Benvenuto Cellini’s Criminal History
We’ve talked about Benvenuto Cellini before here, remember the gold salt cellar? Well when researching that I realized that actually he’s an artist with a pretty interesting personal history of crime and just general weirdness that I thought was worth exploring.
Jumping In
We talked about Cellini’s upbringing and artistic beginnings in the other post I wrote so go back and read that if you need a refresher but I’m going to jump to 1523 when Cellini was back in his hometown of Florence working as a goldsmith. Over the years he had apprenticed with some impressive artists and craftsmen and had developed a real name for himself as a talented and successful artist in his own right. This success led to jealousies forming from two brothers and fellow goldsmiths he had previously worked with; Salvadore and Michele Guasconti. The Guasconti family were prominent in the goldsmith’s guild and they spoke badly about Cellini behind his back. This cost Cellini commissions, which he regarded as a form of robbery. He seemed to have a particular talent for trash talking so was more than happy to give the Guascontis a taste of their own medicine.
Now might be a good time to mention that Cellini was a total hot head, when he got mad he absolutely saw red and went mental. So one day he’s in the goldworkers area of the city when he sees the Guascontis outside their store and the three start yelling insults back and forth. At some point, another guy in the Guasconti clan, Gherhardo, pushed a bunch of bricks off the back of the wagon and onto Cellini, dazing him. When Cellini came to, he saw Gherhardo laughing in his face and he exploded, he walked up to him and punched him squarely in the temple, knocking him out cold. He then turned back to the Guasconti brothers and shouted, while pulling out a knife, “This is how to treat thieving cowards like you! Whichever one of you leaves his shop, the other will go fetch his confessor, because there’ll be no use for a doctor” (Whitehead, 2023). Basically he was saying I’m going to kill whichever one of you steps away from the shop so if that happens get the priest not the doctor. Wow. Upon hearing this the other men backed down and reported Cellini to the Eight, a tribunal who ruled on criminal cases, and they decided to fine him 12 bushels of flour (a hefty fine at the time).
While the specifics of the fine were getting hammered out, the Eight took a dinner break, leaving Cellini unattended. Not a great plan. He snuck out of the building and back to his workshop where he grabbed a dagger. From there he burst his way into Gherhardo’s workshop/home where he and his family were eating dinner. He lunged at Gherhardo, who got up to try to fight, and stabbed him directly in the chest. His original plan was to kill his wife and children too but seeing them unarmed and begging for mercy changed his mind and he left the house.
However, Cellini wasn’t safe, waiting outside for him were about a dozen Guascontis armed with different things like shovels, iron bars, and anvils. A fight ensued and Cellini reports, in his autobiography, that everyone walked away unscathed but actual historians say that there was a lot of bloodshed. Gherhardo didn’t die but the stab wound was serious and Cellini wounded another family member in the skirmish on the street.
For these additional crimes the Eight banished Cellini from Florence and stripped him of his civil and political rights. A much harsher penalty than the original bags of flour. This meant Cellini was forced to live in the wilderness and in some cases vigilantes or police would hunt down banished people and execute them without trial.
After his sentence was handed down Cellini knew he had to flee so he packed up and rode to Rome where he lived for six years in exile. In Rome he joined a workshop and started working again in goldsmithing and before long he had a lot of rich patrons impressed by his work and he was able to open his own workshop. He eventually worked his way up to working for Pope Clement VII who appointed him the coveted position of working at the papal mint.
The Papal Mint
Almost as soon as Cellini started working at the mint he met another goldsmith named Pompeo and the two soon developed a burning hatred for the other with Cellini regarding the other man as vastly inferior to himself. They competed for the honour of designing for the Pope directly which usually Cellini won (and probably lorded over Pompeo).
This is where things take a turn for the bizarre. Right around this time Cellini was desperate to know what his future would hold so he got in touch with a necromancer (someone who communicates with the dead) to try and find out. According to his autobiography he and this necromancer went to the Colosseum to find out by summoning demons to ask them, but something went wrong and they weren’t able to talk to any demons. The necromancer told Cellini to come back the next night and bring a virgin boy. Totally normal, nothing weird at all about that. So Cellini did as he was told and brought along an apprentice from his workshop.
This description of what happened next is so good that I just have included it verbatim. “Arrayed in his voluminous sorcerer’s robes, the priest took each of his companions by the hand and ushered them into a circle he had drawn on the ground, the darkness illuminated by glowing coals and the air perfumed with incense. As directed, Cellini took the star-shaped pentacle in hand and held it over the boy’s head. Meanwhile, the necromancer intoned his awful incantations, switching back and forth among multiple tongues. As he cast his enchantment, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of devils filled the Coliseum. Slightly daunted yet confident the warlock had command of his spell, Cellini stepped forward to ask his question and received his answer (which was that something terrible was going to happen to him soon). With his inquiry settled, it was time for the priest to disperse this infernal congregation. He chanted the appropriate invocations, to no avail. The legions of evil remained in place. After a moment, to the summoners’ horror, they advanced on the circle. Out of the swarm emerged four giants, armed with weapons. Trying to stay calm, Cellini panicked when he saw the necromancer shaking like a leaf. He had obviously lost all control of the ritual. Still beneath the pentacle, the boy looked up and let out a shriek. The Coliseum caught fire, and the conflagration would engulf them all at any moment. At the preacher’s behest, Cellini ordered another man in their party, Agnolo, to burn a handful of asafetida, a foul-smelling resin, hoping the odor would repel the fiends. Pinching their noses, the demons retreated. The hellfire extinguished. Playing it safe, Cellini and his associates stayed inside the protective circle until vespers and then hurried home” (Whitehead, 2023).
So with this warning of imminent danger ringing in his ears Cellini went back to work. Once he arrived at his workshop however he soon got into an argument with his friend Benedetto about a misunderstanding about how much money was owed and to whom. It escalated until Cellini threw a clump of mud at Benedetto, inside the mud was a rock which struck Benedetto in the head knocking him to the ground unconscious. Onlookers believed he was dead. And guess who one of the onlookers was, that’s right, it was Pompeo who wasted no time in going straight to the Pope to denounce Cellini and reveal what he had done. This got Cellini fired from the mint and caused him to lose his esteemed position close to the Pope.
On September 27, 1534, Cellini was sitting on the banks of the Tiber River with his friends when he saw Pompeo walking. But Pompeo wasn’t alone, he knew that Cellini was dangerous so he had hired ten bodyguards who went with him everywhere. Cellini’s friends tried to goad him into fighting Pompeo right then, assuring him they would have his back but for once Cellini kept a cool head saying it wasn’t the time or the place for a big fight. Pompeo threw his head back and laughed before walking away. Bad things always seem to happen to people who laugh at Cellini.
About an hour later Cellini was walking past an apothecary when he saw Pompeo leave his guards outside and enter the building. Once he came out, before his guards could close around him again Cellini grabbed him. He stabbed Pompeo twice right below his ear leaving him bleeding on the street, dead. Cellini slipped away as quickly as he had come.
What happened after?
Cellini immediately went into hiding as he thought killing someone who worked for the Pope would make him a highly wanted man. But here is where he got SO lucky. Pope Clement VII died shortly thereafter and the new Pope, Paul III, said he only wanted Cellini to engrave his coins and that he planned to reappoint him to his position at the mint. When his advisors brought up that Cellini was a wanted man the Pope drew up a safe-conduct which shielded Cellini from prosecution. So essentially it was a get out of jail free card.
This changed after a few years when a close advisor to the Pope finally convinced him to jail Cellini, which he did. He remained in Castel Sant'Angelo for more than a year. You might be thinking, that’s a little light for murder. It definitely is. He was released because an extremely wealthy patron, the Cardinal of Ferrara, visited the Pope and after drinking copious bottles of wine succeeded in persuading him to release Cellini so he could commission works of art from him. The Pope later expressed regret for this drunken decision but Cellini was free.
Imagine being able to separate the art from the artist (or not caring) so much that you feel good about releasing a convicted murderer so that he can be your personal goldsmith.
Works Cited
Whitehead, Gavin. “The Life and Crimes of a Casual Necromancer: Benvenuto Cellini”. Art of Crime Podcast. 2023. https://www.artofcrimepodcast.com/post/the-life-and-crimes-of-a-casual-necromancer-benvenuto-cellini-s2e7