. Italian medals . ing of the features iscarried far beyond the general wont of the Florentine medallists. Not so near to Niccolo Fiorentino stands the Fortune Medallist, each of whose eight medals displays on the reversethe nude figure of the Goddess of Fortune, an inflated sail inher hands, and borne by a dolphin through the waves. Ac-cording to the noteworthy conjecture of G. Milanesi, theletters L. C. M. in the inscription round the reverse of themedal of Lorenzo Ciglia Mocchi (PI. XXVI., i) indicate thathe was the artist of this and also of the seven remaining nothing
. Italian medals . ing of the features iscarried far beyond the general wont of the Florentine medallists. Not so near to Niccolo Fiorentino stands the Fortune Medallist, each of whose eight medals displays on the reversethe nude figure of the Goddess of Fortune, an inflated sail inher hands, and borne by a dolphin through the waves. Ac-cording to the noteworthy conjecture of G. Milanesi, theletters L. C. M. in the inscription round the reverse of themedal of Lorenzo Ciglia Mocchi (PI. XXVI., i) indicate thathe was the artist of this and also of the seven remaining nothing further is known concerning him. Hismedals, however, betray a more mechanical capacity, not onlyby the lack of inspiration in the portrait, but also by the styleof the figure on the reverse, which reminds us of an engraving. A much more important artistic personality is revealed by the six medals which bear the name of the Eagle Medallist. Foremost among these is that of Filippo Strozzi (1426-1491), 128 Plate XXVI. HOPE, FORTUNE - AND EAGLE MEDALLISTS l-iii e //. 128 Florentine Medals the builder of the world-famous Palace in Florence (PI. XXVI.,4). Since on this medal he has the aspect of a man of sixty,it follows that it cannot have been produced long before hisdeath. We have already spoken in the Introduction of themodel for it. We forbear to decide whether the resemblancebetween the treatment of the portrait, with its old-fashionedausterity, and yet so extremely life-like expression, andthe busts of Filippo in Berlin and the Louvre, as well as thecircumstance that several years back some copies of it werediscovered in the foundation walls of the Strozzi Palace, pro-vide sufficient grounds for ascribing it—as W. Bode has latelydone—to Benedetto da Majano,^ the sculptor of the busts, andthe supposed architect of the palace. The purely heraldiccomposition of the reverse is but little in harmony with theartistic proclivities of Benedetto ; and Vasari in his exhaustivebiogr
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubj, booksubjectrenaissance
