Lorenzo de' Medici, il Magnifico, 1449-1492 (The Pazzi Conspiracy Medal) [obverse]

1478

Bertoldo di Giovanni

Artist, Florentine, c. 1430/1440 - 1491

This round, bronze medal shows a man’s head floating over an architectural structure surrounded with a bustling crowd, all in low relief. The man at the top center faces our right in profile. He has a sloping, prominent nose, and the eye we see is heavily outlined. His chin-length hair curls up along the nape of his neck. Below eleven silhouetted people sit, stand, or kneel inside a fence-like, enclosed structure. About a dozen more people on our side of the fence, worn smooth over time, appear to fight with swords or daggers or run from the danger. Text under the man’s head and inside the structure reads, “SALVS PVBLICA.” Text around the upper perimeter of the medal reads “LAVRENTIVS MEDICES.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    bronze

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (diameter): 6.58 cm (2 9/16 in.)
    gross weight: 74.24 gr (0.164 lb.)
    axis: 12:00

  • Accession

    1957.14.846.a

Associated Artworks

The Murder of Giuliano I de' Medici (The Pazzi Conspiracy Medal) [reverse]

Bertoldo di Giovanni

1478

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Gustave Dreyfus [1837-1914], Paris; his heirs; purchased with the entire Dreyfus collection 9 July 1930 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); sold 31 January 1944 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[1] gift 1957 to NGA.
[1] The Duveen Brothers Records document the firm’s sixteen year pursuit and eventual acquisition of the Dreyfus collection, which included paintings, sculptures, small bronzes, medals, and plaquettes. Bequeathed as part of his estate to Dreyfus’ widow and five children (a son and four daughters), who had differing opinions about its disposition, the collection was not sold until after his widow’s death in April 1929. Duveen did not wish to separate Dreyfus’ collection of small bronzes, medals, and plaquettes, and it was sold intact to the Kress Foundation for a price that was met by installment payments every three months. (Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 301, box 446, folders 3 and 4; reel 302, box 447, folders 1-6; reel 303, box 448, folders 1 and 2; reel 330, box 475, folder 4.) See also George Francis Hill’s discussion "A Note on Pedigrees" in his catalogue, The Gustave Dreyfus Collection: Renaissance Medals, Oxford, 1931: xii, which was commissioned by Duveen Brothers.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1989

  • Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes, Milwaukee Museum of Art, Wisconsin, 1989, brochure no. 1.

Bibliography

1956

  • Walker, John. "The Nation's Newest Old Masters." The National Geographic Magazine 110, no. 5 (November 1956): 624, repro. 634.

1967

  • Hill, George Francis, and Graham Pollard. Renaissance Medals from the Samuel H. Kress Collection at the National Gallery of Art. London, 1967: no. 252.

1983

  • Wilson, Carolyn C. Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: 34, no. 15.

1989

  • Pope-Hennessy, John. "The Study of Italian Plaquettes." Studies in the History of Art 22 (1989): 29-30, fig. 28.

2007

  • Pollard, John Graham. Renaissance Medals. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. 2 vols. Washington, 2007: 1:no. 286, repro.

2013

  • Belman, Michael, Alison Luchs, and Shelley Sturman. “A Renaissance of Color: The Conservation of Lorenzo the Magnificent.” Facture: conservation, science, art history 1 (2013): 36, 38, fig. 3.

2019

  • Walmsley, Elizabeth, Alexander J. Noelle, with Babette Hartwieg. "The Portraits of Giuliano de' Medici by Sandro Botticelli." Facture: conservation, science, art history 4 (2019): 2-33, figs. 4a, 4b.

Inscriptions

around top circumference: LAVRENTIVS MEDICES; center: SALVS / PVBLICA

Wikidata ID

Q63847473

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