Portrait medal of Philip II (obverse); Mary Tudor Queen of England (reverse)
Jacopo Nizolla da Trezzo
1555 · Silver/copper alloy with traces of lead. · Robert Lehman Collection
The obverse bears a portrait of Philip II, the son of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V and Isabella of Portugal. He ruled over an expansive empire encompassing Spain and all its dominions in the New World, as well as the Netherlands, Naples, and Sicily. Philip served as king consort of England during his brief marriage to the Queen of England, Mary Tudor (1516 – 1558), whose image appears on the medal's reverse. The medal is an unusual combination and recast of two earlier independent medals. It was conceived as the pendant of Da Trezzo’s medal of Mary Tudor (1554), whose portrait has been used here on the reverse (see 1975.1.1293). The medal dates from the first year of da Trezzo’s formal employment at the Spanish court.
- Artist
- Jacopo Nizolla da Trezzo
- Date
- 1555
- Medium
- Silver/copper alloy with traces of lead.
- Department
- Robert Lehman Collection
- Credit line
- Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
