Identifier: italiamedal00fabri (find matches)
Title: Italian medals
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Fabriczy, Cornelius von, 1839-1910
Subjects: Medals Medals, Renaissance Renaissance
Publisher: London : Duckworth
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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a, and Berlin. Strangely enough, he invariably left thecasting of his works to others, more particularly to his pupil—to be mentioned later—Adriano Fiorentino. A letter of Guaz-zalotti to Lorenzo de Medici, of the year 1478, accompanyingfour medals which he had cast for Bertoldo, also bears witnessto this fact. We are only acquainted with one medal signedby our artist—that of Mohammed II., not taken from life, butexecuted from the portrait modelled by Gentile Bellini in 1480,and therefore a striking likeness (PI. XXI., 5). The reverse,depicting the Sultan with the provinces he had subjugated inthe form of three nude female figures in chains on a triumphalcar, and conceived entirely in the taste of the antique, allows us,in virtue of the closest similarity of invention, style, modelling,and treatment of the relief, to ascribe to Bertoldo with com-plete certainty two other reverses : that of the medallion of Letizia Sanuto with the triumph of Pudicitia, and one which 110 Plate XXI
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5 GUAZZALOTTI, BERTOLDO Face p. jio Florentine Medals exists only as a plaque—the obverse belong-ing to it nothaving- been preserved—likewise a triumphal procession repre-senting- rejected Love. These few pieces are by no means sufficient to justify thejudgment pronounced by one of his contemporaries, thatBertoldo was *di medaglie optimo fabricatore, il quale semprecol magnifico Lorenzo (Medici) faceva cose degne. Praisesuch as this presupposes a much greater productiveness asmedallist, which, especially in the objective interest of hisworks, must necessarily have appealed to wider circles. And,as a matter of fact, the quick eye, wide knowledge, and pene-trating perception of W. Bode have lately discovered the solutionof the problem. On entirely convincing grounds, based on oneside on formal and stylistic resemblances, on the other on thecombination and interpretation of traditional and documentarydata (such as the letter of Guazzalotti mentioned above), ^ Bode ^ I am prevented by

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