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Auction: 8004 - An Important Collection of Renaissance Medals & Plaquettes
Lot: 27

Moderno (late 15th century) Mars and Victory, rectangular bronze plaquette, 70.5mm. x 55.7mm., a very attractive old cast, medium brown patina, pierced at top, two areas of solder and some traces of numbers and other small marks on the reverse Victory, a nude winged female figure holding a palm, runs to the right, her left arm held by a helmeted figure of Mars, also nude, who runs beside her and holds a trophy over his left shoulder. This simple and attractive composition, also used by Moderno in a larger version with a rocky landscape to left and architecture to right, was greatly admired and copied. It can be seen in the Porta della Rana, made by the Rodari brothers in 1507 for the Duomo at Como. It was also used for a medal of Luca de Zuchari by a Mantuan medallist working in the style of Moderno (Hill, Corpus, 217). The figure of Mars appears in an engraving by Nicoletto da Modena. The source was probably an antique gem. There is a niello in the British Museum, and a related agate intaglio is illustrated by Raponi, Recueil de pierres gravées V, 11, and Mariette, Traité des pierres gravées, II, 18. This was copied in an engraved vignette by F. Novelli in Algarotti, Opera, vol. VIII, 1792, p. 163 (´ex gemma antique´). References Bange 1922, 466; Cott p.151; Florence, Bargello, 107; Jacobsen, Repertorium für kunstwissenschaft, xxvi, 1893, p. 65 (Venice, Correr Museum); Kress 159; Middeldorf - Stiebral pl LXXXIII; Molinier 186; Paris, Louvre, 307; Planiscig 1924, 412; Ricci, ii, p. 141, no. 183 Estimate £ 1,000-1,200

Sold for
£2,400