British School at Rome: Papers of the British School at Rome (9.1920)

46

The British School at Rome.

Sforza, and the others already mentioned. Then we have two cast medals,
one of Lodovico il Moro, which must have been made about 1488, and
another of Francesco Sforza, which must date from about the same time ;
they are certainly by the same hand. No signature appears on any of
these pieces, and we have no documentary evidence that they are by
Caradosso. The reason for attributing them to him is apparently that
there is no record of any other medallist of the time at Milan to whom
they can be credited, although, as regards their design, the name of
Ambrogio de Predis has been mentioned. If we compare them with medals
attributed (also, with one exception, by conjecture) to Caradosso’s Roman
period, we can at least say that they are not mutually repellent ; there is
nothing which makes us exclaim that they cannot be by the same hand.
There is also a medal (with two slightly variant reverses, consisting
entirely of inscription) commemorating the old marshal Gian Giacomo
Trivulzio and his capture of Alessandria and defeat of Lodovico Sforza
at Novara in 1499. Ever since the time of Lomazzo1 (not a first-rate
authority, but sometimes the vehicle of an old tradition) these pieces have
been assigned to Caradosso. Some years ago J. de Foville2 proposed to
add to his work certain medals of Niccold Orsini, count of Pitigliano and
Nola, Captain General at various times of the armies of the Roman
Church, of Venice and of Florence. The attribution is based on the re-
semblance to the medals of Francesco and Lodovico Sforza ; but the
portraits of Orsini have a dull mechanical touch which betrays another,
less skilful hand.
Finally, we have a fixed point in a medal, struck from dies, which
were engraved by Caradosso for Federigo II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua
(Pl. IX. 2). A letter from Federigo’s agent at Rome, dated 26 Sept.
1522, informs us that the artist was then working on this medal.3 It
bears the motto Gloriam afferte Domino and represents David seated,
playing his harp ; his left foot rests on the head of Goliath, while Victory,
alighting on the seat behind him, places a wreath on his head. In front,
hanging on a stump, are his sling and sword. The work is of extreme
1 Trattato d. pittura, vi. c. 18, vii. c. 23. 2 Rev. Numism. (1911) pp. 449 If.
3 Milanesi, apud Armand, iii. 34, B. Milanesi does not quote the words of the writer,
or say how he describes the medal ; but we must assume that it is the piece mentioned in
the text, since Milanesi picks it out from the numerous other medals of the Marquis. This
medal must be distinguished from the impresa, or badge, which ‘ quello maladetto vecchio’
was commissioned to make for the Marquis in Sept., 1522, and which was still unfinished
in July, 1524 (Bertolotti, Artisti in rel. coi Gonzaga, Modena, 1885, p. 92).