Benvenuto Cellini

Born in Florence in 1500, Benvenuto Cellini trained as a goldsmith and spent decades working for popes, dukes, and kings across Italy and France. His most celebrated surviving pieces include the Cellini Salt Cellar, an extravagant tabletop sculpture, and the bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa, still standing in Florence. But it was his decision to write his own life story that secured him a second kind of immortality: the autobiography, composed later in life, has been called one of the most important documents of the 16th century. He died in Florence in 1571, leaving behind both objects o…