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#0047
The Roman Medallists of the Renaissance.
27
may have modelled Cosimo’s likeness, even if he did not make a medal
at the time. If, as the analogy of the Constantine medal suggests, the
artist used his Latin abbreviations unintelligently, then the medal of
Cosimo with P.P.P. may after all carry no allusion to his posthumous
title of Pater Patriae, and may have been made during his lifetime,
possibly in 1462.
But this is a side issue, and we have not yet described the reverse
of the medal of Constantine. Besides the artist’s signature, it bears the
inscription Concordia Augg(ustorum) ; in the field are the letters S.C.
(the Senatus Consulto of Roman coins). The Emperor, laureate and togate,
holds a caduceus in his left hand, and with his right grasps the hand of a
veiled female figure who holds a cornucopiae. Certain obscure signs
between the arms of the caduceus have been interpreted as the letters
PAX ; this is, however, very doubtful.
The interpretation of this group which suggested itself to a contem-
porary, who, there is little doubt, was the medallist Guaccialotti himself,
is that it symbolises the peace of the Church. For in the time of Sixtus IV.
he made a medal with a portrait of that Pope (inscribed Sixtus P(a)p(a)
IIII. urbis renovator) and provided it with a reverse which is a mere
rifacimento of Cristoforo’s design (Pl. IV. 4).1 In the exergue he has
placed the word Ecclesia, thus identifying the veiled figure as the Church ;
and the inscription around the group is Concor. et amator pad. Pon. Max.
P.P.P., which I take to be an attempt at Amator Concordiae et Pads,
Pontifex Maximus, etc.2 It is true that there is no parallel to the cornu-
copiae as an attribute of the Church, but in the borrowing of allegorical
figures from classical art we cannot demand too great exactitude in such
matters from the medallists of the fifteenth century. We shall see that
the interpretation of the figure as the Church is confirmed by another
medal, produced in 1489 (p. 40).
1 It has been thought that this medal is a modern concoction, consisting of an obverse
by Guaccialotti surmoule with Cristoforo’s reverse. But there exists no other original
portrait by Guaccialotti on this scale which the modern fabricator could have used. I know
only the reproduction in the Victoria and Albert Museum. A specimen is illustrated in
the S. Pozzi Catalogue (Paris, 28 juin, 1919, lot 813) ; but I understand that it is very
much re-touched. Armand wished to attribute the work to Lysippus ; but, when he
wrote, practically no critical attention had been devoted to that artist.
1 The description is so inapplicable to the most pugnacious of Popes, that it must be
either ironical or official. For a similarly clumsy order of words, compare Concordia
Augusta Consulti Venetique Senatus on a medal of Pasquale Malipiero by Guidizani,
Burlington Magazine, xii. (1907) p. 148.
27
may have modelled Cosimo’s likeness, even if he did not make a medal
at the time. If, as the analogy of the Constantine medal suggests, the
artist used his Latin abbreviations unintelligently, then the medal of
Cosimo with P.P.P. may after all carry no allusion to his posthumous
title of Pater Patriae, and may have been made during his lifetime,
possibly in 1462.
But this is a side issue, and we have not yet described the reverse
of the medal of Constantine. Besides the artist’s signature, it bears the
inscription Concordia Augg(ustorum) ; in the field are the letters S.C.
(the Senatus Consulto of Roman coins). The Emperor, laureate and togate,
holds a caduceus in his left hand, and with his right grasps the hand of a
veiled female figure who holds a cornucopiae. Certain obscure signs
between the arms of the caduceus have been interpreted as the letters
PAX ; this is, however, very doubtful.
The interpretation of this group which suggested itself to a contem-
porary, who, there is little doubt, was the medallist Guaccialotti himself,
is that it symbolises the peace of the Church. For in the time of Sixtus IV.
he made a medal with a portrait of that Pope (inscribed Sixtus P(a)p(a)
IIII. urbis renovator) and provided it with a reverse which is a mere
rifacimento of Cristoforo’s design (Pl. IV. 4).1 In the exergue he has
placed the word Ecclesia, thus identifying the veiled figure as the Church ;
and the inscription around the group is Concor. et amator pad. Pon. Max.
P.P.P., which I take to be an attempt at Amator Concordiae et Pads,
Pontifex Maximus, etc.2 It is true that there is no parallel to the cornu-
copiae as an attribute of the Church, but in the borrowing of allegorical
figures from classical art we cannot demand too great exactitude in such
matters from the medallists of the fifteenth century. We shall see that
the interpretation of the figure as the Church is confirmed by another
medal, produced in 1489 (p. 40).
1 It has been thought that this medal is a modern concoction, consisting of an obverse
by Guaccialotti surmoule with Cristoforo’s reverse. But there exists no other original
portrait by Guaccialotti on this scale which the modern fabricator could have used. I know
only the reproduction in the Victoria and Albert Museum. A specimen is illustrated in
the S. Pozzi Catalogue (Paris, 28 juin, 1919, lot 813) ; but I understand that it is very
much re-touched. Armand wished to attribute the work to Lysippus ; but, when he
wrote, practically no critical attention had been devoted to that artist.
1 The description is so inapplicable to the most pugnacious of Popes, that it must be
either ironical or official. For a similarly clumsy order of words, compare Concordia
Augusta Consulti Venetique Senatus on a medal of Pasquale Malipiero by Guidizani,
Burlington Magazine, xii. (1907) p. 148.