DOI Heft:
Faculty of archeology, history and letters
DOI Artikel:Hill, George Francis: The Roman medallists of the Renaissance to the time of Leo X
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70028#0044
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The British School at Rome.
Scarampi; they are even of the same diameter, an item which may be
allowed to count with the rest of the evidence. These medals1 com-
memorate among other things the foundation of a building (has aedes)
in 1470 (probably in the Vatican) ; the foundation of the house of the
Pope’s physician Jacopo Gottifredo in the Piazza di Pasquino 2; and
the work on the Tribune of St. Peter’s, concerning which entries first
appear in 1470, the date on the medal (Pl. II. 6). We need not, I think,
hesitate to assign the whole of this group of medals to Cristoforo. All the
obverses are from essentially the same model, which has been modified in
various ways. It is a powerful portrait ; but it makes it clear that
Paul was after all wise in taking the advice of the Sacred College on
his election not to assume the name Formosus. There is also a small
group of oval medals with an inscription describing Paul as Stablisher of
the Peace of Italy (i.e., the Peace of February, 1468 or that of 22 Dec.,
1470) ; they bear a remarkably characteristic portrait of which the
original model may well be from Cristoforo’s hand (Pl. III. 1).
Anyone who is familiar with Roman Imperial coins will not fail to
recognise in these medals of Paul II, (excluding the oval pieces) a
deliberate assimilation to the brass sestertii of the early Empire. The
breath of antiquity was already beginning to affect the style of the
medal, and indeed it would be surprising if it had failed to do so in Rome,
of all places.
The medals of the Pope, however, are of much less importance than
the two signed pieces which we have next to consider. One of them
(Pl. IV. 3) represents Alfonso the Magnanimous of Aragon, who died in
1458 ; but it was not, according to the view that holds the field, done
from the life. This was already conjectured by Friedlander on the
ground of its style, which shows the influence of Mantegna. It is interest-
ing to remember that Cristoforo may have come into contact with the
painter on one of his visits to Mantua3 or at the time (about 1459 according
to Kristeller) when the Berlin portrait of Cardinal Mezzarota was painted.
Now Fabriczy4 has noted a curious circumstance which he considers to
bear out the theory of a posthumous date. In 1468 Clement of Urbino
1 Nos. 15-26 on Pl. XII. in the article in the Num. Chron. above cited.
2 Cp. Lanciani, Storia degli Scavi di Roma, i. 74.
3 Mantegna is first known to have been in communication with Lodovico Gonzaga
by a letter of Jan. 5, 1457, referring to earlier negotiations (Kristeller, Mantegna, p. 182).
1 Ital. Medals, p. 157.
The British School at Rome.
Scarampi; they are even of the same diameter, an item which may be
allowed to count with the rest of the evidence. These medals1 com-
memorate among other things the foundation of a building (has aedes)
in 1470 (probably in the Vatican) ; the foundation of the house of the
Pope’s physician Jacopo Gottifredo in the Piazza di Pasquino 2; and
the work on the Tribune of St. Peter’s, concerning which entries first
appear in 1470, the date on the medal (Pl. II. 6). We need not, I think,
hesitate to assign the whole of this group of medals to Cristoforo. All the
obverses are from essentially the same model, which has been modified in
various ways. It is a powerful portrait ; but it makes it clear that
Paul was after all wise in taking the advice of the Sacred College on
his election not to assume the name Formosus. There is also a small
group of oval medals with an inscription describing Paul as Stablisher of
the Peace of Italy (i.e., the Peace of February, 1468 or that of 22 Dec.,
1470) ; they bear a remarkably characteristic portrait of which the
original model may well be from Cristoforo’s hand (Pl. III. 1).
Anyone who is familiar with Roman Imperial coins will not fail to
recognise in these medals of Paul II, (excluding the oval pieces) a
deliberate assimilation to the brass sestertii of the early Empire. The
breath of antiquity was already beginning to affect the style of the
medal, and indeed it would be surprising if it had failed to do so in Rome,
of all places.
The medals of the Pope, however, are of much less importance than
the two signed pieces which we have next to consider. One of them
(Pl. IV. 3) represents Alfonso the Magnanimous of Aragon, who died in
1458 ; but it was not, according to the view that holds the field, done
from the life. This was already conjectured by Friedlander on the
ground of its style, which shows the influence of Mantegna. It is interest-
ing to remember that Cristoforo may have come into contact with the
painter on one of his visits to Mantua3 or at the time (about 1459 according
to Kristeller) when the Berlin portrait of Cardinal Mezzarota was painted.
Now Fabriczy4 has noted a curious circumstance which he considers to
bear out the theory of a posthumous date. In 1468 Clement of Urbino
1 Nos. 15-26 on Pl. XII. in the article in the Num. Chron. above cited.
2 Cp. Lanciani, Storia degli Scavi di Roma, i. 74.
3 Mantegna is first known to have been in communication with Lodovico Gonzaga
by a letter of Jan. 5, 1457, referring to earlier negotiations (Kristeller, Mantegna, p. 182).
1 Ital. Medals, p. 157.