from within, the vase was cleared out, and inverted upon the point
of a long "snarling-iron," fastened in an anvil stock, and beaten
so that the point should indent from within. The vase would often
have to be filled with pitch and emptied in this manner several
times in the course of its construction.

Benvenuto Cellini was one of the greatest art personalities of all
time. The quaintness of the æsthetic temperament is nowhere found
better epitomized than in his life and writings. But as a producer of
artistic things, he is a great disappointment. Too versatile to be a
supreme specialist, he is far more interesting as a man and craftsman
than as a designer. Technical skill he had in unique abundance. And
another faculty, for which he does not always receive due credit, is
his gift for imparting his knowledge. His Treatises, containing
valuable information as to methods of work, are less familiar to most
readers than his fascinating biography. These Treatises, or directions
to craftsmen, are full of the spice and charm which characterize his
other work. One cannot proceed from a consideration of the bolder
metal work to a study of the dainty art of the goldsmith without a
glance at Benvenuto Cellini.

The introduction to the Treatises has a naïve opening: "What first
prompted me to write was the knowledge of how fond people are of
hearing anything new." This, and other reasons, induced him to
"write about those loveliest secrets and wondrous methods of the
great art of goldsmithing."

Francis I. indeed thought highly of Cellini. Upon viewing one of his
works, his Majesty raised his hands, and exclaimed to the Mareschal
de France, "I command you to give the first good fat abbey that