Medal: Giovanni de'Medici delle Bande Nere
Francesco da Sangallo
model 1522 or ca. 1570 (cast 16th century) · Lead. · Robert Lehman Collection
On the obverse is a portrait of the condottiere Giovanni de’ Medici delle Bande Nere (1498 – 1526), and on the reverse is his impresa of a winged thunderbolt. The medal may date to 1570 on the basis of striking similarities in style and composition with two other Medici medals, representing Gian Giacomo de’ Medici (inscribed 1555 for his year of death) and Cosimo de’ Medici, the son of Giovanni de’ Medici delle Bande Nere (inscribed 1570). All three medals could have formed part of a propaganda series, planned by Cosimo in or about 1570 to honor his family. The significance of the inscribed date 1522 remains unclear. The year does not seem to commemorate any specific moment in Giovanni’s career. Sangallo’s undated marble bust of Giovanni is in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. This sixteenth-century cast is sharp and well defined.
- Artist
- Francesco da Sangallo
- Date
- model 1522 or ca. 1570 (cast 16th century)
- Medium
- Lead.
- Department
- Robert Lehman Collection
- Credit line
- Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
