Page:The Life of Benvenuto Cellini Vol 1.djvu/99

Rh criticise his serious efforts in statuary.

It does not appear that during his early manhood Cellini felt any inclination to abandon the craft which he had chosen in boyhood. Perhaps Nature had not gifted him with those imperative instincts which force some artists to become sculptors or painters. Perhaps the large admixture of the bravo and the pleasure-seeker in his character prevented him from applying to intellectual studies, and from using his technical acquirements as a stepping-stone toward nobler undertakings. It would indeed seem as though he was naturally formed to be a goldsmith, but that ambition led him at an advanced period of life to rival men who had already made their mark in sculpture. At any rate, he exercised his eminent artistic faculties through more than half his lifetime in the humbler trade, earning much money by his undisputed excellence, spending it freely, and forming no plans for the future. In this way he became an adept in all the technicalities of plastic art; but the heart and soul and vigour of the man found vent through other channels. In 1527, for instance, we know that he was upon the point of throwing up his profession and accepting a captaincy under Orazio Baglioni. The bravo and the soldier kept disputing with the artist in his nature. Meanwhile he never relaxed his efforts to become the most expert and inventive goldsmith of his time. The defects which are apparent in his more ambitious works, and which I shall have to point out shortly, may be ascribed to this composite temper and to this prolonged contentment with a subordinate branch