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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68735#0272
922-3 PART VI
VI. A small group of medals which seem by their style to stand more definitely apart
from Niccold’s work than most of those included in Group IV.
VII. A group consisting chiefly of portrait-medals of the three great literary heroes
of Florence, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. With these are included one or two
other re-evocations of old times. The portrait of S. Antonino, as also being not
from the life, is here included. It is perhaps the only one which might have
a claim to pass into Group IV. The connexion of the others of this group with
Niccold Fiorentino (especially the grotesquely bad Coluccio Salutati) is slight
indeed.
The above classification will, it is hoped, make it possible for future investigators to
obtain a clearer idea of the style of Niccold as revealed in his signed medals, and of the
quality of the other pieces which have been assigned to him. It will probably be
admitted that among the latter there are very many on an almost incomparably higher
plane than those which are authenticated by his signature. Of none of the signed
portraits (except possibly of the Lorenzo) can it be said that they are masterly, an
epithet which is apt to the portraits of the Grand Bastard, Petrus Maria, Giovanni
Tornabuoni, Filippo Strozzi. There are no women among the signed medals, so that
we have no opportunity of comparing his signed work with the enchanting figures
of Giovanna Albizzi or Nonina Strozzi or Costanza Rucellai or Lucrezia of Siena.
Much has been written on the qualities of these medals. There is general agreement
that their author or authors, while almost unequalled in the power, brilliance, and charm
of their portraits, are careless and clumsy in the reverse compositions. The explanation
is that in Florence the medal occupied a much less important station than in some
of the northern centres ; it was overshadowed by sculpture on a large scale, and many of
the medals must have been actually the parerga of sculptors. It is notorious that most
sculptors, when working on the small scale of a medal, are neglectful of technique and
impatient of detail, and generally ignore the fact that the conditions applying to a small
circular composition are quite different from those of a large relief. It is probable that
many of the portrait obverses were modelled by the artist without any notion of
a reverse; such reverses may have been supplied at the time or later by a casting-shop
‘ from stock Only thus can we explain the numerous incongruities between obverse
and reverse which this series, more than any other, presents.
Documents cited as above. Leonardo da Vinci, Il codice . . . della biblioteca di Lord Leicester, Milan (1909), p. 66.
Friedlander, Ital. Schaumunzen (1882), pp. 139-40. Armand, Medailleurs italiens, i (1883), pp. 83-91; ii (1883), p. 289;
iii (1887), pp. 19-22. Heiss, Medailleurs de la Renaissance, Florence, i (1891), pp. 56-71. Fabriczy, Italian Medals (1904),
pp. 119-26. Bode, Der Florentiner Medailleur Niccolb di Forzore Spinelli in Jahrb. d. k. preuss. Kunstsamml., xxv (1904),
pp. 1-14. The same, Florentiner Bildhauer, 3rd ed. (1911), pp. 268-85. E. Solmi in Raccolta Vinciana, vii (1912), pp. 138 f.
Hill, Medals of the Renaissance (1920), pp. 78-82. Habich, Medaillen der ital. Renaissance (1924), pp. 67-72. Bode in
Zeitschr. f. Num., 34 (1924), pp. 386-8.
I. SIGNED MEDALS
DAZIARI (Silvestro), Bishop of Chioggia.
922. Obv. Y SILVES T EPS V Y CLVGIEN y Bust 1.,
tonsured, wearing rochet.
Rev. Y OPVS Y NICOLAI Y FORZORII FLOREN y
MCCCCLXXXV A globe placed on a square
cippus inscribed VAR1|ETAS | (leaf).
Arm. Ill, 20, e (58 mm.). [a. Pl. 149.]
(«) Vienna, | 59 mm. Not contemporary. Arm., loc. cit.
Heiss, Nice. Spinelli, p. 8, Pl. i, 1. Bode, Jahrb., xxv,
p. 10; Flor. BildhP, p. 280.
[
According to Bode, made in Rome. The idea of the
reverse is borrowed from the well-known Beata Tranquillitas
type of Roman coins of Constantine the Great.
Daziari became Bishop of Chioggia on 24 Jan. 1480 and
was succeeded on his death by Bern. Venier on 24 Jan.
1487.
ESTE (Alfonso I dj).
923. Obv. yAlfonsvsy yestensisy Bust r.,
with long hair, wearing small cap with back
edge turned up, and gown over doublet.
1
VI. A small group of medals which seem by their style to stand more definitely apart
from Niccold’s work than most of those included in Group IV.
VII. A group consisting chiefly of portrait-medals of the three great literary heroes
of Florence, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. With these are included one or two
other re-evocations of old times. The portrait of S. Antonino, as also being not
from the life, is here included. It is perhaps the only one which might have
a claim to pass into Group IV. The connexion of the others of this group with
Niccold Fiorentino (especially the grotesquely bad Coluccio Salutati) is slight
indeed.
The above classification will, it is hoped, make it possible for future investigators to
obtain a clearer idea of the style of Niccold as revealed in his signed medals, and of the
quality of the other pieces which have been assigned to him. It will probably be
admitted that among the latter there are very many on an almost incomparably higher
plane than those which are authenticated by his signature. Of none of the signed
portraits (except possibly of the Lorenzo) can it be said that they are masterly, an
epithet which is apt to the portraits of the Grand Bastard, Petrus Maria, Giovanni
Tornabuoni, Filippo Strozzi. There are no women among the signed medals, so that
we have no opportunity of comparing his signed work with the enchanting figures
of Giovanna Albizzi or Nonina Strozzi or Costanza Rucellai or Lucrezia of Siena.
Much has been written on the qualities of these medals. There is general agreement
that their author or authors, while almost unequalled in the power, brilliance, and charm
of their portraits, are careless and clumsy in the reverse compositions. The explanation
is that in Florence the medal occupied a much less important station than in some
of the northern centres ; it was overshadowed by sculpture on a large scale, and many of
the medals must have been actually the parerga of sculptors. It is notorious that most
sculptors, when working on the small scale of a medal, are neglectful of technique and
impatient of detail, and generally ignore the fact that the conditions applying to a small
circular composition are quite different from those of a large relief. It is probable that
many of the portrait obverses were modelled by the artist without any notion of
a reverse; such reverses may have been supplied at the time or later by a casting-shop
‘ from stock Only thus can we explain the numerous incongruities between obverse
and reverse which this series, more than any other, presents.
Documents cited as above. Leonardo da Vinci, Il codice . . . della biblioteca di Lord Leicester, Milan (1909), p. 66.
Friedlander, Ital. Schaumunzen (1882), pp. 139-40. Armand, Medailleurs italiens, i (1883), pp. 83-91; ii (1883), p. 289;
iii (1887), pp. 19-22. Heiss, Medailleurs de la Renaissance, Florence, i (1891), pp. 56-71. Fabriczy, Italian Medals (1904),
pp. 119-26. Bode, Der Florentiner Medailleur Niccolb di Forzore Spinelli in Jahrb. d. k. preuss. Kunstsamml., xxv (1904),
pp. 1-14. The same, Florentiner Bildhauer, 3rd ed. (1911), pp. 268-85. E. Solmi in Raccolta Vinciana, vii (1912), pp. 138 f.
Hill, Medals of the Renaissance (1920), pp. 78-82. Habich, Medaillen der ital. Renaissance (1924), pp. 67-72. Bode in
Zeitschr. f. Num., 34 (1924), pp. 386-8.
I. SIGNED MEDALS
DAZIARI (Silvestro), Bishop of Chioggia.
922. Obv. Y SILVES T EPS V Y CLVGIEN y Bust 1.,
tonsured, wearing rochet.
Rev. Y OPVS Y NICOLAI Y FORZORII FLOREN y
MCCCCLXXXV A globe placed on a square
cippus inscribed VAR1|ETAS | (leaf).
Arm. Ill, 20, e (58 mm.). [a. Pl. 149.]
(«) Vienna, | 59 mm. Not contemporary. Arm., loc. cit.
Heiss, Nice. Spinelli, p. 8, Pl. i, 1. Bode, Jahrb., xxv,
p. 10; Flor. BildhP, p. 280.
[
According to Bode, made in Rome. The idea of the
reverse is borrowed from the well-known Beata Tranquillitas
type of Roman coins of Constantine the Great.
Daziari became Bishop of Chioggia on 24 Jan. 1480 and
was succeeded on his death by Bern. Venier on 24 Jan.
1487.
ESTE (Alfonso I dj).
923. Obv. yAlfonsvsy yestensisy Bust r.,
with long hair, wearing small cap with back
edge turned up, and gown over doublet.
1