Portrait medal of Battista Vigo da Rapallo or Baptista Romanus (obverse); a Hand Holding a Branch and a Surgical Instrument

Unknown

model ca. 1510 (later aftercast) · Bronze (copper alloy with light brown patina and remnants of black wax or lacquer). · Robert Lehman Collection

Little can be said of this medal’s place of fabrication or of the sitter, although the inscription on the obverse (M. BABTISTA RO. CHIRVRGICVS) indicates that he was a surgeon (Chirurgicus). Gaetano Avignone, who possessed this medal and published it in 1872, identified the sitter as Baptista Vigo da Rapallo, assuming that the RO in the inscription was a mistake for RA. However, the RO may indicate a Roman origin for the sitter, and could be read as "Baptista Romanus." The image on the reverse seems to show a hand holding an oak branch and possibly a surgical instrument or a bridle.

Artist

Unknown

Date

model ca. 1510 (later aftercast)

Medium

Bronze (copper alloy with light brown patina and remnants of black wax or lacquer).

Culture

Italian, Venice or Padua (?)

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975