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ChineseStoneSculptureat Bostonpaintings and prints have become so well knownin the past half-centurythat no history of the finearts can ignore them. As recently as 1895, how-

ever, an ordinarilywell-informedAmericanwriter,Mr. William Ordway Partridge,expressed a pre-vailing opinion when he wrote: "The sculptureof China and Japan need hardly be considered.

It is mostly of a mythological character, withmonstrous combinations of human and brute

forms, repulsive in their ugliness". In a decadeand a half,however,knowledge of these sculptureshas been advanced. The existence in Japanese

temples of very wonderful wooden statuary hasbecome familiar, and many examples have been

acquired by occidental museums. The museumat Boston has several score of them. The historyof the art,nevertheless,is yet to be authoritativelywritten; and it will presumably be written withhistorical competence only by a writer who takes

into account the very competent art of stonesculpture which grew up in China in the secondand first centuries B.C.,which flourishedfor nearlya millennium,and then droppedout so completelythat it is to-day being re-discoveredwith surprise.

THE ITALIAN MEDALSIN THE SALTINGCOLLECTION

BY G. F. HILLHE first and the last impressioncreated by the view of the SaltingnCollection of Italian Medals,which is

possible now that they are exhibited,although eventually a rearrangement

in new cases will benecessary,

is that theirqualityis extraordinarilyhigh. There are indeedastonish-

ingly few pieces in which an improvement ofcondition could be requiredby any but the mostfastidious. For a better example of one of thesesuch an exacting critic would have to wait a longtime, seeing that it is the only specimen known.This is the portrait by Pietro da Milano of a

lady who was first identified by Alois Heiss as

Marguerited'Anjou, the daughterof King Ren6,who married our Henry VI in 1445. The medalmust have been made about 146I1-463, when theunfortunate queen had returned to her father'scourt. It is naturallyof greathistoricalinterestto

Englishmen, and it is a matter for congratulationthat the unique specimen is safely lodged in one

of our nationalmuseums. Nevertheless,artistically-like most of the same medallist's work-it is ofsmall value, flat and wooden and badly cast. Butalmost all, if not all,the remainingpieces may rankin the first class in respect of condition; and thewhole range of Italian medals of the Renaissanceis well represented.

A ~ove incipiendum. Of Pisanello (as one still

prefersto call him, since the familiar Vittore hasbeen ousted by the more commonplace Antonio)Mr. Salting possessed six fine medals, a notableadditionto the Museumcollection, which alreadyincluded what is perhapsthe finestknown exampleof the beautifulportraitof MalatestaNovello. Thisis now duplicated in another nearly as gocd. It

is to be hoped that when the collection is finallyarrangedit will be possible to show the reversesin

plasterbeside the obverses. With a medal like thisit must be heartrending to have to decide whichside to turn down: the simply but marvellouslycomposed reverse,where the young warriormakeshis vow to the Crucifix,or the exquisite portrait

which d'Annunziohas so finely described-" dallabella chioma ondosa, dal profilo imperiale, dalcollo apollineo, sovranotipo di eleganzae di vigore,cosi perfetto che l'imaginazione non potevarappresentarselonella vita se non immune da ognidecadenzae immutabile come l'artefice lo avevachiuso nel cerchio di quel metallo per l'eternitB".

As an acquisition, even more important is the

magnificent Sigismondo Malatesta, as Captain-Generalof the Roman Church,with his equestrianfigureon the reverse,and Rocca Contrada risingamong the hills in the background.

Four medals represent Matteode' Pasti'sworkin the portraitsof Sigismondo Malatesta,his ladyIsotta, and the universal genius Leone BattistaAlberti-the last a poorly conceived portrait,andnot for a moment to be comparedwith the superbplaque, probablyfrom Alberti'sown hand, in the

Dreyfus collection, oreven with the inferiorversionin the Louvre.

Of the art of the Venetian, Giovanni

Boldfj,there are two excellent specimens, portraitsof thepoet Filippo Maseranoand the physician FilippoVadi. Bolduiwas a careful,not to say pedantic,artist,and his work has remarkable finish, some-times resulting in a certain hardness which iscurious in view of the fact that,like Pisanello, hewas wont to proclaimin his signature that he wasa painter.

Bertoldo (with a fine specimen of his medal ofMohammadII), Guazzalotti,Enzola and Lysippusare other early medallists of whose work goodexamples will be found here. The rare MalitiaGesualdo and the beautiful Raffael Maffei are

noteworthyspecimens of the art of the last-namedobscurebut engaging artist. We may pass, how-

ever, to Sperandio of Mantua,who is veryfavour-ably represented. Besides the fine example ofFrancesco Sforza (the most aggressive of his

portraits),the Federigo of Montefeltro(in whichhe fails entirely to catch the humane but ruggedspirit of his subject), the all but unique Barbazza,the Giovanni II, Bentivoglio and Lodovico

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THE ITALIAN MEDALS IN THE SALTING COLLECTION

PLATE I

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PLATE II

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Theitalian Medals in the Salting CollectionCarbone, we have the rare but dull Lodovico

Brognolo, and two oval plaquettes made frommedals-one of Sigismondo d'Este, the other

(wholly charming and in some ways the gem ofthe collection)of Eleonora of Aragon[PLATE I,C].This plaquette, which comes from the left-handhalfof the joint medal of the lady and herhusband,was alreadyin the Museumseries.

The collection is strong in the Florentinemedals of the end of the fifteenthand beginningof the sixteenthcenturies. Omitting comparativelywell-known pieces like the Giovanna Albizzi orAlessandro di Gino Vecchietti,I maycall attentionto the portraitsof Camilla Buondelmonti [PLATE

I, A]; Lorenzo Ciglamocchi (by himself?); therare Carlo Federighi [PLATE I, D]; and theGirolamo Santucci.

Another medallist who marks the transitionfrom the fifteenth to the sixteenth century isGiovanni Candida. It is extremely difficult toobtain good specimens of his work, which is

usually represented by after-casts more or less

ruined by tooling. Mr. Salting's series, whichincludes the Maximilian and Mary of 1477, theGuillaumedes Perriers,PierreBrigonnet,Giulianoand Clementedella Rovere,Louise de Savoie and

Francois I as Duke of Valois, will probably bear

comparisonwith any other collector's.One of the most beautiful,and the most puzzling,

though by no means the rarest,of all medals-theGiulia Astallia-is here also [PLATE II, F]. Theold attribution to Talpa has long been discardedas baseless; but no one has yet been able to placebeside the medal any other which bears anyresemblance to it in conception or execution.M. de Foville has, indeed, ventured to place it inthe Florentine group, though he admits that the

artist" du style Florentin n'a gard6 que la puret6et la po6sie". To put it more prosaically, the

pose and expression of the charming figure arereminiscent of many a Florentine painting; butfrom any Florentine medal it is widely re-moved. Friedlinder has wrongly been made

responsiblefor the attributionto Talpa. It is truethat he describes the piece in connexion with

Talpa's work, but he does so only because heassumes the possible identity of the girl with thatGiulia who, according to Bandello'snovel, havingbeen outraged by a servant of the Bishop of

Mantua,drowned herself and was commemorated

by a public monument. But he admits thedoubtfulness of the identification and the lack of

resemblance in the medal to Talpa's style.Nevertheless, considering the appropriateness ofthe reverse-a phoenix, "unicum fortitudinis et

pudicitiae exemplum "-to Bandello's heroine, we

may reasonably retain the medal in the Mantuan

series, until some better attribution is forthcoming.Another Mantuan medal [PLATE II, H], more

rare than beautiful, of which there is also a speci-

men in the Turin Museum, has on the obversethe half-figure of a woman, with the curiousinscription FORMA DIMIDIVM DIMIDIVMFIDES. On the reverse is Mercury, with thewords VENVS EXTRA EGO INTVS, implying,it is to be feared,thatthe lady'scharmswerevenal;while the motto on the obverse seems to indicate

that beautywithout troth is but half of the whole.The relief is high and the composition somewhat

clumsy. On the obverse is the mark X with ashort strokeacross it, which seems to connect themedal with two others representing an otherwiseunknown person, Maddalenaof Mantua; for oneof these has X on the reverse,afterthe inscription,while the other has MMX and a heart placedcolumn-wise in the field. These two medals,which are of 1504 and 15o3 respectively, have beenattributed to l'Antico, and indeed they come

extremely close to his signed or otherwiseaccreditedpieces. Are they his, and the X some

cipher employed by him for this particulargroup;or is it the mark of anotherartistfollowing closely

in his steps; or has it no artistic significance atall ? The question requiresfurtherconsiderationthan we can give it here.

Among the medals attributed to GiancristoforoRomano is the double portrait of Alfonso d'Esteand his wife LucreziaBorgia [PLATEI, B]. Mostwritersseem to have accepted this attribution in

toto,calmly oblivious of the utter disparityof stylebetween obverse and reverse. Heiss saw this

difficulty, although his argumentthat the portraitof Alfonso must be earlier than 1492, whereas the

marriagewas in 1502, is untenable. He is, however,doubtless right in his conclusion that the two

portraitsare by differenthands, though not in his

chronological premisses. Clearly,as he suggests,

what has happenedis thatsome one, probablynotGiancristoforohimself,has used an old model forthe portraitof Alfonso, andjoined it to the portraitof his wife, to commemorate the marriage. It isto be noted that the disparity of style does notextend to the lettering; new lettering was doubt-less added to the obversewhen the " mule" wasmade.

Among the medals of theearlysixteenthcenturyis to be noted a beautifulspecimen of the portraitof the poet Agosto da Udine [PLATE I, El]. In anote to the English translation of Fabriczy'sbookon Italian medals I ventured to suggest, on

grounds of general resemblance in style, particu-larly in the composition of the reverse, that this

is by the artist Adriano Fiorentino. It was onlysome time afterwards that I was struck by theresemblance between the little figure of Urania onthe reverse of the medal (here reproduced) andthe statuette of Venus in the Foulc collection,signed by Adriano himself (Bode, "ItalianBronzes", Plate XVIII). This is a slight con-firmation not merely of the attribution of this

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The Italian Medals in the Salting Collectionlittle piece, but indeed of the connexion of thewhole group of medals which Fabriczy has

brought togetherwith Adriano Fiorentino. Suchconfirmation is not to be despised, since thereis still an unexplained chronological difficultyin the association with this artistof the medals ofElisabetta Gonzaga and Emilia Pio. And this

association is the very foundation of Fabriczy'sreconstructionof Adriano'swork as a medallist.

The very individual style of the Venetian"Medallist of 1523" is well seen in no less thanthree pieces-Jacopo Loredano, Francesco Mali-

pieri and Sebastiano Renier. Another Renier,Daniele, is seen on the signed medal by Giuliodella Torre which Mr. Salting was fortunate

enough to secure at the L6bbecke sale; and of

pieces with certainty attributed to this artist healso had the rare and remarkable portrait ofFrancesco Niconizio of Curzola.

Two of the medals unattributedto artists mayperhapsbe placed under the nameof, or at least inassociationwith,Fra Antonio da Brescia. These are

the medal of Niccol6 "Tempe" (perhapsratherTempestS) [PLATE II, J] and the plaquette-portraitof Lodovico Galio, both Trevisans [PLATE II, G].Armand has already noticed the affinity of the

formerportraitto the style of Fra Antonio. Thelatter is dated 1513, and therefore about contem-porary with the medal of Girolamo Saorniano,also attributedto the same medallist. That FraAntonio had a Trevisan connexion is shown byhis signed portrait of Niccol6 Vonica of thatcity.

We have not touched on any of the medals ofthe latersixteenth century; but space would allowno more than a tedious enumeration. Mention,however,must be made of a medal of a juriscon-sult, Pier Paolo Maffei, which appears to haveescaped the net of Armand,although it is respect-able work of about 1550 or rather later,and isincluded in the Museum Mazzuchellianum. It is

reproduced in PLATEII, K.To the few persons who take an intelligent

interestin Italianmedals the seriesexhibited in the

Saltinggallery will seem one of the most preciousportionsof the great bequest, though it makes butlittle show. One thing is perhaps matter for

regret,though characteristicof the man who made

the collection : his fear of the decayto which lead,when impure, is liable caused him to shun, withone or two exceptions,the purchase of specimensin that metal. And yet there is nothing morepleasing than an old lead casting, when naturallypatinated.

I Mr. Salting'sspecimenof this piece is one of the few after-castswhich he possessed.

NICHOLAS DIXON, THE LIMNERBY RICHARD W. GOULDING

INIATURES signed with N and D

conjoined, the last stroke of theN forming the first stroke of the

D, are well known, and haveoften erroneously been ascribedto

Nathaniel Dixon, but the evidence here adducedwill show that this painter'sChristianname was infact Nicholas. He paintedportraitsad vivumn,andalso made copies in water-colours on vellum afterothermasters.

Some years ago, among the archivesat Welbeck

Abbey, I found a deed bearing the signature ofNicholas Dixon, and recently Mr. Collins Bakerinformed me that the name was mentioned in the

Exchequer Accounts in the Public Record Office,

temp. Charles II, bundle 441. The accounts

numbered 4 to 9 in that bundle contain noreferenceto him, but No. Io and its duplicate,No.

II, 26 and 27 Charles II [1674-5] record the

interestingfacts (I) that Samuel Cooper(who died

in 1672) had been the King's limner (miniculatorregis),(2) that his widow received a pension, and

(3) thatNicholas Dixon wasCooper'ssuccessor:-

Paid to NicholasDixon, miniculatorregis,forhis annuityat ?2oo per annum,for three quartersof a year ended atthe feast of the Annunciationof the Blessed Mary theVirgin, 1675,by writ of PrivySeal of the Lord the King,dated16December,in the25thyearof hisreign[1673]?15o.

Furtherpaymentsof salaryto Dixon are recorded

in the Accounts from the 27th and 28th CharlesII to the 3oth and 3Ist Charles II (Nos. 12 to

15), the last specifying the amount as ?2oo, andthe period as for one year ended at the feast ofthe Lord's Nativity, 1678. He is not mentionedin the Accounts for the remaining years of the

reign, and I did not find any other references toMrs. Cooper.

The Welbeckdeed is an indentureof bargainandsale. It recites the fact that on 23 November

1700, "Nicholas Dixon, of the parish of Saint

Martin-in-the-ffeilds,in the County of Middlesex,Gentleman", mortgaged his limnings, seventy in

number,as specified in an annexed schedule, forthe sum of ?527 I3s. 6d., to James Beschef(r, intrustfor

JamesPigouand

Stephen Pigou.The two

Pigous died before the limnings were redeemed,and their executors, to wit, Stephen Boucxin(administratorof the effects of his uncle, JamesPigou), and Frances Pigou (relict and executrixof Stephen Pigou), by deed, dated 14 FebruaryI701, transferredthe collection to John Holles,Duke of Newcastle, for ?430; and, to prevent

Paid to ChristianaCooper,relictof Samuel Cooper,late,niniculatorof the lord the king,deceased,uponher annualpension at ?2oo per annum,for half a year ended at thefeastofithe Nativityof S. John the Baptist,1673,by writof

PrivySeal of the lord the King,dated 30 Junein the 25thyearof his reign [I6731,?ioo.

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