Benvenuto Cellini

Celebrated goldsmith and sculptor of the Italian Renaissance, Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71) fits the conventional image of a Renaissance man: a skillful virtuosi and courtier, an artist who worked in marble, bronze and gold, and a writer and poet. Using the methodologies of New Historicism, social history, and gender and sexuality studies, this book places Cellini and his cultural production in the context of contemporary discourses about sexuality, law, magic, masculinity, and honour. In his life and literary ouevre, the notorious artist, rogue, and sodomite aligned himself with the transgressive and oppositional voices of his day.