Apollo and Hyacinth was Cellini’s first foray into sculpture from metallurgy. Upon
Cellini’s death, twenty-five years after its execution, this almost completed statue was one of three works found in his workshop, along with his sculptures of Ganymede and
Narcissus (Figs. 3-4). In his Vita the artist reveals that the marble block was assigned to
him by Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici (1537-69) after a public altercation with his rival Baccio Bandinelli (1493-1560), but there is no extant contractual evidence to substantiate it as a firm commission.47
46 Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book X, 1977, pp. 71-75.
47 The Museo de Bargello displays a notice at the foot of the statue declaring it to be a commission for Duke
Cosimo. In his Vita, Cellini declares that the Duke took particular interest in the carving of Apollo and Hyacinth and that he often visited his workshop whilst he was working on the statue, urging him to ‘Set aside the bronze for a while and work for a bit on the marble, so that I can watch you’, The Life of Benvenuto Cellini, LXXII, J. Pope- Hennessy, (ed.), London, 1949, p. 355.
Cellini’s sculptural group is executed in white marble and stands 191 x 75 cm (Figs. 1a-c). The statue appears to capture the very moment after Hyacinth has been felled by the discus but yet to transform into his other being. The figure of Apollo is posed with his left leg slightly advanced with its foot on the corner of the base and his right leg erect. His right hand reaches back, caressing the hair of the kneeling and significantly smaller Hyacinth. The figure of Hyacinth is positioned slightly behind that of Apollo with his torso turned in the opposite direction but with his head pivoting backwards and upwards over the left shoulder. The boy’s right and left forelegs are respectively extended behind and along the base and the left side of the work. With the exception of a diadem or Phrygian cap, Apollo is naked, as is Hyacinth. Both figures have elaborately carved curled hairstyles in the classical tradition (Fig. 5). Apollo faces away from Hyacinth as if gazing into the distance whilst Hyacinth is posed with his half open mouth displaying sensuous full and parted lips almost adjacent to Apollo’s groin (Fig. 6). Apollo’s left wrist rests on his thigh, and in this hand he holds a broken object, possibly part of the discus. The fingers of Hyacinth’s left hand are badly damaged but Hyacinth’s right hand reaches upwards with fingers touching Apollo’s buttocks and his wrist clasped around an object that seems to be a branch or root of a plant (Fig. 7).
Giulio Romano’s drawing of Apollo and Cyparissus was originally produced in pen and ink with wash but later engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi (c.1480-1534) and issued as prints (Fig. 2). The provenance and dating of the original work are both inconclusive but Vasari mentions that before he left Rome in 1524, Giulio designed the scene for his friend and financial consultant Baldassarre Turini’s Villa Lante.48 An inventory of prints made by Raimondi subsequent to Raphael’s death in 1520 includes
48 See G. Vasari, Le Vita de’ piu eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori nelle redazioni dell 1550 e 1568, (trans.
G. du C. de Vere), New York, 1999, pp. 133-38 stating that Romano was the architect of this Villa Lante project which was built in 1518.
one based upon this original drawing but none of the reproduced prints are known to have survived. Frederick Hartt speculates that the drawing was executed after the artist left Rome and contemporaneously with the artist’s notorious 1523 series of sixteen erotic I modi images (Figs. 8-11).49 Those drawings depicting heterosexual couples from myths and legends in sixteen positions of sexual intercourse are known to have been executed for Federico II Gonzaga’s new Palazzo Te in Mantua.50 The exact dating of Apollo and Cyparissus is open to speculation, but we do know that the original published edition of sixteen images of I modi in printed form led to the engraver Raimondi’s imprisonment in 1524 by Pope Clement VII. Romano was not prosecuted since, unlike Raimondi, his original drawings were not intended for public consumption but for the private enjoyment of his patron. Aretino then composed sixteen explicit sonnets to accompany the engravings, and secured Raimondi’s release from prison. I
modi were then published a second time in 1527, but on this occasion with the poems
that have given them the traditional English title Aretino's Postures, making this the first time erotic text and images were combined. Raimondi escaped prison on this occasion, but the suppression and destruction of known existing copies was comprehensive.51
Giulio’s Apollo and Cyparissus drawing therefore appears to be the original and there are no known extant engravings (Fig. 2). The scene depicts an older seated and cloaked Apollo with a nude juvenile Cyparissus on his lap. Apollo’s right hand touches the youth’s face whilst their lips meet in a kiss. Apollo’s left hand is placed in
Cyparissus’ groin and the index finger seems to touch the boy’s penis. The fabric of Apollo’s garment separates the two figures as Cyparissus straddles his left knee.
49 See F. Hartt, Giulio Romano, New Haven, 1958, p. 252.
50 See B. Talvacchia, Taking Positions: On the Erotic in Renaissance Culture, Princeton, 1999, pp. 71-79 on the
sequence of I modi and their subsequent engraving by Raimondi.
Apollo’s legs are spread with feet placed on the ground. The youth’s right foot is also placed on the ground but the left is raised. Cyparissus holds an upright archery bow in his left hand whilst a musical bow lies abandoned in the foreground of the composition. The stringed musical instrument which this would accompany leans neglected against the rock on which the pair are seated. The neck of which terminates in a carving of a serpent’s head pointing in the direction of a clothed and classically draped female onlooker to the far right of the composition. This female figure inserts her left index finger in her mouth as she covertly witnesses their embrace. Her expression is ambiguous but there is little expressive indication of shock or outrage. All the
protagonists are positioned in the middle ground but there is a large tree which divides the central background.