Biographical dictionary of medallists: coin, gem, and seal-engravers, mint-masters, &c., ancient and modern, with references to their works B. C. 500-A. D. 1900; compiled by L. Forrer ...

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C. C. CHRISTEN CHRISTENSEN. Danish Medallist, r8o6-I845.
C. C. F. Vide c. CITERNI.
CECLI, DE (Ital.). Engraver of the middle years of the nineteenth
century. By him is a Commemorative medal of the Laying of the
first stone of Bari harbour works, 1855; 72 mill.
CELLINI, BENVENUTO (B.D.M. Vol. I, 1904, p. 375). In Dr
Thieme's Allgemi. Kiinstler-Lexikon, VI, 273, we find a concise
account of the artist's work as a Coin- and Medal-engraver. His
activity as such seems to have been limited to the years 1529
to I535. Appointed Mint-engraver at the Papal Zecca in Rome by
Clement VII. on I6. April 1529, he cut ( 529-30) the dies for the
two gold Doppie with the Ecce Homo and the Emperor and Pope
supporting the cross, and for the silver Double-Carlino, showing
Christ saving Peter from drowning. Cellini remained in office until
17. January 1534. In that year he engraved for Paul III. a gold
Scudo with the three-quarter figure of St. Paul, but he does not
appear to have done any further work for this Pope. In 1535 he
was entrusted by Alexander de' Medici with the preparing of matrices for coins, and supplied in the same year those for the 40-soldi
piece with the Duke's bust with curly hair, the Giulio with the
standing figure of St. John the Baptist, the Half Giulio with the
youthful bust of the Saint, and the gold Scudo with the Medici
arms. The attribution of these coins rests on the Master's own description either in his Autobiography, or in the Trattati. No other
coins can be ascribed to him with certainty, and there is nothing
to prove that he also cut dies for Cosimo I. or Francis I of France.
Cellini's medals comprise the two Portrait-medals of Clement VII.,
both with same obv., the one representing on 13L Peace burning
spoils of war, and signed BENVENUTUS F., and the other, Moses striking the rock, and unsigned. They bear reference to the Peace of
1530-I534 and Fountain erected at Orvieto bv the Pope. The cast
medal of Francis I., executed about I 37, with 13L a horseman throwing down Fortuna, is also signed (BENVENU F.). The same portrait
occurs with a second reverse and inscription FALLERIS, IAM DATA
EST FID. In I 535 Cellini modelled a medal of Alessandro de' Medici,
the dies for which he cut in Rome, but the reverse was not finished
at the time of the Duke's assassination. As this portrait we have
probably to recognise the medal with the reverse inscription SOLATIA
LUCTVS EXIGVA INGENTIS; the same reverse occurs further on a medal
with the bust of Cosimo I. Both these medals have been given, with
little foundation, to Domenico di Polo. In 1537 the artist prepared
models for a medal of Pietro Bembo, with short beard, and Pegasus