DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68735#0147
FRA ANTONI
D.V. for Dux Venetorum. Evidently commemorating
Loredano’s election as Doge. Friedlander’s suspicion that
the medal is not contemporary seems to be quite baseless.
LOREDANO (Leonardo), the Doge, and
his son Bernardo.
467. Obv. a LEONARD VS LAVREDANVS a Bust
r., in high relief, wearing ducal cap and robe.
Plain raised border.
Rev. A BERNARDVS LAVREDANVS PRINCIPIS
F1L Y and, below, A1OANNEGV1DO I AGRIPPEQVIT
Bust 1., in round cap, long thick hair, robe and
sash over r. shoulder. Plain raised border.
DA BRESCIA 467-8
Arm. I, 113, 2 (70 mm.). p. Pl. 87.]
(a) Milan (Brera), 67 mm. Friedl., p. 98, no. 2. (Z>) Turin,
70 mm. Arm., loc. cit. Heiss, Ven., p. 132, no. 2,
Pl. viii, 2. (c) Venice, Correr, f 68 mm. Friedl., p. 99.
All the above-mentioned specimens are very bad and not
very old after-casts, that in the Correr Museum being the
most distinct, that at Turin the worst. Friedlander has
completely misread the signature, and Armand and Heiss
have followed him ; it begins with the preposition A, there
is no S after IOANNE, and therefore the last word cannot
be a verb, but is, as the Correr specimen clearly shows,
EQVIT. The signature therefore means ‘by Giovanni
Guido Agrippa, Knight ’—a somewhat unusual formula, it
must be admitted.
Bernardo died in 1519 (Andr. Navagero, Orationes, &c.,
Venice, 1530, fo. xxi v°).
ALESSANDRO LEOPARDI
ALESSANDRO DI LEONARDO DE" LEOPARDI, architect, sculptor, bronze-
caster, goldsmith, and die-engraver, is first mentioned as goldsmith on 25 June 1482. On
24 Feb. 1484 he was appointed third master of the dies in the Venetian mint, without
salary; he began to be paid on 20 Mar. 1487, but on 9 Aug. of the same year, for forging
a signature, was banished for five years from Venice and its territory. He retired to
Ferrara, but was recalled in Sept. 1488 in order to finish the Colleoni horse and statue,
left incomplete by the death of Verrocchio. This work, which gained him the name
‘dal Cavallo’, was unveiled on 21 Mar. 1496. He continued to work for the mint, his
salary being increased to 100 ducats, but reduced with the others in 1506, and finally in
1510 to 40 ducats; he was then engraver of dies for the copper coins. His bronze pili
for the standards in front of St Mark’s were completed and put in position on 15 Aug. 1505.
He was still living in June 1522, but recorded as dead before March 1523. The statement
that he was living in 1541 is due to an unwarrantable interpretation of a passage in
Pietro Contarini’s Argo vulgar of that year.
P. Paoletti di Osvaldo, DArchitettura e la Scultura del Rinascimento in Venezia, ii (1893), pp. 262-73 (full references to
earlier authorities). N. Papadopoli Aldobrandini, Monete di Venezia, ii (1907), pp. 44, 45, 89. L. Planiscig, Venezianische
Bildhauer der Renaissance (1921), p. 287.
LOREDANO (Leonardo), Doge of Venice.
468. Obv. Bust r., in ducal cap and robe; in-
cised in field, L L Moulded rim.
Rev. None.
(«) Venice, Mus. Correr, 310 mm. [Pl. 87 (reduced).]
A replica of the medallion (Paoletti, op. cit., title-page of
vol. ii) in the base of the middle flagstaff in the Piazza di
San Marco, cast by Aless. Leopardi and erected on 15 Aug.
*5°5-
FRA ANTONIO DA BRESCIA
NOTHING is known of this artist except from his medals. His signature f.a.b.,
op.f.a.b., or fra.an.brix.me fecit has generally been interpreted as above, and there is
no serious ground for questioning this, nor is there any reason for doubting that all the
medals so signed, or simply signed a, are by the same hand.1 He is to be distinguished
from the marble-worker Antonio di Giovanni da Brescia.
1 An unfortunate article by J. de Foville [Rev. Num., 1912), traversing the usual interpretation, and propounding many
theories that can only be described as preposterous, must be dealt with here. Milanesi [apud Armand) had begun by saying
that Fra. An. Brix. (for which he suggests Francesco Antonio or di Antonio as an alternative to Frate Antonio) denotes
[ 123 ]
D.V. for Dux Venetorum. Evidently commemorating
Loredano’s election as Doge. Friedlander’s suspicion that
the medal is not contemporary seems to be quite baseless.
LOREDANO (Leonardo), the Doge, and
his son Bernardo.
467. Obv. a LEONARD VS LAVREDANVS a Bust
r., in high relief, wearing ducal cap and robe.
Plain raised border.
Rev. A BERNARDVS LAVREDANVS PRINCIPIS
F1L Y and, below, A1OANNEGV1DO I AGRIPPEQVIT
Bust 1., in round cap, long thick hair, robe and
sash over r. shoulder. Plain raised border.
DA BRESCIA 467-8
Arm. I, 113, 2 (70 mm.). p. Pl. 87.]
(a) Milan (Brera), 67 mm. Friedl., p. 98, no. 2. (Z>) Turin,
70 mm. Arm., loc. cit. Heiss, Ven., p. 132, no. 2,
Pl. viii, 2. (c) Venice, Correr, f 68 mm. Friedl., p. 99.
All the above-mentioned specimens are very bad and not
very old after-casts, that in the Correr Museum being the
most distinct, that at Turin the worst. Friedlander has
completely misread the signature, and Armand and Heiss
have followed him ; it begins with the preposition A, there
is no S after IOANNE, and therefore the last word cannot
be a verb, but is, as the Correr specimen clearly shows,
EQVIT. The signature therefore means ‘by Giovanni
Guido Agrippa, Knight ’—a somewhat unusual formula, it
must be admitted.
Bernardo died in 1519 (Andr. Navagero, Orationes, &c.,
Venice, 1530, fo. xxi v°).
ALESSANDRO LEOPARDI
ALESSANDRO DI LEONARDO DE" LEOPARDI, architect, sculptor, bronze-
caster, goldsmith, and die-engraver, is first mentioned as goldsmith on 25 June 1482. On
24 Feb. 1484 he was appointed third master of the dies in the Venetian mint, without
salary; he began to be paid on 20 Mar. 1487, but on 9 Aug. of the same year, for forging
a signature, was banished for five years from Venice and its territory. He retired to
Ferrara, but was recalled in Sept. 1488 in order to finish the Colleoni horse and statue,
left incomplete by the death of Verrocchio. This work, which gained him the name
‘dal Cavallo’, was unveiled on 21 Mar. 1496. He continued to work for the mint, his
salary being increased to 100 ducats, but reduced with the others in 1506, and finally in
1510 to 40 ducats; he was then engraver of dies for the copper coins. His bronze pili
for the standards in front of St Mark’s were completed and put in position on 15 Aug. 1505.
He was still living in June 1522, but recorded as dead before March 1523. The statement
that he was living in 1541 is due to an unwarrantable interpretation of a passage in
Pietro Contarini’s Argo vulgar of that year.
P. Paoletti di Osvaldo, DArchitettura e la Scultura del Rinascimento in Venezia, ii (1893), pp. 262-73 (full references to
earlier authorities). N. Papadopoli Aldobrandini, Monete di Venezia, ii (1907), pp. 44, 45, 89. L. Planiscig, Venezianische
Bildhauer der Renaissance (1921), p. 287.
LOREDANO (Leonardo), Doge of Venice.
468. Obv. Bust r., in ducal cap and robe; in-
cised in field, L L Moulded rim.
Rev. None.
(«) Venice, Mus. Correr, 310 mm. [Pl. 87 (reduced).]
A replica of the medallion (Paoletti, op. cit., title-page of
vol. ii) in the base of the middle flagstaff in the Piazza di
San Marco, cast by Aless. Leopardi and erected on 15 Aug.
*5°5-
FRA ANTONIO DA BRESCIA
NOTHING is known of this artist except from his medals. His signature f.a.b.,
op.f.a.b., or fra.an.brix.me fecit has generally been interpreted as above, and there is
no serious ground for questioning this, nor is there any reason for doubting that all the
medals so signed, or simply signed a, are by the same hand.1 He is to be distinguished
from the marble-worker Antonio di Giovanni da Brescia.
1 An unfortunate article by J. de Foville [Rev. Num., 1912), traversing the usual interpretation, and propounding many
theories that can only be described as preposterous, must be dealt with here. Milanesi [apud Armand) had begun by saying
that Fra. An. Brix. (for which he suggests Francesco Antonio or di Antonio as an alternative to Frate Antonio) denotes
[ 123 ]