I always had a desire to do some great works in marble.
Benvenuto Cellini, Treatise on Sculpture
San Francisco's De Young Museum this week furnished dramatic new evidence that Italy's famed 16th century Sculptor Cellini, best known for his bronze statuary, including the great Perseus still in Florence, and gold art objects, also did "great works in marble." Unveiled with a flourish was a 30-in. marble bust of Cosimo de Medici, Duke of Florence (1519-74), a rediscovery by De Young's Director Walter Heil.*It appeared to be Cellini's long-lost bid for fame as what he himself claimed he was, "the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo."
Eighteen...