Notes on Italian medals. VIII / by G.F. Hill

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    A Seal of the Crossbowmenof FranceSo far, the facts fail to account for the initialsR L C that appear in the field of the seal, unlessthe latter two stand for the maternal inheritanceof the master,La Fert6-Chauderon,which appearsunlikely.In his delightful sketch of the history of theFrench seal, Lecoy de la Marche estimated at

    about one thousand the numberof matricesextantin that country. When the universality of thesigillographic function is recalled in the case ofmediaevalFrance,and when it is rememberedthatthis number includes post-medieval times, such

    a survival can only be accounted infinitesimal.In the present instance, the non-existence of anyimpression from a crossbowmen's office-seal inthe catalogue of the ten thousand examplesat theArchives Nationales of France, is a circumstancethat greatlyenhances the matrix'simportancefromhistorical and sigillographic standpoints. Fromthat of armory,as furnishinga probablyunrecordedversion of the insignia of the fourteenth imaftredes arbalitriers,the facts speak for themselves.The seal is the property of Mr. W. H. Hammond,of Sevenoaks.

    NOTES ON ITALIAN MEDALS-VIIIckhBY G. F. HILL a

    I-THREE PEN-STUDIES BY SPERANDIOOF MANTUA.HE two drawings,which,bythe courtesyof their owners,Mr. Henry OppenheimerandM. Walter Gay, I am allowedto reproduce here,2 onceformed part of the samesheet of paper." They areboth evidently by the samehand-not that of a great master of drawing,by any means,butundoubtedlydatingfromthe lastquarter of the fifteenth century. The traditionalattribution to Pisanello cannot be regardedseriously; but the scale and pose of the drawingssuggest that they may be by some other medallist.On seeing the fragmentwith the two confrontedbusts (P1. I, 2) in Mr. Oppenheimer'scollection, Iwas at once struckwith the generalresemblanceofthe bust of the old man on the left to some of the

    portraitsby Sperandio. Further searchnarrowedthe field to the portrait of Antonio Sarzanellade' Manfredi,whose medal by Sperandio is repro-duced for comparison in P1. I, 1.4 The chiefdifference between the portraits is in the nose,which on the medal is longer than in the drawing.The wart on the cheek is also not indicated in thedrawing. The ear and the loose skin about thecheek and neck are treated in very much the samefashion in both portraits. Many persons to whomthe two have been shown have not hesitated to re-

    gard them as representingthe same man. On thispoint, however, I do not insist, because it is notessential to the attribution of the drawings toSperandio,although it might serve as a corrobora-tive argument. In M. Walter Gay's drawing(Pl. I, 4) we have a sketch which does notseem to be so obviously a study for a medal.And yet, on comparison with the reverses ofsome of Sperandio'smedals, we are struck withcertain points of resemblance which indicatethat it is, after all, such a study. There is astrong similarity in arrangementof dress and inpose (the position of the face alone being varied)to the figure on the reverse of the medal ofSarzanellahimself; but a still betterparallel is tobe found in the figure on the reverseof the medalof Catelano Casali, illustrated from the Berlinspecimen in P1. I, 3. The curious disposition ofthe hair is the same in both drawing and medal.And anyone who turns over the plates of Heiss'svolume on Sperandio will find other points ofcontact between the drawing and the medals.Is it then too rash to suggest that we have inthese little studies the work of Sperandio? Theyare by no means drawings of the first rank; butthen Sperandio, although he occasionally givesevidence of a good deal of power, is no longerplaced so high among medallistsas he used to be.His qualities, good and bad, are admirablysummarized by M. de Foville in the introductionto his study of the artist, of which the firstchapter (in 'Le Mus6e' for July) reaches meas I am correcting the proofs of this article.These two drawings of men display, if notstrength,at least a lively realismand some sense ofcharacter. Until some drawings are discoveredwhich show a still closer approach to his medals,these may, I think, be regardedas having a goodclaim to be from his hand. The fact that they be-traya certain affinitywith contemporaryFerraresework is all in favour of the attribution, sinceSperandio, besides the time which he spent inFerraraduring his youth, also worked there from

    IFor the previous articles see BURLINGTONMAGAZINE,Vol ix,p. 408 (September, 19o6) ; Vol. x, p. 384 (March, 1907) ; Vol. xii,p. 141 (December, 1907); Vol, xiii, p. 274 (August, 1908);Vol. xiv, p. 2to (January, 90o9); Vol. xv, pp. 31, 94 (April andMay, Igog).2 P1. , Nos. 2 and 4. Drawn with the pen in bistre on coarsebrownish-white paper.'How they fitted to each other I am unable to say; theyhave probably been trimmed since the sheet was cut up. Thereare remains of writing, both on the front and back of M. Gay'sfragment, which are too slight to afford any information.4Cp. Armand I, 74, 41. The specimen illustrated is atBerlin; the casts of this and of the medal of Casali are due tothe kindness of Dr. K. Regling.24

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    Notes on Italian Medals1463 to 1477. In 1477-1478 he was at Faenza,where, among other things, he seems to havemade a terra-cotta relief of the Annunciation,identified by Venturi as the work of Sperandio,in ' L'Arte,'1898, p. 374. The figureof the Virginin this relief bears some resemblanceto the girl inM. Gay's drawing. Signor Venturi, indeed, inattributingthe terra-cottato Sperandio,comparedthe Virgin with the figureson the reversesof thosevery medals of Sarzanellaand Casaliwhich I haveadduced to support the attribution of the drawingto Sperandio. The sketches, however, wereprobably made rather at Bologna than during theshort stay at Faenza. Catelano Casali was aBolognese; his medal was made in or after 1490,in which year he was created protonotary.Sarzanella again, though he doubtless belongedto the Faventine family of the Manfredi,had alsosome connexion with Bologna, since the figureon the reverse of his medal holds a shield withthe arms of that city. Sperandio was working inBologna from 1478 to 1490 or later, and it is,therefore,to this period that the sheet of drawingsmay with most reason be attributed.

    II-ALFONSO V OF ARAGON.BY PAOLODA RAGUSA.Obv. Bust of Alfonso V to right, bare-headed;inscr. ALFONSVS REX ARAGONVMRev. Female figure, draped, standing to left,holding purse and serpent staff ; inscr. FORTI-TVDO MEA ET LAVS MEA DNSBronze; diam. 44'5 mm. Pierced. BritishMuseum. Pl. II, 2.This piece, although a rather poor cast, is ofconsiderable interest, as adding one to the veryscanty numberof medals that are known to havebeen executed by Paolo da Ragusa. The obverseis indeed identical with that of the artist's medalof Alfonso V,5which is reproducedhere from thebeautiful specimen in Mr.Henry Oppenheimer'scollection (P1. II, I). The reverse also differsonly in the inscription, the artist's signatureOPVS PAVLI DE RAGVSIO being replacedby a motto. The lettering, it will be noticed,shows the samepeculiarbarless A as in the signedmedal.The motto is an abbreviationof one which wealreadyknow from the Triumphmedal by Pisan-ello to have been adopted by Alfonso : Fortitudomea et Laus mea Dominus et factus est michi inSalutem (Exod. xv. 2). What the type means isnot clear to me; the purse suggests Liberalitas,the serpent-staff Salus.

    III--FEDERIGO III OF ARAGON.To the hitherto known medals of Federigo IIIof Aragon, as heir of Fernando II, the followingis to be added.

    Obv. Bust of Federigo III to left, bare-headedwith long hair,and incurved truncation; inscrFEDERICVS. DE-ARAG. FER.R.F.DIVI.ALF-NEP (trefoil).No reverse.Bronze; diam. 38 mm. British Museum.Pl. II, 6.This medal, or rather (for it is indifferentlycast) the original of which it is the representative,must have been madein 1495-1496. For Federigois describedas FER(randi) R(egis) F(ilius) DIVIALF(onsi) NEP(os), and Fernando only becameking in 1495,to be succeeded by Federigo himselfin 1496.Armand6describes two other medals of Fede-rigo made in the same year; in neither does theportraitresemble ours. It may be noted that theGreek legend on one of them, which has puzzledthe French writer, is obviously taken from theSeptuagint, Ps. 91, 13 (92, 12), AIKAIOZ121 OINI,ANOHIEI.

    IV-RAFFAELLO MAFFEI DA VOLTERRA.Obv. RAPHAEL MAFFEVS VOLATERR"SCRIPT'APOS Bust 1.,wearing cap and gownover doublet buttoned in front.Rev. SIC*ITVR AD ASTRA Raffaello, inthe same dress as on the obverse, with 1. handraised, stands r. facing a woman, heavily drapedand wearingveil over the back of her head, whoholds in her left two nails (instruments of thePassion) and raises her r. pointing to heaven;below, a leaf.Bronze; diam. 85 mm., comma-shaped stops.Collection of Mr.George Salting. P1.II, 3. Cp.Armand II, 52, 24; Heiss, 'Flor.' II, p. 244 andP1.xxii. 6, 7 (the same specimen).The author of the encyclopaedic 'CommentariiUrbani' was born in 1451 at Volterra. We knowthat in 1466, at the age of fifteen, he went toRome and assumed the clerical habit. In 1476 hereturnedto Volterra,and did not return to Romeuntil 1480, having in the meanwhile accompaniedthe Cardinalof Aragon to Hungary.6a The medalmust, therefore, have been made between 1466and 1476, while he was still quite a youth,employed at the Papal curia as scriptor apos-tolicus. The resemblance of this medal instyle to the accredited medals by Lysippus,first suggested by Mr. Max Rosenheim, needsnot to be insisted upon when once it hasbeen pointed out. Although the bust lacks theform of truncation so characteristic ofthe medallist,every other feature of his style is abundantlydisplayed. The leaf, which, as Mr. Van de Put haspointed out,7 belongs rather to the poplar than tothe ivy-tree, as I had supposed, is a further point

    5Armand I, 26, 2; Fabriczy, PI. xx, 2.II, 59, 2, 3.8eSee B. Falconcini, ' Vita di Raffaello Maffei' (Rome, 1722).7 BURLINGTONMAGAZINE,September, I908, Vol. xiii, p. 366.

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    Notes on Italian Medalsof connexion with Lysippus. When we rememberthat it is to this very RaffaelloMaffei that we owethe only information which has come down to usas to the personality of the medallist, whom hemusthaveknown at the PapalCourt,the attributionbecomes doubly sure.The motto 'sic itur ad astra,'adopted by Maffeiat this comparatively early age, is inscribed onthe scroll which is held in the hands of hisrecumbent figure on the monument which hisbrother Mario erected to his memory in 1526, inthe church of San Lino at Volterra.8Mr. Salting's specimen, which I am enabled byhis kindness to reproduce, is a wonderfully pre-served example of a most charming medal, andquite does justice to the 'volto angelico e leggiadrefattezze' with which his biographercredits Maffei

    V-GIANFRANCESCO DE' RANGONI.In dealing with the medals of Lysippus on aprevious occasion9I venturedto doubt Dr. Bode'sattribution to that artist of the medal ofGianfrancescoRangone. I take this opportunityof reproducing the medal and confessing myself,if not quite a convert to Dr. Bode's view, at leastmore inclined to see the force of it. The medalcontains in its small compass more than the usualnumber of puzzles. The following is its descrip-tion :--Obv. Bust of Gianfrancesco Rangone to 1.,elderly, wearing cap and cuirass; inscr. D IO10FRANCISI ?D"RANGONIBVS"P V"V (leaf).Rev. Figure wearing helmet and cuirass,standing on the body of a wolf, his r. resting onhis spearand graspingat the same time a serpent;on his 1.arm, round shield ; in the field S M ; inexergue, SECVRITAS ?PPBronze,37'5mm. Stops comma-shaped. BritishMuseum(a second specimen in lead). P1. II, 4.Armand II, p. 93, No. 19; III, p. 191 f.The most obvious variation from the style ofLysippusis seen in the shapeof the bust. The facealso has more force of character than it is usualto find in his work. Otherwise everything inthe general treatment and in the details is infavourof the attribution. The leaf on the obverseis of the form with which we are familiar; itappearsalone, it is true,instead of as one of a pair ;but so it does on the medal of Maffei describedabove. The lettering is of the characteristic form;we may note such a detail as the N with its slantingstroke prolonged beyond the top of the leftvertical. In the composition of the reverse, thepiece closely resembles the medals of Toscani withthe figure of Pallas, and of GianfrancescoMarascha with the figure of Hope.1oIt may, therefore, be granted that the medal is,

    if not by Lysippus, then by some pupil, working,perhaps, at the end of the fifteenth century, orbeginning of the sixteenth, and imitating hismaster's handiwork with great success." Butthe questions as to the identity of the personrepresented and the meaning of the reversetype remain, and to neither, so far as Iknow, has a satisfactory answer been found.Until he has been certainly identified, specula-tions as to the meaning of the letters P" V' Vare unprofitable.'" The letters S M on thereverse have been explained as 'Senatus Muti-nensis' or as the signature of an artist, 'ScacceraMutinensis'; the inscription in the exergue,withsome probability, as 'Securitas Populi.' Thefigure has been called Mars,or a Roman warriorstanding on a crocodile ! The creature beneathhis feet seems to be almost certainlya wolf. Theinscription suggests that the figure representsarmed force subduing discord (the serpent) andsome faction symbolized by the wolf."'

    VI-GIROLAMO PESARO.Obv. Bust of Girolamo Pesaro 1.,clean-shaven,with long hair, wearing cap and robe. No inscr.Rev. Within a wreath, the inscr. HIERONY-MVS PISAVRVS PADVAE PRAEFECTVSBENEDICTI PROCVRATORIS, Fr MDXV inseven lines.Diam. 64"5mm. Formerly in the AddingtonCollection (?) Pl. II, 5. Cp. Arm. II, 126, 12;Heiss, ' Venise,' p. 191.The illustration of this striking medal is madefrom a plastercast, which seems to represent theAddington specimen, the only one, so far as I

    s Heiss, op. cit., p. 244.9BURLINGTONMAGAZINE,August, 190o8,Vol. xiii, pp. 285, 286.1oSee BURLINGTONMAGAZINE,ut sul., P1. I, 8, II, 3.

    11The treatment of the bust, in which, as I have said, themedal differs chiefly from the accredited work of Lysippus, isnot unlike that which is found on some medals by L'Antico,especially that of Diva Julia. In this connexion it must beremembered that a Rangone would be more likely to come intocontact with a northern than with a Roman medallist.12F. Sansovino, 'Origine e fatti delle famiglie ill. d'Italia'(Venice, 1670), p. I39, mentions a Gianfrancesco, a contem-porary of Guido Rangone, and father-in-law of AlbertinoBoschetti. Cp. the statement in the 'Tresor de Numismatique,'MUd. ital., I, PI. xxxvii, 4, where the medal was first published.Litta, ' Rangoni,' Tav. II, gives under Lanfranco di Lanfrancoinformation which seems to suit this Gianfrancesco; is theresome confusion ? A Count Zanfrancescho Maria Rangon ismentioned in the Chronicle of Jacopino de' Bianchi (I, p. 168)in 1497. Here we have a further possibility of confusion withthe well-known Francesco Maria Rangone, who is mentionedin the same chronicle and its continuation by Tommasinofrom 1483 onwards, was for a time Castellano of Modena, andplayed an important part in Modenese affairs from 1487 untilhis death in 1511. Armand, on some authority not disclosed,says that Gianfrancesco died in 1525 (?). On our medal theportrait represents a man no longer young,and, to judge by itsstyle, it must have been made about 1500,13Mr. Edmund Gardner, whom I desire to thank for muchinformation connected with the Rangoni, suggests that thewolf may mean the popular faction in Modena itself. Afterthe death of Ercole I, in 1505, the Francesco Maria mentionedin Note 12 had trouble with the Commune. If the figure werea saint, he could only be St. Defendens, who, according toCahier, was a companion of St. Maurice, and is invokedinLombardy for protection against wolves, But this would notexplain the serpent.26

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    NOTES ON ITALIANMEDALS, PLATE I

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    NOTES ON ITALIANMEDALS. PLATE II

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    NotesonItalian Medalsknow, which has been described. It may beidentical with a specimen now in the Berlincollection. The medal, apart from the admir-able quality of the portrait, which in its direct-ness and freedom from superfluities is typicalof Venetian medallic art of the period, is worthreproducing; for the smaller piece figured byHeiss gives no clear idea either of the featuresor of the style. This larger medal also makes itdoubly certainthat the identificationproposed byHeiss must be discarded. In thelists of procuratoriwe find a Girolamo Pesaro in the year 1549. Theman represented on the medal was praefect ofPadua in 1515. If he were identical, as Heisssupposes,with the man who became procuratorin1549, it is almost incredible that in 1515 he shouldhave been as old as the medallistrepresentshim tobe. Further,the matter is clinched by the fact thatthe Girolamowho became procuratorin 1549 wasthe son of Leonardo, not of Benedetto."5Girolamodi Benedetto is constantly mentionedin Sanuto'sDiaries.'6 InApril 1499he marriedthedaughter of Bernardo Donado. He served asprovveditoregeneraleat Treviso (on a third medalhe is called 'terrae firmae provisor')17 and on24thJune, 1515, he was elected capitano of Padua.This post he vacated on 7th January,1517. He waselected to the Council of Ten on Ist July, 1533.Further I have not traced him. In style, theportrait on the obverse of this medal comes veryclose to the manner of Giulio della Torre, moreespecially as seen in the portrait of BartolommeoSocino."' The letteringis also sufficientlycarelessto be the work of the Veronese amateur. It istrue that he was fond of placing a type of somekind, usually charming, on the reverses of hismedals, and it is difficult to think that he wouldhave been content with a mere inscription.Chronologically, however, there can be no ob-jection to the attribution,since della Torre,whomarriedin 1504, must have been over thirty yearsold at the time the medal was cast. It is worthyof notice that the medal of Socino was alsopresumably made at Padua, where the Sienesejurist, like the artist,professedlaw. The attribu-tion to della Torre may, therefore,be regarded aspossessing a certain degree of plausibility.

    VII--A GROUP OF FABRICATIONS.M.de la Tour19has already exposedthe fraudby

    which 'un goujat,'at the end of the sixteenth orbeginning of the seventeenth century, usedLysippus's medal of Giovanni Alvise Toscaniin order to fabricate an imaginary portrait ofGiovanni Canacci,just as he made similar por-traits of other members of the Canacci family outof the medals of Louis XII and Anne of Bretagne,and of Vittorino da Feltre. It is extraordinarythat these fabricationsshould have deceived any-one in the least acquaintedwith Italian medals;but they figure solemnly in the plates of Heiss's'Florence,' and two of them are also groupedwiththe medal of Francesco Accolti in his article onCandida" as possibly the work of that artist.Some of them have been attributedto Sperandio,I suppose becauseof the roughnessof theirappear-ance. Now the medal of Accolti, as M. de la Tourhaspointedout,issimplyfabricatedout of Candida'sRobert Brigonnet. It is possible to add anotherpiece to this gallery. Anyone who compares themedal of Francesco Baroni2ewith the others justmentionedwill see that it has a familyresemblanceto them, especially to the medal of Accolti. Theform assumed by the figure8 in the incised dateson the medals of Accolti and Baroni suggests thatthey are by the same hand; this form, resemblinga letter S recumbent,is not paralleled,so far as Iknow, on any other medal of the fifteenth orsixteenth century.But if the medal of Francesco Baroni must berelegatedto the limbo of 'fakes,' it is difficult forother medals, also enshrined in Heiss's too hos-pitablevolumes, to escape. The 'horriblepalmier,'as M. de la Tour calls it, with which the forgerhas adorned the reverse of his medal of GiulianoCanacci, belongs to the same kind of art as thetree on a medal supposed to represent LeonardoSalviati."2The supposed medal of Paolo Vettori2is also of the same class as the Canacciand Salviatimedals; the treatmentof the inscriptionis enoughto condemn it, even apart from this resemblance.It]would be easy to add to this list of fabrica-tions, but I forbear, contenting myself with thewarning that a medal need not be regarded asgiving an authoritativeportrait,simply because itis included in Heiss's uncritical, if extremelyuseful, compilation.

    140o. cit., P1.xii, 9; Armand11,126,13. A specimenof thissmaller medal is in the Simon collection at Berlin(No. 345).'"Manfredi,'DegnitaiProcuratoria' (1602), s.a. 1549-16E.g. ii, 6oi0; xx, 326; xxiii, 425 ; Iviii, 520.17ArmandIII, 206F., This medalreads'B. F.,' not ' R. F.'18Friedlinder, 'Schaumiinzen,'P1.xx, 18.19'Rev. Num.,'1895,P. 460;..cp, 1896,pp. 479 f.

    20'Rev. Num.,' 1890, Pl. xiii, 3, xvi, x and 2. There is aspecimenof the medalof Accolti in the British Museum. It isonlyfair to Heiss to saythat,althoughhe had not seenanactualspecimen,he recognized ('Rev. Num.,' 18go,p. 459)the possi-bilityof its being made froma medalof RobertBrigonnet,andhe had some suspicionsabout the others. But he shouldnothave admittedthem to his plates.21 ArmandII, 74,4 ; Heiss, ' Florence,'P1,.xviii, 4.22Heiss, ' Florence,'II, P1.xx, 4,'3 Ibid., I, P1.xxii, 3.

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