File:Italian medals (1904) (14760084791).jpg

Identifier: italiamedal00fabri (find matches)
Title: Italian medals
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Fabriczy, Cornelius von, 1839-1910
Subjects: Medals Medals, Renaissance Renaissance
Publisher: London : Duckworth
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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he busts of the two great celebrities Ariosto and Titian(PI. XXX., 2, 9) belong to his best works, thanks to theirunassuming simplicity and the absence of that affected posewhich detracts from the impression conveyed by so many ofPastorinos male portraits. The softly defined head of AtalantaDonati (PI. XXX., 7), a Sienese poetess of the middle of thesixteenth century, shows how the artist occasionally allowedhimself to be influenced by the example of antique gems.On the other hand, the matronly head of Girolama Orsini(PI. XXX., 6), wife of Pierluigi Farnese, the dissolute son ofPaul III., and first Duke of Parma and Piacenza, with thepicturesquely draped widows veil over her head, has theappearance of an impression from the life ; and that of theotherwise unknown Beatrice da Siena (PI. XXX., 5) is entirelymodern both in conception and costume. The last-namedmedal has, moreover, a reverse—utterly banal, it is true. In the gentle, innocent countenance of the youth (PI. XXXI., 3) 148 1
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Florentine Medals we can scarcely foresee the man who was to become the refinedauthor of the formerly much admired Pastor Fido, BattistaGuarini; equally little, in Plate XXX., 8, do we recognise thesplendour-loving Cardinal Ippolito of Este, the second of thisname, who survives in the memory of posterity mainly as thepatron of Tasso and the builder of the Villa dEste at Tivoli.The two succeeding medals give the portraits of two dis-tinguished princely women. Plate XXXI., i, is that of Mar-garet of Parma, natural daughter of Charles V., who wasmarried first to Alessandro Medici (the union scarcely lasteda year), and secondly to Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma.She became regent of the Netherlands in 1559, and is knownfrom Goethes Egmont. Plate XXXI., 2, is the portrait ofLucrezia Medici, daughter of the Grand-Duke Cosimo I. ;a victim to political schemes, she was married at the age ofthirteen (as represented in our medal) to Alfonso II. of Este,and poisoned three years later, probably by

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