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Benvenuto Cellini Quotes
1500–1571 Italy
Benvenuto Cellini (November 3 1500 – February 13 1571) was a Florentine writer, goldsmith and sculptor. He is now best known as the author of a revealing autobiography.
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All works of nature created by God in heaven and on earth are works of sculpture.
Treatise on Sculpture (1564)
Let all the world witness how many different means Fortune employs when she wishes to destroy a man.
When the poor give to the rich, the devil laughs.
I said, in response to his words, that men who wanted to do things in their own way had better make a world in their own way, because in this world things are not done like this.
I own it is a common saying, that every reverse of fortune teaches us how to behave on another occasion; but that is not true, as the circumstances which attend each event are different, and such as could not be foreseen.
Painting, in fact, is nothing else much than a tree, a man, or any other object, reflected in the water. The distinction between sculpture and painting, is as great as between the shadow and the substance.
I assert that the art of sculpture, among all the arts connected with design, is at least seven times greater than any other, for the following reason: why, sir, a statue of true sculpture ought to have seven points of view, which ought all to boast equal excellence.
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