Benvenuto Cellini and the Embodiment of the Modern Artist

Benvenuto Cellini’s famous autobiography has often been seen as wildly untrustworthy. Andreas Beyer treats it instead as a veritable goldmine of psychologically authentic self-representations simultaneously thematizing the passions of the artist’s actual life and the often painful generation of his art, and sharing a “vital centre” in the artist’s own tumultuous body. Unpacking the artist’s vigorously tricky language and many-sided queerness in relation to his aesthetic creations and artistic fortunes, Beyer brilliantly reconstructs Cellini’s boundary-crossing sense of his transgressive singularity – a hallmark of modern artistic identity. This original and compelling book will find a wide readership not only among art historians but in image theory, gender studies and psychology. * Whitney Davis, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History of Art, University of California, Berkeley *
Andreas Beyer’s Benvenuto Cellini and the Embodiment of the Modern Artist is a wonderful achievement, showing how the artist described by Oscar Wilde as the “scoundrel of the Renaissance” was not just one of its great mavericks, but also the first truly modern artist. A vital book on a singular artist. * Jerry Brotton, Professor of Renaissance Studies, Queen Mary University of London *
Andreas Beyer is the rare scholar who writes perceptively both about Cellini's art and about his extraordinary autobiography. Anyone looking for a lively introduction to the man and his work would do well to start here. * Michael Cole, Howard McP. Davis Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University *