DOI issue:
Faculty of archeology, history and letters
DOI article:Hill, George Francis: The Roman medallists of the Renaissance to the time of Leo X
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70028#0038
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The British School at Rome.
at Naples, until his death six years later ; and though it is a fair con-
jecture, it is no more than a conjecture that he may have been attracted
to Rome by a commission from the Pope.
The medal of Nicholas that has survived (Fig. i)1 was cast by Andrea
Guaccialotti or Guazzalotti of Prato, presumably very soon after the
Pope’s death. A heavy, lumpish work, it is the earliest extant effort
of the artist. Guaccialotti was born in 1435, so that he was but little
more than twenty years old at the time.2 He was the son of Filippo
Guaccialotti, and belonged to an old and respectable family of Florentine
citizens domiciled at Prato. At some time he entered the household of
w
Fig. i.—Nicholas V. By Andrea Guaccialotti.
Niccolo Palmieri, bishop of Orte, of whom he has left an interesting
portrait medal. He held the post of papal Scriptor, and was also canon
of Prato and priest of Ajolo (Ido) near that city. With these clerical offices
he combined considerable activity as a bronze founder and medallist.
The medal of Nicholas bears on the reverse a design of the Pope
seated in a ship inscribed ECLESIA ; he holds the helm in his right hand,
and in his left a cross, to which is attached a pennon charged with the
crossed-keys. The inscription states that the Pope reigned eight years
and twenty days, and died 25 Mar., 1454 (1455 N.S.). The signature is
ANDREAS GVACIALOTIS. Everything about the medal, composition,
conception, lettering, is coarse and amateurish, though unaffected and
1 From Friedlander, Ital. Schaumilnzen (1882), p. 134,
2 For his biography see J. Friedlander, Andreas Guacialoti von Prato (1857), and the
same author’s Italienische Schaumilnzen (1882), pp. 130 f.
The British School at Rome.
at Naples, until his death six years later ; and though it is a fair con-
jecture, it is no more than a conjecture that he may have been attracted
to Rome by a commission from the Pope.
The medal of Nicholas that has survived (Fig. i)1 was cast by Andrea
Guaccialotti or Guazzalotti of Prato, presumably very soon after the
Pope’s death. A heavy, lumpish work, it is the earliest extant effort
of the artist. Guaccialotti was born in 1435, so that he was but little
more than twenty years old at the time.2 He was the son of Filippo
Guaccialotti, and belonged to an old and respectable family of Florentine
citizens domiciled at Prato. At some time he entered the household of
w
Fig. i.—Nicholas V. By Andrea Guaccialotti.
Niccolo Palmieri, bishop of Orte, of whom he has left an interesting
portrait medal. He held the post of papal Scriptor, and was also canon
of Prato and priest of Ajolo (Ido) near that city. With these clerical offices
he combined considerable activity as a bronze founder and medallist.
The medal of Nicholas bears on the reverse a design of the Pope
seated in a ship inscribed ECLESIA ; he holds the helm in his right hand,
and in his left a cross, to which is attached a pennon charged with the
crossed-keys. The inscription states that the Pope reigned eight years
and twenty days, and died 25 Mar., 1454 (1455 N.S.). The signature is
ANDREAS GVACIALOTIS. Everything about the medal, composition,
conception, lettering, is coarse and amateurish, though unaffected and
1 From Friedlander, Ital. Schaumilnzen (1882), p. 134,
2 For his biography see J. Friedlander, Andreas Guacialoti von Prato (1857), and the
same author’s Italienische Schaumilnzen (1882), pp. 130 f.