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Andrea Doria  (1468-1560)
- Commander-in-chief of the imperial fleet -
Genoese, *1468, †1560. He started out as mercenary for various principals. In 1503 and 1506 he fought against the Corsican rebells on Genua's behalf, and in 1513 he fought against the Turks. In 1522 he entered service with the French and won Genua for them in 1527. After a quarrel with the French, he changed sides and served Charles V, who guaranteed him Genua's freedom. In 1528 Doria and his forces drove the French out of Genoa and were triumphantly received by the city. He renewed the constitution and exercised a predominant influence in the councils of the Genoese republic. Doria became commander-in-chief of the imperial navy. In 1532 he defeated the Turkish fleet near Patras, in 1535 he led Charles' attack on Tunis, and in 1541 he saved the imperial troups when they had undertaken to fight Algier at an unfavourable time of the year and against his advice.
Andreas nephew Giovanni Andrea Doria commanded the 54 galleys on the right side of the "Holy League"-fleet of Don Juan de Austria in the Battle of Lepanto.


Silver medal 1533  by Christoph Weiditz.   Ø 84,9 mm,   specimen in the Kunsthalle Hamburg.
Obv.   ·ANDREAE·DORIA·   -   bearded bust to the left, a bit too small, in the shady arm cut: 1533.
Rev.   ·PATRIAE·LIBERATORI·   "Liberator of the Fatherland"
Naked Neptune with fluttering garb and the Trident. To the sides two kneeling female figures:
The personifications LIBERTAS (left) presents Neptune a Phrygian cap and PAX (right)
presents him an olive branch.
See details about LIBERTAS and PAX, as shown in Grotemayer's article.
The medal appears to be a late tribute to Doria as liberator of his hometown of Genoa in 1528.
Paul Grotemeyer recognized in 1958 this medal as the work of Christoph Weiditz, who accompanied Emperor Charles V during his sailing from Barcelona to Genoa as a passenger of Andrea Doria in 1529. The portrait was based on a woodcut from Nuremberg dating from 1532, a 25x35 cm sheet with the inscription: ANDRE DORIA VON GENVA ROMISCHER / KAISERLICHE MAIESTAT OBERSTER KRIEGS / HAVBTMAN AVF DEM MER MDXXXII / N:M. preserved in the Germanische Nationalmuseum
Grotemeyer indicates a possible origin of the Neptune representations: Jacob Fugger had been allegorized on the back side of a medal as Neptune in 1518.
It is unknown if the medal has reached Andrea Doria. Italian collections do not know the medal.
Grotemeyer knew two spacimen of this medal: a lead cast in the Munich Cabinet (Ø 83 mm) and the spacimen in silver (Ø 84.9 mm) from the auction H. Cahn, M & M Basel (12.1957) No.104 from the collection Schermar, probably now in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
Ref.:
• Paul Grotemeyer, Eine Medaille des Andrea Doria von Christoph Weiditz. in: Centennial publication of the ANS, New York 1958, p.317-327 (available in the web)
• Dorit Malz: Zwischen Konkurrenz und Bewunderung. Parallelen in der politischen Ikonographie Andrea I. Dorias in Genua und Cosimo I. de'Medici in Florenz. (available in the web)

    Look at other portrait medals by Christoph Weiditz    


Medal 1537 attributed to Matthes Gebel.   Ø 33 mm.   Specimen in The British Museum.
Obv.:   ANDREA DORIA   -   Bust left.
Rev.:  INVIA VIRTVTI NVLLA EST VIA   "for virtue there is everywhere a way" (Ovid)  -  Head right.

    Look at other portrait medals by Matthes Gebel    


Bronze medal (1541)  by Leone Leoni.    Ø 41 mm.   Armand I 164,9; Bargello 712; Kress 431.
Obv.:   ANDREAS - DORIA·Pater·Patriae   "Andrea Doria, father of his country"
Bust with beard, order of the Golden Fleece and cuirass, trident at the back, dolphin below.
Rev.:   Galley with rower, two men rowing in a boat and a fishman at the coast.
The small rowboat is interpreted as the boat on which the liberated Leoni was brought back to shore.
The Order of the Golden Fleece does not appear on some examples of the medal. It seems likely that Doria would have objected to the omission of the celebrated order, into which he had been received in 1531.
Compare with Andrea Doria as Neptun, oil painting from Agnolo Bronzino
(c. 1540/50, 115x53 cm, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, here a detail).
Look at the Plaque on Andrea Doria from Leone Leoni,
(c. 1541, bronze 9x8 cm, British Museum London).

Leone Leoni  (1509-1590)
Leoni was in Italy the most influential sculptors of the generation after Michelangelo and a major medalist, die engraver and goldsmith. The first stations of his activity were Ferrara, Venice, Padua, Urbino and Rome.
His contentiousness and self-indulgence brought Leoni often in trouble. 1540 he was convicted of serious bodily injury of the papal goldsmith Pellegrino di Leuti to the galleys, but came free in 1541 through the intercession of Admiral Andrea Doria. Leoni produced in gratitude three plaques for his savior and a medal portrait of Andrea Doria, which he combined with three different reverses: an allegory on freedom, a self-portrait surrounded by a convict's chain, and a galley with a small rowing boat in front, which is considered to be the one that took Leoni ashore. Andrea Doria is presented as ruler of the sea, with trident and dolphin in the antique way.
Leoni also worked at the mint in Milan, where he was supported by the governor Ferrante Gonzaga. With his recommendation Leoni received orders of the House of Habsburg for various medals and sculptures.


Medal (1541)  by Leone Leoni.    Ø 41 mm.   Armand I 164,8; Kress 430.
Self-portrait from Leone Leoni, surrounded by chains and manacles.
A hammer and an oper leg-iron on his back and a galley in the background.
This is an alternative reverse to the above medal for Andrea Doria.
Later Leone Leoni joined as a sculptor and medalist in the service of Emperor Charles V.
He worked as die engraver at the mint of Milan and produced coins with the effigy of emperor Charles V in the best Renaissance style. He also made dies for some nice coins of Pope Paul III.

    See further portraits on coins and medals by Leone Leoni     on this website.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)
He was born in Tuscany near Florence and started his art education at the age of 13. A year later, he moved to the art school of Lorenzo de Medici, where he was promoted by Lorenzo as his own son. Michelangelo created his first masterpiece, the "Pietà" in St. Peter's Basilica, in 1498-99. Orders for painting, sculpture and architecture, mainly in Rome and Florence, made him the most famous artist of all time.


Bronze medal (1561)  by Leone Leoni.     Ø 60 mm.
Attwood 61; Pollard 500 = Kress 429; Börner 738; Scher (Currency of Fame) 52.
Obv.:   MICHAELANGELVS·BONARROTVS·FLO·Rentinus·AEtatisSuae·ANNnis - 88·
"... in his 88th year of life"   (Michelangelo, however, was 85 years old when he sat model.)
Draped effigy to the right, on truncation the signature LEO.
Rev.:   DOCEBO·INIQVOS·Vias·Tuas·ET·IMPII·AD·TE CONVERtentur.   [ET ligiert]
"I shall teach the unjust that they and the impious become converted to you." (Vulgate Ps.50:15)
An old blind man in the guise of a pilgrim, waking to the right behind his dog against a background of trees. In his right hand he holds a staff, a water flask, and the dogg's leash.
In an earlier version, the dog leash is taut.
Michelangelo mediated a prestigious commission for a tomb thanks to Leoni. As a thank you, Leoni made this portrait medal on Michelangelo. The model for the portrait on this medal was possibly the wax relief portrait, which is now in the British Museum. The medal was modeled in Rome in 1560 and cast in Milan. Leoni sent four pieces to Michelangelo on March 1561, two in silver and two in bronze. He wrote "The medal in the box is all recleaned. Keep it and look at it for love of me. Do whatever you want with the others. I sent some to Spain, Flanders, Rome and elsewhere". [P.Attwood]
According to Varesi Michelangelo had suggested the motive of the back side. It could be an allusion to the difficulties in building the Dome of St. Peter's Basilica. The allegory of the pilgrim with its combination of blindness, knowledge and the power of faith can also point to Michelangelo's multifaceted conception of art. [A.Schumacher]
Compare the oil painting c.1544 by Daniele da Volterra (detail out of 88x64 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.)

Ref.:
• Philip Attwood in: Stephen Scher (Ed.), The Currency of Fame, - Portrait Medals of the Renaissance,
  No.52, p.155f, 1994.
• A. Schumacher: Leone Leonis Michelangelo-Medaille. Porträt und Glaubensbekenntnis des alten Buonarroti
  in: G.Satzinger (Ed.), Die Renaissance-Medaille in Italien und Deutschland. p.169-194, 2004.
• Interactive catalog of the Coin Cabinet Berlin: Object 18210913, exhibited in the Bode Museum.

Antonio Pisanello (1395-1455)
Antonio Pisano, known as Pisanello, was a painter, draftsman and medalist. He invented the cast medal, which carries a personal portrait. This made him the famous pioneer of this special Renaissance branch of art. He saw himself as a painter and signed with Opus Pisani pictoris. His extensive medal production is due to the fact that the ruling families of the Malatesta (Rimini and Pesaro), Gonzaga (Mantua), Visconti / Sforza (Milan) and the Este (Ferrara) placed the orders and the humanists living at the courts entrusted him with this task. Small series of such handsome small sculptures carrying personal portraits met the needs for self-presentation of the clients and found increasing popularity.


Cast bronze medal, 1440-43,   possibly by Antonio Marescotti.   Ø 56 mm, 60,73 g.
Specimen from Coin Cabinet, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, exposed in the Bode Museum, room 244.
Börner 36; Armand 9/26; Hill (1912) 5 Tf.18/5; Hill (1930) 87; Kress Coll. 32; Currency of Fame 10.
Obv.:   ·PISANVS· - ·PICTOR·   -   Bust to the left, high crumpled hat, brocaded cloak.
Rev.:  ·Fides·Spes·Karitia·Iustutia· / ·Prudentia·Fortitudo·Temperamentia·    Initials of the seven virtues:
Faith · Hope · Charity · Justice / Prudence· Fortitude · Temperance.
The obverse presents Pisanello's portrait at the height of his career in tasteful fine clothing.
The reverse honors the sitter as a representative of the elite of his time.
The medal, formerly seen as a self-portrait, comes from a group of talented artists in Ferrara,
whom Antonio Marescotti belongs.
The portrait of this medal was copied in a fresco in Verona's Santa Maria dela Scala in 1443.


Uniface medal, 1445-50 by Nicholaus Ferrarese (aktiv 1440-54)   Ø 34 mm.
Armand I 9/26; Hill Corpus 77; Kress 30.     Specimen in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

Giovanni di Candida (1445-1504)
Giovanni di Candida came from a noble family in Naples. He first served at the court of Anjou-Naples before going to the court of Charles the Bold of Burgundy, whose secretary and diplomat he became in 1472. From 1477 he worked for the Archduke and later Emperor Maximilian of Austria and from 1480 for the French court. Between 1470 and 1490 he appeared several times as a medallist.


Cast tin-lead medal n. d. (1472-1480), attributed to Candida     oval 58x48 mm.
Arm.II,85,9; Hill Corpus 823; Kress 222.
Only known specimen in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
IOHANNIS - CANDIDA  -  Bust to left, wearing round cap and plain robe.

Look at Candida's medal on the marriage of Archduke Maximilian to Hereditary Princess Mary of Burgundy.

Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498)
Savonarola, born in Ferrara, aborted his medical studies to become a Dominican. He came to the Florentine monastery of San Marco in 1482 and later at the request of Lorenzo de Medici he returned to Florence in 1490. After the expulsion of the Medici from Florence in 1494, he tried to unite the state and the church in a theocratic-republican community. Under his influence, the authorities issued strict laws to punish conspicuous vices and to raise discipline and custom. Savonarola disapproved of jokes and frivolity, of poetry and inns, of sex, of gambling, of fine clothes and jewellery and luxury of every sort. He had gaming tables and packs of cards, carnival masks, mirrors, ornaments, nude statues and supposedly indecent books and pictures burned in the street. His chief enemies were the Duke of Milan and Pope Alexander VI. Savonarola was also hostile to the Florentine aristocrat and later to the majority of the common people. Finally, he was captured, tortured, sentenced to death as a heretic, hanged in front of the Palazzo Vecchio and the body burned.


Partially gilt cast bronze medal c. 1494     Ø 60,2 mm.
Model by Ambrogio della Robbia or Niccolò Fiorentino.
Hill 1076; Bargello 271; Börner 405; Gesichter der Renaissance 59.
Obv.:  HIERONYMVS SAVOnarola FERrariensis VIR DOCTISSimus ORDINIS PREDICHAtoRVM
Bust left with cowl and hood.
Rev.:   Ecce GLADIVS DOMINI - SVPer TERrAM CITO ET VELOCITER
"Behold, there is the sword of God above the earth, quickly and swiftly"
A hand with a dagger sticks out from a serpentine cloud, threatening a fortified city.
The reverse refers to a vision Savonarola had in 1492. The evil which threatened to the unrepentant Florence came true in 1494 with the invasion of the French under King Charles VIII and the expulsion of the Medici. Medals with the addition "Prophet" in the inscription (Hill 1077) were apparently made after the French invasion.
Compare the specimen of the Coin Cabinet, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, obj.18216330
Compare the oil painting about 1498 by Fra Bartolomeo, 47x31cm, Museo San Marco, Florence.


Cast Bronze medal, late 15th century.     Ø 86,5 mm.   Hill 1079; The Currency of Fame 47.
Medalist: Niccolò Fiorentino (?)     Specimen from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Obv.:   HIERONYMVS·SA - V°narola·FERrarensis·ORDinis·PREdicatorum·VIR·DOCTISSIMVS
"Girolamo Savonarola of Ferrara, of the Dominican order, a very learned man"
Savonarola n. l. hält Kruzifix mit Aufschrift INRI (Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judaeorum).
Rev. divided with a vertical line between two opposing alternatives:
• left side:   SPIRITVS·DomiNI·SVPer·TERRAm·COPIOSE·eT·HABVnDAnTer
"The Holy Spirit abundant and complete above the earth"
The dove of the Holy Spirit on a cloud over a fortified city.
• right side:   GLADIVS·DOMINI·SVPer·TERrAm·CITO·ET VELOCITER
legend and image similar to the previous medal.

Ref.:
• Hill, George Francis: A Corpus of Italian Medals of the Renaissance. Oxford 1930
• Scher, Stephen K. (Ed.): The Currency of Fame. New York 1994
• Staatl. Museen zu Berlin (Ed.): Gesichter der Renaissance. München 2011
• A.Wolf / Prof. S.Quandt: Phinx Sovonarola - Der schwarze Prophet. ZDF/arte 2007

Paolo Giovio (1483-1552)
Paolo Giovio comes from Como, studied philosophy and medicine and became Bishop of Nocerat in 1528. He worked as a doctor, humanist and historian in Rome and Florence. In his villa on Lake Como, which he called 'Museo', he built up a remarkable collection of portraits of important personalities. He ordered naturally as possible portraits and wrote short biographies. His collection, which was to become public, reached 484 portraits. After Giovio's death, Cosimo I de Medici asked the artist Cristofano dell'Altissimo to copy Giovio's paintings. By 1591, about 280 copies of the picture arose, which were preserved in the Uffizi.


Bronze medal 1532  by Ludwig Neufahrer.    Ø 66,5 mm.
Habich II/2 1309a; Wettstreit in Erz, p.192 no.92.
PAVLVS IOVIVA EPiscopuS· NVCERIAE 1532
The medal is the oldest pictorial representation of Paolo Giovio. It was created in 1532 on the occasion of the Imperial Diet in Regensburg, which Giovio attended in the entourage of Cardinal Ippolito de Medici on behalf of Pope Clement VII. They promoted Emperor Charles V's intention of a military campaign against the Turks, which took place in 1532, but remained without a decisive battle as Suleyman withdrew.


Bronze medal 1552  by Francesco da Sangallo.     Ø 96 mm.
Attwood 795; Armand I 156,1; Toderi/Vannel 1418; Bargello 309.
Obv.:  ·PAVLVS IOVIVS COMENSIS EPISCOPVS NVCERINVS·Anno·Domini·Nostri·Salvatoris·M·D·LII
Bearded bust to the left, with hat, coat, fur collar and shirt.
Rev.:   NVNC DENIQVE VIVES   "Now you will finally live"
A tall man (Giovio) pulls a resurrected man from the grave with his right arm. A big book under
the left arm (Giovios "Elogia" with the written biographies).
The piece of the British Museum shows the signature at the bottom of the raised bust:
FRANC SANGALLVS FACIEB   "Francesco Sangallus did it".
Compare a specimen in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y., later cast, Ø 95 mm.
Francesco da Sangallo (1494-1576) was mainly a sculptor and architect who created a small number of large-format medals including a self-portrait. He also built the marble tomb monument for Giovio in the cloister of San Lorenzo in Florence in 1560.

Donato Bramante (1444-1514)
Donato di Angelo of Urbino, called Bramante, was born at Monte Asdrualdo (not at Castel Durante, as Vasari says), about 1444. He learned painting and architecture and started his career in the Lombardy. When France occupied Milan in 1499 Bramante moved to Rome to became the architect who introduced the High Renaissance style in architecture: Pope Julius II, who dreamed to renew the ancient empire, employed Bramate on the renovation of the Vatican buildings in 1503. Bramante planned the new Basilica of St. Peter, at first in competition with other architects, and started the construction in 1506 with little progress until his death in 1514. He was buried in St. Peter's.


Cast bronze medal c. 1506.   Ø 44 mm.   Kress 193; Hill (1912) p.41, no.17; Scher 33.
Specimen in Gabinetto numismatico, Castello Sforzesco, Milano.
Vasari attribute the medal to Cristoforo Caradosso Foppa.
Luke Syson at the British Museum London considers Bramante himself as the medalist.
Obv.:  BRAMANTES ASDRVVALDINVS   to be read outwardly "Bramante of Monte Asdrualdo (!)"
Nude bust to left, the arm cut off as in a sculptured bust.
Rev.:   FIDELITAS LABOR   "Fidelity and toil"
Architecture, a female figure, seated, her right foot on a weight, holding an architect's square
and a pair of compasses. In the right background, a view from the west of the new design
of St. Peter's: central dome, choir end and two towers, as on pope Julius'
medal from 1506 for laying the foundation stone of the new building.


Cast bronze medal 1504.     Ø 46 mm.   Hill (1912) p.42.
BRAMANTES DVRANTINVS   "Bramante of Castel Durante"   //   FIDELITAS LABOR
A coarse piece of work, copied from Caradosso's. St. Peter's is omitted from the reverse. The weight, on which Architecture rests her foot, carries the date 1504. This must be the date at which the maker of the medal wished posterity to suppose that the medal was cast; and this explains why he removed from the field the view of the new St. Peter's, which was at the time only an idea. [Hill, p.43]

Ref.:
• G. F. Hill, Portrait medals of Italian Artists of the Renaissance (London 1912), p.41, no.17 & pl.XXI,17.
• Renaissance Medals from the Samuel H. Kress Collection at the Nat. Gallery of Art (1967).
• Luke Syron in: S. Scher (Ed.), The Currency of Fame (1994), p.112, no.33.

Pietro Aretino (1492-1557)
Pietro Bacci, called Aretino, *1492, in Arezzo, was one of the most famous writers of the Renaissance, notorious for his satires, among others about the papal court. For this reason he had to leave Rome and lived in Venice from 1527. He died in 1557.

Stuck bronze medal (1537) by Leone Leoni     Ø 45 mm, 36,79 g.   Börner 742.
Specimen in the Coin Cabinet, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Obv.:   Divus▾PETRVS ARRETINVS FLAGELLVM PRINCIPIVM
"The divine Pietro Aretino, the scourge of princes"  -  Draped bust to the right.
Rev.:   VERITAS / ODIVM / PARIT   "Truth generates hate"   Writing in a laurel wreath.
Aretino received the title "Flagellum Principium" from his friends.
He himself used the saying "Veritas odium parit" from 1535.
Obverse with double strike at the bottom.


Bronze medal 1537 by Leone Leoni    Ø 37,4 mm, 21,77 g.  Armand I, 162,3; Toderi-Vannel 21.
Obv.:   DIVVS·P·ARRETINVS·FLAGELLVM·PRINCIPIVM·  -  Draped bust on the left.
Signed at the section: LEO
Rev.:   as before, above date 1537, (below LEO, is missing here).
Probably an original strike on a pre-cast blank.


Cast bronze medal n. d. (1544) by an unknown artist (Francesco Segala from Padua?).
Ø 60 mm, 79,15 g.   Armand II, 153,11; Coll.Kress 484a.
Obv.:   ▴DIVVS▴PETRVS▴ARETINVS  -  Bust to the left.
Rev.:   ▴VERITAS ODIVM▴PARIT  -  The personified, naked Truth sits on a stone and looks up to God in clouds, behind her stands Victoria holding a wreath over her head; in front of her kneeling satyr.

Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574)
Giorgio Vasari from Tuscany was an architect, court painter of the Medici and biographer of Italian artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Raffaello and Michelangelo. His writings made him to one of the first art historians. Vasari introduced the term Gothic, but derogatory as alien and barbaric (Italian gotico). Vasari was also the first to use the word rinascita (Renaissance) in 1550.

Uniface cast bronze medal (1564-70) by Leone Leoni.     Ø 60 mm, 46,53 g.
Armand I 167/22; Börner 758.   Specimen in the Coin cabinet, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
GIORGIVS·VASARVS·ARRETINVS·PICTOR
Bust to the right. At the arm section the signature LEO (for Leone Leoni, dimly recognizable).

    Later medals on Renaissance Artists    

Tiziano Vecellio (1488/90-1576)
Tiziano Vecellio, English as Titian, born in the Veneto north of Venice, began his art education in Venice. In 1513 he opened his own workshop and became an artist celebrated throughout Europe. He was knighted by Emperor Charles V to the peerage and appointed its court painter in 1533. At the invitation of Pope Paul III, he traveled to Rome in 1545. He accompanied Charles V and his son Philip II to the Imperial Diet of Augsburg in 1548 and 1550. When Titian died of the plague at an advanced age in 1576, he was probably the most successful painter in Venetian history. His works were incorporated in the collections of the Vatican, the Italian high aristocracy and the Habsburgs already during his lifetime.


Uniface gilt bronze medal n. d. (c.1645)  by Claude Warin (c.1607-54).
Ø 107 mm, 195,1 g.   Specimen in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon.
VERA·TITIANI - EFFIGIES·   "True picture of Titian"
Bust to half left, in the arm section at 4h: VARIN
The sculptor and medalist Claude Warin (active 1630-54) worked as a die cutter in Lyon. He also aptly reproduced the obverse from the above Michelangelo medal by Leone Leoni in a larger uniface medal.
Paolo Giovio bought a portrait of Tiziano for his Museo in Como in 1549. Charles V and Philip II also received self-portraits from Tiziano. But only two of the other self-portraits have survived:
• oil painting, c.1550-52 , 96x75 cm, picture gallery Berlin,
• oil painting, c.1562, 86x65 cm, Prado Madrid.


Silver medal n. d.     Ø 15 mm, 3,66 g.  
TITIANVS VECELLI  -  Bust to the left.   //   COLORVM PARENS  -  Sun with face.

Ref.:
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon :  Collections en ligne, Numismatique
• Thierry Rouhette et Francesco Tuzio :  Médailles françaises des XVe, XVIe et XVIIe siècles du Musée des
  Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Monaco, 2008; p.194-195, n°126

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Leonardo da Vinci, born in Vinci near Florence, was painter, sculptor, architect, anatomist, mechanic, engineer and natural philosopher. He is considered one of the most famous universal scholars of all time. As a painter he was the first to accomplish the classical style, as a natural scientist he tried empirically to gain an encyclopedic knowledge.
At the age of 15 he started his apprenticeship in painting and sculpture. 20 years old, he was accepted into the Florentine painters' guild. 1481-98 he was at the Milan court of Ludovico Sforza, 1500-06 again in Florence, then in French-occupied Milan, 1513 in Rome and since 1517 in France invited by King Francis I.


Silver medal 1669 by G. L. Hérard  on the 150th anniversary of Leonardo's death.  Ø 56 mm, 76,39 g.
Wurzbach 9152 (bronze); Coll. Ampach 9709; Wellenheim 15014 (lead)
Obv.:   ·LEONARDVS·VINCIVS·FLORENTINVS·   -   Bust left with long hair, beard and cap.
Rev.:   ·SCRIBIT·QVAM·SVSCITAT·ARTEM·   "He describes the art which he revives"
Crossed feather and brush, above wreath, below landscape.   Exergue: 1669.
Compare the drawn portrait 1515-17 by Francesco Melzi. [Wikipedia / British Royal Collection]


Minted bronze medal 1825 by Mathias Nicolas Marie Vivier (1788-1859).    Ø 42 mm, 38,43 g.
Coin cabinet, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, obj.18260326.
Obv.:   LEONARDUS - VINCIUS.  -  bust with fur coat turned to the right.
Below the signature VIVIER F.
Rev.:   NATUS / AN.M.CCCC.LII. / IN CASTELLO VINCIENSI / APUD FLORENTIAM / OBIIT / FONTEBELLAQUEO / AN.M.D.XX.
SERIES NUMISMATICA / UNIVERSALIS VIVORUM ILLUSTRIUM / - / M.DCCC.XXV. / DURAND EDITIT
From the series Numismatica Universalis Virorum Illustrium, Suite by Durand, Paris.


Bronze medal 1907.         Ø 50 mm, 52,25 g.
Obv.:   LEONARDO DA VINCI
Rev.:   ET VERAMENTE IL CIELO CI MANDA TALORA ALCUNI CHE NON RAPPRESENTANO LA UMANITÀ SOLA, MA LA DIVINITÀ ISTESSA. - VASARI - ·MCMVIII·     "And really heaven sends us so many who are not just humanity but divine " Vasari quote.


Bronze medal (1952) by R. Lojy,   on the 200th birthday of Leonardo.     Ø 82 mm.
Obv.:   MDC - LII / LEO - NARD / DE·VIN - CI / MDM - LII
Head from the front, Lojy's signature next to it.
Rev.:   ·NE·SAIS-TU· - ·PAS·QUE· / NOTRE·AME· _ ·EST·FAITE· / ·D' HAR- - -MONIE·
"Dont you know, that our soul is made of harmony?"   -   Sketch c.1490 with notes from one of
Leonardo's diaries, showing a man with outstretched extremities in two superimposed positions.


20 Euro 2003.   500th anniversary of the "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci.     Ø 30 mm, 15,64 g.
Friedb.762; Gadoury 115.
Rev.:   Mona Lisa, painted in 1503-06, since 1804 in the Louvre in Paris,
acquired from the estate of Leonardo da Vinci by King Francis I of France for 4000 gold florin.

Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520)
Raffaello Sanzio (or Santi) from Urbino was a painter and architect in Florence and Rome, where he also worked as construction manager of St. Peter's Basilica and as overseer of the Roman antiquity. Raphael achieved fame primarily as a painter for his harmonious and balanced compositions and lovely pictures of the Madonna. During his lifetime he enjoyed the privilege of only being known by his first name, and even today only a few know his last name.


Bronze medal 1827 by Nicolò Cerbara.     Ø 60 mm.
Obv.:   RAPHAEL - SANCTIVS.
Bust with curled hair. Below: NIC.CERBARA F.AN.1827.
Rev.:   PRIMVS.AB.ARTE:SVA - .NOBIS. - CAELESTIA.PINXIT✶
Raffaelo's painting "Sistine Madonna", located at Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.
Exergue: RAFAELAE SANZIO INV E DIP / NICCOLA CERBERA SCOL


Bronze medal (c. 1970)     Ø 68 mm, 162 g.   stuck by Monnaie de Paris, offered by ebay.de.
Rev.:   Platon and Aristoteles from the fresco "The School of Athens" (left), excerpt from "Madonna of Foligno" (right), two winged putti from "Sistine Madonna" (below)
and floor plan of St. Peter's Basilica (background).

Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571)
Cellini was a master bronze caster working in Rome and Florence, particularly remembered for his Perseus with the Head of Medusa in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence. He also designed medals and coins (look at Cellinis doppio carlino, Rome) and refined the screw press, which allowed him editions of medals to be stuck with minimal wear on steel dies. His self-aggrandizing autobiography and his treatise on goldsmithing are invaluable documents of the period.


Uniface cast silver medal, anonym, 17th or 18th century, dutch?   Ø 50 mm.
BENVTS·CELLINI·SCVLPR·ET·AVRR.
The present portrait is taken from the fresco in Palazzo Vecchio (Florence) by Georgio Vasari "Cosimo I surrounded by his artists", but it actually copies the image there of Vasari himself (at the bottom, while Cellini's head is shown at the background near Cosimo's head).   [Morton&Eden]


Silver medal (c.1850) by P. Girometti (Series of famous men, 1845).     Ø 41 mm, 43 g.
Obv.:   BENVENVTVS CELLINI  -  bearded bust right, below P.GIROMETTI.F.
Rev.:  SCRIBENDO / CVM BONIS CERTANTI / AVRO ARGENTO AERE / FLANDO CAELANDO / OPTIMOS SVPERANTI


Cast bronze medal by Pietro Giampaoli (†1998) in the style of the Renaissance.     Ø 101 mm.
The enigmatic reverse bears a partial image of undetermined design.


Bronze medal 1971   by Mario Mosghi on the 400 anniversary of Cellini's death.     Ø 80 mm.
Vs.:   BENVENUTO CELLINI - 1571-1971 - SCULTORE - SCRITTORE - ORAFO
"... Sculptor, writer, goldsmith"
Rs.:   •IL COMUNE DI FIRENZE E L'ACCADEMIA DELLE ARTI DEL DISEGNO
NEL IV° CENTenario DELLA MORTE DEL CELLINI

    Renaissance medals on former artists    

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Dante Alighieri from Florence was a poet and philosopher. His main work "Commedia", later called "Divina Commedia", written in old Italian (or Tuscan), has been preserved in two later manuscripts and established Italian as a written language. Dante describes a visionary journey through the afterlife: Virgil leads him through the nine hell circles of the "Inferno" to the purification mountain of the "Purgatorio". In "Paradiso", Beatrice, Dante's transfigured love for youth, takes the lead and finally floats with him through the nine heavens to the point of view of the deity. The balanced description of sin, penance and reward takes account of the moral teachings of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas.


Cast bronze medal, c. 1490-1500.     Ø 53 mm, 43,0 g.   Börner (1997) No.408.
Specimen in the coin cabinet of the State Museums in Berlin, Obj.18215280.
Obv.:   ·DANTHES· - ·FLOREN-TINVS   -   Bust of Dante Alighieri to the left.
Rev.:   Dante holds his Divine Comedy in his left hand. He points with his right hand to a procession of sinners to hell. Behind him the purgatory. Above seven of the semicircles of heaven.
The back is based on the oil painting by Domenico di Francesco from 1465 in the Florentine cathedral.
The oldest portrait of Dante is located on a restored fresco in the Palazzo del Bargello. It is attributed to Giotto or his school, but it could be a posthumous picture by Taddeo Gaddi as well.
Other early portraits:
• Portrait in Codex Ricc. 1040, attributed to Giovanni del Ponte, in the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence.
• Portrait in the fresco "Parnassus", by Raffaello Sanzio, 1509, in the room "Stanza della Segnatura" in the Vatican.
• Dante appears again in the fresco "La disputa del Sacramento" in the same room, now looking to the left.

Lit.:
conoscifirenze.it: Del più antico e sincero ritratto di Dante Alighieri

Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)
Petrarch was a poet and historian at the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era and is considered the first humanist in Italy. He discovered Cicero and Augustin and wanted to revive the ancient world in order to overcome the darkness of the Middle Ages. In his cycle of poems Canzoniere, written in Italian, Petrarca sings about his unfulfilled love for the young married Laura.
Petrarch was mostly depicted with a covering that also covers the neck and only exposes the face, as in the Initial image of a manuscript by the Canzoniere around 1380.


Uniface bronze medal, c. 1480-1520.     Ø 46 mm, 43,0 g.
Hill (1930) 283 No.1105; Börner 105 No.412.
Object in the Coin Cabinet of the State Museums in Berlin, exhibited in the Bode Museum.
·FRANC· - ·PETRAR·   -   Bust of Francesco Petrarch with laurel wreath to the right.


Bronze medal n. d.     Ø 54 mm, 66,35 g.   Specimen at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
Armand II 12/4; Hill Corpus 1094; Kress 301; Pollard (2007) 340.
Obv.:   ·FRANCISCVS·PETRARCA·FLOREN - TINVS
Bust to the right with laurel wreath and covered neck.
Rev.:   Female figure (Poetry) walking in a wood, plucking laurels.

Look at the Medal of Francesco Petrarca from the 18th-19th century, in The Metropolitan Museum, N.Y.


Cast bronze medal, 1819 by Jeuffroy Desnoyers.     Ø 40 mm, 38,06 g.
Obs.:   FRANCISCUS - PETRARCA   -   Portrait as before. Below the signature.
Rev.:   NATUS / ARETII / IN ITALIA / AN.M.CCC.IV. / ORBIT / AN.M.CCC.LXXIV.
SERIES NUMISMATICA / UNIVERSALIS VIVORUM ILLUSTRIUM / - / M.DCCC.XIX. / DURAND EDITIT
From the series Numismatica Universalis Virorum Illustrium, Suite by Durand, Paris.

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375)
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer, democrat, poet and important exponent of Renaissance humanism. His masterpiece, the Decameron, portrayed the multifaceted society of the 14th century with a hitherto unknown realism and wit and made him the founder of the prosaic narrative tradition in Europe.


Bronze medal, c. 1500.     Ø 57 mm, 77,47 g.
Armand II 12/8; Hill Corpus 1093; Kress 300; Pollard (2007) 341.
Specimen at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
Obv.:   ·IOHannES·BOCAT - IVS·FLOREntinus
Bust to left, head and neck swathes in cloth, and laureated.
Rev.:   Female figure (Wisdom) gazing at a serpent which she holds up.
Page enlarged 8.2020 & 10.2022.

Thanks to translate.google.com and deepl.com for assistance with the translation from German.

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