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Auction: 8004 - An Important Collection of Renaissance Medals & Plaquettes
Lot: 101

Matteo de´ Pasti (active 1441-1467) Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, bronze medal, 81.5mm., a fine old cast, grey-brown patina, pierced at 12 o´clock Obverse: bare-headed bust of Sigismondo in profile to left, wearing surcoat over cuirass, SIGISMVNDVS PANDVLFVS· MALATESTA· PAN· F· PONTIFICII· EXER· IMP· Reverse: Fortitude, a crowned female figure wearing cuirass and gown, seated on a seat the sides of which are formed by two elephants, holding in both hands a broken column, date in the rocky ground below M·CCCC·XLVI Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417-1468), lord of Rimini, Fano and Senigallia, was the natural son of Pandolfo Malatesta and succeeded his uncle Carlo in 1429. The elephant, with the motto Elephas Indus culices non timet (The Indian Elephant does not fear mosquitoes - Pliny), was a device of the Malatesta family. In October 1450 Sigismondo had twenty-two of these medals set into the backs of the marble elephants in the chapel of San Sigismondo in the Malatesta Temple in Rimini. References Armand I, 20, 11; Bargello I, 43; Hill 180; Johnson-Martini 370; Kress 61; Middeldorf-Stiebral XXIV Estimate £ 1,000-1,500

Sold for
£3,000