NGA Publishes Renaissance Medals
National Gallery of Art's Set Describes Precious Portable Portraits
"Renaissance Medals" is a two-volume study of more than 957 rare medallions recently published by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.'s National Gallery of Art has published Renaissance Medals, a two-volume comprehensive catalogue of more than 957 commemorative medals from the Italian Renaissance through the later Baroque period, all acquired through 2003.
The Collection
The National Gallery of Art houses the United States' most significant public collection of rare medals dating from the Renaissance. Of 957, 163 works were reinstalled in 2002 in the West Building's renovated sculpture galleries. Their appearance in freestanding vitrines allows the visitor to appreciate these precious historical artifacts from both sides.
Joseph E. Widener donated a selection of portrait medals to the NGA in 1942. The collection's core was formed in 1957 when New York's Samuel H. Kress Foundation presented the museum with additional works. Gifts from Leonard and Lisa Unger Baskin (1992-2006) have been supplemented by significant purchases.
Renaissance Medals
Volume One (608 pages) of the systematic catalogue describes the National Gallery of Art's collection of Italian Renaissance medals. A groundbreaking appendix by Lisha Deming Glinsman and Lee-Ann Hayek explains the use of X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy in determining the works' elemental compositions. Volume Two (352 pages) focuses on 16th-century German, Netherlandish, English and French Baroque medals. Both clothbound books, exhaustive in scholarly content, include 1745 duotone and 28 color illustrations, a bibliography, concordance, inscription listing and detailed index.
Pisanello's Medal of Leonello d'Este
The museum is rich in commemorative medals by the Veronese artist Antonio di Puccio Pisano (ca. 1395-1455). Also known as Pisanello (probably because of his diminutive stature), the painter was the early Italian Renaissance's consummate medal portraitist. Trained originally as a goldsmith, the artist found his greatest popularity at the aristocratic courts of Mantua, Ferrara, Milan, Pavia and Naples.
Leonello d'Este, the illegitimate son of Niccolo d'Este, succeeded his father as the Marquis of Ferrara and Duke of Moderna and Reggio Emilia (r. 1441-1450). Along with his military training, the adept politician was tutored by the Italian humanist Guarino Veronese (1374-1460), a well-known scholar of Greek who authored Regulae grammaticales (1418), the first Renaissance Latin grammar. Leonello distinguished himself as the patron of artists Pisanello, Leon Battista Alberti (1402-1472), Jacopo Bellini (act. 1424-1470), Piero della Francesca (ca. 1412-1492), Andrea Mantegna (ca. 1430-1506) and Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400-1464).
Pisanello was commissioned to cast a bronze medal commemorating Leonello's wedding to Maria of Aragon in 1444. The Latin inscription around the bottom of its obverse identifies the groom as the Marquis of Este and Lord of Ferrara, Emilio and Modena. On the medal's reverse side, the artist portrayed Leonello ("little lion") as a passive feline being taught to sing by Cupid, a affectionate allusion to matrimony and love.
Renaissance Medals provides a much needed and informed window into Renaissance and Baroque culture through its expert examination of a somewhat overlooked art form. Scholars, students and visitors to the National Gallery of Art will benefit from the erudition found within its pages.
Sources:
- Pollard, John Graham, et al. Renaissance Medals. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2007.
- Syson, Luke and Dillion Gordon. Pisanello, Painter to the Renaissance Court (exh. cat.). London: National Gallery Company, 2001.
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