In a manner of invention by inversion, Benvenuto Cellini designed his famous saltcellar for Francis I as a combination of spice-plates and the so-called nefs, turning bottom to top, big to small, and vice versa. The wedding of the elements, as an allegory, shows the welfare of the nation guaranteed by the reign of the king. Being a piece of table equipment, the saltcellar of course has to be looked at from above. Cellini defines eight positions of view-points, and a set of eight photographs, published here for the first time [Fig. 2—9], documents how they show different aspects of the panegyric programme. Furthermore, to create the saliera as a triumph of the goldsmith Cellini varies the reclining figures from the Medici Chapel and rivals Michelangelo, who designed a saltcellar for Francesco Maria delia Rovere, Duke of Urbino, in 1537.