el Angelo, and all care was
taken from his mind, as the Duke provided him with a comfortable house
and gave him a salary sufficient for his support.

It was nine years before the statue was completed and in its place, and
in this time Cellini had suffered much. Baccio Bandinelli and others
were his enemies, and at times the Duke had been under their influence,
and would not furnish the money necessary to the work. But at last all
was ready for the casting; and just at this unfortunate moment for
Cellini to leave it he was seized with a severe illness; he was
suffering much, and believed himself about to die, when some one ran in
shouting, "Oh, Benvenuto, your work is ruined past earthly remedy!"

Ill as he was he rushed out to the furnace, to find that the fire was
too low, and the metal, being cool, had ceased flowing into the mould.
By almost superhuman efforts he remedied the evil, and again the bronze
flowed; he prayed earnestly, and when the mould was filled he writes: "I
fell on my knees and thanked God with all my heart, after which I ate a
hearty meal with my assistants, and it being then two hours before dawn,
went to bed with a light heart, and slept as sweetly as if I had never
been ill in all my life."

When the statue was unveiled Cellini's prediction that it would please
all the world except Bandinelli and his friends was fulfilled. Perseus
is represented just at the moment when he has cut off the head of
Medusa, who was one of the Gorgons, and had turned to stone every one
who looked at her. (Fig. 103.)

[Illustration: FIG. 103.--PERSEUS. _By Benvenuto Cellini._]

After the completion of the Perseus, Cellini went to Rome for a short
time. While there he made a bust of Bindo Altoviti; when Michael Angelo
saw this he wrote: "My Benvenuto, I have long known you as the best
goldsmith in the world, and I now know you as an equally good sculptor,
through the bust of Messer Bindo Altoviti." Cellini did no more
important works, though he was always industrious. He made a crucifix
which he intended for his own grave, but he gave it to the Duchess
Eleanora; this was afterward sent to Philip II. of Spain, and is now in
the Escurial.

Cellini's life was by no means a model one, but he had his good
qualities. He took a widowed sister with six children to his home, and
made them welcome and happy. At his death he was buried in the Church of
the Annunziata, beneath the chapel of the Company of St. Luke, and many