The Essay: Blood and Bronze

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The Essay: Blood and Bronze: Overture

25/03/2021

Overture

Blood and Bronze

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Blood and Bronze, Overture

Cellini’s early years are spent training as a musician.

Cellini’s early years are spent training as a musician. Renaissance music was all about harmony, but Cellini was ruled by other passions.

Jerry Brotton is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London and wants us to take a fresh look at a period in European history usually associated with beauty, harmony and art. His approach contains a health warning: the Renaissance was a lot darker and violent than many of us have imagined. Retracing the life of Benvenuto Cellini through his shocking autobiography, Jerry reveals how this was a time of conflict as well as beauty, creativity as well as tyranny. 

Music is at the heart of the Renaissance, and Cellini’s early years are spent training as a musician. Renaissance music was all about harmony, but Cellini was ruled by other passions. Jerry looks at his early years and the conflicts that soon arise in a volatile youth.

With specially commissioned music to recreate the sound of Renaissance Florence. 

Reader Marco Gambino

Producer Mark Rickards

A Whistledown Scotland Production

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Jerry Brotton's explores Benvenuto Cellini and a darker side to the Italian Renaissance.

Professor Jerry Brotton recreates the life and work of the charismatic Italian artist Benvenuto Cellini and reveals the darker side of the Renaissance.

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