DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68735#0269
NICCOLd F
Matthias Corvin, Soc. frang. de reproductions de manuscrits
a peintures, Paris (1923), Pl. iii)—a relief which, like its
pendant the portrait of Beatrice of Aragon, is attributed by
Venturi and Schubring to Giovanni Dalmata, and dated
about 1481-91. (Venturi, Storia dell' Arte Ital., vi, p. 1053 ;
Schubring, Ital. Plastik des Quattrocento, p. 263.) This
derivation for the obverse of the medal does not seem to
me very probable; for one thing, the king wears a wreath
of oak (as on the large medallion, Arm. II, 181, 7; III, 87, a)
instead of laurel.
The obverse of our medal is reproduced twice in the front
and back covers of the Erlangen MS. 231 of the Vulgate,
which was in the king’s library (Hevesy, op. cit., Pl. x).
From information kindly supplied by Dr. E. Stollreither,
it appears that the material of the reproduction is probably
leather. It is let into a corresponding circular space in the
IORENTINO 92I
binding, which is considered to be contemporary with the
king. The inscription round the bust is merely MATHIA
REX, not the long inscription given above, but the bust
seems to correspond very closely to the bust on the medal.
We must compare also the medallion miniatures in the
Vienna MS. of Philostratus, Heroica (Hevesy, op. cit.,
Pl. xxxi) with the inscription MATHIAS REX VNG
BOEQ.ET DVX AVS and the uninscribed oval medallion
in the Paris Ptolemy (MS. lat. 8834, Rev. de I'Art chretien
(1911), at p. 16). These reproductions of, or parallels to, the
medal seem to establish the date of the model from which
the bust on the medal is taken as contemporary with
Matthias; but the lettering can hardly be so early, and
the reverse design (which is not, like the obverse, sup-
ported by the analogies above described) has a seventeenth-
century air.
THE ‘PINCERS’ MEDALLIST
MEDICI (Lorenzo de’), il Magnifico.
921. Obv. LAVREHT1VS MEDICES Bust of Lor-
enzo 1., with hair to nape of neck, wearing
helmet with vizor raised, engrailed pattern on
top of bowl, and wing at side; cuirass with
indented pattern round neck. Below, a pair of
pincers.
Rev. None.
Arm. I, p. 51 (90 mm.); III, p. 9. Fabr., p. 121. Hab.,
p. 73. Trapesnikofif, p. 47, Pl. xviii. [a. Pl. 149.]
(a) Paris (Armand), 90 mm. Arm., loc. cit. Heiss, Nice.
Spin., p. 55, no. 2, Pl. vi, 2. Fabr., Pl. xxiii, 3. Late
casting. (Z>) Florence, Mus. Naz., Carrand Coll.,
no. 531. Oval plaquette, 80x57-5 mm. Inscription
incised: LAVRENTIO MEDICES, (c) Munich. A
waster showing the bust only. Munch. Jahrb. (1918),
p. 314, Abb. 1. Hab., Pl. li, 1.
This curious and ugly piece is generally accepted as
contemporary with Lorenzo. A family still surviving in
Florence bears the name of Tanagli, and Armand suggested
that the pincers under the bust indicate the authorship of
one of that family. In view of Milaneses definite statement
that the Tanagli belonged to the Gild of Silk-weavers and
had business relations with Lorenzo, and Campani’s in-
formation (apud Arm.) that people of that name were still
working as goldsmiths, as well as the fact that Michelangelo
Tanagli, working in 1510, was interested in medals and
gems (see below on no. 1066), the conjecture that one of
them may have made the medal is perhaps not so fantastic
as Habich (p. 145, note 63) seems to think. Habich’s own
suggestion is that, if Vasari is right in saying that Antonio
del Pollaiuolo made a medal of Lorenzo, this may be the
one. But so clumsily amateurish a production can hardly
be attributed to that artist. Milanesi suggested that the
Michelangelo already mentioned may have made it. It is
clearly the work of a person unaccustomed to modelling.
The helmet is in the style of the fantastic headgear seen in
many works of the time ; cp. for instance those in the Fini-
guerra drawings dating from 1455 to 1465 (Colvin, A Floren-
tine Picture Chronicle', the Troilus on Pl. 85 has a similar
indented pattern on the neck of his cuirass1). But the
neck-piece seems to be misunderstood. If the medal is
really of the time, which is by no means certain, Armand
may well be right in his conjecture (accepted by Fabriczy)
that Lorenzo is wearing the silver helmet which he won
at the tournament given in honour of Lucrezia Donati in
1469. It is true that it was surmounted by a figure of
Mars; but the crest might be omitted on the medal, since
its inclusion would have so greatly reduced the dimensions
of the head.
Habich calls the irregularly shaped specimen at Munich
a trial-casting; a waster, or casting that failed, seems a
more apt description.
NICCOLD DI FORZORE SPINELLI, called NICCOL0 FIORENTINO
NICCOL0 DI FORZORE DI NICCOLD DI LUCA SPINELLI, a grand-nephew
of the painter Spinello Aretino, was born in Florence, of a family of goldsmiths of the
Popolo of S. Maria Novella, on 23 Apr. 14302, and died there in April 1514. He
married in 1471 Alessandra di Lionardo de" Paoli. It is probable that he is identical
with the ‘Nicolas de Spinel’ who is mentioned in 1468 in the accounts of the Dukes
of Burgundy as having engraved seals for Charles the Bold. In 1484 he repaired and
restored the great silver seal of the Arte de’Giudici e Notai of Florence. The dates
of two of his medals are fixed in 1484 and 1492 (see below); the payment for the latter
medal is also recorded in a document. He is to be distinguished from one Nicolas de
1 So has the bust identified as Lorenzo in the Quincy Shaw Collection (Cruttwell, Verrocchio, Pl. xx).
2 Habich’s date 1435 (p. 67) is doubtless due to a slip of the pen.
[243]
Matthias Corvin, Soc. frang. de reproductions de manuscrits
a peintures, Paris (1923), Pl. iii)—a relief which, like its
pendant the portrait of Beatrice of Aragon, is attributed by
Venturi and Schubring to Giovanni Dalmata, and dated
about 1481-91. (Venturi, Storia dell' Arte Ital., vi, p. 1053 ;
Schubring, Ital. Plastik des Quattrocento, p. 263.) This
derivation for the obverse of the medal does not seem to
me very probable; for one thing, the king wears a wreath
of oak (as on the large medallion, Arm. II, 181, 7; III, 87, a)
instead of laurel.
The obverse of our medal is reproduced twice in the front
and back covers of the Erlangen MS. 231 of the Vulgate,
which was in the king’s library (Hevesy, op. cit., Pl. x).
From information kindly supplied by Dr. E. Stollreither,
it appears that the material of the reproduction is probably
leather. It is let into a corresponding circular space in the
IORENTINO 92I
binding, which is considered to be contemporary with the
king. The inscription round the bust is merely MATHIA
REX, not the long inscription given above, but the bust
seems to correspond very closely to the bust on the medal.
We must compare also the medallion miniatures in the
Vienna MS. of Philostratus, Heroica (Hevesy, op. cit.,
Pl. xxxi) with the inscription MATHIAS REX VNG
BOEQ.ET DVX AVS and the uninscribed oval medallion
in the Paris Ptolemy (MS. lat. 8834, Rev. de I'Art chretien
(1911), at p. 16). These reproductions of, or parallels to, the
medal seem to establish the date of the model from which
the bust on the medal is taken as contemporary with
Matthias; but the lettering can hardly be so early, and
the reverse design (which is not, like the obverse, sup-
ported by the analogies above described) has a seventeenth-
century air.
THE ‘PINCERS’ MEDALLIST
MEDICI (Lorenzo de’), il Magnifico.
921. Obv. LAVREHT1VS MEDICES Bust of Lor-
enzo 1., with hair to nape of neck, wearing
helmet with vizor raised, engrailed pattern on
top of bowl, and wing at side; cuirass with
indented pattern round neck. Below, a pair of
pincers.
Rev. None.
Arm. I, p. 51 (90 mm.); III, p. 9. Fabr., p. 121. Hab.,
p. 73. Trapesnikofif, p. 47, Pl. xviii. [a. Pl. 149.]
(a) Paris (Armand), 90 mm. Arm., loc. cit. Heiss, Nice.
Spin., p. 55, no. 2, Pl. vi, 2. Fabr., Pl. xxiii, 3. Late
casting. (Z>) Florence, Mus. Naz., Carrand Coll.,
no. 531. Oval plaquette, 80x57-5 mm. Inscription
incised: LAVRENTIO MEDICES, (c) Munich. A
waster showing the bust only. Munch. Jahrb. (1918),
p. 314, Abb. 1. Hab., Pl. li, 1.
This curious and ugly piece is generally accepted as
contemporary with Lorenzo. A family still surviving in
Florence bears the name of Tanagli, and Armand suggested
that the pincers under the bust indicate the authorship of
one of that family. In view of Milaneses definite statement
that the Tanagli belonged to the Gild of Silk-weavers and
had business relations with Lorenzo, and Campani’s in-
formation (apud Arm.) that people of that name were still
working as goldsmiths, as well as the fact that Michelangelo
Tanagli, working in 1510, was interested in medals and
gems (see below on no. 1066), the conjecture that one of
them may have made the medal is perhaps not so fantastic
as Habich (p. 145, note 63) seems to think. Habich’s own
suggestion is that, if Vasari is right in saying that Antonio
del Pollaiuolo made a medal of Lorenzo, this may be the
one. But so clumsily amateurish a production can hardly
be attributed to that artist. Milanesi suggested that the
Michelangelo already mentioned may have made it. It is
clearly the work of a person unaccustomed to modelling.
The helmet is in the style of the fantastic headgear seen in
many works of the time ; cp. for instance those in the Fini-
guerra drawings dating from 1455 to 1465 (Colvin, A Floren-
tine Picture Chronicle', the Troilus on Pl. 85 has a similar
indented pattern on the neck of his cuirass1). But the
neck-piece seems to be misunderstood. If the medal is
really of the time, which is by no means certain, Armand
may well be right in his conjecture (accepted by Fabriczy)
that Lorenzo is wearing the silver helmet which he won
at the tournament given in honour of Lucrezia Donati in
1469. It is true that it was surmounted by a figure of
Mars; but the crest might be omitted on the medal, since
its inclusion would have so greatly reduced the dimensions
of the head.
Habich calls the irregularly shaped specimen at Munich
a trial-casting; a waster, or casting that failed, seems a
more apt description.
NICCOLD DI FORZORE SPINELLI, called NICCOL0 FIORENTINO
NICCOL0 DI FORZORE DI NICCOLD DI LUCA SPINELLI, a grand-nephew
of the painter Spinello Aretino, was born in Florence, of a family of goldsmiths of the
Popolo of S. Maria Novella, on 23 Apr. 14302, and died there in April 1514. He
married in 1471 Alessandra di Lionardo de" Paoli. It is probable that he is identical
with the ‘Nicolas de Spinel’ who is mentioned in 1468 in the accounts of the Dukes
of Burgundy as having engraved seals for Charles the Bold. In 1484 he repaired and
restored the great silver seal of the Arte de’Giudici e Notai of Florence. The dates
of two of his medals are fixed in 1484 and 1492 (see below); the payment for the latter
medal is also recorded in a document. He is to be distinguished from one Nicolas de
1 So has the bust identified as Lorenzo in the Quincy Shaw Collection (Cruttwell, Verrocchio, Pl. xx).
2 Habich’s date 1435 (p. 67) is doubtless due to a slip of the pen.
[243]