The little that is known of the medalist is that he signed three medals, all dated 1460. Besides Borso d'Este, these medals portray Pico della Mirandola (George Francis Hill, A Corpus of the Italian Medals of the Renaissance before Cellini , 2 vols, London, 1930: no. 97) and Lorenzo Strozzi (Hill 1930, no. 98). The artist has not been securely identified. In his manuscript notes,[1] Gaetano Milanese (1813-1895), superintendent archivist for Tuscany, suggested the gem engraver Pietro di Neri Razzanti of Florence, who was born in 1429 and was still living in 1480; this individual had been permitted to return to the city following a long absence that started in 1477. Milanesi's identification is, however, a mere guess. It is also possible that the medalist may have been Petrecino of Florence, a page to Borso d'Este, who is recorded as a painter of playing cards and a monk after 1460. The medals are similar in style to those of Jacopo Lixignolo (NGA 1957.14.627.a,b).[2]
[1] Gaetano Milanesi (1813-1895) was the principal editor of the works of Vasari, which were published in nine volumes between 1878 and 1885. He bequeathed his extensive manuscript notes on Renaissance art and architecture to his native Siena, where they are housed in the Biblioteca Comunale. Hill used the medal notes in the preparation of his Corpus , but the notes are now lost.
2. Both Petrecino and Lixignolo used the letters x and OE, similar abbreviations for que, and the stop made of five annulets. The stop in the form of a slanting lozenge was used by Petrecino.
[This is the artist's biography published in the NGA systematic catalogue of Renaissance medals.]