fountain pen sketches of Jacques le fataliste and his Master, Vautrin (aka the buffest “priest” in paris) and Benvenuto Cellini.
Those jacques-le-fataliste silhouettes!! I love them! … help I am now fantasizing about renaissance-florence-au Vautrin where everyone’s 16th-century silhouettes are just that expressive and fabulous
Within the period 1545 — 1554, Benvenuto Cellini produced the bronze sculpture of Perseus with the Head of Medusa. The work was commissioned by the second Florentine duke, and the sculpture is still located today in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy. The work displays the mythological story of Perseus beheading Medusa, a Gorgon who turned all those in her gaze to stone.
Within the sculpture, Perseus is demonstrated to be exceptionally strong and powerful, unsurprisingly due to his demi-god nature. This is evident through several elements, such as: Perseus being sculpted as very muscular, the use of bronze and marble, rich subtleties, the confident stance, the structure of the statue looking down on the person beneath etc. It is also notable that this depiction of a man would have been especially familiar in the unequivocally patriarchal society of the time. Since there was inherent pressure for men to perform to a particular standard, they had to maintain their reputation of being masculine and a confident provider. With all these variables considered, Cellini’s fundamental rationale for the statue was to not only convey the Greek tale of a strong hero, but also display the political intent: the decapitation of Medusa addressed the Republican experiment, while the snakes represented the contradictions in the city, threatening democracy. With regard to such a message being communicated and the patriarchal expectations of the era, this bold display of Perseus was exceptionally fitting.
