Cellini Salt Cellar
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Many of the wealthiest and best- informed Renaissance patrons throughout Italy and Northern Europe were avid sponsors of what we would call craft or decorative arts — miniatures, carved gems, medals, majolica ware, fancy inkwells, sumptuous inlaid coffers — which are often valued more highly in Renaissance inventories than paintings or sculptures ." --The Invention of Art: A Cultural History, 38, Larry Shiner, 2003 |
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The Cellini Salt Cellar (in Vienna called the Saliera - Italian for salt cellar) is a part-enamelled gold table sculpture by Benvenuto Cellini. It was completed in 1543 for Francis I of France, from models that had been prepared many years earlier for Cardinal Ippolito d'Este. The Cellini Salt Cellar depicts a male figure representing the sea and a female figure that represents the earth. A small vessel meant to hold salt is placed next to the male figure.
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