The Resurrection of Benvenuto Cellini: A Mini-Essay

     In 1535, Benvenuto Cellini, the Renaissance artist famous for works like Saliera (1543) and Perseus with the Head of Medusa (1554), became gravely ill after returning to Rome at Pope Clement VII’s request. Over the course of several days, the famed artisan’s condition worsened and, despite the efforts of his assistant Felice to administer remedies, he died in the middle of the night. Mortified, Felice dashed to Doctor Franceso da Norcia’s house and was given oil to anoint Cellini’s chest and wrists and instructions to firmly pinch his small fingers and toes. When the method – common in the era for reviving presumably deceased individuals – failed, orders were placed for Cellini’s corpse to be washed and a shroud to be cut in preparation for his burial. Suddenly, Cellini regained consciousness and began calling for Felice to protect him from a mysterious old man trying to harm him: “Felice wanted to send for the doctor, but I told him instead of doing this to stand close by me, because the old man was moving away from him and obviously frightened. When I touched Felice the old man appeared to run off in a rage, so I again pleaded with him to stay near me.”[1] Despite the ailment’s persistence, Cellini recovered over the span of days. From Plato’s Republic to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Premature Burial,” evidence of catalepsy being mistaken as death has existed for centuries.[2] Some, such as Milton Erickson, Seymour Hershman, and Irving Sector, attribute Cellini’s miraculous resurrection to the disorder.[3] Others, like Erling Eng, contend it is merely the exaggerated fabrications of a narcissistic artist.[4] In fact, Cellini’s autobiography is filled with outlandish scenarios that verge on fiction: ethereal visions of guardian angels, a halo of light encompassing Cellini’s head after his imprisonment, necromancy in the Colosseum, the survival of two assassination attempts, and visitations from the Virgin Mary. Although the actual occurrences in 1535 will never be wholly known, one could safely assume there may be slight truth in several of the interpretations – Cellini’s illness, perhaps a correlation between one of his botched assassinations, induced a state of catalepsy which tricked medical personnel into believing him dead and, like most accounts in the autobiography, Cellini’s recollections were flavored with artistic embellishments to enhance the storytelling process.

Works Referenced

Bondeson, Jan. Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001.

Cellini, Benvenuto. Life. 1728. Trans. George Bull. New York: Penguin, 1998.

Eng, Erling. “Cellini’s Two Childhood Memories.” The American Imago 13.2 (1956): 189-203.

Erickson, Milton, Seymour Hershman, and Irving Sector. The Practical Application of Medical and Dental Hypnosis. London: Routledge, 2010.
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[1] Cellini, 150-151.
[2] Bondeson, 19.
[3] Erickson, Hershman, and Sector, 347.
[4] Eng, 192.