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#0046
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The British School at Rome.
would have identified the goddess as Victory). The suggestion already
made that this medal was known to later Mantuan artists is borne out
by the fact that a figure of Mars in much the same attitude, but for the
right arm, is found on a medal of the school of 1’Antico representing
Luca Zuharis.
The reverse is signed CHRISTOPHORVS HIERIMIA ; on the
next medal to be considered the signature is given more fully,
CHRISTOPHORVS HIERIMIAE . F., in which, as Friedlander remarks,
F may stand either for Filius or Fecit; in either case, Geremia must have
been the artist’s father’s name.
The medal of Constantine the Great (long wrongly supposed to
represent Augustus) is not so fine a work of art as the Alfonso, but it is
full of interest (Pl. IV. 2).1 The portrait is undoubtedly meant for
Constantine. The inscription, it would appear, is a not too intelligent
adaptation of some ancient inscription, such as that on the Ponte S.
Bartolommeo in honour of Valentinian I., Valens and Gratian.
Cristoforo’s wording is Caesar Imperator Pont(ifex) P.P.P. et semper
Augustus vir. All the elements of this, except the rather absurd vir,
can be picked out of such an inscription as that which I have mentioned ;
in the Roman original P.P.P. stands for Pater Patriae, Proconsul. What
Cristoforo thought the letters meant, I hesitate to conjecture. But they
have an interest for us in connexion with another medal, representing
Cosimo Vecchio, which has been attributed on grounds of style to the
same artist. The inscription in this case is Magnus Cosmus Medices P.P.P.
Other varieties of the same medal read Cosmus Medices decreto publico
P.P., referring obviously to the title pater patriae which was conferred
on Cosimo after his death in 1465. These medals raise various interesting
questions which do not concern us here ; but the occurrence of these
three mysterious letters is a slight confirmation of the attribution of one
at least of the pieces to Cristoforo ; and if that attribution is right, the
suggestion made by the late J. de Foville, that the beautiful portrait in
the Uffizi ascribed to Botticelli, of a young man holding a specimen of
the medal with P.P.P., represents Cristoforo himself, becomes very
attractive. Cristoforo was in Florence with Scarampi in 1462, when he
1 I have discussed it in the Atti e Memorie dell'Istituto Italiano di Numism., ii (1915)
pp 257—261, where Baron de Cosson’s suggestions as to the portrait and other details will
be found fully worked out.
The British School at Rome.
would have identified the goddess as Victory). The suggestion already
made that this medal was known to later Mantuan artists is borne out
by the fact that a figure of Mars in much the same attitude, but for the
right arm, is found on a medal of the school of 1’Antico representing
Luca Zuharis.
The reverse is signed CHRISTOPHORVS HIERIMIA ; on the
next medal to be considered the signature is given more fully,
CHRISTOPHORVS HIERIMIAE . F., in which, as Friedlander remarks,
F may stand either for Filius or Fecit; in either case, Geremia must have
been the artist’s father’s name.
The medal of Constantine the Great (long wrongly supposed to
represent Augustus) is not so fine a work of art as the Alfonso, but it is
full of interest (Pl. IV. 2).1 The portrait is undoubtedly meant for
Constantine. The inscription, it would appear, is a not too intelligent
adaptation of some ancient inscription, such as that on the Ponte S.
Bartolommeo in honour of Valentinian I., Valens and Gratian.
Cristoforo’s wording is Caesar Imperator Pont(ifex) P.P.P. et semper
Augustus vir. All the elements of this, except the rather absurd vir,
can be picked out of such an inscription as that which I have mentioned ;
in the Roman original P.P.P. stands for Pater Patriae, Proconsul. What
Cristoforo thought the letters meant, I hesitate to conjecture. But they
have an interest for us in connexion with another medal, representing
Cosimo Vecchio, which has been attributed on grounds of style to the
same artist. The inscription in this case is Magnus Cosmus Medices P.P.P.
Other varieties of the same medal read Cosmus Medices decreto publico
P.P., referring obviously to the title pater patriae which was conferred
on Cosimo after his death in 1465. These medals raise various interesting
questions which do not concern us here ; but the occurrence of these
three mysterious letters is a slight confirmation of the attribution of one
at least of the pieces to Cristoforo ; and if that attribution is right, the
suggestion made by the late J. de Foville, that the beautiful portrait in
the Uffizi ascribed to Botticelli, of a young man holding a specimen of
the medal with P.P.P., represents Cristoforo himself, becomes very
attractive. Cristoforo was in Florence with Scarampi in 1462, when he
1 I have discussed it in the Atti e Memorie dell'Istituto Italiano di Numism., ii (1915)
pp 257—261, where Baron de Cosson’s suggestions as to the portrait and other details will
be found fully worked out.