DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68735#0139
VETTOR DI ANTONIO
MOCENIGO (Giovanni), Doge of Venice.
436. Obv. - JOANNES • MOCENI GO • DVX Bust
1., wearing ducal cap (ornamentation incised)
and robe. Below, in small letters, • G • T • F •
Moulded border.
Rev. None.
GAMBELLO (CAMELIO) 436
Arm. 1,57, 4 (87 mm.). Tres. de Num. I, xxvii, 3. Litta,
Moeen., no. 20. Heiss, Ven., p. 115, Pl. v, 4. [a. Pl. 82.]
(a) Berlin, 85 mm. Friedl., p. 90, no. 2. Hab.,
Pl. xxxi, 2. (b) Vienna, 85 mm. Bad after-cast,
(c) London (George III), lead, 87 mm. Signature
obliterated.
Based on the portrait of the Doge in the Correr Museum
attributed to Gentile Bellini.
VETTOR DI ANTONIO GAMBELLO (CAMELIO)
SCULPTOR, medallist, die-engraver, jeweller, armourer, son of Antonio da San
Zaccaria (see above, p. 108). The idea that he was a pupil of Giov. Bellini is based on a
confusion with Vettor Belliniano. He is first heard of as master of the dies in the Venetian
mint on 28 Sept. 1484; he can therefore hardly have been born later than the period 1455-60.
He may have visited Rome before 1484 if the medal of Sixtus IV was made on the spot and
before the death of the Pope. (But his struck medal of Julius II was made in 1506 while he
was actually in Venetian employ.) As early as 21 Mar. 1487 he is described as sumo maistro
in quest"arte, and his salary raised; it was, however, lowered, like every one else s, in the
crisis of 1506. He left Venice in 1510. If the medal of Giuliano II de’ Medici is rightly
assigned to him, he was in Rome in 1513. On 24 June 1515 he was appointed for life
engraver to the Papal Mint in conjunction with Pier Maria della Pescia; but the last
payment to him is dated 30 July 1516, and by 29 Oct. 1516 (according to Lazari, but
according to Papadopoli not until 30 Dec. 1517) he was back at his post in the Venetian
mint. (The ‘ M° Cornelio’ who is mentioned as superintendent of the Papal Mint in
1524 cannot be a slip of the pen for ‘Camelio’). He was getting old, however, and an
assistant was appointed in 1526, but he lived until 1537, though probably he did not do
much work in his last decade.
Technically, Gambello is notable for his improvements in the art of die-engraving;
he shows respectable skill in minute design, and was probably in touch with Caradosso
in Rome. He tends in his struck medals to use a bar-less a. His later cast medals
have considerable breadth and dignity of treatment as regards the busts, but his reverses
do not show much power of composition. Like many of his contemporaries he was fond
of free imitations of the antique, though we do not know that he attempted to deceive,
as is implied, e.g., in the Chronicon Gottwicense (1732, quoted by Farsetti, p. 24: in re
numaria quotnon supposititios orbi nummos obtrusere Cavinus, Bassianus, Gambellus, Celinus
et alii). Gambello is the Venetian dialect form for camelus', the artist signs himself
Camelius (not Camelus, as often stated). According to a sonnet by Cornelio Castaldi,
‘ Camelus ’ was an able poet as well as sculptor.
Besides the medals described below, many others have been attributed to Gambello,
especially by Foville.
In the following bibliography works referring only to Gambello’s sculpture are not
included.
Enea Vico, Discorsi (1558), cap. 23, p. 67. T. G. Farsetti, Vita prefixed to Poesie di Cornelio Castaldi (1757), PP- 22 f-
J. C. W. Mohsen, Beschr. einer Berlin. Medaillen-Sammlung, i (1773), pp. 257-80. Cicognara, v (1824), pp. 431-3- Bolzenthal
(1840), pp. 69 f. V. Lazari, Notizia delle Opere d'Arte . . . della Raccolta Correr (1859), pp. 181 ff. Bull, di Arti, Industria e
Curiositd Venez., i (1877-8), pp. 59 f. Friedlander, Ital. Schaumunzen (1882), pp. 93-8; Die gepragten ital. Med. (1883), p. 15.
Arm. I (1883), pp. 114-17; III (1887), p. 45. E. Mtintz, U atelier monet. de Rome in Rev. Num. (1884), p. 245. G. Frizzoni,
Not. d'opere di disegno (Anon. Morell.) (1884), pp. 234-6. E. Molinier, Les plaquettes (1886), i, pp. 109 ff. A. Heiss,
Medailleurs de la Ren., Venise (1887), pp. 119-28. N. Papadopoli in Arch. Ven., 35 (1888), p. 273 = Azh. Ital. di Num., i (1888),
PP- 353 f- Paoletti, L’Architett. e la Scult. del Rinasc. in Ven. (1893), ii, pp. 132, 134, 263, 271 f. Ilg in Jahrb. d. kunsth.
Samml. d. Allerh. Kaiserh., xi (1893), p. 107. C. v. Fabriczy, Ital. Medals (1904), pp. 78 ff. Forrer, Diet., i (1904), pp. 331 ff.
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MOCENIGO (Giovanni), Doge of Venice.
436. Obv. - JOANNES • MOCENI GO • DVX Bust
1., wearing ducal cap (ornamentation incised)
and robe. Below, in small letters, • G • T • F •
Moulded border.
Rev. None.
GAMBELLO (CAMELIO) 436
Arm. 1,57, 4 (87 mm.). Tres. de Num. I, xxvii, 3. Litta,
Moeen., no. 20. Heiss, Ven., p. 115, Pl. v, 4. [a. Pl. 82.]
(a) Berlin, 85 mm. Friedl., p. 90, no. 2. Hab.,
Pl. xxxi, 2. (b) Vienna, 85 mm. Bad after-cast,
(c) London (George III), lead, 87 mm. Signature
obliterated.
Based on the portrait of the Doge in the Correr Museum
attributed to Gentile Bellini.
VETTOR DI ANTONIO GAMBELLO (CAMELIO)
SCULPTOR, medallist, die-engraver, jeweller, armourer, son of Antonio da San
Zaccaria (see above, p. 108). The idea that he was a pupil of Giov. Bellini is based on a
confusion with Vettor Belliniano. He is first heard of as master of the dies in the Venetian
mint on 28 Sept. 1484; he can therefore hardly have been born later than the period 1455-60.
He may have visited Rome before 1484 if the medal of Sixtus IV was made on the spot and
before the death of the Pope. (But his struck medal of Julius II was made in 1506 while he
was actually in Venetian employ.) As early as 21 Mar. 1487 he is described as sumo maistro
in quest"arte, and his salary raised; it was, however, lowered, like every one else s, in the
crisis of 1506. He left Venice in 1510. If the medal of Giuliano II de’ Medici is rightly
assigned to him, he was in Rome in 1513. On 24 June 1515 he was appointed for life
engraver to the Papal Mint in conjunction with Pier Maria della Pescia; but the last
payment to him is dated 30 July 1516, and by 29 Oct. 1516 (according to Lazari, but
according to Papadopoli not until 30 Dec. 1517) he was back at his post in the Venetian
mint. (The ‘ M° Cornelio’ who is mentioned as superintendent of the Papal Mint in
1524 cannot be a slip of the pen for ‘Camelio’). He was getting old, however, and an
assistant was appointed in 1526, but he lived until 1537, though probably he did not do
much work in his last decade.
Technically, Gambello is notable for his improvements in the art of die-engraving;
he shows respectable skill in minute design, and was probably in touch with Caradosso
in Rome. He tends in his struck medals to use a bar-less a. His later cast medals
have considerable breadth and dignity of treatment as regards the busts, but his reverses
do not show much power of composition. Like many of his contemporaries he was fond
of free imitations of the antique, though we do not know that he attempted to deceive,
as is implied, e.g., in the Chronicon Gottwicense (1732, quoted by Farsetti, p. 24: in re
numaria quotnon supposititios orbi nummos obtrusere Cavinus, Bassianus, Gambellus, Celinus
et alii). Gambello is the Venetian dialect form for camelus', the artist signs himself
Camelius (not Camelus, as often stated). According to a sonnet by Cornelio Castaldi,
‘ Camelus ’ was an able poet as well as sculptor.
Besides the medals described below, many others have been attributed to Gambello,
especially by Foville.
In the following bibliography works referring only to Gambello’s sculpture are not
included.
Enea Vico, Discorsi (1558), cap. 23, p. 67. T. G. Farsetti, Vita prefixed to Poesie di Cornelio Castaldi (1757), PP- 22 f-
J. C. W. Mohsen, Beschr. einer Berlin. Medaillen-Sammlung, i (1773), pp. 257-80. Cicognara, v (1824), pp. 431-3- Bolzenthal
(1840), pp. 69 f. V. Lazari, Notizia delle Opere d'Arte . . . della Raccolta Correr (1859), pp. 181 ff. Bull, di Arti, Industria e
Curiositd Venez., i (1877-8), pp. 59 f. Friedlander, Ital. Schaumunzen (1882), pp. 93-8; Die gepragten ital. Med. (1883), p. 15.
Arm. I (1883), pp. 114-17; III (1887), p. 45. E. Mtintz, U atelier monet. de Rome in Rev. Num. (1884), p. 245. G. Frizzoni,
Not. d'opere di disegno (Anon. Morell.) (1884), pp. 234-6. E. Molinier, Les plaquettes (1886), i, pp. 109 ff. A. Heiss,
Medailleurs de la Ren., Venise (1887), pp. 119-28. N. Papadopoli in Arch. Ven., 35 (1888), p. 273 = Azh. Ital. di Num., i (1888),
PP- 353 f- Paoletti, L’Architett. e la Scult. del Rinasc. in Ven. (1893), ii, pp. 132, 134, 263, 271 f. Ilg in Jahrb. d. kunsth.
Samml. d. Allerh. Kaiserh., xi (1893), p. 107. C. v. Fabriczy, Ital. Medals (1904), pp. 78 ff. Forrer, Diet., i (1904), pp. 331 ff.
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