Cellini on niello

i’ve just finished xeroxing some materials on niello to send to
Mr. Burgess, and I included Cellini. as usual he has lots to say,
but no urine of young boys, or young girls. However, he does
append this after his treatise:

…Oh thou discreetest of readers, marvel not that I have given
so much time in writing about all this, but know that I have not
even said half of what is needed in this same art, the which in
very truth would engage a man’s whole energies, and make him
practise no other art at all…(Actually it doesn’t look like he
has left much out, its just that the map is not the territory, as
we say. Anyway, he goes on to say, and this is where it is so
completely Cellini–) In my youth from my 15th to my 18th year I
wrought a good deal at this art of niello, always from my own
designs, and was much praised for my work.

Cellini - the antidote to shy modesty

eve wallace evew@netone.com