Post by Alba Cappellieri

Benvenuto Cellini has never been to my taste, I have always preferred Leone Leoni, Caradosso or Jacopo da Trezzo or, on an international level, Hans Holbein the Younger, a master painter, but also an extraordinary creator of jewellery for the English court. Cellini was a virtuoso, a supremely skilled craftsman, but lacking in creative sparks, and virtuosity bores me. On top of that, I find him personally disagreeable, he was enormously arrogant, presumptuous, and treated his workshop assistants very badly. That said, my first visit to the magnificent Kunsthistorisches Museum, one of the most beautiful museums in the world, to my mind, is always devoted to Cellini’s celebrated Saliera, where I discover new details every time, but where, above all, one finds masterpieces in hardstones, shells, and wonderful objects such as those table centrepieces dedicated to Paestum that make me understand: I should have lived in that age, I should have dined at those tables and with those vessels. When did we lose the ability to create objects of such beauty? @kunsthistorischesmuseumvienna #jewelryinpaintings #jewelrystories #albacappellieri # #decorativearts