Medal: Federigo da Montefeltro

Savelli Sperandio

model ca. 1482 (possibly cast 18th or 19th century) · Bronze · Robert Lehman Collection

Sperandio di Bartolommeo Savelli was an Italian medallist, architect, sculptor, painter, bronze and cannon caster. He was the son of a Roman goldsmith, Bartolommeo di Sperandio Savelli. A prolific medallist, he produced medals of several Italian rulers. The obverse bears a portrait of Federigo da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino (142 2– 1482), and the reverse shows Federigo on horseback. Goethe, who owned a medal of this type, praised Sperandio over Pisanello, on the basis of comparison with Pisanello’s medals of Sigismondo Malatesta. The piece, which is a late aftercast, possibly from the eighteenth or nineteenth century, may be after a lead original of about 1482.

Artist

Savelli Sperandio

Date

model ca. 1482 (possibly cast 18th or 19th century)

Medium

Bronze

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975