Hill, George Francis: A corpus of Italian medals of the Renaissance before Cellini: in 2 volumes (Volume 1): Text (London: British Museum, 1930)

FLORENTINE RESTORATIONS IO9O-3
FLORENTINE RESTORATIONS OF PORTRAITS
OF FAMOUS MEN
THE following group of medals, mostly if not all of Florentine origin, and dating from
the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century, bears portraits of famous
persons (nearly all literary) of antiquity or the Middle Ages, down to the beginning of
the fifteenth century; with them is included the medal of S. Antonino. Within this
group, the Boccaccio-Dante-Petrarch medals can be arranged in sub-groups.

ARISTOTLE.
1090. Obv. tAPIsto teahs Bust r., with
long hair and beard, wearing round cap with edge
turned up all round, and robe with turn-down
collar.
Rev. None.
(a) Bologna, Mus. Civ., 90-5 mm. Not original. (Z>) Milan,
Med. Mun. (Brera), 87-5 mm. Not original, (c) Venice,
Correr, 86 mm. Eug. Strong in Pap. Br. Sch. Rome, ix
(1920), p. 223. Not original. (<Z) Gustave Dreyfus,
85 mm. [a. Pl. 183.]
Obviously Florentine work of the end of the fifteenth
or beginning of the sixteenth century. On the type,
see Mrs. Strong, loc. cit., and Planiscig in Festschr.
Julius Schlosser, ed. Weixlgartner u. Planiscig (1927),
pp. 137 ff. The Rosenheim plaque published by Mrs.

Strong is now restored to the English College in
Rome.
CHARLEMAGNE.
1091. Obv. yKROLVSyMAGNVSyINPERIyFRANCO
-y rex y Bust 1., bearded, with long hair,
bound with plain fillet; robe laced in front.
Rev. No inscription. Victory, winged, in
tunic and mantle, seated r. on car drawn by two
prancing horses; she holds palm-branch and
sword (?) erect in r., reins in 1.
(a) Brussels, f 98 mm. (Z>) Milan, Med. Mun. (Brera),
98 mm. [6. Pl. 183.]
Rough work, obviously Florentine, about 1500. Both
specimens show the same defect and are derived from the
same defective piece.

MEDALS OF DANTE, BOCCACCIO, AND PETRARCH

A. The larger set (about 57 mm.). Of these
the Boccaccio and Petrarch seem to be by one
hand, but that of Dante has finer qualities, and
the others may have been made by a second
hand to match it.
DANTE ALIGHIERI.
1092. Obv. ydanthesy yFLOREN tin vs Bust
1., wearing laureate cap with falling point and
stringed flaps covering ears; gown with small
lapels.
Rev. No inscription. Dante before the
Mountain of Purgatory. He, wearing cap as
on obv., and long robe, stands 1., holding book
in 1., raising r. and gazing at the Mountain, on
summit of which is the Earthly Paradise, with
Adam and Eve under theTreeof Knowledge; in
a cavity at base of mountain, two figures; half-
way up, an arch; to 1., a lesser mountain with
two entrances to Hell, with demons, &c., about
them; above, seven circles of Heaven.
Arm. II, 11, 1 (55 mm.). Heiss, Flor., i, p. 125, 1,
Pl. xvii, 1; R. T. Holbrook, Portraits of Dante, 1911,
title-page and pp. 240-1. [7. Pl. 183.]
(<?) Berlin, 52 mm. Friedl., p. 154, no. 37, Pl. xxx. Hab.,
Pl.xlix, 1. (6) Brescia(Brozzoni), 54mm. Mazz. I, vii,5.
Rizz., no. 420. (c) Florence, 53 mm. Sup., no. 131,
Pl. xlv, 2. G. L. Passerini, Il ritratto di Dante (1921),
p. 43. Late and poor, (d) Glasgow, Hunterian Mus.,
56 mm. (e) London, f 54 mm. Poor. (/) Another, also
OO [ 281 ]

poor, in moulded rim, making 65 mm., without rev.;
purchased 1885. (^) London, V. A. M. (Soulages,
718-1865), f 52-5 mm. Poor. (A) Naples, 54 mm.
Rin., no. 684. (/) Paris. Tres. de Num. I, xiv, 3.
(7) T. W. Greene, 56 mm. N. Chr. (1913), p. 414,
Pl. xx, 1.
Frequently found in after-casts with alien reverses : e. g.
portrait of 1 Pisanus pictor’, obv. increased by wreath to
fit rev. (see note on no. 87); 'Charitas omnia sufifert’ by
Steven of Herwyck (Brit. Mus.).
The reverse is based on the painting made in 1465 by
Domenico di Michelino, in the Duomo, Florence. Cp.
the early Florentine engraving (Hind, Catal. of Early
Italian Engr., A I 23).
BOCCACCIO (Giovanni).
1093. Obv. yIOHESyBOCAT IVSyFLOREy Bust
L, head swathed in cloth which wraps under
chin, and falls in long fold behind, encircled by
laurel-wreath; robe with pleated front.
Rev. No inscription. Wisdom standing to
front, wearing tunic and mantle; looks 1. at
serpent which she holds up in r.; with 1. holds
edge of her mantle.
Arm. II, 12, 8 (57 mm.). Heiss, Flor., i, p. 140,2. Bode,
Jahrb., xxv, p. 6; Flor. BildhP, pp. 276, 282. Hab., Pl. xlix, 3.
[/. Pl. 183.]
(a) Berlin, 52 mm. Friedl., p. 155, no. 39. (b) Another,
55 mm. Simon, no. 172. (c) Brescia (Brozzoni),
57 mm. Mazz. I, viii, 5. Rizz., no. 425. (d) Copen-
hagen, f 58-5 mm. Poor cast, (e) Florence, 56 mm.
Sup., no. 133, Pl. xlv. Old, rough, (f) London