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Auction: 7018 - Dr R Ferrari English Crowns, R Wilson Scottish Coins, A Louise Irish Coins, K MacKenzie Ottoman Coins & Other Propertie
Lot: 667

Clement VII (Giulio de´Medici, born 1478, Cardinal Archbishop of Florence, Bishop of Worcester; Pope 1523-34), bronze medal by Giovanni Bernardi da Castelbolognese, clem vii pon max, bearded bust right, wearing cope, morse decorated witht he head of Christ, rev. ego svm ioseph frater vester, Joseph recognised by his eleven brothers (Arm.I, 138, 4; Bargello II, 514; Kress 365), excellent contemporary striking, die flaw on reverse tooled out, warm brown patina, scarce Estimate £ 400-600 Clement VII was the illigitimate son of Giuliano de´Medici, whi was assassinated in the Pazzi Conspiracy in the year of his birth, so he was brought up by his uncle, Lorenzo il Magnifico. As Pope, Clement excommunicated Henry VIII, was a major patron of the young Cellini, and commissioned Michangelo´s fresco of the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel. Bernardi, a celebrated engraver of rock crystal, succeeded Cellini at the Papal Mint where he worked 1534-38 and 1541-45. The design of the reverse die of this medal, which is now in the Mint Museum, Rome, has been attributed on stylistic grounds to Perino dei Vaga (1501-47), as pointed out by David Jaffé (´Drawings for Renaissance Medals´ in Designs on Posterity, ed. Mark Jones, London, 1994, pp.48-9 and fig.3).

Sold for
£340