and
the cardinal’s palace being in front of his studio, he took his musket
one day when he saw his Eminence at the window, and was just going to
shoot him, when his intended victim happened to be warned in time and
withdrew. He can put a ball in the centre of a farthing with that
musket; and when he saw that the cardinal had escaped him, he coolly
blew off the head of a pigeon perched on the opposite roof, to give his
enemies a proof of his skill. But let your Holiness do what you please
with him; I, at least, have warned you. The man is quite capable, if he
thought himself unjustly treated, of firing upon even you. He has a
character of the utmost ferocity, and he stops at nothing. Remember, he
ran his dagger twice into Pompeo’s throat, although the poor wretch was
in the midst of ten men appointed expressly to guard him. One of Santa
Fiore’s gentlemen was present, and confirmed what the Pope’s son had
said.
“The Pope was still under the unfortunate impression produced by these
words when, two days after the above conversation, Cardinal Cornaro came
to ask him for a bishopric for one of his gentlemen, André Centano. The
Pope had, in fact, promised him the bishopric; and, as one was now
vacant, the cardinal reminded him of his word. ‘It is true,’ said his
Holiness, ‘I have promised you a bishopric, and you shall have one; but
I have one favour to ask in return--let me have Benvenuto again.’ ‘Most
holy father,’ replied the cardinal, ‘you have for my sake consented to
his pardon and his liberty, what will the world say of both of us?’ ‘You
want your bishopric,’ replied the Pope, ‘and I want my Benvenuto: let
the world say what it pleases.’ ‘Give me my bishopric,’ said the good
cardinal, ‘and for the rest your Holiness yourself shall be the judge of
what ought to be, and what can be done.’ ‘I will send for Benvenuto,’
said the Pope, somewhat ashamed of breaking his word, ‘and I will put
him in one of the lower apartments of my private garden, where he will
want for nothing that can aid his recovery. His friends may come and see
him, and I will bear the entire cost of his living myself.’
“The cardinal returned to his apartments, and sent to tell me through
Signor André that the Pope wished to have me once more in his power, but
that I should be lodged in his private garden, and should be free to see
any one I pleased. I implored André to ask the cardinal not to give me
up, but rather to let me have myself taken at once to a safe place I
knew of outside Rome, for that to put me in the power of the Pope would
be to send me to death.
“The cardinal would, I believe, have aided me to carry out this plan;
but Signor André, who did not like to give up his bishopric, caused the
Pope to be acquainted with the whole affair, and I was immediately
ordered into custody.”