. Italian medals . olderwhose taste is not quite assured. In the portrait of thewidowed Grand-Duchess (after 1621) the master produced apiece which, as far as simplicity and expression are concerned,is worthy to rank beside the best creations of the Cinquecento(PI. XXXVI., 7). His last years were spent in Rome, andwe possess medals signed by him of Urban VIII. andInnocent X. of the years 1640 and 1649. The series of Florentine medallists closes with an artistwho only worked outside his native city. After having servedwith the Spanish army in the Netherlands, Giuliano Gianninisettled in Brussel
. Italian medals . olderwhose taste is not quite assured. In the portrait of thewidowed Grand-Duchess (after 1621) the master produced apiece which, as far as simplicity and expression are concerned,is worthy to rank beside the best creations of the Cinquecento(PI. XXXVI., 7). His last years were spent in Rome, andwe possess medals signed by him of Urban VIII. andInnocent X. of the years 1640 and 1649. The series of Florentine medallists closes with an artistwho only worked outside his native city. After having servedwith the Spanish army in the Netherlands, Giuliano Gianninisettled in Brussels about 1580 ; and as he was still living therein 1589, at an advanced age and as a pensioner of the Treasuryof Brabant, it seems probable that he had spent the inter-vening years in the employment of the Mint at Brussels. Ofsigned medals by his hand we are acquainted with one ofOttavio Farnese and his wife Margaret of Parma ; two of their son Alessandro, Governor of the Netherlands ; and one of the 184 Plate XXXVI. Medals of the Medici Duke of Alba. The last (PI. XXXVI., 6) is so life-like inconception and modelling that we are unable to allow it topass as a restoration, as its date (1568) would show it to are obliged, on the contrary, to assume that it was madeby Giannini in the year 1568, while he still remained in themilitary service. If we review once more the achievements of the medallicart which flourished under the sun of Medicean favour,respectable though many of its productions may appear, weare conscious on the whole of a sad lack of a wealth of artistic types, and—as its consequence—what an amount of variety, what diversity of artistic con-ceptions and forms, awake our surprise and compel us to ever-renewed admiration as we survey the masterpieces of theQuattrocento medallists ! Here, on the contrary, everythingseems to have been produced in one and the same workshop—so monotonous, so devoid of individuality is the stamp borneby these
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubj, booksubjectrenaissance
