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#0050
3°
The British School at Rome.
nearly 3 J inches in diameter, was a remarkable achievement for the
coining-presses of the time ; probably very few specimens were struck,
and those on very thin flans. The relief is very low, and indeed the
machinery of those days would not have been adequate to anything else.
On one side, is the Consistory, with the Pope presiding. On the other is
Christ in glory on the Last Day, with the Saints, the Apostles, the Virgin
and St. John Baptist, and the dead rising from their graves. A specimen
of this in gold was given in 1497 by Alexander VI. to Boguslav X. of
Pomerania ; and another or the same gold piece has been described by
Armand as a coin of twenty ducats. Cast reproductions of this medal
are common.
There is a remarkable resemblance in lettering between this piece
and a large cast and chased medal of the Pope, with his arms on the
reverse, which bears clear traces of having been made by a jeweller
(Pl. IV. 1). The use of cable-circles to bound the inscriptions, a charac-
teristic of jeweller’s work, is found both on this large medal and on the
bulla of Paul II., which shows the Pope receiving seven suppliants, perhaps
the family of the exiled despot of the Morea, Thomas Palaeologus. Casts
from this bulla, which would in the ordinary course have been designed
by the engravers to the mint, were worked up into medallic form (Pl. III. 2).
The evidence of the jeweller’s technique combined with what we know of
Andrea da Viterbo seems to me to warrant the conjecture that he may be
responsible for the Consistory medal, the large cast medal, and the bulla
and the medals made from it.
In the reign of Sixtus IV. (1471-1484) Guaccialotti reappears on the
scene, though not, so far as we know, before 1481. The sensation caused
in the Christian world by the Turkish seizure of Otranto in July, 1480,
was a measure of the relief which was felt when it was recovered in
September of the next year by the young Duke of Calabria. Alfonso
was in command of combined Papal and Neapolitan troops ; but it was
the death of'Mohammad II. and the ensuing civil war, rather than any
efforts of his, that liberated Italian soil from the Turkish invaders .
Guaccialotti made three medals in connexion with this event. One
represents the Pope (Pl. I. 5)—a fair, but not vigorous portrait. On the
reverse is an allegorical figure of Constantia—a nude female figure leaning
on a column and resting her right hand on a long staff. At her feet are
represented—partly by engraving—Turkish prisoners, arms and galleys.
The British School at Rome.
nearly 3 J inches in diameter, was a remarkable achievement for the
coining-presses of the time ; probably very few specimens were struck,
and those on very thin flans. The relief is very low, and indeed the
machinery of those days would not have been adequate to anything else.
On one side, is the Consistory, with the Pope presiding. On the other is
Christ in glory on the Last Day, with the Saints, the Apostles, the Virgin
and St. John Baptist, and the dead rising from their graves. A specimen
of this in gold was given in 1497 by Alexander VI. to Boguslav X. of
Pomerania ; and another or the same gold piece has been described by
Armand as a coin of twenty ducats. Cast reproductions of this medal
are common.
There is a remarkable resemblance in lettering between this piece
and a large cast and chased medal of the Pope, with his arms on the
reverse, which bears clear traces of having been made by a jeweller
(Pl. IV. 1). The use of cable-circles to bound the inscriptions, a charac-
teristic of jeweller’s work, is found both on this large medal and on the
bulla of Paul II., which shows the Pope receiving seven suppliants, perhaps
the family of the exiled despot of the Morea, Thomas Palaeologus. Casts
from this bulla, which would in the ordinary course have been designed
by the engravers to the mint, were worked up into medallic form (Pl. III. 2).
The evidence of the jeweller’s technique combined with what we know of
Andrea da Viterbo seems to me to warrant the conjecture that he may be
responsible for the Consistory medal, the large cast medal, and the bulla
and the medals made from it.
In the reign of Sixtus IV. (1471-1484) Guaccialotti reappears on the
scene, though not, so far as we know, before 1481. The sensation caused
in the Christian world by the Turkish seizure of Otranto in July, 1480,
was a measure of the relief which was felt when it was recovered in
September of the next year by the young Duke of Calabria. Alfonso
was in command of combined Papal and Neapolitan troops ; but it was
the death of'Mohammad II. and the ensuing civil war, rather than any
efforts of his, that liberated Italian soil from the Turkish invaders .
Guaccialotti made three medals in connexion with this event. One
represents the Pope (Pl. I. 5)—a fair, but not vigorous portrait. On the
reverse is an allegorical figure of Constantia—a nude female figure leaning
on a column and resting her right hand on a long staff. At her feet are
represented—partly by engraving—Turkish prisoners, arms and galleys.