_Benvenuto Cellini. Nouvel Appendice, aux recherches sur son Œuvre et sur les Pièces qui lui sont attribuées._ Par E. PLON. 4to. Paris: Plon, Nourrit et Cie. OUR readers may perhaps remember that some time ago we reviewed M. Eugène Plon’s magnificent volume on Benvenuto Cellini.[83] From the extreme care with which the work was done, it was quite evident that we had before us the result of enthusiastic sympathy with the artist whose biography we were invited to study, and whose genius was so thoroughly appreciated. M. Plon would not take a final leave of his hero, and every fresh discovery referring to him would be duly recorded and given to the public. Nor have we been disappointed of our expectation, for the quarto _brochure_ of which we have just transcribed the title-page, is an interesting contribution to the history of art in general, and of Benvenuto Cellini in particular. It consists of two parts, which we shall briefly notice in succession. “Following the example of Orsino, surnamed Il Cervaicolo, and of so many masters belonging to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it might be supposed that Benvenuto Cellini, also, had left behind him portraits in coloured wax, such as we often meet now in public museums and private collections. Comparing an entry forming part of the inventory drawn up after the artist’s death (‘due scatolini di ritratti del Serenissimo Principe Abbozzati,’) with a memorandum of works executed for the Cardinal di Ravenna (‘e per uno suo ritratto grande di cera’), we had conjectured this to be the case, and our hypothesis derived a certain kind of countenance from the fact that Lastri notices (Osservatore Fiorentino, Firenza, 1758) a portrait in wax of Alessandro di Medici, hung up as a votive offering in the Church della Nunziata, and which was ascribed to Benvenuto. Our presumption has now become a reality, thanks to the discovery of a portrait of Francesco di Medici, which we reproduce. It is in coloured wax, and rather high relief on a dark back-ground.” This description is M. Eugène Plon’s. He further informs us in a footnote that the portrait in question, originally preserved at Prato, is now at Florence, and belongs to the collection of the Commendatore Luigi Vai; its existence was pointed out to our author by the Director of the State Paper Office of Tuscany, Commendatore Cesare Guasti; it was intended for the celebrated Bianca Capello, to whom Francesco di Medici forwarded it, together with this short note:-- “AMATA BIANCA,-- “Fino da Pisa il mio ritratto u’ invio che ’l nostro maestro Cellini m’a fatto in cera. Il mio chore prendete. D. FRANCISCO.”