EIGHT ITALIAN MEDALS
e BY G. F. r&
HE notes which follow are HILL,
seem to have mistaken the type.
the result of recent gleanings
among the traysof the British
Museum collection of Italian
medals. The first two pieces
have a very good claim to re-
cognition on artisticgrounds ;
the others, although their
workmanship is by no means contemptible, are
perhaps interesting for less essential reasons. All
but two (Nos. 3 and 6) are, I believe, now
published for the first time. As usual, I have to
express my thanks to Mr. Max Rosenheim for
many valuable criticisms.
I. LORENZOZANE.
Obv. Bust of Lorenzo Zane 1., clean-shaven, in
cap; around: ?LAV "ZANNVS ' VENE[T]VS ?
TA[NT]IOCHE
P"Rev.
Winged female figure (Astrology) standing
r., holding in r. a wand lowered; before her, globe,
with rays (incised); around: ASTRA NOTA
" of Corteranzo,and we find it stated that a member
[R]ATIO ?FERT" SVPER -ASTRA" VIROS
Lead. 48 mm. P1. I, i.
Lorenzo Zane, a member of the well-known
Venetian family, became titular patriarch of An-
tioch, as he is described on this medal, in 1473
(28th April).1 He held the title until his death at
Rome on 15th October, 1485. In 1474 he became
bishop of Treviso, and in 1478 was translated to
Brescia. This see he occupied until 1481. Under
Sixtus IV he was governor of Romagna, the Patri-
mony of St. Peter, and Perugia. He played a con-
siderable part in politics, being a not over-scrupu-
lous supporterof the Pope. It is interesting,in con-
nexion with the reverse-typeof his medal, to learn
that he was an enthusiastic devotee of astrology.
The medal has unfortunately suffered greatly,
and the letters of the inscriptions are partly broken
away. But the portraitis most expressiveand finely
modelled. It is the work of some unknown North
Italian medallist, Something in the pose of the
head suggests Sperandio, but the features are
rendered with a delicacy and sympathy which the
great Mantuan seldom shows; nor does the
reverse bear any resemblance to his work. The
figure of Astrology, as we have seen, alludes to
Zane's astrological studies, the inscription bidding
us mark the courses of the stars, since reason
exalts men above them-a sentiment akin to the
motto of Alfonso of Aragon, 'vir sapiens domina-
bitur astris.' A similar figure occurs on a medal
of Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua, made
by Giancristoforo Romano in 1498.2 There she is
accompanied by a serpent. Armand, who de-
scribes her as threatening the serpent with the
wand which she holds in her hand, and von
Fabriczy, who calls her a goddess of Victory,
1
Eubel, ' Hierarchia Cathol.' Agostini, ' Scritt. Vinizian.'Is
pp. 177-204, gives a long biography.
2 Fabriczy(Eng. trans.),p. 52 ff, Pl. XII, 6.
2IO
Above her head
is the sign of Sagittarius. Isabella,too, was a firm
believer in astrology,and had had her horoscope
cast in 1494.3
2. I. L. ARNUTIUS.
Obv. Bust to right, wearing berrettoand gown.
Inscription : ?I" L"ARNVTIVS"
Rev. A nude male figurewith long hair,standing
to front on a garment (which lies on the ground);
he spreads out his hands, and looks upwards to a
cloud, from which descend flakes of fire; above
the cloud an object resembling a mass of flame;
two flames of fire on either side of this.
Bronze. 57 mm. Triangular stops. P1. II, I.
This curious and puzzling medal must, by its
style, be dated about 1500 A.D. I have been un-
able to identify the person, and the name is not a
common one. There were, however, at least two
families of a similar name in N. Italy, the Arnucci
at Pavia, and the Arnuzzide'Medici at Alessandria.
To the Alessandrian family belonged the county
of the house was made a cardinal by CelestineV.
Of this last statement4I have been unable to find
any confirmation.
The reverse design calls to mind the curious
design on the medal of Elisabetta Gonzaga, which
Cornelius von Fabriczy has attributedto the artist
Adriano Fiorentino.s With regardto this reverse,
it is true, he is careful to point out that it seems to
refer to the change in her fortunes after the events
of 1502, just as the reverse of the medal of Emilia
Pio, Elisabetta'ssister-in-law,undoubtedlyrefersto
the death of her husband in 1500. Since Adriano
Fiorentino died in 1499, these reversescannot be
from his hand. Von FabriczysuggeststhatAdriano
made the two obverses in 1495at Urbino, and that
the reverseswere afterwardsdesigned by someone
else and attachedto their respectiveobverses. This
is certainly a very probable solution of the diffi-
culty. It is not impossible that the portraits of
Elisabettaand Emilia were intended to be attached
to each other. The career of Adriano Fiorentino
as a medallist presents a number of difficult
problems, to some of which I hope to return in a
subsequent article.
However this may be, we may, I think, assume
that of the artists who made the reverses of Elisa-
betta's and Arnutius'smedals, one was acquainted
with the other's design. On the whole, the medal
of Arnutius looks somewhat the earlier of the two.
The design of the Elisabetta reverse (P1. II, 2) has
usually been misdescribed. It represents a female
figure, naked to the waist, lying on the ground,
with her head against a gate or fence; in her
hands she holds a bridle. She looks up towards
3 See the interestingpassage in Mrs. Ady's 'Isabella d'Este,'
II, p. 33.
SDue to Crollalanza,' DizionarioStorico Blasonico,' p. 62.
d. k. preuss. Kunstsammlungen,'Vol. xxiv.
', Jahrb
 -Alt

EIGHIT ITALIAN MEDALS

PLATE I
 I.?

. 2. 3-

4
5-

6.

7
4.
,

EIGHT ITALIAN MEDALS

PLATE II

a mass of flame, similar to that which is seen on
the Arnutius medal, but that its streamers point
towards her; the mass is either projecting flakes
of fire towards her, or leaving them behind in its
course, according as we suppose it to be approach-
ing or leaving her. The inscription is HOC
FVGIENTI FORTVNAE DICATIS, and the
object in the air has consequently been explained
as in some way symbolizing Fortune. Those who
have attempted to identify it in any way have
described it as a mass of flax or hair, or even a
wig! There can, I think, be no possible doubt
that it represents fire. Fire in this form is an
emblem of the human mind or soul; thus a mass
of flame rising upwards,exactly as on the Arnutius
medal, is used with this significance in the imhprese
of Antonio Crotta6 and Andrea Bolani,7 and
doubtless of many others. The bridle is the
emblem either of chastity, temperance, or of
Nemesis. The closed gate may also represent
temperance. I can only suggest that Elisabetta
is to be thought of as defying Fortune, which has
deprived her of her worldly blessings, because she
is able to retain her moral and spiritual endow-
ments intact. In the same way Arnutius appears
to contemn and trample on his worldly possessions
(in the shape of a garment), and to welcome those
which are of heaven (symbolized by the flame
above the clouds)." The explanation of the type
of Elisabetta's medal as Danae and the golden
rain, which occurs to most who see the design for
the first time, will not bear examination.
3. DOM BALTASAR, ABBOTOF VALLOMBROSA.
I venture, with full appreciation of the uncer-
tainty which attends the identification of portraits,
to regard as a likeness of this person the head on a
medal of which two or three specimens are known.'
Obv. Bust of a monk to left; inscription:
IN
QVIETV'EST'COR'ME VMDONEC *
TE
REQVIESCAT" IN" to
Rev. Bust of Christ
left, nimbed ; inscription :
IESVS CHRISTVS SALVATOR MVNDI.
Bronze. 45 mm., Pl. I, 3.
The head of Christ is of the early type, which
appears for the first time on medals towards the
end of the fifteenth century, being derived from
some painting of the early Flemish school.10 At
a comparatively early period in the sixteenth
this was superseded in popularity by
century, in type
which we can trace the influence,
another,
I
CamilloCamilli,' Imprese illustri,'Ven., 1586,PartI, p. I6.
7 Lod. Dolce, ' Imprese nobili,' Ven.,1578.
sIt may be objected, on the ground of the position of the
streamersof the mass of flame on the two medals, that if the
flame is coming down to Arnutius, then it must be going away
from Elisabetta. But I doubt whether the artistcared for such
subtleties.
9 Supino, p. 191, No. 609; cf, Armand III, p. 149b. The
specimen here publishedwas formerlyin the Rome collection
(Sotheby's catalogue, 1904, No. 309).
10 have discussedthis questionat length in the '
I Reliquary'
for 1904, p. 173ff: 1905, p. 238ff.
Eight Italian Medals
more or less, but chiefly less, direct, of Leonardo.
The great majority of the medals with this early
type of the head of Christ may, in fact, be dated
between about 1492 and 1520. Judging purely
from the style of the portrait head, the medal of
our monk is nearer the former than the latter date,
and may be assigned to about the year 1500. It
is not a first-rate piece of work, but shows con-
siderable vigour of characterization; in its treat-
ment it is distinctly Florentine. What is more, it
is, as Mr. Rosenheim points out to me, almost cer-
tainly from the same hand as the medal of Alberto
Belli1'usually ascribedto Niccol6 Fiorentino. The
medal of Belli, again, comes very close to the
medals of Savonarola of the so-called della Robbia
class." Our medal therefore falls into a definite
place in the Florentine series.
Now in the Academy at Florence, under the
name of Perugino, is a pair of portraits of Dom
Biagio, General of the Order of Vallombrosa, and
Dom Baltasar,Abbot of that Convent.'s The one
which concerns us and is reproduced in Plate I, 2,
is inscribed BALTASAR MONACO S[ervo]
TVO SVCCVRRE. D" The portraitsare traditionally
ascribed to Perugino, although a few critics, the
most recent being F. A. Gruyer, wish to see in
them the hand of Raphael. If Perugino actually
painted his Assumptionat Vallombrosa, he may
have done the two portraits at the same time,
and then they would date from 150o,the year to
which, on grounds of style alone, the medal should
be approximatelyassigned. However this may be,
the resemblance in features between the painted
and the medallic portraitsseems to me sufficiently
near to give considerable support to the conjecture
that the medal was made for Dom Baltasar.
Apart from the resemblance in features,which is,
it must be admitted, often a precariousfoundation
for argument, we have a most satisfactory coinci-
dence in date and in locality. Of the two portraits,
the medal seems to me to show more individuality
than the painting, in which certain asperitieshave
been toned down. That is exactly what one would
expect in a portraitby Perugino,as compared with
the work of a Florentine medallist of this period.
4. NARCISSUS VERTUNNUS.
Obv. Bust to left, bearded,in robe trimmed with
fur over doublet; around, NARCISSVS VER-
TVNNVS.
Rev. Centaur sagittarius,tramplingon a serpent;
around, CAROLI V CAES ARCHIYAT
Bronze. 35 mm. Triangular stops at beginning
and end of inscription on both sides; compass-
rules for the inscriptions. P1. II, 3.
Although he describes himself as a chief
physician of the Emperor Charles V, nothing
appears to be known of the medical attainments
11Heiss, ' Florence' I, Pl. V, I.
12Armand I o05; II 46, z8 etc.
13Accademia,No. 241-242 ; F. A. Gruyer,' Raphael,Peintrede
Portraits,' t. I, p. 129; Reinach, ' R6pert.' II, p. 207.
215
Eight Italian Medals
of this man. He appears in two lists of the
members of the household of the Emperor : in a
list of persons to whom arrearsof salary were due
during the period 1520 to 1531, we find 'Maistre
Narcisin Vertunes '; and in a list giving the salaries
per diem of the household in 1532 he appears
more correctly as ' Maistre Narcisus Vertunes,"'u
In both cases his department is the 'fourriBre'
(harbingers) ; his daily salary was a fairly high
one, to wit xxxs. It may be presumed that at
that time he was not yet 'archiatrus.' The medal
however, can hardly be as early as 1532, but is
rather of the middle of the century. The symbol
of the centaur is appropriate to the profession of
Vertunnus: 8toa-XKaXlv Xfpowvoeorwv ; but the
?qa/i
significance of the serpent, which, placed as it is,
can hardly be the attribute of Aesculapius, is
not so clear. It is perhapsmost natural to suppose
that it symbolizes disease.
5. VETTOR GRIMANI.
Obv.Bust of Grimani1.,bearded,wearing antique
cloak fastened on 1. shoulder; around: VICTOR
GRIMAN PROC.
?D" MAR"
Rev. None.
Lead. 63 mm. Compass-rules for lettering.
P1. II, 5.
This is a good original cast in lead which has
been pierced to the right of the letter D in the
inscription. It is a fair specimen of the kind of
medallic work from wax models, of which Leone
Leoni and Pastorino were the great masters.
The date of the medal, judging purely from its
style, would seem to be about 1550-156o. Vettore
died in 1558. He was a person of considerable
distinction ; the son of Girolamoand grandson of
the doge Antonio Grimani,he must have been born
about 1496, since he was twenty years old when
he qualified for admission to the Maggior
Consiglio on Ist December, I517. In 1523 he
was elected Procurator di sopra; served as
ambassador to Charles V in 1543 and to France
in 1547; and filled many important charges from
1543 to the date of his death, 24th August, 1558,
He married (in 1521) Elisabetta Giustinian; and
his portrait was to be seen in the Hall of the
Maggior Consiglio.'5
6. GIOVANNI ALVISE GONFALONIERI.
Obv. Bust to left of Gonfalonieri, bearded,
wearing cuirass and scarf; around: IOANNES
ALVISIVS ? CONFALONERIVS On the trun-
cation of the arm, traces of a signature.
Rev. None.
Lead. 68"5 mm. P1. II, 4.
A similar specimen with a reverse design illus-
14Gachard et
Piot,' Collection des Voyages des Souverains
des Pays-Bas,' iii, pp. 312,394 (documentsin the RoyalArchives
at Brussels).
15 I owe all these details to the kindnessof Cav. Giomo, who
made the necessaryresearches in the Venetian archives. See
also Cicogna,' Inscr, Ven.,' v, p. 542 and vi, p. 743.
216
trated in P1. II, No. 4 (DOCE ME DOMINE:
a ship on a stormy sea), is described by Armand16
who does not attemptto attribute it to any artist.
There can, however, be little doubt that both
obverse and reverse are the work of Pietro Paolo
Galeotti, (P. P. Romano). The signature on the
truncation of the arm, though not clear, appears
to be PPR; and this reading, if not confirmed, is
not negatived by the traces on the specimen de-
scribed by Armand, of which a cast is before me,
due to the kindnessof M. H. de la Tour. A portrait
on a smallerscale of Gonfalonieri, joined to one of
his wife Elisabetta Scotti, and signed on the
obverse PPR, exists in the Bibliotheque Nationale.'7
The style of our medal is entirely in keeping with
the work of Galeotti.
This however is not the only interesting feature
of the medal. On the British Museum specimen,
which is an original lead casting, it will be noticed
that the letters of the inscription are partially
duplicated by an accident which in the case of a
struck piece we call double-striking, and with
which every student of coins is familiar. It is
clearthat that partof the model on which the letters
stood has slipped slightly in making the mould ;
but it is equally clear that the bust itself has not
slipped. From this it follows that the inscription
was modelled (perhaps rather constructed with
separateletters or type) on a ring separate from
the field which it enclosed. This method was
employed even in the fifteenth century, as
will be clear to anyone who examines various
specimens of the medal of Borso d'Este by
Amadeo da Milano.'8 The inscriptions on
obverse and reverse of various specimens of this
medal are from the same model. But if, for instance,
we compare the British Museum specimen"9
with Heiss's illustrationof M. Dreyfus'sspecimen,
we find that on the obverse of the latter the
inscription DOMINVS, etc., begins almost under
the front point of the truncation of the bust, while
on the former it begins about a centimetrefurther
to the left. A similardislocation may be observed
in the reverse inscriptions. It is obvious that the
inscription ring was detachable, and was placed
differently in making the moulds for the two
specimens of the medal.
7. FRANCESCO DA RAGOGNA.
Obv. 'Z
CANONICVS' FRANCISCVS'RAGONENSIS.
SANCTIMARCI. Bust (to below
chest) to right of Francesco da Ragogna, with
short beard, wearing gown over undergarment
with pleated sleeves.
Rev. None.
Bronze. 69'5 mm. Triangular stops. P1. II, 7.
This medal has, in spite of the dryness of its
16 II. 229. 22,
17Armand, I 229, 8.
18sHeiss, 'Niccolo, Amad.da Mil.' etc,, P1. I, 4,
19 BURLINGTON
MAGAZINE,December, 1907, p. 147, P1, I111,6.

treatment, a certain attractiveness. Its date can
be fixed by a comparison (suggested to me by Mr.
Rosenheim) with the medals of Alvise Diedo and
the Doge Girolamo Priuli, dated 1566,20 which it
strongly resemblesin style. Of Francesco, beyond
what the medal tells us, I have been able to discover
nothing in any published sources of information.
8. BALDASSARE BALDI.
Bust of BaldassareBaldi to right, with short hair,
beard and moustache, wearing doublet, cloak and
ruff; around: BALTASAR BALDI 1583'; tendril
ornament above head; deep moulded " border.
Rev. None.
Lead. 68.5 mm. P1. II, 6. In the original the
moulded border is partly broken away; this is re-
stored in the cast fromwhich the illustrationis made.
Heiss, ' Venise et les Venitiens,' P1. xi, 5 and xv, 2.
SOME EARLY FURSTENBERG FIGURES OF ITALIAN COMEDIANS
u& BY DR. EDMUND WILHELM BRAUN &r
URING the course of the last
few years the investigationsof art
history have turned more closely
to the study of eighteenth
century Germanporcelain. The
more the artisticand intellectual
value of these 'porcelain dolls,'
formerly collected only by
amateurs, was recognised, the more urgently
the necessity for scientific investigation of the
development of this beautiful art was revealed.
Though something has been achieved by studies
in the archives of the porcelain manufactories,in
special exhibitions and in other places, there still
exists a great number of porcelain figures, bearing
no mark at all, or some mark till now unexplain-
able, which challenge the student to lift the veil
of their anonymity, and are of sufficient technical
value to make the labour worth while.
Now there are a number of figures, forming a
group, which long since aroused the keen interest
of collectors and connoisseurs; figures represent-
ing types of the Italian comedy, the modelling of
which shows great naturalness and movement.
Their origin was unknown, and the scratched-in
signatures could not be brought into line with
those of the known manufactories. Only when
for the first time a large number of these pieces
were seen together in one place-on the occasion
of the exhibition of European porcelain at the
Kaiser Franz Josef Museum at Troppau in the
year 1906-was I enabled, through comparison
of the diverse indications,to identify them. From
Stegmann's book on Ftirstenberg, we know
that the first considerable sculptor of this manu-
factory, Feilner, about the year 1755, modelled
'a band of fifteen figures out of the Italian
comedy;' namely, as he states that they were
called, Arlecchino, Dottore, Capitano, Scara-
Eight Italian Medals
I have been able to discover nothing as to the
identity of this person. The medal is cast hollow,
all the details being clear on the back, as if the
piece were repousse. This is often the case with
cast medalsof the sixteenth century. We can only
conjecture the nature of the process employed ; it
may be suggested that it was something of the
following kind: A wax model was first made
From this were prepared first a mould giving
the type and inscription in intaglio; secondly a
reproduction of the model in relief. The mould
and the reproduction are then placed together,
the latter fitting into the former not closely but
so as to leave a space, into which molten metal
is then run. The thinner the interval between
the mould and the reproduction, ihe thinner was
the resulting cast.
muccio, Pantalone, Colombina, Isabella, etc. We
know to-day that the invention of the subjects of
all porcelain statuary in the eighteenth cen-
tury was not for the most part the sculptors'
original creation, but that they found their
patterns chiefly in prints after great paintings and
statues. The patterns for the charming Italian
comedians of the Meissen Manufactory (some
reproduced in Berling's book on Meissen
porcelain, Plate XII) I found among the prints
in Riccoboni's great book on the Italian theatre,
which appearedin 1730 at Paris,and was very popu-
lar in the eighteenth century. I could point out
further that numerous figures and groups in
Oriental costumes made by divers German manu-
factorieswere copies after French prints. Dr. Chr.
Scherer has minutely pointed out that at Ffirsten-
burg the artists liked to copy all sorts of paintings,
sculpture and engravings; and I am sure, for this
reason, that systematic search will doubtless lead
us to the discovery of the prints after which Feil-
ner modelled. He was moreover very skilful in
transferringthe two dimensions of the print into
the round of the plastic art. His figures of
women especially have a great if somewhat stiff
grace. The colouring is throughout good and
careful.
The series of the ladies of this band of comedians
is opened by a figure,whose righthand is lying on
her breast, while the left holds out the mask; an
Italian kerchief covers the hair (fig. I). On the
foot of this figure is scratched : Be. The figure
stands in the castle of Wilhelmsthal near Kassel,
which belongs to the German Emperor, and is
very rich in Chinese, Meissen and Fulda porcelain.
The same figure was in the collection of Mr.
Massey-Mainwaring in London, and probably
came with the whole collection into the possession
of Mr. King. In the same collection is to be
217