DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68735#0262
PART VI
on the other also, see above) the same abbreviations occur.
This and the pearled border are in favour of the attribution
of the medal (no. 909) of Cosimo to Cristoforo; but the
lettering is against it, and on the whole it seems better to
leave them both under Florence. The variety 910, which is
more in thestyle of the Florentine school as developed under
Niccolo Fiorentino, is perhaps somewhat later than 909.
J. de Foville’s suggestion that no. 909 is the work of
Cristoforo di Geremia has not met with general acceptance.
An old attribution of 910 to Pisano was based on the inter-
pretation of O P P as Opus Pisani Pictoris. Goethe and
Heinrich Meyer ascribed the Weimar specimen to Dona-
tello, who, however, died on 13 Dec. 1466 nearly eighty
years old; he could have made it, but later writers have
thought it unlikely. Yet, on stylistic grounds, there is not
a little to be said for the suggestion that the medal no. 909
might be a work of his old age; the modelling of the
features has not a little of the Donatellesque touch.
Michelozzo has also been suggested as the author, on the
somewhat inadequate ground that Vasari says he made
a medal of some one else (Santi Bentivoglio), which has not
survived. (See above on no. 906 bis.) But Michelozzo was
absent from Florence from 1462 to 1466; and there is
nothing in the style to support the attribution. The artist
most in favour at present seems to be Niccold Fiorentino;
to whom Friedlander inclines at any rate for no. 910 and
its varieties. As already observed, no. 910 may be in his
neighbourhood.
BERTOLDO DI GIOVANNI
FLORENTINE bronze-sculptor, born about 1420, died at Poggio a Caiano on 28 Dec.
1491. The fact that he is remembered chiefly as a pupil of Donatello and the master
of Michelangelo, and not for his actual productions, is significant; and the mediocrity of
his medals is in keeping therewith. He seems not even to have done the casting of his
models himself, for Adriano Fiorentino cast his best-known bronze-group, the Bellerophon
and Pegasus, and Guacialoti cast his Pazzi medal.
Of the medals only one is signed, the Mohammad; though it is evidently not from
the life, it is not certain that it depends on Bellini’s medal of the Sultan. The attribution
of other medals and plaquettes to Bertoldo is mainly due to Bode; these attributions
are generally accepted, with the exception of the medal of Alfonso of Calabria, which
certainly belongs to a quite different group (Neapolitan, if not by Francesco di Giorgio-
see no. 311), and that of Matthias Corvinus (no. 920).
The characteristics of style, which have led to the attribution of this group to Bertoldo,
are evident enough: a flat relief, a preference for a number of small figures, placed
anyhow in the field with little idea of composition (the Pazzi medal, with colossal heads
placed on top of the choir of the Duomo, is the most grotesque example), and an inability
to finish detail, which leaves much obscure. In his lettering the artist tends to use
semi-minuscule forms.
In the following list, after the medal of Mohammad II, which may be dated about
1480-1, the medals are arranged in the alphabetical order of the persons represented.
An approximate chronological order would be:—
1468-9. Frederick III.
1474 or earlier. Filippo de’ Medici.
1475. Duce Virtute reverse.
1478. Pazzi Conspiracy.
1480-1. Mohammad II.
1481. Gratiadei.
The rest are better left undated.
For the general bibliography to 1909 see Schottmuller’s article in Thieme-Becker, Kunstler-Lexikon, iii, pp. 505 ff.
See more especially, for the present purpose: J. Friedlander, Ital. Schaumiinzen, Berlin (1882), p. 163. A. Armand, Les
med. ital., i (1883), pp. 76, 77. A. Heiss, Les Med. de la Ren., Niccold Spinelli (1885), pp. 76-8. Molinier, Les Plaquettes
(1886), i, pp. 57-9. Semrau, Donatello's Kanzeln (1891), pp. 191-224. C. von Fabriczy, Ital. Med. (1904), pp. 109 ff.
W. Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer* (1911), pp. 256-67. Hill, Med. Ren. (1920), pp. 75 ff. W. von Bode, Ber. preuss.
Kunstsammlungen, xlii (1921), pp. 25-9. Bange, Berl. Plak. (1922), pp. 41-3. Habich, Med. ital. Ren. (1924), pp. 64-5.
W. von Bode, Bertoldo und Lorenzo dei Medici, Freiburg in Breisgau, 1925. E. Jacobs, Die MehemmedMedaille des
Bertoldo, in Jahrb. Pr. Kunstsamml., xlviii (1927), pp. 1 ff.
[238]
on the other also, see above) the same abbreviations occur.
This and the pearled border are in favour of the attribution
of the medal (no. 909) of Cosimo to Cristoforo; but the
lettering is against it, and on the whole it seems better to
leave them both under Florence. The variety 910, which is
more in thestyle of the Florentine school as developed under
Niccolo Fiorentino, is perhaps somewhat later than 909.
J. de Foville’s suggestion that no. 909 is the work of
Cristoforo di Geremia has not met with general acceptance.
An old attribution of 910 to Pisano was based on the inter-
pretation of O P P as Opus Pisani Pictoris. Goethe and
Heinrich Meyer ascribed the Weimar specimen to Dona-
tello, who, however, died on 13 Dec. 1466 nearly eighty
years old; he could have made it, but later writers have
thought it unlikely. Yet, on stylistic grounds, there is not
a little to be said for the suggestion that the medal no. 909
might be a work of his old age; the modelling of the
features has not a little of the Donatellesque touch.
Michelozzo has also been suggested as the author, on the
somewhat inadequate ground that Vasari says he made
a medal of some one else (Santi Bentivoglio), which has not
survived. (See above on no. 906 bis.) But Michelozzo was
absent from Florence from 1462 to 1466; and there is
nothing in the style to support the attribution. The artist
most in favour at present seems to be Niccold Fiorentino;
to whom Friedlander inclines at any rate for no. 910 and
its varieties. As already observed, no. 910 may be in his
neighbourhood.
BERTOLDO DI GIOVANNI
FLORENTINE bronze-sculptor, born about 1420, died at Poggio a Caiano on 28 Dec.
1491. The fact that he is remembered chiefly as a pupil of Donatello and the master
of Michelangelo, and not for his actual productions, is significant; and the mediocrity of
his medals is in keeping therewith. He seems not even to have done the casting of his
models himself, for Adriano Fiorentino cast his best-known bronze-group, the Bellerophon
and Pegasus, and Guacialoti cast his Pazzi medal.
Of the medals only one is signed, the Mohammad; though it is evidently not from
the life, it is not certain that it depends on Bellini’s medal of the Sultan. The attribution
of other medals and plaquettes to Bertoldo is mainly due to Bode; these attributions
are generally accepted, with the exception of the medal of Alfonso of Calabria, which
certainly belongs to a quite different group (Neapolitan, if not by Francesco di Giorgio-
see no. 311), and that of Matthias Corvinus (no. 920).
The characteristics of style, which have led to the attribution of this group to Bertoldo,
are evident enough: a flat relief, a preference for a number of small figures, placed
anyhow in the field with little idea of composition (the Pazzi medal, with colossal heads
placed on top of the choir of the Duomo, is the most grotesque example), and an inability
to finish detail, which leaves much obscure. In his lettering the artist tends to use
semi-minuscule forms.
In the following list, after the medal of Mohammad II, which may be dated about
1480-1, the medals are arranged in the alphabetical order of the persons represented.
An approximate chronological order would be:—
1468-9. Frederick III.
1474 or earlier. Filippo de’ Medici.
1475. Duce Virtute reverse.
1478. Pazzi Conspiracy.
1480-1. Mohammad II.
1481. Gratiadei.
The rest are better left undated.
For the general bibliography to 1909 see Schottmuller’s article in Thieme-Becker, Kunstler-Lexikon, iii, pp. 505 ff.
See more especially, for the present purpose: J. Friedlander, Ital. Schaumiinzen, Berlin (1882), p. 163. A. Armand, Les
med. ital., i (1883), pp. 76, 77. A. Heiss, Les Med. de la Ren., Niccold Spinelli (1885), pp. 76-8. Molinier, Les Plaquettes
(1886), i, pp. 57-9. Semrau, Donatello's Kanzeln (1891), pp. 191-224. C. von Fabriczy, Ital. Med. (1904), pp. 109 ff.
W. Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer* (1911), pp. 256-67. Hill, Med. Ren. (1920), pp. 75 ff. W. von Bode, Ber. preuss.
Kunstsammlungen, xlii (1921), pp. 25-9. Bange, Berl. Plak. (1922), pp. 41-3. Habich, Med. ital. Ren. (1924), pp. 64-5.
W. von Bode, Bertoldo und Lorenzo dei Medici, Freiburg in Breisgau, 1925. E. Jacobs, Die MehemmedMedaille des
Bertoldo, in Jahrb. Pr. Kunstsamml., xlviii (1927), pp. 1 ff.
[238]