Editing Benvenuto Cellini (section)

===Final return to Florence and death===
[[File:Benvenuto Cellini Florence Uffizi.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Cellini, Piazzale degli Uffizi, Florence]]

After several years of productive work in France, but beset by almost continual professional conflicts and violence, Cellini returned to [[Florence]]. There he once again took up his skills as a [[goldsmith]], and was warmly welcomed by Duke Cosimo I de' Medici – who elevated him to the position of court sculptor and gave him an elegant house in Via del Rosario (where Cellini built a foundry), with an annual salary of two hundred scudi. Furthermore, Cosimo commissioned him to make two significant bronze sculptures: a bust of himself, and Perseus with the head of Medusa (which was to be placed in the Lanzi loggia in the centre of the city).

In 1548, Cellini was accused by a woman named Margherita of having committed [[sodomy]] with her son Vincenzo,<ref>{{cite book|author=L. Greci|title=Benvenuto Cellini nei delitti e nei processi fiorentini|language=it|publisher=Archivio di antropologia criminale|page=50|year=1930}}</ref> and he temporarily fled to seek shelter in Venice. This was neither the first nor the last time that Cellini was implicated for sodomy (once with a woman and at least three times with men during his life), illustrating his homosexual or bisexual tendencies.<ref>{{cite book|first=Michael|last=Rocke|title=Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1996}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=James|last=Smalls|title=Homosexuality in Art (Temporis Collection)|publisher=Parkstone Press|year=2012}}</ref><ref name="srf.ch">{{Cite web |date=2022-03-06 |title=Straightwashing von Künstlern - Die historische Forschung tut sich schwer mit Homosexualität |url=https://www.srf.ch/kultur/straightwashing-von-kuenstlern-die-historische-forschung-tut-sich-schwer-mit-homosexualitaet |access-date=2022-04-21 |website=Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) |language=de}}</ref> For example, earlier in his life as a young man, he was sentenced to pay 12 ''staia'' of flour in 1523 for relations with another young man named Domenico di Ser Giuliano da Ripa.<ref name="ReferenceA">I. Arnaldi, ''La vita violenta di Benvenuto Cellini'', Bari, 1986</ref> Meanwhile, in Paris a former model and lover brought charges against him of using her "after the Italian fashion" (i.e., sodomy).<ref name="ReferenceA" />

During the war with [[Battle of Marciano|Siena]] in 1554, Cellini was appointed to strengthen the defences of his native city, and, though rather shabbily treated by his ducal patrons, he continued to gain the admiration of his fellow citizens by the magnificent works which he produced.{{sfn|Rossetti|Jones|1911|p=605}} According to Cellini's autobiography, it was during this period that his personal rivalry with the sculptor [[Baccio Bandinelli]] grew.<ref>Cellini, ''Vita'', Book 2, Ch. III</ref> On 26 February 1556, Cellini's apprentice Fernando di Giovanni di Montepulciano accused his mentor of having sodomised him many times while "keeping him for five years in his bed as a wife".<ref>"Cinque anni ha tenuto per suo ragazzo Fernando di Giovanni di Montepulciano, giovanetto con el quale ha usato carnalmente moltissime volte col nefando vitio della soddomia, tenendolo in letto come sua moglie" (For five years he kept as his boy Fernando di Giovanni di Montepulciano, a youth whom he used carnally in the abject vice of sodomy numerous instances, keeping him in his bed as a wife.)</ref> This time the penalty was a hefty 50 golden [[Italian scudo|scudi]] fine, and four years of prison, remitted to four years of house arrest thanks to the intercession of the [[Medici]]s.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> In a public altercation before Duke [[Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany|Cosimo]], [[Bartolomeo Bandinelli|Bandinelli]] had called out to him ''{{Lang|it|Sta cheto, soddomitaccio!}}'' (Shut up, you filthy sodomite!) Cellini described this as an "atrocious insult", and attempted to laugh it off.<ref>''Vita'', Book II, Ch. LXXI</ref>

After briefly attempting a clerical career, in 1562 he married a servant, Piera Parigi, with whom he claimed he had five children, of whom only a son and two daughters survived him.

He was also named a member (''Accademico'') of the prestigious [[Accademia delle Arti del Disegno]] of Florence, founded by the Duke [[Cosimo I de' Medici]], on 13 January 1563, under the influence of the architect [[Giorgio Vasari]]. He died in Florence on 13 February 1571 and was buried with great pomp in the church of the [[Basilica della Santissima Annunziata di Firenze|Santissima Annunziata]].