A Critical Commentary on Benevenuto Cellini’s Saliera -- by Angel-Celeste Drinkwater

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 A Critical Commentary on Benevenuto Cellini’s Saliera 

by Angel-Celeste Drinkwater
Angel Celeste is currently in my second year of an undergraduate degree in English Literature & History at the University of Winchester. My main academic focus revolves around Medieval England & France, as well as Early Modern France (specifically the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, and the lives of Maximilien de Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just), however, other areas that I’m interested in include Renaissance Italy, Victorian Crime & Punishment, and general Queer History.

Benevenuto Cellini's Saliera, located in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna


Crafted from gold, and partially enamelled, the Cellini Saliera, or Salt Cellar, is a sculpture, and piece of tableware for housing and dispensing salt, created by the Florentine goldsmith, Benevenuto Cellini in 1543. 

This piece, now housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna is, supposedly, the only remaining piece of Cellini’s extensive metal work. Constructed in Florence, based on work originally by Ippolito d’Este, the Saliera is made from a mixture of gold, enamel, ebony, and ivory, all of which was hand-hammered and sculptured by Cellini himself. 

Contextually speaking, the Saliera was commissioned by Francois I of France in the early 1540s, in order to promote the luxury of the French court to rivals across Europe. From his time in Italy, due to pursuing his claims to the duchy of Milan, Francois was ‘convinced of the supremacy of Italian art,’ and, for the majority of his reign, he pursued notable Italian artists, such as da Vinci and Michelangelo, in order to expand his patronage, and also to spur a Renaissance in French art and culture. As well as this, Francois, engaged in an almost permanent period of war with Charles V, expanded his front onto patronage too, prompting an increase in commissions towards the end of his reign, and this was when Francois commissioned Cellini to create the Saliera. 

Looking into the iconography of the Salt Cellar, Cellini has, very interestingly, mixed many aspects of Renaissance thought and ideology together. Firstly, this idea of ad fontes, and the influence of not only classical art, but also Roman mythology, is present within the piece. The two main figures on display are Neptune, God of the Oceans, and Tellus, the Roman personification of the Earth. In most areas of the Roman Empire, she commonly was not viewed as a Goddess, and instead remained a personification, both of the Earth, and the four elements. Throughout the Renaissance period, mythology was a popular feature of art, and many artists mixed both mythological stories and Biblical stories together; creating a sort of symbiosis of old and new cultures. Cellini, arguably, does this here, however, instead of portraying a story, he instead pushes an allegory of Francois I’s God given right to rule. Francois is depicted through the emblems of the House of Valois. Within this piece, Francois is asserting his power, both through the symbology of the Saliera, and through the wealth shown in its construction. 

Cellini’s piece is an almost perfect example of High Renaissance construction and art, displaying notable features of ad fontes, and skilful technique, as well as being evidence towards how the patronage system of the sixteenth century functioned. 







Bibliography

  • Cellini, Benevenuto.  'Salt Cellar [Saliera] (1543)', enamelled gold sculpture, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. 



  • Feeney, Dennis. "Interpreting Sacrificial Ritual in Roman Poetry: Disciplines and their Models." Rituals in Ink: A Conference on Religion and Literary Production in Ancient Rome 56, no.2 (February 2002): 12. 


  • Janson, Horst Woldemar, and Anthony F. Janson. History of Art: The Western Tradition. United States: Pearson/Prentice-Hall, 2004. 

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