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#0049
The Roman Medallists of the Renaissance.
29
The reverse of the medal of Costanza Bentivoglio,1 probably made on
the occasion of her marriage, 1473, is a mere reproduction by casting of
the Constantia of the Dotti medal. The same type, on a larger scale,
and more roughly executed, appears on a medal of Girolamo Santucci,
Bishop of Fossombrone (13 Oct., 1469 to 25 July, 1494), which is
certainly by a Florentine hand.2 The comparative roughness of the
treatment suggests that it is copied from the medal of Dotti, or perhaps
even from the reverse of Guaccialotti’s Sixtus IV., of 1481, which is
itself a copy of the Dotti reverse (Pl. I. 5). A freer version of the
same original (with the column converted into a bundle of arrows, and
an arrow substituted for a spear) appears as the reverse of a medal of
Maria Poliziana.3
A third attribution, which would credit Cristoforo with the little
medal (Pl. III. 4) of Marcello Capodiferro, ‘ Mercurialium hospes
virorum,’ one of the Roman Conservator! in 1478, seems to me to have
little to be said for it ; in conception, composition and modelling it seems
to me to have no more than a superficial resemblance to Cristoforo’s
work, though it may be the product of a younger contemporary of his.4
We may now leave Cristoforo, who died before 22 Feb., 1476, and
return to deal with the remaining medals of Paul II.’s reign.5 The
Pope’s favourite jeweller was Andrea di Niccold da Viterbo, of whom
documents make mention from 22 Sept., 1464 to 1 Apr., 1475.8 Zippel
has already suggested that he may have been employed as medallist,
seeing that from 12 Dec., 1464, to 5 Aug., 1468, he was Master of the
Mint. As such he, or his colleague, Emiliano di Pier Matteo Orfini7 of
Foligno, would have been responsible for the dies of the great struck
medal commemorating a Public Consistory, probably that of 23 Dec.,
1466, at which George Podiebrad was condemned (Fig. 2).8 This piece,
1 Heiss, Midailleurs, Florence, i. p. 54, Pl. IV. 4.
2 Heiss, op. cit. p. 54, Pl. IV. 5. He wrongly gives the date of Santucci’s election
to the see of Fossombrone as 1474.
3 Burlington Magazine, xxxi. (1917), p. 101, fig. A.
4 Armand originally dated it to the period 1500-25, before he knew (iii. 178C) that the
man was one of the Conservatori as early as 1478. I may add that he was maestro di strada
in 1488 (E. Rodocanachi, Rome au temps de Jules II., etc., p. 221, note).
5 For details, see, as before, Numism. Chron. (1910).
6 G. Zippel, Le Vite di Paolo II. (in the new ed. of Muratori, R.I.S., III. pt. xvi.
1904) pp. 191-2.
7 The name is given as Orsini by Zippel, loo. cit., but other writers agree in the form
Orfini. 8 From Num. Chron. (1910) p. 345.
29
The reverse of the medal of Costanza Bentivoglio,1 probably made on
the occasion of her marriage, 1473, is a mere reproduction by casting of
the Constantia of the Dotti medal. The same type, on a larger scale,
and more roughly executed, appears on a medal of Girolamo Santucci,
Bishop of Fossombrone (13 Oct., 1469 to 25 July, 1494), which is
certainly by a Florentine hand.2 The comparative roughness of the
treatment suggests that it is copied from the medal of Dotti, or perhaps
even from the reverse of Guaccialotti’s Sixtus IV., of 1481, which is
itself a copy of the Dotti reverse (Pl. I. 5). A freer version of the
same original (with the column converted into a bundle of arrows, and
an arrow substituted for a spear) appears as the reverse of a medal of
Maria Poliziana.3
A third attribution, which would credit Cristoforo with the little
medal (Pl. III. 4) of Marcello Capodiferro, ‘ Mercurialium hospes
virorum,’ one of the Roman Conservator! in 1478, seems to me to have
little to be said for it ; in conception, composition and modelling it seems
to me to have no more than a superficial resemblance to Cristoforo’s
work, though it may be the product of a younger contemporary of his.4
We may now leave Cristoforo, who died before 22 Feb., 1476, and
return to deal with the remaining medals of Paul II.’s reign.5 The
Pope’s favourite jeweller was Andrea di Niccold da Viterbo, of whom
documents make mention from 22 Sept., 1464 to 1 Apr., 1475.8 Zippel
has already suggested that he may have been employed as medallist,
seeing that from 12 Dec., 1464, to 5 Aug., 1468, he was Master of the
Mint. As such he, or his colleague, Emiliano di Pier Matteo Orfini7 of
Foligno, would have been responsible for the dies of the great struck
medal commemorating a Public Consistory, probably that of 23 Dec.,
1466, at which George Podiebrad was condemned (Fig. 2).8 This piece,
1 Heiss, Midailleurs, Florence, i. p. 54, Pl. IV. 4.
2 Heiss, op. cit. p. 54, Pl. IV. 5. He wrongly gives the date of Santucci’s election
to the see of Fossombrone as 1474.
3 Burlington Magazine, xxxi. (1917), p. 101, fig. A.
4 Armand originally dated it to the period 1500-25, before he knew (iii. 178C) that the
man was one of the Conservatori as early as 1478. I may add that he was maestro di strada
in 1488 (E. Rodocanachi, Rome au temps de Jules II., etc., p. 221, note).
5 For details, see, as before, Numism. Chron. (1910).
6 G. Zippel, Le Vite di Paolo II. (in the new ed. of Muratori, R.I.S., III. pt. xvi.
1904) pp. 191-2.
7 The name is given as Orsini by Zippel, loo. cit., but other writers agree in the form
Orfini. 8 From Num. Chron. (1910) p. 345.