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

58

The British School at Rome.

is ROMA, in the field, in large lettering, CP, letters which de Foville
interprets as Camelius perfecit. It must be confessed that this interpreta-
tion would have been more acceptable if other instances of the use of the
form perfecit instead of fecit had been cited. But the question is settled
by the contemporary authority quoted below, which gives the sense of
the letters as Consensu Publico.1 The plump modelling of the Pope’s por-
trait (Pl. X. 5) does not remind us of any authenticated work by Gambello.
What is more, the reverse does not fit the obverse exactly and was evident-
ly made not for it, but for a portrait of Giuliano de’ Medici, due de Nemours
(Pl. X. 6, 7), which is very different in modelling, lettering, composition
and conception generally, although de Foville attributes both alike to
Gambello.2 3 This little piece carries with it a larger portrait of the Duke,
conceived in the same style (but with draped bust and coarser in execu-
tion), which was made in 1513 (Pl. VIII. 7)? On the reverse is a Con-
cordia group of Virtus and Fortuna ; the former, a heavily draped,
veiled female figure, gives her right hand to Fortune (fronte capillata),
who holds a horn of plenty and has a rudder at her side. The inscription
is Duce virtute comite for tuna. There can be no doubt, says de Foville,
that this work was modelled and cast at Rome, after the election of Leo X.
(March, 1513). That event assured the triumph of his family, and is
alluded to by the reverse.
We happen to know, as a matter of fact, the occasion for which the
smaller medal of Giuliano was made. In a contemporary description,
to be quoted later, of the festivities at the adoption of Giuliano as a
citizen and baron of Rome on 13 Sept., 1513, we are told that a large
1 See p. 59, note 1.
2 Op. cit., p. 281. The medal exists in two versions, one reading MAG. (Pl. X. 7),
the other MAGNVS IVLIANVS MEDICES (Pl. X. 6) ; the latter is the earlier, and has
finer lettering than the other, but the portrait is from the same model on both pieces.
C.P. had been explained as Cavinus Patavinus (Keary, Brit. Mus. Guide, No. 222), but the
style of the medal alone disproves the attribution to that artist. Milanesi (in Armand,
iii. 193a) remarks that one of'the extant medals of Giuliano may be that which is recorded
as having been made for Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici by the Sienese goldsmith Giov.
Batt, di Bernardino. The obverse with Magnus is also found enlarged to 41 mm by the
addition of a laurel-wreath border (Arm., ii. 94, 4). I observe that the letters C.P. have
been explained as a signature on a medal of Lorenzo IL, Duke of Urbino (Arm., iii. 191B).
Here the ever fertile Milanesi says that the letters doubtless denote the Florentine goldsmith
Paolo di Clemente Tassini, who was born in 1477. Armand says that this medal is in the
Florence Gallery, but it is not included in Supino’s catalogue.
3 Tris, de Num., Mid. ital., ii. Pl. XXXII. 3 ; Heiss, Med. de la Renaissance, Florence,
i. Pl. XX. 5.